PIGEONS IN THE PIAZZA
Japanese may have been more amazed than edified by these performances.
The Venetians always loved processions, and it is to one of these pageants that the pigeons of Saint Mark’s owe their immunity. As early as the end of the fourteenth century it was the custom to make a great procession on Palm Sunday, in the neighbourhood of Saint Mark’s. A canon of the Cathedral deposited great baskets on the high altar, containing the artificial palms prepared for the Doge, the chief magistrates, and the most important members of the clergy. The Doge’s palm was prepared by the nuns of Sant’ Andrea, and was a monument of patience. The leaves were plaited with threads of palm, of gold, of silver, and of silk; and on the gilded handle were painted the arms of the Doge. According to the appointed service the procession began immediately after the distribution of the palms; and while the choir chanted the words ‘Gloria, laus et honor’ of the sacred hymn, a great number of pigeons were sent flying from different parts of the façade down into the square, having little screws of paper fastened to their claws to prevent them from flying too high. The people instantly began to catch the birds, and a great many were actually taken; but now and then, one stronger than the rest succeeded in gaining the higher parts of the surrounding buildings, enthusiastically cheered by the crowd. Those who had once succeeded in making their escape were regarded as sacred for ever with all their descendants. The State provided them with food from its granaries, and before long, lest by some mistake any free pigeons should be caught on the next Palm Sunday, the Signory decreed that other birds than pigeons must be used on the occasion.
SOTTO PORTICO DELLA GUERRA
VIII
THE HOSE CLUB—VENETIAN LEGENDS
In the fourteenth century, life in Venice was simple and vigorous, and found its civic expression in the formation of the Guilds which united in
Molmenti, Vita Privata. Sansovino. Galliccioli, ii. 267, 269. Mutinelli, Lessico.
close and brotherly bonds men of grave and energetic character, devoted to their country and to its advantage. In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries the tendencies of the later Venetians took visible shape in brotherhoods of joyous and not harmless amusement, and chiefly in that known as the ‘Compagnia della Calza,’ in plain English the ‘Hose Club.’