Chapter 12

AAccademia,252-263Albiola, porto of,16,323Aldine Press, site of,296Aristocracy, their growing power,74Arsenal, the,292—— foundation of,41BBajamonte Conspiracy,107-109Barbarossa and Pope Alexander,48Boccaccio at Venice,291Bocche di Leoni,248,292Bovolo, il,296Brides of St Mark, story of,23Brienne, John of, Latin Emperor of the East,75Brienne, Walter of, his defection,59Bronze Horses, from Constantinople,68Bucintoro,53,78CCabinet, the,102Cabot, Sebastiano, and the Ten,172Cambrai, League of,146,156,165-167Cambrai, peace of,170-172Campanile, the,22,44—— fall of,219Canal, Grand,263-275Cape route, discovery of,159Capiof the Ten,110,112, noteCappello, Bianca,286, noteCarlo Zeno,130,137Carmagnola, his strategy,142,143—— capture and execution,143,144Carraras, the,118,119,136,137Cassiodorus, letter of, to theTribuni Maritimi,6Castle of Love at Treviso,72Charlemagne defeats the Lombards,11Chioggia,322—— relief of,134—— war of,131Cobblers’ Guildhall,308“Cobden Madonna,”93,251Colleoni, statue of,280Columns of St Mark and St Theodore, raising of,53Comines, Philippe de, his impressions of Venice,160Comnenian dynasty,62Constantinople, first capture of, by Venetians and Franks,64Constantinople, second capture and sack of,67Corn Office,93Cornaro, Caterina,157,159Coronation oath,55,74Council, closing of Great,101Cretan war, the,181-183Crichton, the Admirable, at Venice,178Crociferi, oratory of the,298Crown of Thorns pawned,76Crusade, fourth,56-67Crusades, attitude of Venetians towards,38Cyprus, acquisition of,157,158DDa Canale writes the history of the Venetians in French,86—— his description of Venice,87—— his description of a ducal election festival,90Dalmatia, loss of,127—— protectorate of,29—— recovery of,138Dalmatian pirates,21,28Dante at Venice,117Despots, Italian,118Dogado, the extent of,2Doge, election of first,8—— his power and state,8,9—— limitation of powers of,32,33Ducal Council, origin of,33Ducal Palace,17,241-251Ducat of gold first coined,95EEast, conquests of Venetians in the,68Eccelino da Romano, death of, and rejoicings at Venice,86Election of Doge, complicated machinery for,88English goods branded at Venice,105English knights at Venice,128—— soldiers in Venetian service, their prowess,136Erasmus at Venice,213FFactions, aristocratic (Heraclia) and democratic (Malamocco),9,10,12,13Factions, Caloprini and Orseoli,28—— Nicolotti and Castellani,305Faliero, Marin, his house,298—— his victory at Zara and embassy to Genoa,122Faliero, Marin, treason and execution of,124,126Ferrara, defeat of Venetians at,107—— siege of,77Festivals at Venice,184,185Fisherman and St Mark, legend of,120Fleets, trading,104Florence appeals for a Venetian alliance,141Foscari, Francesco, his forward policy,140,146,151Foscari, Francesco, degradation and death,149,150Foscari, Jacopo, his trial,147,148—— his exile and death,149Foscarini, Antonio, executed unjustly,180Frari, S. Maria Gloriosa dei,281-284French, defeat of, at Fornova,162Friuli, occupation of,138GGalileo at Padua,178Galley, value of cargo of,104—— comparative size of,105Genoa, defeat of,82,85—— origin of war with,81Genoese crushed by Venetians off Lojero,122Genoese, defeat of Venetians by,97Gesuiti, the,298Ghetti, the,310Giudecca, island of,309Glass-workers,212,213Goethe at Venice,186,246Golden Book, the,102Goldoni,214, note—— statue of,293Grado and Aquileia, jealousy of Patriarchs of,32Great Council, origin of,47Greek islands, occupation of,139Greeks recapture Constantinople,83HHoly Roman Empire, Dante and,45Horses at Venice,291,293Hunchback of the Rialto,302IInquisition, Holy, introduction of, at Venice,79Inquisitors of State,111,112—— of the dead Doge,74Interdetto, conflict of the,175-177LLagosta, capture of,29Lepanto, victory of,173-175Libreria Vecchia,289Lido, the,320Lighting of streets,44Lombard invaders,3,4Loss and recovery of mainland provinces,167-169MMainland, aggrandisement on,106—— war policy on,119Malamocco, Old, where situated,15, noteManuel, orders spoliation of Venetian traders at Constantinople,46Marco Polo, his travels,98—— joins Venetian fleet, and is taken prisoner at Curzola,99Marco Polo, site of his house,99,293Merceria, the,218Mocenigo, Tomaso, his wise counsel,140,141Morea, the loss of,153,183Murano,316Murzuphles, hiscoup d’étatat Constantinople,66Museo Civico,303,304NNormans, conflicts with,35OOligarchy, rise of,100Olivolo becomes Castello,22Oselle,303, noteOthello, Rawdon Brown’s identification of,153, noteOtho II., his preparation to crush Venice, and death,28PPadua, occupation of,187Painters, Venetian,195-212Palazzo Giovanelli,300—— Labia,310Papal States, occupation of, by Venice,164Paradiso, calle and Ponte di,276Pepin, attack on Venetians by,14,15,16Petrarch at Venice,123,127,129Petrarch, his house at Venice,291Piazza, the,219-222Piombi, Pozzi and,115,116Pisani, Victor, his release and triumph,132Plague, the, at Venice,183Ponte dei Pugni,305Pope Alexander III., his legendary resting-place,308Porti, their traditional colours,323Possessions on mainland,146,156Prince in pawn, a,83Printers,213,214Prisons, their position,115Privy Council, the,102Providence, the vote of,71RRialto, foundation of united Venetians at,16Rialto, the,301SSS. Apostoli,298S. Cassiano,302S. Caterina,299S. Elena,321S. Francesco del Deserto,319—— della Vigna,288St Francis at Venice,73—— and Walter of Brienne,59S. Giacomo dall’ Orio,304—— di Rialto,301S. Giobbe,310S. Giorgio Maggiore,274,309S. Giovanni in Bragora,291—— Grisostomo,294—— Elemosinario,302St Louis and the Crown of Thorns,76S. Maria del Carmine,307—— Formosa,276—— Mater Domini,302—— dei Miracoli,280—— dell’ Orto,299—— agli Scalzi,313St Mark, Basilica of,20,27,222-241—— fisherman and,121—— legends of,17,18,19—— rediscovery of body of,36,37S. Marco, Scuola di,280S. Martino,292S. Marziale,299S. Moisè,295St Nicholas, capture of body of,39S. Nicolo del Lido,321S. Pantaleone,308S. Polo,308S. Rocco, Church of,286—— Scuola di,285—— story of,284S. Salvatore,293S. Sebastiano,306S. Stefano,295St Tarasius, rape of the body of,31St Theodore, Church of,7S. Trovaso,309S. Vio,296S. Vitale,296S. Zaccaria,286S. Zanipolo,276-279—— legend of foundation of,78S. Zulian,275Salinguerra, his memorial,321Salute, the,297Sarpi, Paolo, death of,178Scalas, the,118,119,136Schiavoni, Riva degli,290—— S. Giorgio degli,287Sculpture, Venetian,187-195Seminario, the,297Senate, origin of,33—— the,102Shrine at Calle Barbaro,296Signory, the,102Slave trade at Venice,12,21,26Spanish plot,179Steno, Michel, his insult to Faliero,124Street nomenclature,216TTagliapietra, Contessa, legend of,296Ten, attack on the,180—— Council of the,109-111Titian’s house, site of,315Torcello,5,318—— final migration to,4Trading privileges, extension of,36,40,42Tribunes, their first election,6Tribuni majores, election of,7Turkish conquests,173—— terror at Venice,152,154,155—— capture of Constantinople,151,153Tyre, capture of,43VVenetian fleet, destruction of, by Genoese,130Venetian settlements, the earliest,4Venetians defeated by Genoese off Pera,122—— defeated by Turks off Sapienza,163—— routed by Genoese off Sapienza,124—— their master passions,68Venice, excommunication of,106,156,167,176—— her fortitude under disaster,124,130—— her popularity on the mainland,120,146—— invites the King of France to Italy,156—— occupied by the French,186Verona, occupation of,137Visconti, Galeozzo,136—— Filippo,140WWedding of the Adriatic,29,50,53ZZara, capture of, by Crusaders,61—— rebellion of,117,121Zattere, fondamenta delle,309

FOOTNOTES:[1]See Appendix II. An exhaustive bibliography will be found in “The Cambridge Modern History,” Vol. I.[2]Rimini, Pesaro, Fano, Sinigaglia and Ancona.[3]A method of disposing of a political enemy, so common in Italy, in the middle ages, that it was expressed by a wordabbacinare, from thebacinoor red hot basin of brass fixed before the eyes of the victim.[4]See “Archæologia,” vol. xliv. p. 128. This curious inscription purports to have been interpreted in 1202 by Marin Dandolo, Procurator of St Mark, from the Latin of an old and decayed parchment written by Orso Hypato of Heraclea.[5]So late as 1428 a Russian female slave was sold by one friar to another for 52 sequins, with “right to dispose of her body and soul in perpetuity.” The contract is quoted by Filiasi. In 1492 a Saracen slave, 15 years old, fetched 25 sequins.[6]The original Malamocco, destroyed by flood in the twelfth century, was a fortified place girt with walls and towers, whose precise locality is not now known. It was situated on the open Adriatic, not far from the present Malamocco. Filiasi, writing about 1800, says the ruins used to be seen at low tide about a good stone’s throw from thelido.[7]The Greek Emperor at Constantinople.[8]Pietro in his two years of office could have done little more than repair the old St Mark’s. Recent researches have proved that the present structure was begun in 1061 under Doge Contarini. Part of the ducal palace was pulled down to extend the basilica southwards, and part of the Church of St Theodore incorporated on the north. When the wall which separated the Chapel of St Isidore from the north transept was stripped of its marble casing in 1887 it showed a bare surface of brick blackened by exposure to the weather and one of the windows which lighted the north aisle of old St Theodore’s.[9]In 1456 the See of Castello and the Patriarchate of Grado were united, and S. Lorenzo Giustiniano was made first Patriarch of Venice.[10]Writing about 1500-1520.[11]The memorable triumph of the Papacy when the Emperor was made to stand barefoot in the bitter January cold outside the castle of Canossa for three days before Pope Gregory VII. would admit and absolve him.[12]Two-thirds of the people were said to have perished.[13]As in the arsenal of the Venetians, the sticky pitch boils in winter to daub their leaky ships which they cannot sail, and instead, one builds his ship anew, another caulks the ribs of that which many voyages hath made. One hammers at the prow and one at the poop: another makes oars: another twists the ropes: another mends the jib and mainsail.—“Inferno,” xxi. 7-15.[14]The Emperor complained much of the mosquitoes and other less volatile vermin at Chioggia. Dare we assume that these irritants were not without effect in hastening the conclusion?[15]“Ante cujus atrium.” The scene is described by the Archbishop of Salerno who was present. See “Muratori, Rer. Ital.,” Scrip. vii.[16]A similar story is however told of the raising of the great obelisk at Rome.[17]Actually one is of red, the other of grey marble.[18]It was to join the standard of this renowned knight that St Francis, fired by stories of his prowess, set forth in 1204 and saw at Spoleto that vision which determined him to return to Assisi and devote himself to the service of another Lord.[19]See “The Fall of Constantinople,” by Edwin Pears, p. 263. This allegation is, however, much canvassed by authorities.[20]The alleged blindness of Dandolo is one of the enigmas of history. The chroniclers are hopelessly at variance. Villehardouin, his constant associate, says hene voit goutte(couldn’t see a bit). Others ignore the blindness, and it is difficult to explain his career on that theory.[21]Probably from his attempt to convert the Sultan in 1219-1220. See Sabatier’s “Vie de St François, p. 271.” The story of the birds is obviously an echo of theFioretti.[22]Experts in heresy.[23]According to the archives of the Holy Office only six cases are found of the death penalty, drowning or strangling (never burning), being inflicted for heresy in Venice.[24]Hollow balls of wax were first used, afterwards the thirty were made of gold and the others of silver.[25]“Christ conquereth; Christ reigneth; Christ ruleth. Salvation, honour, long life and victory to our lord, Lorenzo Tiepolo, by the grace of God renowned Doge of Venice, Dalmatia and Croatia, Dominator of one-fourth and a half of the Empire of Romania. O St Mark, lend him thine aid!”[26]Purgatorio, iii. 115.[27]The details of the victory are inscribed in St Matthew’s, the private church of the Doria family, at Genoa. Hapless Dandolo, rather than figure in a Genoese triumph, dashed out his brains against the mast of the ship that bore him away.[28]The supreme legal authority.[29]Birdwood, Report on the old records of the India Office.[30]The value of a ducat is estimated by Col. Yule at about 9s. 6d. of English money.[31]The tune sung by sailors to-day as they lift the anchor is the same as that sung a thousand years ago by the Venetians as they manned their oars or spread their sails.[32]Lindsay’s “History of Merchant Shipping.”[33]The name adopted by the Participazii at the end of the ninth century.[34]“And a certain woman cast a piece of a millstone upon Abimelech’s head, and all to brake his skull.”—Judgesix. 53.[35]The Quirini house is now incorporated in the new Fish Market.[36]The column is now in the Museo Civico.[37]The Ten could act promptly too. In 1484, one of theCapicrossing the Piazza saw a priest and two soldiers set upon a man with drawn weapons. He ordered their arrest. The same evening the three were hanged by torchlight between the columns.[38]I pozzi e i piombi. Venice, 1876.[39]Not the presentScala dei Giganti, built two centuries later in a different position.[40]“I’vo gridando pace, pace, pace!”Canzone all’Italia.[41]The hero’s statue and a Latin inscription from his tomb in the demolished church of S. Antonio are now in the Museum of the Arsenal.[42]By an unhappy misprint (nefornon) in Muratori’s ed. of Sanudo Morosini has been grievously calumniated and accused of speculating on his country’s misfortune. See Romanin, iii., p. 310, and Muratori,Rerum Ital. Scriptores, xxii. 743.[43]The last of the Scalas died a few years ago, a poor cobbler, at Verona.[44]The ordinary method of putting to the “question” was to tie the victim’s hands behind him and swing him by the wrists over a pulley.[45]Sanudo gives the population in 1422 as 190,000 souls, about equal to that of Cardiff to-day.[46]In 1347, a Flanders galley, after a voyage of eight months and seven days, made a profit of 10,000 ducats.[47]In the reign of Francesco Dandolo.[48]The Doge uses the familiartu: Jacopo the formalvoi.[49]Ruskin, by a curious misunderstanding of Rawdon Brown, has confused this Doge (who, according to a contemporary was a short-statured squint-eyed creature) with the original of Shakespeare’s “Othello,” and the error has since been repeated. Rawdon Brown’s ingenious identification of the Moor of Venice with one Cristoforo Moro, refers to another Venetian of that name who lived a generation later and was a prominent official in the service of the Republic during the wars of the League of Cambrai.Cf.Ruskin, “Stones of Venice,” vol. ii. p. 302, note, with Rawdon Brown’s “Ragguali sulla vita e sulle opere di M. Sanuto,” Parte I. pp. 229-235.[50]Met to deal with the situation created by the attempt of the famous Venetian Condottiero Colleoni to win the duchy of Milan in collusion with the Florentine exiles.[51]In 1483 the Flanders galleys were attacked by a famous Spanish privateer; 130 Venetians were killed, 300 wounded, and an enormous booty was taken. The Signory demanded satisfaction from the Emperor Charles VII., which was refused on the plea that Venice was under the ban of the Church. A certain Christopher Columbus was serving among the Spaniards.[52]The firm, resolute features of this grand old Pontiff look out to us from Raphael’s portrait of him in the National Gallery of London.[53]Our own Henry VIII. was an important piece in the game. “You are all rascals” (ribaldi), exclaimed Pope Julius II. to the English ambassador in 1510.[54]The words of this oft-misquoted phrase are: “De toutes choses ne n’est demeuré que l’honneur et la vie qui est sauve.”[55]Sir Thomas More was the English envoy.[56]Girolamo Diedo’s story of the famous battle is published in theBiblioteca Diamante, for twentycentesimi(twopence).[57]By the interdict the Venetian clergy were forbidden to exercise any of the functions of the Church. By excommunication the Government and citizens of Venice were excluded from the communion of the faithful.[58]Sir Henry Wotton told the Doge that the blow was struck by a Scotchman, who used to hang about the English embassy.[59]The writer of the “History of the Council of Trent” is placed by Ranke second to Macchaevelli alone as an Italian historian. Mazzini, in an essay published in vol. iv. of his collected works, claims that Sarpi was the real discoverer of the circulation of the blood.[60]So indelible an impression was made by the long struggle on the popular mind, that the locution, avera guerra di Candia, to express bitter personal enmity was common in Byron’s time.[61]The incidents of this, a nobler chapter than any of the foregoing in Venetian history, may be read in Mr Bolton King’s “History of United Italy,” 2 vols., Nisbet, 1899.[62]Macigno is a hard sandstone.[63]Later researches have brought into prominence the name of Pietro Basseggio, who is now believed to have designed the earlier S. façade of the Palace.[64]Il Palazzo Ducale di Venezia.[65]In early times architecture, sculpture, and engineering were branches of the same profession. Michel Angelo worked for six months at San Miniato on the fortifications of Florence.[66]Arch. Stor. Ital.vol. vii. p. 674.[67]Now assigned to Marc’ Antonio Gambello and Moro Coducci.[68]The present façade is the result of alterations by Scamozzi in 1610.[69]See Plate 72 in the Dream of Poliphilus, called the Hypnerotomachia, published in Venice by Aldus, 1499, reproduced by the Science and Art Department, South Kensington, 1888.[70]See Berenson’s “Lorenzo Lotto,” chap. ii., sec. vii., revised ed., 1901.[71]The Pietà, and the Transfiguration in the Correr Museum.[72]The ivy-leaved toadflax.[73]It has again been exalted to a prominent position in Room X.[74]Morelli, however, classes it among Titian’s early productions.[75]See “XIXth Century and After,” 1902, p. 156, where H. Cook gives reasons for believing the painter to have been but 86 years of age at his death in 1576.[76]Morelli,Italian Masters in German Galleries, translated by Mrs Richter, pp. 184-94.[77]Jahrbuch der Königlich Preussischen Kunstsammlungen.Berlin, vols. xxii. and xxiii., 1901-1902.[78]“Marietta or the Maid of Venice.”[79]Goldoni’s grandfather was a native of Modena:Il Burbero Beneficowas first performed at Paris and subsequently translated into Italian.[80]Now assigned to Moro Coducci of Bergamo.[81]The Ducal Palace is not built on piles, but rests on a stratum of stiff clay.[82]Sanudo.[83]Italiæ brevis Descriptio, Ultrajecti, 1650.[84]“Letters of an Architect from France, Italy and Greece,” by Joseph Woods, 1828, vol. i., p. 256,et seq.[85]Unhappily most of the old Greek marbles have been replaced by inferior Carrara. It was once proposed by the restorers to varnish and smoke the S. façade, to imitate the rich colours which the mellowing effect of time has given to the original incrustations.[86]Left of the spectator.[87]No. 567 in the Accademia.[88]The traveller who is acquainted with Burne-Jones’ Days of Creation will note the influence of these mosaics on the English master’s work.[89]In 1682 the slab of this tomb was accidentally discovered embedded in the wall of the Ducal Palace. In 1810 the French ordered the carving to be defaced, but the mason evaded the command by setting the stone face downwards, and in 1839 Rawdon Brown secured it and sent it to England.[90]The figure may still be discerned in the great mosque when the light is favourable.[91]“Devastated,” says Saccardo.[92]Reproduced in Parker’s “Introduction to Gothic Architecture,” ninth Edition, p. 296.[93]During the excavations made in 1903 round the foundations of the fallen Campanile the old brick paving was clearly seen.[94]On free days the entrance is by the farther Scala dei Censori.[95]“The most terrific brain that ever applied itself to painting” (Vasari).[96](1) The Carità, (2) S. Giovanni Evangelista, (3) The Misericordia, (4) S. Marco, (5) S. Rocco, (6) S. Teodoro.[97]Four pictures were painted for the Guild of St Mark. Two, the Carrying of the Body of St Mark from Alexandria, and St Mark saving a Saracen, are in the Royal Palace of Venice; the fourth is in the Brera at Milan.[98]Said in the official catalogue to represent Henry VIII. and Anne Boleyn respectively![99]283, SS. Mark and Vincent, is interesting from the fact that the latter saint was originally the beardless St Lawrence, which was painted over by Tintoretto to represent a full-bearded magistrate, and became St Vincent. The original painting was by Michele Parrhasio, a wealthy dilettante working in Bonifazio’s atelier, who used to treat his critics to sweets and wine.[100]Now promoted to Room X.[101]Quando del ver si sogna(when dreams are true).—Inferno, xxvi. 7.[102]The eminent critic and scholar, 1706-78.[103]More probably Vice or Slander.[104]We retain the modern appellation. The old Venetians were content with Ca’ (Casa) House.[105]SeeVenezia: Nuovi Studi, etc., p. 37, by P. Molmenti.[106]Grave reasons for doubting whether Bruno suffered death by order of the Inquisition have, however, been adduced by Théophile Desdouits, who believes the whole story to be a fabrication. SeeLa Légende tragique de Jordano Bruno, 1885.[107]Date of death.[108]As in Jacopo Pesaro’s tomb in the Frari.[109]A rich heiress who, when fifteen years of age, eloped to Florence with a poor bookkeeper and married him. She there became the mistress, then the wife, of Francesco de’ Medici, Duke of Tuscany, who was implicated in the assassination of her first husband. Notwithstanding her scandalous past and condemnation by the laws of Venice, the Signory, on her second marriage, took her under their protection for political reasons, and proclaimed her the “true and particular daughter of the Republic.” She and the Grand Duke died within a day of each other in 1587, not without suspicion of poison. The Ca’ Trevisan was bought by Bianca in 1577, and given to her brother, Vittore Cappello. Francesco Sansovino dedicated hisVenezia Città Nobilissimato her.[110]The widening was effected at the end of the eighteenth century.[111]“Hoc circa templum sit jus mercatoribus aequm: pondera ne vergant nec sit conventio prava.”[112]It was the custom of the early Doges to make a coronation present of wild ducks to each of the nobles in Venice. Owing to the difficulty of finding sufficient game in the lagoons Doge Celsi in 1361 gave a sum of money instead. In 1521 the number of recipients had so increased that the Grand Council permitted Doge Ant. Grimani to substitute a silver medal which was called anosella, the Venetian for bird. The custom survived till the end of the Republic.[113]In the sixteenth century a catalogue was publishedde tutte le principali e più onorate cortigiane de Venetia.[114]How wayward are Ruskin’s judgments at times may be illustrated by this poor work on which he lavishes the most ecstatic eulogy in the “Shrine of the Slaves,” p. 38, where it is referred to as the finest picture in the world, superior even to the Bellinis in the Frari and in S. Zaccaria.[115]From Franc. Sansovino’s description of it as being reputed a jewel rather than a stone.[116]The factions were formally reconciled in 1848.[117]Now hidden by workmen’s dwellings.[118]Italiae brevis descriptio.Ultrajecti, 1650.[119]Painted in Walter Crane’s “Bridge of Life.”[120]In primitive times the bishop sat in the centre of the apse facing the congregation, just as the judge had done in the law-courts, which served as models for the first Christian churches.[121]Italiæ Brevis Descriptio.[122]The walk may be shortened by taking the direct steamer to S. Nicolo which leaves the Riva hourly.[123]See Browning’s “Sordello,”passim.

FOOTNOTES:

[1]See Appendix II. An exhaustive bibliography will be found in “The Cambridge Modern History,” Vol. I.

[2]Rimini, Pesaro, Fano, Sinigaglia and Ancona.

[3]A method of disposing of a political enemy, so common in Italy, in the middle ages, that it was expressed by a wordabbacinare, from thebacinoor red hot basin of brass fixed before the eyes of the victim.

[4]See “Archæologia,” vol. xliv. p. 128. This curious inscription purports to have been interpreted in 1202 by Marin Dandolo, Procurator of St Mark, from the Latin of an old and decayed parchment written by Orso Hypato of Heraclea.

[5]So late as 1428 a Russian female slave was sold by one friar to another for 52 sequins, with “right to dispose of her body and soul in perpetuity.” The contract is quoted by Filiasi. In 1492 a Saracen slave, 15 years old, fetched 25 sequins.

[6]The original Malamocco, destroyed by flood in the twelfth century, was a fortified place girt with walls and towers, whose precise locality is not now known. It was situated on the open Adriatic, not far from the present Malamocco. Filiasi, writing about 1800, says the ruins used to be seen at low tide about a good stone’s throw from thelido.

[7]The Greek Emperor at Constantinople.

[8]Pietro in his two years of office could have done little more than repair the old St Mark’s. Recent researches have proved that the present structure was begun in 1061 under Doge Contarini. Part of the ducal palace was pulled down to extend the basilica southwards, and part of the Church of St Theodore incorporated on the north. When the wall which separated the Chapel of St Isidore from the north transept was stripped of its marble casing in 1887 it showed a bare surface of brick blackened by exposure to the weather and one of the windows which lighted the north aisle of old St Theodore’s.

[9]In 1456 the See of Castello and the Patriarchate of Grado were united, and S. Lorenzo Giustiniano was made first Patriarch of Venice.

[10]Writing about 1500-1520.

[11]The memorable triumph of the Papacy when the Emperor was made to stand barefoot in the bitter January cold outside the castle of Canossa for three days before Pope Gregory VII. would admit and absolve him.

[12]Two-thirds of the people were said to have perished.

[13]As in the arsenal of the Venetians, the sticky pitch boils in winter to daub their leaky ships which they cannot sail, and instead, one builds his ship anew, another caulks the ribs of that which many voyages hath made. One hammers at the prow and one at the poop: another makes oars: another twists the ropes: another mends the jib and mainsail.—“Inferno,” xxi. 7-15.

[14]The Emperor complained much of the mosquitoes and other less volatile vermin at Chioggia. Dare we assume that these irritants were not without effect in hastening the conclusion?

[15]“Ante cujus atrium.” The scene is described by the Archbishop of Salerno who was present. See “Muratori, Rer. Ital.,” Scrip. vii.

[16]A similar story is however told of the raising of the great obelisk at Rome.

[17]Actually one is of red, the other of grey marble.

[18]It was to join the standard of this renowned knight that St Francis, fired by stories of his prowess, set forth in 1204 and saw at Spoleto that vision which determined him to return to Assisi and devote himself to the service of another Lord.

[19]See “The Fall of Constantinople,” by Edwin Pears, p. 263. This allegation is, however, much canvassed by authorities.

[20]The alleged blindness of Dandolo is one of the enigmas of history. The chroniclers are hopelessly at variance. Villehardouin, his constant associate, says hene voit goutte(couldn’t see a bit). Others ignore the blindness, and it is difficult to explain his career on that theory.

[21]Probably from his attempt to convert the Sultan in 1219-1220. See Sabatier’s “Vie de St François, p. 271.” The story of the birds is obviously an echo of theFioretti.

[22]Experts in heresy.

[23]According to the archives of the Holy Office only six cases are found of the death penalty, drowning or strangling (never burning), being inflicted for heresy in Venice.

[24]Hollow balls of wax were first used, afterwards the thirty were made of gold and the others of silver.

[25]“Christ conquereth; Christ reigneth; Christ ruleth. Salvation, honour, long life and victory to our lord, Lorenzo Tiepolo, by the grace of God renowned Doge of Venice, Dalmatia and Croatia, Dominator of one-fourth and a half of the Empire of Romania. O St Mark, lend him thine aid!”

[26]Purgatorio, iii. 115.

[27]The details of the victory are inscribed in St Matthew’s, the private church of the Doria family, at Genoa. Hapless Dandolo, rather than figure in a Genoese triumph, dashed out his brains against the mast of the ship that bore him away.

[28]The supreme legal authority.

[29]Birdwood, Report on the old records of the India Office.

[30]The value of a ducat is estimated by Col. Yule at about 9s. 6d. of English money.

[31]The tune sung by sailors to-day as they lift the anchor is the same as that sung a thousand years ago by the Venetians as they manned their oars or spread their sails.

[32]Lindsay’s “History of Merchant Shipping.”

[33]The name adopted by the Participazii at the end of the ninth century.

[34]“And a certain woman cast a piece of a millstone upon Abimelech’s head, and all to brake his skull.”—Judgesix. 53.

[35]The Quirini house is now incorporated in the new Fish Market.

[36]The column is now in the Museo Civico.

[37]The Ten could act promptly too. In 1484, one of theCapicrossing the Piazza saw a priest and two soldiers set upon a man with drawn weapons. He ordered their arrest. The same evening the three were hanged by torchlight between the columns.

[38]I pozzi e i piombi. Venice, 1876.

[39]Not the presentScala dei Giganti, built two centuries later in a different position.

[40]“I’vo gridando pace, pace, pace!”Canzone all’Italia.

[41]The hero’s statue and a Latin inscription from his tomb in the demolished church of S. Antonio are now in the Museum of the Arsenal.

[42]By an unhappy misprint (nefornon) in Muratori’s ed. of Sanudo Morosini has been grievously calumniated and accused of speculating on his country’s misfortune. See Romanin, iii., p. 310, and Muratori,Rerum Ital. Scriptores, xxii. 743.

[43]The last of the Scalas died a few years ago, a poor cobbler, at Verona.

[44]The ordinary method of putting to the “question” was to tie the victim’s hands behind him and swing him by the wrists over a pulley.

[45]Sanudo gives the population in 1422 as 190,000 souls, about equal to that of Cardiff to-day.

[46]In 1347, a Flanders galley, after a voyage of eight months and seven days, made a profit of 10,000 ducats.

[47]In the reign of Francesco Dandolo.

[48]The Doge uses the familiartu: Jacopo the formalvoi.

[49]Ruskin, by a curious misunderstanding of Rawdon Brown, has confused this Doge (who, according to a contemporary was a short-statured squint-eyed creature) with the original of Shakespeare’s “Othello,” and the error has since been repeated. Rawdon Brown’s ingenious identification of the Moor of Venice with one Cristoforo Moro, refers to another Venetian of that name who lived a generation later and was a prominent official in the service of the Republic during the wars of the League of Cambrai.Cf.Ruskin, “Stones of Venice,” vol. ii. p. 302, note, with Rawdon Brown’s “Ragguali sulla vita e sulle opere di M. Sanuto,” Parte I. pp. 229-235.

[50]Met to deal with the situation created by the attempt of the famous Venetian Condottiero Colleoni to win the duchy of Milan in collusion with the Florentine exiles.

[51]In 1483 the Flanders galleys were attacked by a famous Spanish privateer; 130 Venetians were killed, 300 wounded, and an enormous booty was taken. The Signory demanded satisfaction from the Emperor Charles VII., which was refused on the plea that Venice was under the ban of the Church. A certain Christopher Columbus was serving among the Spaniards.

[52]The firm, resolute features of this grand old Pontiff look out to us from Raphael’s portrait of him in the National Gallery of London.

[53]Our own Henry VIII. was an important piece in the game. “You are all rascals” (ribaldi), exclaimed Pope Julius II. to the English ambassador in 1510.

[54]The words of this oft-misquoted phrase are: “De toutes choses ne n’est demeuré que l’honneur et la vie qui est sauve.”

[55]Sir Thomas More was the English envoy.

[56]Girolamo Diedo’s story of the famous battle is published in theBiblioteca Diamante, for twentycentesimi(twopence).

[57]By the interdict the Venetian clergy were forbidden to exercise any of the functions of the Church. By excommunication the Government and citizens of Venice were excluded from the communion of the faithful.

[58]Sir Henry Wotton told the Doge that the blow was struck by a Scotchman, who used to hang about the English embassy.

[59]The writer of the “History of the Council of Trent” is placed by Ranke second to Macchaevelli alone as an Italian historian. Mazzini, in an essay published in vol. iv. of his collected works, claims that Sarpi was the real discoverer of the circulation of the blood.

[60]So indelible an impression was made by the long struggle on the popular mind, that the locution, avera guerra di Candia, to express bitter personal enmity was common in Byron’s time.

[61]The incidents of this, a nobler chapter than any of the foregoing in Venetian history, may be read in Mr Bolton King’s “History of United Italy,” 2 vols., Nisbet, 1899.

[62]Macigno is a hard sandstone.

[63]Later researches have brought into prominence the name of Pietro Basseggio, who is now believed to have designed the earlier S. façade of the Palace.

[64]Il Palazzo Ducale di Venezia.

[65]In early times architecture, sculpture, and engineering were branches of the same profession. Michel Angelo worked for six months at San Miniato on the fortifications of Florence.

[66]Arch. Stor. Ital.vol. vii. p. 674.

[67]Now assigned to Marc’ Antonio Gambello and Moro Coducci.

[68]The present façade is the result of alterations by Scamozzi in 1610.

[69]See Plate 72 in the Dream of Poliphilus, called the Hypnerotomachia, published in Venice by Aldus, 1499, reproduced by the Science and Art Department, South Kensington, 1888.

[70]See Berenson’s “Lorenzo Lotto,” chap. ii., sec. vii., revised ed., 1901.

[71]The Pietà, and the Transfiguration in the Correr Museum.

[72]The ivy-leaved toadflax.

[73]It has again been exalted to a prominent position in Room X.

[74]Morelli, however, classes it among Titian’s early productions.

[75]See “XIXth Century and After,” 1902, p. 156, where H. Cook gives reasons for believing the painter to have been but 86 years of age at his death in 1576.

[76]Morelli,Italian Masters in German Galleries, translated by Mrs Richter, pp. 184-94.

[77]Jahrbuch der Königlich Preussischen Kunstsammlungen.Berlin, vols. xxii. and xxiii., 1901-1902.

[78]“Marietta or the Maid of Venice.”

[79]Goldoni’s grandfather was a native of Modena:Il Burbero Beneficowas first performed at Paris and subsequently translated into Italian.

[80]Now assigned to Moro Coducci of Bergamo.

[81]The Ducal Palace is not built on piles, but rests on a stratum of stiff clay.

[82]Sanudo.

[83]Italiæ brevis Descriptio, Ultrajecti, 1650.

[84]“Letters of an Architect from France, Italy and Greece,” by Joseph Woods, 1828, vol. i., p. 256,et seq.

[85]Unhappily most of the old Greek marbles have been replaced by inferior Carrara. It was once proposed by the restorers to varnish and smoke the S. façade, to imitate the rich colours which the mellowing effect of time has given to the original incrustations.

[86]Left of the spectator.

[87]No. 567 in the Accademia.

[88]The traveller who is acquainted with Burne-Jones’ Days of Creation will note the influence of these mosaics on the English master’s work.

[89]In 1682 the slab of this tomb was accidentally discovered embedded in the wall of the Ducal Palace. In 1810 the French ordered the carving to be defaced, but the mason evaded the command by setting the stone face downwards, and in 1839 Rawdon Brown secured it and sent it to England.

[90]The figure may still be discerned in the great mosque when the light is favourable.

[91]“Devastated,” says Saccardo.

[92]Reproduced in Parker’s “Introduction to Gothic Architecture,” ninth Edition, p. 296.

[93]During the excavations made in 1903 round the foundations of the fallen Campanile the old brick paving was clearly seen.

[94]On free days the entrance is by the farther Scala dei Censori.

[95]“The most terrific brain that ever applied itself to painting” (Vasari).

[96](1) The Carità, (2) S. Giovanni Evangelista, (3) The Misericordia, (4) S. Marco, (5) S. Rocco, (6) S. Teodoro.

[97]Four pictures were painted for the Guild of St Mark. Two, the Carrying of the Body of St Mark from Alexandria, and St Mark saving a Saracen, are in the Royal Palace of Venice; the fourth is in the Brera at Milan.

[98]Said in the official catalogue to represent Henry VIII. and Anne Boleyn respectively!

[99]283, SS. Mark and Vincent, is interesting from the fact that the latter saint was originally the beardless St Lawrence, which was painted over by Tintoretto to represent a full-bearded magistrate, and became St Vincent. The original painting was by Michele Parrhasio, a wealthy dilettante working in Bonifazio’s atelier, who used to treat his critics to sweets and wine.

[100]Now promoted to Room X.

[101]Quando del ver si sogna(when dreams are true).—Inferno, xxvi. 7.

[102]The eminent critic and scholar, 1706-78.

[103]More probably Vice or Slander.

[104]We retain the modern appellation. The old Venetians were content with Ca’ (Casa) House.

[105]SeeVenezia: Nuovi Studi, etc., p. 37, by P. Molmenti.

[106]Grave reasons for doubting whether Bruno suffered death by order of the Inquisition have, however, been adduced by Théophile Desdouits, who believes the whole story to be a fabrication. SeeLa Légende tragique de Jordano Bruno, 1885.

[107]Date of death.

[108]As in Jacopo Pesaro’s tomb in the Frari.

[109]A rich heiress who, when fifteen years of age, eloped to Florence with a poor bookkeeper and married him. She there became the mistress, then the wife, of Francesco de’ Medici, Duke of Tuscany, who was implicated in the assassination of her first husband. Notwithstanding her scandalous past and condemnation by the laws of Venice, the Signory, on her second marriage, took her under their protection for political reasons, and proclaimed her the “true and particular daughter of the Republic.” She and the Grand Duke died within a day of each other in 1587, not without suspicion of poison. The Ca’ Trevisan was bought by Bianca in 1577, and given to her brother, Vittore Cappello. Francesco Sansovino dedicated hisVenezia Città Nobilissimato her.

[110]The widening was effected at the end of the eighteenth century.

[111]“Hoc circa templum sit jus mercatoribus aequm: pondera ne vergant nec sit conventio prava.”

[112]It was the custom of the early Doges to make a coronation present of wild ducks to each of the nobles in Venice. Owing to the difficulty of finding sufficient game in the lagoons Doge Celsi in 1361 gave a sum of money instead. In 1521 the number of recipients had so increased that the Grand Council permitted Doge Ant. Grimani to substitute a silver medal which was called anosella, the Venetian for bird. The custom survived till the end of the Republic.

[113]In the sixteenth century a catalogue was publishedde tutte le principali e più onorate cortigiane de Venetia.

[114]How wayward are Ruskin’s judgments at times may be illustrated by this poor work on which he lavishes the most ecstatic eulogy in the “Shrine of the Slaves,” p. 38, where it is referred to as the finest picture in the world, superior even to the Bellinis in the Frari and in S. Zaccaria.

[115]From Franc. Sansovino’s description of it as being reputed a jewel rather than a stone.

[116]The factions were formally reconciled in 1848.

[117]Now hidden by workmen’s dwellings.

[118]Italiae brevis descriptio.Ultrajecti, 1650.

[119]Painted in Walter Crane’s “Bridge of Life.”

[120]In primitive times the bishop sat in the centre of the apse facing the congregation, just as the judge had done in the law-courts, which served as models for the first Christian churches.

[121]Italiæ Brevis Descriptio.

[122]The walk may be shortened by taking the direct steamer to S. Nicolo which leaves the Riva hourly.

[123]See Browning’s “Sordello,”passim.

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