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noble
Towards the end of the 13th century, certain Venetian families were designated as noble, and henceforth maintained a monopoly on all political offices in the Venetian republic and on many of the important posts throughout the city. On Venetian ships, the offices of captain of each fleet and of every vessel (called patron on merchant vessels and sopracomito on military ones) were reserved to nobles, while most of the other offices were held by non-noble, both native-born Venetian and foreign.