A Wanderer in Venice Part 1

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t.i.tle: A Wanderer in Venice

Author: E.V. Lucas

Ill.u.s.trator: Harry Morley

Release Date: September 17, 2005 [EBook #16705]

Language: English

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A WANDERER IN VENICE

BY E.V. LUCAS

WITH SIXTEEN ILl.u.s.tRATIONS IN COLOUR BY HARRY MORLEY AND THIRTY-TWO PHOTOGRAPHS FROM PAINTINGS AND A MAP

New York THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 1914

_All rights reserved_

COPYRIGHT, 1914, BY THE MACMILLAN COMPANY.

Set up and electrotyped. Published November, 1914.

Norwood Press: Berwick & Smith Co., Norwood, Ma.s.s., U.S.A.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE GRAND Ca.n.a.l FROM THE STEPS OF S. MARIA DELLA SALUTE]

"In like manner I say, that had there bin an offer made unto me before I took my journey to Venice, eyther that foure of the richest manors of Somerset-s.h.i.+re (wherein I was borne) should be gratis bestowed upon me if I never saw Venice, or neither of them if I should see it; although certainly these manors would do me much more good in respect of a state of livelyhood to live in the world than the sight of Venice, yet notwithstanding I will ever say while I live, that the sight of Venice and her resplendent beauty, antiquities, and monuments, hath by many degrees more contented my minde, and satisfied my desires, than those foure Lords.h.i.+ps could possibly have done."--THOMAS CORYAT.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A Bird's Eye View Of Venice]

PREFACE

For a detailed guide to Venice the reader must go elsewhere; all that I have done is invariably to mention those things that have most interested me, and, in the hope of being a useful companion, often a few more. But my chief wish (as always in this series) has been to create a taste.

For the history of Venice the reader must also go elsewhere, yet for the sake of clarity a little history has found its way even into these pages. To go to Venice without first knowing her story is a mistake, and doubly foolish because the city has been peculiarly fortunate in her chroniclers and eulogists. Mr. H.F. Brown stands first among the living, as Ruskin among the dead; but Ruskin is for the student patient under chastis.e.m.e.nt, whereas Mr. Brown's serenely human pages are for all. Of Mr. Howells' _Venetian Life_ I have spoken more than once in this book; its truth and vivacity are a proof of how little the central Venice has altered, no matter what changes there may have been in government or how often campanili fall. The late Col. Hugh Douglas's _Venice on Foot_, if conscientiously followed, is such a key to a treasury of interest as no other city has ever possessed. To Mrs. Audrey Richardson's _Doges of Venice_ I am greatly indebted, and Herr Baedeker has been here as elsewhere (in the Arab idiom) my father and my mother.

E.V.L.

_June, 1914._

CONTENTS

PAGE

PREFACE vii

CHAPTER I

THE BRIDE OF THE ADRIATIC 1

CHAPTER II

S. MARK'S. I: THE EXTERIOR 6