The Venetian municipality
Faced with the advance of the French troops, the Maggior Consiglio (Major Council), the aristocratic Venetian Republic's top government institution, met for the last time on May 12 1797 and decided to cede the city to the French. A Provisional Municipality, comprised of 60 citizens from every class, was established and met for the first time in the hall of the Maggior Consiglio on May 16. On the same day a treaty was signed in Milan between Bonaparte and the Venetian deputies that transferred the city to the French: among the secret clauses were some particularly onerous ones featuring the payment of large sums of money and the handing over of art treasures and manuscripts to the French.
On the day of the fall of the Republic Foscolo was in Bologna, where he had gone in April to flee from the Venetian Inquisition; he quickly returned on May 16 after receiving news that Venice was in the hands of the French by letter. Elected a member of the Società d’Istruzione Pubblica (Society for Public Instruction) by acclaim, he actively participated in the political life of the new government, taking radical positions and outlining an anti-aristocratic system of thought, guaranteed by law and concord between the various social classes. On July 22 he was appointed the reporter of the sessions of the Municipality, probably thanks to the intercession of Vincenzo Dandolo, with the job of writing the minutes of the meetings and, frequently, of reading them from the gallery: in this way he could participate in the sessions of the Republic's top political body even though he was too young to officially be part of them.
The Treaty of Campoformio, with which Bonaparte ceded Venice to Austria, ended the period of the Municipality: the novel Le ultime lettere di Jacopo Ortis, starts with a condemnation of the treaty, which was considered a total "betrayal" committed by the French. A few days later, on November 9, Foscolo resigned from his post as reporter of the Società di Istruzione Pubblica and went to Milan where, upon arrival, he requested Cisalpine citizenship.
