Answer:
During the Renaissance, Italy was broken up into a group of city-states, and each ruled itself independently.
In Florence, the Medici family was in control, apart from a brief span from 1494 to 1498 when Savanarola took charge until his death by hanging for heresy, when the family retook the city.
The figurehead of Venetian power was the doge, but he was merely a puppet for the Council of Ten, who passed laws, chose the doge, and controlled him. They were the true political and legal power in Venice.