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VI:XICE. 



the most civilized people on earth, and devoted to 

 the arts and sciences. But her political wisdom 

 degenerated into a petty prudence and cunning. A 

 grand inquisitor was necessary for the preservation 

 of the republic. .Circumstances also happened, 

 which no prudence could avert. The Portuguese 

 discovered the way by sea to the East Indies in 

 1498, and Venice entirely lost the commerce of the ! 

 liulies by the way of Alexandria: the Turks had \ 

 become masters of Constantinople, and overpowered 

 all which stood in their way ; they conquered, by 

 degrees, all the possessions of Venice in the Archi- 

 pelago and in the Morea. and even Albania and Ne- 

 gropont. But the republic saved herself, by skil- 

 ful negotiations, from the danger with which the 

 league of Cambray threatened her in 1508. Thin 

 war, however, had much impaired her power. The 

 Turks tore Cyprus from Venice in 1571, and, after 

 a struggle of twenty-four years, Candia also, in 

 1699; but some fortresses on this island held out 

 till 1715. The possession of the Morea, which had 

 been reconquered in 1699, was required to be given 

 up by the peace of Passarowitz, in 1718; yet the 

 republic succeeded in preserving Corfu and Dalma- 

 tia. From tins time, Venice no longer took part 

 in the great political events, and was satisfied with 

 preserving her antiquated constitution and her ter- 

 ritory, which yet contained three millions of in- 

 habitants. Thus she succeeded, by treaties with 

 the Barbary powers, in 1763, in securing the in- 

 violability of her flag, and established her rights of 

 sovereignty against Rome in 1767 and 1769. But 

 in the French revolutionary war, she became, in 

 1797, a victim to the French power. She excited 

 a general insurrection on the terra firuia, at the 

 moment when Bonaparte entered Stiria, and the 

 French were attacked in the rear; but Austria 

 concluded the preliminaries of peace at Leoben, 

 and the republic was annihilated. It was now of 

 no avail to change the aristocratic constitution into 

 a democratic. Venice was destined to be sacrificed. 

 The peace of Campo- Formic gave the whole terri- 

 tory east of the Adige, with Dalmatia and Catarro, 

 to Austria ; that west of the Adige to the Cisal- 

 pine republic (at a later period, the kingdom of 

 Italy), to which, in 1805, the Austrian part of 

 Venice and Dalmatia was added, yet without the 

 islands in the Levant. Since 1814, Venice, with 

 its territory, has formed a part of the Lombardo- 

 Venetian kingdom, belonging to Austria. (See 

 Lombardy, and Lombardo-Venetian Kingdom.") Is- 

 tria, however, with some islands in the gulf of 

 Quarnaro, was added to the littorale of the govern- 

 ment of Trieste, and Dalmatia, with the islands 

 belonging to it, to the government of Dalmatia. 

 Into the most interesting part of the history of' 

 Venice that of her domestic politics our limits 

 will not allow us to enter. 



The chief works relating to the history of this 

 republic, which is famous also in the annals of the 

 fine arts, are Tentori's Saggio sulla Storia di Ve- 

 nezia (Venice, 1785 90, 12 vols.) ; La Beaume's 

 Hist, abregee de la Rep. de Venise (Paris, 1810, 2 

 vols.) ; Tentori's Raccolta cronolog. ragionata di 

 Documenti inediti, cheformano la Storia diplomatica 

 della Caduta della Rep. di Venezia (Augusta, 1799, 

 2 vols., 4to.) ; Daru's Hist, de la Rlpubl. de Ve- 

 nise (7 vols., Paris, 1819; 4th ed., 1827). In this 

 work,' the statutes of the Venetian political inquisi- 

 tion are printed for the first time. For an account 

 of the constitution of Venice, see, also, Lacroix's 

 Review of the Constitutions, &c. For a review of 



the Venetian historians, see Ranke's Zur Kritih 

 neverer Geschichtschreiber (Leipsic and Berlin, 

 1824) ; see, also, his Fursten and VSlker von >'-/- 

 Europa (Hamb., 1827), and his Ueber die Versch- 

 worung gegen Venedig in 1618 (Berlin, 1831). 



Venice (Italian, Venezia) ; capital of the govern- 

 ment of Venice, in the Lombardo-Venetian king- 

 dom, once the queen of the Adriatic, and yet one 

 of the most remarkable cities of Europe. A city of 

 this extent, built entirely on small islands, and 

 having canals instead of streets, boats instead of 

 cars, and black gondolas instead of coaches, is unique 

 in its kind. It is situated in Ion. 12 21' E., 

 lat. 45 26' N., and is built according to some, on 

 ninety, according to others, on seventy-two islands, 

 separated from the continent by the lagoons (a 

 wide and shallow arm of the sea), and connected 

 with each other by 450 bridges, among which is the 

 magnificent Rialto, consisting of a single arch, 187 

 feet long and 43 wide. The houses, among which 

 are numerous palaces, many of them decaying, and 

 magnificent churches, adorned with precious monu- 

 ments of Mosaic work, arid splendid pictures of the 

 Venetian school (e. g. the church of St Maria della 

 Salute and St Giovanni Paolo), are mostly built 

 upon piers, and almost all of them stand with their 

 front towards the canals, which form wide and long 

 passages, whilst the real streets are hardly passable 

 for three persons on foot abreast. There are forty- 

 one public places, indeed, but only the place of St 

 Mark, surrounded by arcades, and ornamented with 

 two high columns, deserves the name. Here stands 

 the church of St Mark, an ancient edifice in the 

 Byzantine style, ornamented within with Oriental 

 magnificence. Here, says the legend, rests the 

 body of St Mark the Evangelist, which, accord- 

 ing to tradition, was brought from Alexandria, 

 in Egypt, under the doge Giustiniano. In front of 

 the same are the antique horses, once the ornament 

 of Constantinople, lately of Paris, and now again 

 of Venice. The former palace of the doge, at pre- 

 sent the seat of the Austrian government, is in the 

 Gothic style. It contains the political prisons, or 

 lead roofs (piombi), and the bridge of Sighs (the 

 reader will remember Byron's verses, beginning, " I 

 stood, in Venice, on the bridge of Sighs") ; but the 

 lion's mouth, with the inscription Denunzie Segrete 

 (secret denunciations), has disappeared. Also the 

 library, which has been described by its superin- 

 tendent, the abbate Morelli, is in this palace. (See 

 Libraries.') The place of St Mark is the only 

 walk of the Venetians, the place of meeting of 

 foreigners and adventurers. The arsenal, one of 

 the greatest curiosities of the city, is on an island, 

 surrounded by high walls and towers. It contains 

 every thing necessary for fitting out a fleet good 

 docks, well provided magazines, manufactories of 

 cordage and sails, cannon founderies and forges. 

 The stranger is yet shown here the richly gilt gal- 

 ley, called Bucentaur, in which the doge, from the 

 year 1311, was accustomed to get out into the sea 

 annually on Ascension day, to throw a ring into the 

 water, and thus to marry, as it were, the Adriatic, 

 as a sign of the power of Venice over that sea. 

 Besides the patriarchal church, and twenty-nine 

 other Catholic churches, there are here churches of 

 the United Greeks, Armenians and Protestants. In 

 the ancient church De' Frati, a monument was 

 erected, in 1827, in honour of the famous Canova. 

 (q. v.) Contributions were furnished, for this pur- 

 pose, from many parts of Europe, and even from 

 America. The Jews have seven synagogues. 



