[339] ‘Domine Pater Omnipotens, qui eligisti hanc Rempublicam ad serviendum tibi. Elige, quæsumus, gubernatores nostros secundum voluntatem Tuam et necessitatem nostram, ut Te timeant et tua sancta Præcepta custodiant, et nos verâ caritate diligant et dirigant. Amen!’ I take this from Kohl, who copied it from the beginning of the Specchio del Maggior Consiglio.
[340] De situ oræ Illyrici, lib. i.
[341] The Congregazione dei Preti was instituted here in 1391 for the relief of poor priests.
[342] The senate erected a foundling hospital here in 1432. ‘Considerando di quanta abbominazione et inhumanità era il gettar delle creature humane piccole, le quali molte fiate non erano raccolte, nè secondo humanità e bisogno sovvenute.’ This institution was called ‘Ospitale della Misericordia.’ In 1347 the Republic built a Poor-house, ‘Ospitale ad consolationem et suffragium pauperum cunctorum.’ In 1540 an Infirmary for the poor was added.
[343] This law had to be repeated in 1466 with graver penalties; and unless the slave-dealer could recover those he had sold from captivity within a fixed term, he was to be hanged.
[344] Appendini makes it actually Orchan, but Engel’s account is the only one reconcilable with the date 1370.
[345] There is an interesting correspondence between Ragusa and Cardinal Pole on the subject of Ragusan merchants settled in England, and a letter is extant from the cardinal to the Ragusan senate, dated July 11, 1558.
[346] Merchant of Venice, Act I., sc. i., where Salarino is speaking of Antonio’s ‘argosies.’
[347] Often wrongly derived from Argo. Possibly the word arrived to us by way of Spain.
[348] Between 1530 and 1535.