68. Some historians speak of the palace as having been destroyed

entirely; but, that it did not even need important restorations, appears from Sagornino's expression, quoted by Cadorin and Temanza. Speaking of the Doge Participazio, he says: "Qui Palatii hucusque manentis fuerit fabricator." The reparations of the palace are usually attributed to the successor of Candiano, Pietro Orseolo I.; but the legend, under the picture of that Doge in the Council Chamber, speaks only of his rebuilding St. Mark's, and "performing many miracles." His whole mind seems to have been occupied with ecclesiastical affairs; and his piety was finally manifested in a way somewhat startling to the state, by his absconding with a French priest to St. Michael's, in Gascony, and there becoming a monk. What repairs, therefore, were necessary to the Ducal Palace, were left to be undertaken by his son, Orseolo II., above named. [105] "Quam non modo marmoreo, verum aureo compsit ornamento."--_Temanza_, p. 25. [106] "L'anno 1106, uscito fuoco d'una casa privata, arse parte del palazzo."--_Sansovino_. Of the beneficial effect of these fires, vide Cadorin, p. 121, 123. [107] "Urbis situm, ædificiorum decorem, et regiminis æquitatem multipliciter commendavit."--_Cronaca Dandolo_, quoted by Cadorin. [108] "Non solamente rinovò il palazzo, ma lo aggrandì per ogni verso."--_Sansovino_. Zanotto quotes the Altinat Chronicle for account of these repairs. [109] "El palazzo che anco di mezzo se vede vecchio, per M. Sebastian Ziani fu fatto compir, come el se vede."--_Chronicle of Pietro Dolfino_, Cod. Ven. p. 47. This Chronicle is spoken of by Sansovino as "molto particolare e distinta."--_Sansovino, Venezia descritta_, p. 593.--It terminates in the year 1422. [110] See Vol. I. Appendix 3. [111] Vide Sansovino's enumeration of those who flourished in the reign of Gradenigo, p. 564. [112] Sansovino, 324, 1. [113] "1301 fu presa parte di fare una sala grande per la riduzione del gran consiglio, e fu fatta quella che ora si chiama dello Scrutinio."--_Cronaca Sivos_, quoted by Cadorin. There is another most interesting entry in the Chronicle of Magno, relating to this event; but the passage is so ill written, that I am not sure if I have deciphered it correctly:--"Del 1301 fu preso de fabrichar la sala fo ruina e fu fata (fatta) quella se adoperava a far el pregadi e fu adopera per far el Gran Consegio fin 1423, che fu anni 122." This last sentence, which is of great importance, is luckily unmistakable:--"The room was used for the meetings of the Great Council until 1423, that is to say, for 122 years."--_Cod. Ven_. tom. i. p. 126. The Chronicle extends from 1253 to 1454. [114] "Vi era appresso la Cancellaria, e la Gheba o Gabbia, chiamata poi Torresella."--P. 324. A small square tower is seen above the Vine angle in the view of Venice dated 1500, and attributed to Albert Durer. It appears about 25 feet square, and is very probably the Torresella in question. [115] Vide Bettio, Lettera, p. 23. [116] Bettio, Lettera, p. 20. "Those who wrote without having seen them described them as covered with lead; and those who have seen them know that, between their flat timber roofs and the sloping leaden roof of the palace, the interval is five metres where it is least, and nine where it is greatest." [117] "Questo Dose anche fese far la porta granda che se al intrar del Pallazzo, in su la qual vi e la sua statua che sta in zenocchioni con lo confalon in man, davanti li pie de lo Lion S. Marco,"--_Savin Chronicle_, Cod. Ven. p. 120. [118] These documents I have not examined myself, being satisfied of the accuracy of Cadorin, from whom I take the passages quoted. [119] "Libras tres, soldos 15 grossorum."--_Cadorin_, 189, 1. [120] Cod. Ven., No. CXLI. p. 365. [121] Sansovino is more explicit than usual in his reference to this decree: "For it having appeared that the place (the first Council Chamber) was not capacious enough, the saloon on the Grand Canal was ordered." "Per cio parendo che il luogo non fosse capace, fu ordinata la Sala sul Canal Grande."--P. 324. [122] Cadorin, 185, 2. The decree of 1342 is falsely given as of 1345 by the Sivos Chronicle, and by Magno; while Sanuto gives the decree to its right year, 1342, but speaks of the Council Chamber as only begun in 1345. [123] Calendario. See Appendix 1, Vol. III. [124] "Il primo che vi colorisse fu Guariento, il quale l' anno 1365 vi fece il Paradiso in testa della sala."--_Sansovino._ [125] "L' an poi 1400 vi fece il cielo compartita a quadretti d'oro, ripieni di stelle, ch' era la insegna del Doge Steno."--_Sansovino_, lib. VIII. [126] "In questi tempi si messe in oro il cielo della sala del Gran Consiglio et si fece il pergolo del finestra grande chi guarda sul canale, adornato l'uno e l'altro di stelle, ch' erano l'insegne del Doge."--_Sansovino_, lib. XIII. Compare also Pareri, p. 129. [127] Baseggio (Pareri, p. 127) is called the Proto of the _New_ Palace. Farther notes will be found in Appendix 1, Vol. III. [128] Cronaca Sanudo, No. CXXV. in the Marcian Library, p. 568. [129] Tomaso Mocenigo. [130] Vide notes in Appendix. [131] On the 4th of April, 1423, according to the copy of the Zancarol Chronicle in the Marcian Library, but previously, according to the Caroldo Chronicle, which makes Foscari enter the Senate as Doge on the 3rd of April. [132] "Nella quale (the Sala del Gran Consiglio) non si fece Gran Consiglio salvo nell' anno 1423, alli 3 April, et fu il primo giorno che il Duce Foscari venisse in Gran Consiglio dopo la sua creatione."--Copy in Marcian Library, p. 365. [133] "E a di 23 April (1423, by the context) sequente fo fatto Gran Conseio in la salla nuovo dovi avanti non esta più fatto Gran Conseio si che el primo Gran Conseio dopo la sua (Foscari's) creation, fo fatto in la salla nuova, nel qual conseio fu el Marchese di Mantoa," &c., p. 426. [134] Compare Appendix 1, Vol. III. [135] "Tutte queste fatture si compirono sotto il dogado del Foscari, nel 1441."--_Pareri_, p. 131. [136] This identification has been accomplished, and I think conclusively, by my friend Mr. Rawdon Brown, who has devoted all the leisure which, during the last twenty years, his manifold offices of kindness to almost every English visitant of Venice have left him, in discovering and translating the passages of the Venetian records which bear upon English history and literature. I shall have occasion to take advantage hereafter of a portion of his labors, which I trust will shortly be made public. [137] See the last chapter of the third volume. [138] "IN XRI--NOIE AMEN ANNINCARNATIONIS MCCCXVII. INESETBR." "In the name of Christ, Amen, in the year of the incarnation, 1317, in the month of September," &c. [139] "Oh, venerable Raphael, make thou the gulf calm, we beseech thee." The peculiar office of the angel Raphael is, in general, according to tradition, the restraining the harmful influences of evil spirits. Sir Charles Eastlake told me, that sometimes in this office he is represented bearing the gall of the fish caught by Tobit; and reminded me of the peculiar superstitions of the Venetians respecting the raising of storms by fiends, as embodied in the well-known tale of the Fisherman and St. Mark's ring. [140] In the original, the succession of words is evidently suggested partly by similarity of sound; and the sentence is made weighty by an alliteration which is quite lost in our translation; but the very allowance of influence to these minor considerations is a proof how little any metaphysical order or system was considered necessary in the statement. [141] It occurs in a prayer for the influence of the Holy Spirit, "That He may keep my soul, and direct my way; compose my bearing, and form my thoughts in holiness; may He govern my body, and protect my mind; strengthen me in action, approve my vows, and accomplish my desires; cause me to lead an honest and honorable life, and give me good hope, charity and chastity, humility and patience: may He govern the Five Senses of my body," &c. The following prayer is also very characteristic of this period. It opens with a beautiful address to Christ upon the cross; then proceeds thus: "Grant to us, O Lord, we beseech thee, this day and ever, the use of penitence, of abstinence, of humility, and chastity; and grant to us light, judgment, understanding, and true knowledge, even to the end." One thing I note in comparing old prayers with modern ones, that however quaint, or however erring, they are always tenfold more condensed, comprehensive, and to their purpose, whatever that may be. There is no dilution in them, no vain or monotonous phraseology. They ask for what is desired plainly and earnestly, and never could be shortened by a syllable. The following series of ejaculations are deep in spirituality, and curiously to our present purpose in the philological quaintness of being built upon prepositions:-- "Domine Jesu Christe, sancta cruce tua apud me sis, ut me defendas. Domine Jesu Christe, pro veneranda cruce tua post me sis, ut me gubernes. Domine Jesu Christe, pro benedicta cruce tua intra me sis, ut me reficeas. Domine Jesu Christe, pro benedicta cruce tua circa me sis, ut me conserves. Domine Jesu Christe, pro gloriosa cruce tua ante me sis, ut me deduces. Domine Jesu Christe, pro laudanda cruce tua super me sis, ut benedicas. Domine Jesu Christe, pro magnifica cruce tua in me sis, ut me ad regnum tuum perducas, per D. N. J. C. Amen." [142] This arrangement of the cardinal virtues is said to have been first made by Archytas. See D'Ancarville's illustration of the three figures of Prudence, Fortitude, and Charity, in Selvatico's "Cappellina degli Scrovegni," Padua, 1836. [143] Or Penitence: but I rather think this is understood only in Compunctio cordis. [144] The transformation of a symbol into a reality, observe, as in transubstantiation, is as much an abandonment of symbolism as the forgetfulness of symbolic meaning altogether. [145] On the window of New College, Oxford. [146] Uniting the three ideas expressed by the Greek philosophers under the terms [Greek: phronêei], [Greek: sophia], and [Greek: epistêmê]; and part of the idea of [Greek: sôphrosonê]. [147] Isa. lxiv. 5. [148] I can hardly think it necessary to point out to the reader the association between sacred cheerfulness and solemn thought, or to explain any appearance of contradiction between passages in which (as above in Chap. V.) I have had to oppose sacred pensiveness to unholy mirth, and those in which I have to oppose sacred cheerfulness to unholy sorrow. [149] "Desse," seat [150] Usually called Charity: but this virtue in its full sense is one of the attendant spirits by the Throne; the Kindness here meant is Charity with a special object; or Friendship and Kindness, as opposed to Envy, which has always, in like manner, a special object. Hence the love of Orestes and Pylades is given as an instance of the virtue of Friendship; and the Virgin's, "They have no wine," at Cana, of general kindness and sympathy with others' pleasure. [151] The "Faerie Queen," like Dante's "Paradise," is only half estimated, because few persons take the pains to think out its meaning. I have put a brief analysis of the first book in Appendix 2, Vol. III.; which may perhaps induce the reader to follow out the subject for himself. No time devoted to profane literature will be better rewarded than that spent _earnestly_ on Spenser. [152] Inscribed, I believe, Pietas, meaning general reverence and godly fear. [153] I have given one of these capitals carefully already in my folio work, and hope to give most of the others in due time. It was of no use to draw them here, as the scale would have been too small to allow me to show the expression of the figures. [154] Lord Lindsay, vol. ii. p. 226. [155] Lord Lindsay, vol. ii. letter IV. [156] Selvatico states that these are intended to be representative of eight nations, Latins, Tartars, Turks, Hungarians, Greeks, Goths, Egyptians, and Persians. Either the inscriptions are now defaced or I have carelessly omitted to note them. [157] The comma in these inscriptions stands for a small cuneiform mark, I believe of contraction, and the small ^s for a zigzag mark of the same kind. The dots or periods are similarly marked, on the stone. [158] Can they have mistaken the ISIPIONE of the fifth side for the word Isidore? [159] Compare the speech of the Doge Mocenigo, above,--"first justice, and _then_ the interests of the state:" and see Vol. III. Chap. II. § LIX. [160] Some further details respecting these portions, as well as some necessary confirmations of my statements of dates, are, however, given in Appendix 1, Vol. III. I feared wearying the general reader by introducing them into the text. [161] Many persons, capable of quickly sympathizing with any excellence, when once pointed out to them, easily deceive themselves into the supposition that they are judges of art. There is only one real test of such power of judgment. Can they, at a glance, discover a good picture obscured by the filth, and confused among the rubbish, of the pawnbroker's or dealer's garret? [162] This is easily explained. There are, of course, in every place and at all periods, bad painters who conscientiously believe that they can improve every picture they touch; and these men are generally, in their presumption, the most influential over the innocence, whether of monarchs or municipalities. The carpenter and slater have little influence in recommending the repairs of the roof; but the bad painter has great influence, as well as interest, in recommending those of the picture. APPENDIX.