The Procuratie Vecchie on the northern side of the square was built during the War of the League of Cambrai in the early sixteenth century to replace an earlier structure, damaged by fire.

Built between the late-sixteenth and mid-seventeenth centuries to replace a series of dilapidated medieval structures, it represented the culmination of an extensive programme of urban renewal that lasted over a hundred years and profoundly transformed Venice's city centre, giving it the appearance of a great classical forum.

[1][2] It was routinely occupied by nobles belonging to the most influential families and typically represented the climax of a distinguished political career, although it was often an intermediate position prior to election as doge.

[note 1] The office originated in the ninth century with a single procurator operis Sancti Marci, nominated to assist the doge in the administration of the Church of Saint Mark, the ducal chapel.

The other two procurators, called de subtus super commissariis, administered trust funds established as pious donations on behalf of religious and charitable institutions.

[2] Beginning in 1516, initially to aid in the economic recovery from the War of the League of Cambrai, supernumerary procurators could also be created in moments of financial constraint in exchange for monetary contributions to the treasury.

Apart from extraordinary embassies to foreign courts, the procurators were also relieved from the obligation incumbent upon all nobles to accept political appointments, including on the Venetian mainland and in the overseas possessions, thus ensuring their presence in the city.

[2][7][note 2] The position also brought economic and financial influence through the management of vast amounts of capital and of investments in commercial and private real estate, in government bonds, and in securities and deposits.

[3] With the exception of the Doge's Palace, the procurators de supra were also specifically responsible for the construction, maintenance, and management of the public buildings around Saint Mark's Square, including the shops, food stalls, and apartments that were rented out as sources of revenue.

[9][note 5] The intention was to create a steady flow of revenue in order to fund further work on the Church of Saint Mark and provide charitable assistance to the poor, thus avoiding the need to rely upon private pious donations and state financing.

As shown in Gentile Bellini's Processione di Corpus Domini in Piazza san Marco (1496), it was a two-storey building with a series of apartments above and shops on the ground floor that were leased.

[19][note 9] Following the death of Pietro Bon in 1529, Jacopo Sansovino, a refugee from the Sack of Rome, was nominated in his place as proto to the procurators de supra.

[20] Given financial constraints during the War of the League of Cambrai, innovation was limited to design modifications that were aimed at increasing revenue to the procurators de supra, foremost of which was the addition of a floor to increment the number of rental apartments.

[note 10] On the upper floors, the rooms in the back section, connected by suspended galleries, were destined for servant quarters associated with the principal apartments that looked onto the square.

At various times, the shops on the ground floor housed a goldsmith, glazier, cobbler, engraver, tailor, spice merchant, painter, cutler, old-clothes seller, barber, bookseller, and notary.

[31] These included the rent-free apartments erected in the thirteenth century for the procurators as well as their ridotti (offices), which were located inside a separate building dating back to the reign of Pietro I Orseolo (976–978).

This building, the Ospizio Orseolo [it], had originally been constructed as a hospice to give aid and shelter to the pilgrims arriving in the city to venerate the relics of Saint Mark.

This number of apartments was insufficient, and the government incurred the additional expense of a rent allowance to enable the remaining procurators to secure living space near the square.

[45][46] The building programme was strongly advocated by the papalisti, the wealthy and influential families within the aristocracy who maintained close ties with the Papal court and whose architectural and artistic tastes tended to reflect developments in Rome and central Italy.

They saw the transformation of Saint Mark's Square into a classical forum as the means to publicly affirm their own cultural orientation and their superior intellectual understanding of the principles of Ancient Roman architecture as outlined by Vitruvius in De architectura.

But the building programme was increasingly opposed by the more traditionalist and pro-French faction within the government, the giovani, who resisted the attempts of the papalisti to leave a lasting architectural mark.

[47][48] Hence when after the constitutional crisis of 1582-1583 the giovani found themselves in a position of greater strength vis-à-vis the papalisti, they actively sought to limit any further change to Saint Mark's Square.

[note 22] The opposition to the building programme intensified following the death in 1595 of procurator Marcantonio Barbaro, Scamozzi's chief supporter, with radical proposals to demolish the part that had already been completed and erect a structure similar to the Procuratie Vecchie on the northern side of the square.

[53][note 23] In March 1581, prior to the definitive selection of Scamozzi's design, demolition of the previous structures began with a portion of the old pilgrim hospice and proceeded gradually as more space was required to continue.

[62] Smeraldi was succeeded as proto by Mario della Carità and subsequently, in 1640, by Baldassare Longhena who completed the construction of the Procuratie Nuove around 1660, including the seven arcades that reached the Church of San Geminiano on the western side of the square.

[note 25] In the Procuratie Nuove, Scamozzi, a rigid classicist, corrects the 'error' by reducing the height of the Ionic frieze, without, however, successfully resolving the problem of transitioning between the two buildings.

[87] Following the fall of the Republic of Venice, the art collection of the ridotti was removed and in part dispersed when the library was annexed to the Procuratie Nuove as the royal apartment for Eugène de Beauharnais, the viceroy of the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy.

[89][90] The church, dating back to the reign of Sebastiano Ziani (1172–1178), had been rebuilt in the early sixteenth century by Cristoforo da Legname and then completed by Jacopo Sansovino in 1557 with the addition of a dome and the façade.

Although the imperial French government sought a sense of monumentality, the projects of Grazioso Buttacalice for a triumphal arch and of Gaetano Pinali for a Corinthian portico were both deemed too radical and equally incongruous with the overall aspect of Saint Mark's Square.

The wing of the Procuratie Vecchie was also demolished and replaced by the actual building, designed by Giuseppe Maria Soli, professor of Architecture at the University of Modena, in a Neoclassical manner.