[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.