The gossiping tongue: oral networks, public life and political culture in early modern Venice *

Despite the fact that historians regularly acknowledge the persistence of oral culture in the early modern world, few studies have actually examined how orality, language, and popular speech functioned on a daily basis. This article considers gossip in sixteenth‐century Venice. While prescriptive literature from the period unanimously suggested that women were the main practitioners of the disruptive speech of gossip, a close look at trials from the court of the Holy Office reveal that the gender com‐ponent of gossip was inherently unstable. Gossip was undoubtedly a weapon of the weak ‐ especially the underclasses and women ‐ who employed its words to gain a level of power not so easily available in the larger city space or through traditional political or legal channels. However, men also gossiped to patrol their neighbour‐hoods and workplaces and to direct the outcome of civil politics themselves. Venetian court cases, chronicles broglio legislation, and legal texts all demonstrate that while gossip at times threatened civic peace, it also potentially contributed to Venetian civic stability.