Venetian society of the 15th and 16th centuries is generally described according to the tripartition between patricians, citizens and popolo. The aim of this article is to analyse what the popolo was and who the popolani were in Venice at this time, combining a terminological and conceptual study of these categories with a sociological analysis of the individuals which belonged to them. The history of the genesis of these social groups in fact reveals the complexity of the definition of the popolo in Venice between the end of the Middle Ages and the start of the early modern period. In considering the " condition " of the popolani, it is necessary to analyse how they established who they were and how they could act, depending on the associations, spaces and institutions in which they interacted.
