LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Legislative council

... now founded a republican government, having unlimited immunities and privileges from the Emperor, whose power over them extended merely to the investure of their consuls. Their republic was democratic, the legislative council of nine rectors and three curators being elective by the whole people. This government, or something like it, endured for more than a century, during which period the Mantuans seem to have done nothing but war with their neighbors in every direction,—with the Veronese ...

— Italian Journeys • William Dean Howells