[48] The Doge uses the familiar tu: Jacopo the formal voi.
[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 the Biblioteca Diamante, for twenty centesimi (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.