The Gasparo Contarini book "De Magistratibus et Republica Venetorum" (1544) illustrates the unique system of government in Venice and extols its various institutions. It also shows the astonishment of foreigners at the independence of Venice and its resistance to Italy's loss of freedom – and at it having emerged unscathed from the war against the League of Cambrai. Contarini suggested that the secret of Venice's greatness lay in the co-existence of the three types of government identified by Aristotle: monarchy, oligarchy, and democracy. In the opinion of Contarini, the Maggior Consiglio was the democratic part, the Senate and the Council of Ten were the oligarchy, while the doge represented monarchy. The combination of these three principles in the Venetian government came as close as possible to perfection in the mechanism of government. At the same time the patrician Marino Sanudo, a politician who had a remarkable career, and a celebrated diarist, was bemoaning the corruption resulting from the great number of poor or impoverished patricians.