Applying the name ‘secret service’ to Venice’s council of ten seems to be a choice by the author, not an actual contemporary naming. (By the way, I’d avoid usin

Applying the name ‘secret service’ to Venice’s council of ten seems to be a choice by the author, not an actual contemporary naming. (By the way, I’d avoid using the acronym for ‘secret service’) The US Secret Service has its origins as a federal anti counterfeiting police force which over time migrated into executive protection duties - it’s not the same role that in other countries and times has been given the name of a ‘secret service’ or ‘secret police’. The modern US Secret Service probably has more in common, in this era, with the role of the Swiss guards at the Vatican - a personal bodyguard unit attached to and loyal to an office not the officeholder. The Venice example given is much more of a parallel to a total state security apparatus like the KGB, with combined internal security and foreign intelligence gathering roles.