Venice and Its Story

by Thomas Okey

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

LIST OF COLOURED ILLUSTRATIONS
Doge Leonardo Loredan. In the National Gallery.By Giovanni Bellini	[Frontispiece]
The Customs House facing page	facing page [6]
Basin of S. Marco	“ “ [10]
S. Marco from Piazzetta Dei Leoni	“ “ [23]
A Girl of Castello	“ “ [25]
S. Marco—Façade	“ “ [26]
S. Marco—Shrine of the Holy Cross	“ “ [37]
S. Marco—interior—Chapel of S. Clemente	“ “ [45]
The Piazzetta and Column of St Mark	“ “ [50]
S. Marco—Choir	“ “ [61]
Sunset on the Zattere	“ “ [71]
Isle of S. Francesco del Deserto	“ “ [74]
S. Marco from Colonnade of Palazzo Ducale	“ “ [82]
Doge’s Palace from Isola S. Giorgio	“ “ [90]
On the Grand Canal	“ “ [96]
Boats at Anchor	“ “ [103]
The Clock Tower and Entrance to Merceria	“ “ [108]
S. Giorgio and the Salute	“ “ [116]
Sunset—Modern Venice	“ “ [132]
Rio and Ponte di Santa Maria Maggiore	“ “ [138]
A Fruit Stall	“ “ [149]
The Fish-Market	“ “ [158]
Curiosity-Shop near Piazza	“ “ [165]
A Wine-Shop	“ “ [172]
Ponte di Rialto	“ “ [181]
Ponte di Rialto from the Market	“ “ [190]
In the Procuratie Nuove	“ “ [195]
On the Steps of the “Redentore”	“ “ [204]
A Venetian Woman	“ “ [213]
A Gondolier	“ “ [220]
I Tre Ponti	“ “ [229]
Ponte dei Sospiri	“ “ [244]
Grand Canal—Palazzi Rezzonico and Foscari	“ “ [266]
Scuola di S. Marco and Statue of Colleoni	“ “ [280]
Scuola di S. Rocca	“ “ [285]
S. Fosca and Palazzo Giovanelli	“ “ [293]
Rio S. Cassiano	“ “ [300]
Timber Boats	“ “ [309]
Cannareggio	“ “ [312]
Venice from the Lido	“ “ [320]
REPRODUCTIONS OF PICTURES From Photographs by Alinari
Portrait of Sultan Mahomet II. In the PalazzoLayard. By Gentile Bellini	facing page [196]
Madonna Enthroned and Four Saints. In S. Zaccaria.By Giovanni Bellini	“ “ [198]
St George and the Dragon. In S. Giorgio Maggiore.By Carpaccio	“ “ [198]
The Baptist and Four Saints. In the Madonna dell’Orto.By Cima	“ “ [200]
S. Cristina. In S. Maria Mater Domini. ByCatena	“ “ [202]
The Dead Christ. In the Accademia. By Titian	“ “ [204]
Presentation of St Mark’s Ring to the Doge. Inthe Accademia. By Bordone	“ “ [208]
The Marriage of St. Catherine. In St. Caterina.By Veronese	“ “ [210]
The Marriage of St. Catherine. In the DucalPalace. By Tintoretto	“ “ [246]
The Rich Man’s Feast. In the Accademia. ByBonifazio	“ “ [256]
Gipsy and Soldier. In the Palazzo Giovannelli. ByGiorgione	“ “ [300]
ILLUSTRATIONS IN THE TEXT
PAGE
Headpiece to Part I. Chapter I.	[1]
On the Lagoons	[3]
S. Fosca and the Duomo, Torcello	[4]
Ponte S. Giustina	[5]
(a) Early Ducal Cap from an Old Mosaic in St Mark; (b)Early Ducal Cap of Doge Moro, from the Portraitin S. Giobbe	[8]
Cloisters of S. Gregorio	[14]
Fishing Boats	[15]
Cloister of S. Francesca della Vigna	[18]
S. Pietro in Castello from S. Elena	[23]
Vine Pergola on the Giudecca	[31]
The Squero, S. Trovaso	[40]
S. Marco and the Doge’s Palace, with the Loggetta in theForeground	[48]
Columns of SS. Mark and Theodore	[51]
S. Marco—Interior, with Pulpit	[58]
S. Marco—Façade and Campanile	[86]
Doge’s Palace—The Judgment of Solomon Corner	[94]
Remains of Marco Polo’s House	[99]
Doge’s Palace—Sala del Maggior Consiglio	[100]
Ponte di Paglia	[112]
The Palazzi Giustiniani and Foscari	[126]
Cloister of S. Gregorio	[142]
Statue of Bartolomeo Colleoni	[145]
Bust of Francesco Foscari	[150]
Palazzo Dario	[160]
The Piazzetta	[217]
S. Marco—Main Portal	[224]
S. Marco—Detail of Archivolt	[225]
S. Marco—Detail of Main Door	[226]
Byzantine Relief—North Side, S. Marco	[228]
Byzantine Relief from South Side, S. Marco	[229]
Capitals, Atrium, S. Marco	[230]
S. Giorgio Maggiore	[236]
Doge’s Palace—The Cortile	[248]
Grand Canal, with the Riva del Carbon and Rialto Bridge	[267]
Ca’ d’Oro	[268]
Palazzo Vendramin	[271]
Traghetto and Campo S. Samuele	[272]
Statue of Bartolomeo Colleoni	[280]
Headpiece to Section IX.	[289]
Venice from the Public Gardens	[290]
Well-Head, Campo S. Giovanni Grisostomo	[294]
The Rialto Bridge	[294]
Palazzo Contarini, with Spiral Staircase and ByzantineWell-Head	[296]
S. Maria della Salute	[296]
Edict Stone, Rialto	[301]
Byzantine Crosses—Campo S. Maria Mater Domini	[302]
Doorway with Coloured Relief of SS. Mark and Anianus;Cobblers’ Guild House, Campo S. Tomà	[307]
Fishing Boats on the Giudecca	[311]
Headpiece to Section XVII.	[314]
Murano	[315]
Venice from the South	[322]
MAPS
Sketch Map of Italy and the Eastern Mediterranean	facing page [1]
Venice in the Sixteenth Century	“ “ [215]

PART I.—THE STORY

CHAPTER I
The Foundation at Rialto

“Venice seems a type
Of life—’twixt blue and blue extends, a stripe,
As life, the somewhat, hangs ’twixt nought and nought.”
—Browning.

OF the original home of the earliest settlers in that province of North Italy known to the Latins as Venetia, little can be told with certainty. Historians and antiquarians are pleased to bring them, under the name of Heneti or Eneti, from Paphlagonia, and explain some characteristic traits they subsequently developed—the love of colour and of display, the softness of their dialect—by their eastern origin. They were an independent, thriving and organised community when the Roman Empire first accepted their aid in the fierce struggle against the invading Gauls, and so they continued to be until they were absorbed as a province of the Empire. The land they cultivated, “mervailous in corne, wine, oyle, and all manner of fruites,” was one of the richest in Europe. Its soil was formed by ages of alluvial deposit brought by the rapid streams that drain the southern slopes of the Alps.

The traveller who enters Italy by any of the Alpine passes will not fail to note the contrast between the northern streams and the more torrential water-ways of the south, which, however, being soon checked by the deposit they bring, grow slack and fray out into many and varying channels, through which the waters find their way with small, at times almost imperceptible, flow into the sea. So lazily do the rivers discharge that the north-east shores of the Adriatic are formed of sandbanks, shoals and islets, which for nigh a hundred miles from Cavarzere to Grado constituted the dogado of Venice. The famous Venetian lagoon is confined to some thirty miles north of Chioggia, and is divided into the Laguna morta, where the tide is scarcely felt, and the Laguna viva, where the sea is studded with numerous islands and islets protected by the lidi, a long line of remarkable breakwaters formed by the prevailing set of the current to the west, with narrow openings or Porti through which the shallow tide ebbs and flows. This natural barrier has made the existence of Venice possible, for the islands on which the city is built afforded a refuge safe alike from attack by sea or land. The colonisation, development and defence of these lagoons and islands by settlers from the mainland make up the early history of Venice. Some misapprehension exists as to the nature of these settlements. The picture of terror-stricken and despoiled fugitives from the cities of Venetia escaping from hordes of pursuing Huns or Lombards to seek a refuge in the barren and uncertain soil of mud-banks and storm-swept islands is true in part only. In many cases the movement was a deliberately organised migration of urban communities, with their officers, their craftsmen, their tools, their sacred vessels, even the very stones of their churches, to towns and villages already known to them. Among the settlers were men of all classes—patrician and plebeian, rich and poor. “But they would receive no man of servile condition, or a murderer, or of wicked life.”