Editing Doge of Venice (section)

==Ritual role==
[[Image:Grand Procession of the Doge of Venice.png|thumb|left|Grand Procession of the Doge, 16th century]]
[[Image:BartolomeoGradonicoGoldCoin.jpg|thumb|Gold coin of [[Bartolomeo Gradenigo]] (1260–1342): the Doge kneeling before St. Mark.]]
[[File:Canaletto - Bucentaur's return to the pier by the Palazzo Ducale - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|''The Return of the [[Bucentaur]] to the Molo on Ascension Day'' (1730 by [[Canaletto]])]]

One of the ceremonial duties of the doge was to celebrate the symbolic [[Marriage of the Sea ceremony|marriage of Venice with the sea]]. This was done by casting a ring from the state barge, the ''[[Bucentaur]]'', into the [[Adriatic Sea|Adriatic]]. In its earlier form this ceremony was instituted to commemorate the conquest of [[Dalmatia]] by Doge [[Pietro II Orseolo]] in 1000, and was celebrated on [[Ascension Day]]. It took its later and more magnificent form after the visit to Venice in 1177 of [[Pope Alexander III]] and the [[Holy Roman Emperor]] [[Frederick I, Holy Roman Emperor|Frederick I]]. On state occasions the Doge was surrounded by an increasing amount of ceremony, and in international relations he had the status of a sovereign [[prince]].<ref name="EB1911"/>

The doge took part in ducal processions, which started in the [[Piazza San Marco]]. The doge would appear in the center of the procession, preceded by civil servants ranked in ascending order of prestige and followed by noble magistrates ranked in descending order of status. [[Francesco Sansovino]] described such a procession in minute detail in 1581. His description is confirmed and complemented by [[Cesare Vecellio]]'s 1586 painting of a ducal procession in the Piazza San Marco.