Still the discovery by the Portuguese in 1486, of the water-way to the

Orient round the Cape of Good Hope augured ill for Venetian commerce.

So, directly, too, that other great maritime achievement,--the landing

of Amerigo Vespucci of Florence, and Cristoforo Colombo of Genoa, upon

the shores of the New World affected adversely the supremacy of the

“Mistress of the Seas.”

Doge Agostino Barbarigo, born in 1419, had a brilliant career before

he mounted the Ducal throne. Podesta of Verona and of Padua, Procurator

of San Marco, he was a personal friend of the Pope Alessandro VI., who

sent him the rare distinction of the “Golden Rose.” He married in 1449

Donna Elisabetta, daughter of Messir Andrea Soranzo dal Banco, “One of

the proudest ruling families in Venice.” One son, Francesco, and four

daughters blessed their union,--two of the latter entered Religion as

nuns of Santa Maria degli Angeli di Murano.

Seven years after their succession Doge Agostino and Dogaressa

Elisabetta were called upon to entertain a very distinguished

visitor, Duchess Beatrice d’Este the consort of Duke Lodovico il

Moro of Milan. As imperious and intriguing a beauty as ever boarded

the “_Bucintoro_” the Princess was conducted in a pageant from

Fusina to the Ducal Palace. Her suite counted princes and ambassadors

and a host of attendants, so large indeed that three Palaces,--the

Foscari and Guistiniani were requisitioned for her use. Very splendid

fêtes were given in her honour. She remained in Venice for some time

delighted with the pleasant society of the Dogaressa, and the ladies of

the Court, and astonished at the beauty of the younger noblewomen and

the comeliness of the young nobles, and perhaps, woman-like more than

all at the splendour of their costumes and the magnificence of their

jewels.

Her mission was diplomatic, to gain over Venice to the Milanese

League against Charles VIII. of France. In this she was completely

successful; few of the proud and unemotional Lords not yielding to her

blandishments. Her correspondence with her Consort is quaint as quaint

can be. She likens the older nobles and their ladies to “great dolls”

or “Stately Deities,” and makes sly remarks about the scanty dress and

easy manners of the girls. “They are,” she wrote, “clothed in pearls

and gold chains from head to toe, but little else ... cloth of gold is

as common here as fustian is with us....”

Whether caused by weariness of a prolonged _dogado_ the old Doge

began to feel the years heavy, and worn by the declension of the fame

of Venice, Agostino Barbarigo expressed a desire to be relieved of

his official responsibilities. The abdication of a Chief Magistrate

had become a very rare event, and none of the Lords of the Council

having any special wish for office, the idea was dismissed. However,

on 13th September 1501, the Doge called a special assemblage of the

Council,--an expedient rare enough and always ominous of trouble,--and

presented a formal act of abdication of the Dogal throne. The

proposition was received in silence, but drawing slowly off the Ducal

ring, he handed it to the Senior Lord of the “Forty” and said:--“I

leave this Palace to go to my own home at San Trovaso, there to end my

days, and I pray you to be so good as to accept my profound regrets.”

The Council however declined to permit the vacation of office and the

Chancellor, speaking for the noble Lords, replied:--“Your Serenity

must retain your high station and trust in God to heal you of your

infirmity.”

Ten days later the Doge breathed his last at the advanced age of

eighty-two. His end was sudden and painless. At first his career had

been viewed with satisfaction and his many excellent qualities highly

extolled, but disappointed suppliants for his patronage and that of

the Dogaressa hinted at nepotism and favouritism and complained of

corruption in his bestowal of favours.

What special part Dogaressa Elisabetta took in maintaining the dignity

and prerogative of her station we know not, nor do we know anything

about her Entry and Coronation, or her death and burial. Her Consort

left an inordinately lengthy will with many codicils: he appeared to

be determined to spread his bequests over as wide a field as possible.

Almost every public institution received a legacy and personal gifts

were numbered by the dozen. To his widow, “Ixabela,”--he calls

her,--the Doge left the use of their private residence, with the

furniture and decorations, the ornaments of the private chapel, the

revenues from certain wool and silk weaving factories, ten thousand

gold ducats, and, quite quaintly, the proprietary rights over her State

robes and the jewellery he had given her.

The funeral of Doge Agostino Barbarigo was conducted with the usual

impressive ceremonial at SS. Giovanni e Paolo, where orations were

delivered by Bishop Domenigo Venier of Castello and _Condottiere_

Vettor Cappello--who appears to have taken the Doges of his time under

his special tutelage. The actual burial was conducted at Santa Maria

della Carita, alongside the grave of Doge Marco Barbarigo. His monument

bears the somewhat pedantic epitaph:--“He was the most popular man in

Venice: a grand orator and a splendid soldier.”

III

Lionardo Loredano was the eleventh “Grand” Doge of Venice. Mentally

and physically he was a perfect type of the Venetian noble,--not that

his family was especially ancient,--they belonged only to the first

division of the second grade of nobility,--nor that his wealth and

influence were remarkable, but there was about him something or other

which manifested the highest expression of Venetian dignity.

Called to the supreme magistracy in 1501, Loredano roused himself,

although past sixty-six years of age, and beginning to show signs of

failing health, to stand foremost among the men of the new Century.

Tall and spare of figure, massive and reticent of feature, passionate

yet kind-hearted in disposition, pushful yet tactful in bearing, he was

recognised by the Lords of the Council as the man of the hour. All this

is forcibly expressed in the lifelike and superb portrait by Giovanni

Bellini in the National Gallery in London.

Nevertheless his election was challenged by the populace, gathered

tumultuously on the Piazza. The cry was for Filippo Tron, son of old

Doge Nicolo, older by ten years than Messir Loredano, very fat, very

indolent, and very self-indulgent, but ever ready for a joke and to

make fair promises. Moreover his estate totalled eighty thousand

gold ducats against Lionardo Loredano’s modest thirty thousand.

Happily with the sane constitution of Venice, the unintelligent and

ill-directed will of the people was kept under restraint. Tron died

suddenly of apoplexy after a heavy gorge within three months of

Loredano’s election. Messir Filippo was no opponent of the old Venetian

proverb:--“_Dieta magga le medico!_” “Diet dishes the Doctor!”

The new Doge had four sons, Lorenzo, Girolamo, Alvise, and Bernardo,

but he was a widower,--a rare, perhaps unique, circumstance so far

as the _dogado_ was concerned. The mother of his sons, Giustina

Giustiniani, died the year before the death of his predecessor--Doge

Agostino Barbarigo. It appeared as though he was expected to contract a

second marriage for his _Promissione_ required that “the Dogaressa, his

sons, nephews and nieces and other near relatives, should receive no

gifts under a penalty of twenty-five gold ducats for each ducat value.”

An oath was enjoined for “the Dogaressa-to-be to observe strictly all

the conventions of her exalted position.”

The reign of Lionardo Loredano was one of the most important in all the

long succession of Doges, for Venice passed through the most exigent

crisis of her history. “The famous League of Cambrai” was aimed at

nothing short of the annihilation of the Republic. The Pope Julius II.,

the Emperor Maximilian IV., the King of France, Charles XII., with the

Dukes of Florence and Milan were allied, and they tried to win over

the Kings of Spain and Naples, of Hungary, and of Scotland, with the

Duke of Saxony. England was neutral, but friendly; indeed Henry VIII.

championed the cause of the Republic, and ultimately offered to attack

France, Spain and Scotland, and, by way of a pledge of amity, he sent

an embassy to Venice. The Venetian Government gratefully acknowledged

the English support, and despatched among other costly gifts to the

King, a team of eight cream-coloured horses, with crimson and gold

caparisons, the forebears of our present State equipage.

The year 1509 was a black one for Venice and her people. Her armies

were severely defeated, and the strain upon the manhood of the Republic

was excessive. Widows and orphans besought the compassion of the

charitable, and hospitals and private houses were full of wounded

heroes craving creature comforts. Every noble house was smitten and

the gallant companies of _La Calza_ lost their comrades and their

joy. That Ascension Day--“_La Sensa_”--was a day long remembered;

there were no festivities, no “_Bucintoro_” set forth to the

“Marriage of the Sea,” there was nobody on the Piazza, and no visitors

had entered the city for many a day, the Lords of the Council were

broken down with grief and apprehension, and the Doge neither spoke

nor smiled, he was like a man in a nightmare. At length a faint rift

was seen in the darkling clouds, and Loredano, born discerner of times

and judge of men, opened the precarious game of statecraft, after the

manner of the chess-gambit he loved best, and adroitly played off his

country’s foes one against another, until he succeeded in creating a

position of mutual jealousy and mistrust. Spain declared for Venice

and offered ships and men, James IV. of Scotland followed suit with

promises of one hundred and fifty vessels, and ten thousand trained

footmen. France made the first warlike advance, and the Doge met the

danger by setting up floating corn-mills in the tidal ways of the

lagunes, by acquiring vast stores of grain and ammunition, and by

throwing chains across the chief canals. All suspects were expelled

the City and every citizen was invited by proclamation to rally to

the standard of San Marco and to contribute as much money as possible

to the State exchequer. Loredano set a noble example for he sent all

his gold and silver plate and the jewels of his late wife to the Mint

to be melted down for money wherewith to meet the enormous expenses

of resistance. His speech before the Grand Council was a model of

patriotism and eloquence and was rapturously greeted.

War was waged in the mainland for eight weary years, during which the

Pope placed Venice under an Interdict. At last a truce was proclaimed

and “_La Pace delle Donne_,” as it was called, left Venice strong

by sea and land. The ultimate arbiters of a settlement were two

Royal Princesses--Louise,--Queen-Dowager of France, and Margaret of

Austria,--the Emperor’s aunt. The public rejoicings in Venice were

exuberant and the pageants were the most splendid ever organised in

the sumptuous city. New Companies of _La Calza_ were enrolled for

the special purpose of emphasising the resources, the grandeur, and

the independence of the “Queen of the Adriatic.” A very favourite

spectacular play was “Miles Gloriosus” of which a particularly gorgeous

representation was given by the “_Fausti_” in 19th February 1514 in the

_Corte dell’ Orefici’_ in the rear of the Ducal Palace, which Marino

Sanudo describes as “_bellissimo_” in its mounting and because of the

distinguished part taken in it by the four sons of the Doge and his

nieces. The Director of the romance was the Commander of the garrison,

and the interlude consisted of an oration by a French master of

rhetoric. The chorus was composed of a number of gentlemen and ladies

of the Court very richly dressed,--in particular Madonna Giovanna Emo,

who appeared in a robe of cloth of gold embroidered in coloured silk

with silk velvet appliqué work and literally blazing with jewels. The

play began at seven o’clock in the evening, followed by a sumptuous

banquet, and winding up, long past midnight, with a ball. Every one

regretted the fact that the popular Doge, who presided at the banquet,

was a widower,--a stately Dogaressa would have added greatly to the

distinction of the spectacle.

The recovery of Padua was the crowning victory of the Venetians. The

news reached Venice on the festival of the Translation of Santa Marina,

and the transports of the people made the popular ecclesiastical

ceremonial a doubly impressive celebration. The “_Eterni_” and

“_Immortali_” companies of _La Calza_,--especially concerned in the

rendition of High Mass and Vespers with the utmost grandeur,--assisted

the Doge in offering the keys of Padua upon the altar of the Saint.

Venice was delirious: Mass and “Te Deum” were sung between dramatic

representations and serenades,--for the triumph of the Republic was

the triumph of Religion. But when the festivities were at their height

in 1524, the _Provveditori alle Pompe_ stepped in and forbade many

splendid ornaments of the person and personal vanities. Amber beads,

agate and rock crystal _intagli_, diamond buttons, chased gold and

silver buckles and clasps, enamelled and gold jewellery for the hair,

feathered and jewelled fans, lace sleeves, many-hued damasked cloth of

gold gowns, velvet with gold and silver _piqué_ threads, painted and

gilded leather belts and shoes, gemmed embroideries, etc., etc., were

placed upon the _Index expurgatorium_. The extravagant decoration of

gondolas and sedans, table adjuncts of gold, resplendent liveries, and

many more things of joy and beauty were severely cut down.

[Illustration: THE BRIDE-ELECT’S DEBUT.

FROM A PRINT. 1610.

“Habiti Delle Donne.”--G. Franco.]

Through all these scenes of martial ardour and sumptuary magnificence

Doge Loredano maintained supremely the dignity of the _dogado_ and

his twenty years of office were the _ne plus ultra_ of the gorgeous

panorama of Venetian history. He died full of years and honours in

1521, and he was buried by the High Altar of SS. Giovanni e Paolo.

The Loredanian tradition for patriotism and nobility was handed on

in the gracious personage of Dogaressa Caterina Loredano, sister of

Doge Lionardo Loredano,--the Consort of his successor Doge Antonio

Grimani. He was an old man of eighty-seven,--one more example of

Venetian fruitful longevity and senile ability, but his election was

a narrow thing for after several attempts at a decision, the Lords of

the “Forty” approved it by a bare majority of twenty-eight votes. Once

more a popular candidate appeared on the scene in the person of another

Messir Antonio Tron, son of the sybarite Messir Filippo.

The Grimani belonged to the second grade of nobility, their name being

among the twenty families enrolled by the _Serrar del Consiglio_

in 1289. Nevertheless they were as ambitious, able, and patriotic as

any of the Lords of Venice. Messir Antonio had filled every office

of State, previous to his _dogado_ with rare distinction, and

his spouse had acceptably participated in his honours and shared his

fortunes. The date of their marriage is not recorded, but two of

their sons rose to high positions. Domenigo, the eldest, entered Holy

Order, and was ultimately preconised a Cardinal. His fame in the roll

of literature is great for as a sapient collector of books and prints

he was the patron of that most exquisite production, perhaps the most

sumptuous illuminated manuscript in existence, the celebrated Grimani

Breviary. The second son, Giovanni entered the service of the State,

and brought his talents to bear upon the details of the Tariff reform

of those days, much to the advantage of the City and her purveyors.

At the Election and Entry of his parents, as Doge and Dogaressa, he

headed a deputation of the Fruiterers’ Guild which made an offer of one

hundred and thirty gilded lemons--surely a parallel to painting the

lily!

[Illustration: OBSEQUIES OF SAINT URSULA.

VETTORE CARPACCIO.

ACCADEMIA VENICE.

[The kneeling figure is Madonna Maria Eugenia

Caotorta-Loredano, who died 1493.]]

The new _Promissione_ contained some arbitrary, yet almost ludicrous

clauses:--for example, the Doge was forbidden to speak alone with

ambassadors and foreign agents, his two State Councillors were required

to be present at all such interviews. Like most of the nobles and

wealthy citizens Doge Antonio Grimani had a passionate love of sport.

Among them all, fowling was a favourite pastime, the reeds and rushes

of the smaller islets of the lagunes were splendid cover for aquatic

game. Sportsmen wore high boots which they called _fisolari_, after

the birds held most in esteem-- _fisoli_,--divers. The coveys

were approached in shallow boats, each manned by eight oarsmen, in

blue and green liveries,--the colours most in affinity with the law

of natural concealment. The _Signore_ sat in the bows ready with his

_pecce_ or miniature cross-bow. Doge Antonio Grimani was forbidden to

shoot, as had been his wont, whenever pleasure invited him, for he was

restricted to four annual sporting excursions. Just before Christmas

he was expected to assume his fowling dress and make a water excursion

for the purpose of shooting not divers but wild ducks--_oselle_. His

bag had to be enormously capacious for each Lord of the Council,

of the “Forty” and of the “Ten,” required five birds dead in the

feather! The sportive Doge usually failed to bring down sufficient

game by his own cunning, and in returning to Venice, he directed his

_provvidetore_ to purchase the balance in the Poultry market! Even

so the requirements of the Lordly blackmailers were not met quite to

their satisfaction, for some received fat birds whilst others had those

in poor condition. The only way out of the dilemma was conceived by

the Doge himself, for, to square accounts, he dealt out so many birds

apiece and sent the complement in cash value! This he effected in a

novel and characteristic manner, he engaged the services of a stamper

of medals and issued a neat little silver coin, a quarter ducat, worth

four shillings English money. Upon the obverse it bore the similitude

of a gold duck, and on the reverse, the quaint legend:--“_Par osculata

sunt_,” and this was ever after a yearly Christmas-box to all and

sundry of their Excellencies,--it went by the name “_Osella_!”

The Dogaressa’s _Promissione_ was also restricted. An outcry from

the baser sort of Venetian loafers and out-of-elbows nobles, was

raised against her solemn Coronation. She was denied the customary

salutations of the Masters of the Trade Guilds at the Ducal Palace,

and the ceremonial reception of ambassadors. Poor Dogaressa Caterina

had to be content to be the domestic helpmeet of her Consort not his

State wife as well! It does not seem that for her the wealthy makers

of cloth of gold had any commission for State robes! She wore simply

the _dogalina_ of crimson velvet with full deep sleeves of lined satin;

her _Corno_,--very much reduced, in size,--bore pearls, rubies and

diamonds; the _velo sottile_ of thin net, not lace, fell from her head

to her waist, and her golden girdle was shortened and unjewelled. Who

was the Emperor of Fashion and the arbiter of sumptuary conventions

nobody knows, possibly his office was in commission to the officials

generally of the Tribunal of Ceremonies, and held by pettifogging

busybodies and ill-natured nobodies.

There were and are several Palazzi Grimani in Venice. Doge Antonio

Grimani’s residence is that called Grimani della Vida, on the Grand

Canal, near the far-famed _Ca d’Oro_. He died in 1523 but the date

of Dogaressa Caterina’s demise has not been preserved, nor do we know

where their Serenities were buried.

Doge Andrea Gritti assumed the State robes and _Corno_ in 1523. At

once he made a strong bid for popular favour and distributed so vast

an amount of largesse upon his election, that people looked askance at

him, and cried out in return “_Um! Um!--Trum! Trum!_” This was

an entirely new departure, but Doge Gritti set a fashion in making

a pompous progress around the Piazza wearing his full regalia, when

coins were scattered broadcast among the spectators, and a movable

_pozzetto_, pulpit, or throne, was borne in the procession, and,

when the Doge reached the centre of the Piazza, the youngest Lord of

the “Forty” placed upon his head the _Corno_, and an address was

offered him in the name of the citizens.

There is no record of the Dogaressa’s Entry and Coronation,--possibly

the Doge’s progress was, in a way an alternative pageant. She was Donna

Benedetta Vendramin,--a niece of Doge Andrea Vendramin. The Doge’s

family was of no great distinction,--one of the sixteen families,

ennobled when the new _Libro d’Oro_ of 1450 was compiled.

His _Promissione_ of 13th May 1513, was, like his predecessor’s,

the work of the purist-faddist section of the Council. He was forbidden

to go beyond the narrow limits of the City proper, the gardens of

Murano, and the sea-baths of the Lido,--the pleasant places on the

mainland and up the Brenta, were all beyond bounds! A fine of one

hundred gold ducats was actually fixed for each breach of this

ridiculous restriction. Letters, to and from his Consort, and his

children were subject to official inspection, and statements therein

considered by the “Ten” open to objection, placed the whole family at

the risk of a fine of two hundred gold ducats--remarks affecting the

status and privileges, the opinion and actions of the Council were

marked down for banishment for a term of five years!

A further instance of the insolent intolerance of the Councils “The

Forty” and “The Ten” and of their exercise of tyranny against the

idol they had set up, to wit the Doge, was in connection with the

_Oselle_ issued by this Serenity. Doge Gritti presumed to have

his token-medals stamped with the effigy of himself kneeling before

Saint Mark, this was disallowed. At the same time the nobles sold their

_oselle_ to collectors, and then disputed the value of the Ducal

gift! The “Ten” decreed the withdrawal of this largesse, together with

the yearly dole of wild duck and instead demanded from the Doge the

circulation among their Excellencies, at his expense, of a new coin of

the value of one and a quarter gold ducats,--to which they gave the

name “_ducato d’osello_.” Whether the unfortunate Doge was able

to meet this very heavy annual tax or no, we know not. To be mulcted,

without the right of remonstrance, in a yearly useless expenditure of

£1000 was a heavy drain even on a rich man’s purse.

Doge Gritti, according to the chroniclers “was a very pliant sort of

man,” indeed he had need to be! He was also a great eater, and his

gustatory tastes ran to somewhat vulgar and common-place delicacies:

his table was served every day with “fat pork, onions and garlic.” He

had a shrewd old slave-housekeeper, one Marta, who alone was able to

curb his appetite. He gave her permission to remove any dish of which

she considered he had partaken sufficiently, or which she thought was

bad for him! In person Andrea Gritti was of handsome graceful figure,

his temperament was sympathetically voluptuous, and he was much admired

by the fair sex--a lover through all his life of wine and women. It

was reputed that he maintained a great establishment, after the fashion

of an Oriental seraglio; he had many Greek and Circassian slaves and

some of them were of gentle birth.

Fond as he was of pomp and circumstance he was able to gratify his

tastes with respect to his domestic appointments. His table service

was unique, mostly of gold and precious crystal; his gondola, alone

among the ten thousand gliding over the water-ways, was decorated with

crimson and gold. The sumptuary laws became more and more exacting,

and, on one occasion, when a niece of the Dogaressa appeared at a

reception at the Ducal Palace in a very magnificent costume of velvet

embossed cloth of gold with scarlet and jewelled embroideries, Doge

Gritti felt obliged to order her to leave the Court, and return in a

less costly confection.

With all his extravagant and ambitious fancies Doge Andrea Gritti was a

patriot. Called upon to make a retort to the insulting language of an

ambassador of the Sultan, who declared openly that, “Till now Venice

has wedded the Sea; henceforth it belongs to us who have supreme power

thereupon.” The Doge quietly replied:--“We shall see, Constantinople

will fall again perhaps to Venice.” This menace was followed up by

an attack in force by the Turkish fleet in 1535. The Doge at once

expressed his determination to lead the Venetian forces against the

invader. His ardour however met with a snub from the Council, and he

was advised to reconsider the terms of his _Promissione_.

Indeed the jealousy and meanness of the majority of the members of the

“Forty” and of the “Ten” knew no bounds. The Doge was subjected to

many insults, and to a secret code of espionage. Quite lately proof

of this was found, when alterations were undertaken in the saloon

occupied by the Archæological Museum in the Ducal Palace. Two narrow

staircases were discovered, at the back of what had been the Doge’s

bedroom, where Doge Agostino Barbarigo had erected Pietro Lombardo’s

noble chimney-piece. These steps led to a space immediately behind the

bed itself, where two movable panels in the wall permitted any one to

have a peep at the Doge and Dogaressa (?) in bed and see what they were

doing!

Among the pious works of Doge Andrea and Dogaressa Benedetta was the

rebuilding of the ancient church of San Giovanni Elemosinario. The

splendid picture over the high altar of the Saint bestowing alms was

painted by Titian upon the Doge’s commission. In the chapel of San

Clemente, within St Mark’s is a bas-relief with Doge Gritti kneeling

before Saints Nicholas, James and Andrew. The famous painting by

Paris Bordone, now in the Accademia, of “The Fisherman and the Ring,”

although ostensibly offering a portrait of Doge Pietro Gradenigo really

shows the handsome figure and features of amorous and ambitious Doge

Andrea Gritti. Probably he and his Consort were buried in their fine

new church, but records are wanting.

“What sort of a wife has he got?” was the constantly recurring

question, which, upon the death of a Doge, was tossed from side to

side in the deliberations of the Council of “Forty,” with respect

to the nomination of a successor. “_Cherchez la femme!_” has no

satisfactory equivalent in English phraseology, but the French axiom

exactly suits the condition created in deciding the Ducal vote. The

_Promissione_ of each succeeding Head of the State, one after the

other, tended more and more to eliminate individuality and initiative.

As often as not the physical attributes of a candidate weighed

considerably in the election. The question of the spouse also resolved

itself pretty much upon the same lines. The candidate whose wife

was of commanding appearance, and had a fascinating manner, and who

could display to advantage the richest robes ever woman was called

upon to assume; and also was likely to add decorative distinction

and artistic taste to the State functions had an excellent chance of

election. All this was exemplified in the case of Doge Cristoforo

and Dogaressa Dea Moro:--he was a cripple and proud, but she was a

beautiful and accomplished woman. Certainly this reasoning is natural

and not altogether fatuous, for the same economy of selection has

ever determined the bestowal of honours in every nation--and does so

to-day--incidentally and very aptly illustrating the quaint French

_mot_.

In the long Roll of the Doges and Dogaressas of Venice there were

periods where short reigns followed one another in succession. During

the second half of the fifteenth century, 1471–1485, six pairs of

Serenities bowed themselves on and off the Ducal throne; whilst the

middle years of the sixteenth century, 1545–1571, saw an equal number

of Ducal couples assume the _Corno_. Many of these reigns were

uneventful and inconspicuous, and very little is on record for the

story-teller to relate. Happy is it, perhaps, for the peace of a State

and its prosperity, when the pen of the historian dips seldom in the

red ink of episodes.

Messir Pietro Lando and Madonna Maria Pasqualigo-Lando followed Doge

Andrea Gritti and Dogaressa Benedetta Vendramin-Gritti in 1538. Both of

them belonged to comparatively recently ennobled families; the Landi

as late as 1450, and the Pasqualighi, one of the thirty advanced to

honour after the Chioggian War in 1391. The new Doge took up manfully

the cudgels of the State, ready to lead against and fight its foes; but

the military element of the lagunes was weary of debauches and defeats.

Accommodations with the enemy accorded better with the degenerate

spirit of the times, than open hostilities. The acutest phase of

Venetian retrogression had set in.

In an inverse ratio the political ascendancy of Venice diminished,

the while her artistic temperament became emphatic. She waited, for

example, until every other painting school had grown to maturity before

she began to nurse her native painters; but, under Doges Lando and

Donato, she crowned Titian and his comrades with golden chaplets. They

were the first in the Renaissance to portray the natural and unadorned

charms of women.

The study of the classics and researches in philosophy never appealed

to Venetians generally and gave no tone to society. Venice had

neither permanent teachers nor libraries; and her sons and daughters

had profound contempt for humanists. Cosimo de’ Medici, “_Il

Vecchio_,” when an exile within the boundaries of the Republic,

deplored the want of scholarship. The ensigns of Venice were “Make

money and spend it,” and “Grasp power and keep it!” However Doge and

Dogaressa Lando had literary tastes, and several Venetian writers

dedicated their works to them. Pietro Contarini, of the school of

Francesco Colonna, in 1541, inscribed their Serenities’ names upon the

fly-sheet of his “_Argo Vulga_,” and addressed them as “_O Sacio

Phœbo_--_O Radienta Luna_!”

The _dogado_ of Francesco Donato, 1545–1553; of Marcantonio Trevisan,

1553–1554; and of Francesco Venier, 1554–1556, were uneventful. The

position of Venice was wholly changed: what advance she made before the

menace of the “League of Cambrai” was checked, and she began to sink

into the position of a second-rate power, despoiled of her territorial

acquisition and robbed of her naval glory. Her rulers and her citizens

yielded themselves to the trivialities of fashion and the intrigues of

party, and all the industries felt the influence of disaffection and

indolence.

Doge Francesco Donato, whose Consort was Madonna Alicia

Giustiniani-Donato, certainly strove manfully to stem the tide of

disaster and the ebb of decay, and both he and the Dogaressa did all

that was in their power to encourage art and craft. For example he took

Tiziano Vecellio under his special patronage. He was appointed Head

of the “_La Senseria_” or Broker of the _Fondaco de’ Tedeschi_ at an

annual salary of three hundred gold ducats, with the condition that he

should paint portraits of all the Doges of his time at eight ducats

a head to be paid by each. He painted Doges Grimani, Lando, Donato,

Trevisan, and Venier.

Furthermore Doge Donato added greatly to the decoration of the Ducal

Palace and the Dogaressa Alicia refurnished the private apartments. To

them also was due the building by Iacopo Sansovino of the _Libreria

Vecchia_, called by Symonds in his “Renaissance in Italy” “the crowning

triumph of Venetian Art,” and praised by Aretino as “_Superiore all’

invidia_.” The _Zecca_ or Mint was completed at Doge Francesco Donato’s

instigation, as was also the church of San Sebastiano.

During the years 1547–1549 discontent was rife among the glass-workers

of Murano. Members of this most highly privileged Trade-Guild

complained that, what with the observance of Church and State festivals

and the time restrictions of labour under legal enactment, the working

year was reduced to less than thirty-five weeks. From another point of

view they saw increasing disabilities in the introduction of foreign

manufactures, as Luigi Conaro, in his “_Discorso Intorno alla Vita

Sobria_,” published in 1543, has recorded:--“cloth of gold from

India, porcelain and glass from Sevres, earthenware from Birmingham,

and other manufactures entered Venice freely to the disadvantage of

Venetian workers.”

Strangers of rank and wealth were always charmed with the rare

specimens of glass shown, and often bestowed upon them, and invitations

poured in upon the craftsmen to accompany the visitors back to their

homes. Such advances were promptly declined, for a Murano glass-worker

who left Venice to ply his calling in a foreign land was declared an

outlaw! Besides this the export of materials, the elucidation of

methods, and the sale of finished articles outside the Republic, were

crimes visited by heavy fines and imprisonment.

The _Gastaldi_ or Masters of the Guild laid their complaints

before their patroness, Dogaressa Alicia, and she was instrumental

in obtaining the removal of certain restrictions, and, through her

influence, in 1550, a party of Murano glass-blowers were permitted

to travel to England, Flanders, Spain and France. King Henry VIII.

cordially welcomed them in London, and assigned them suitable quarters

where they might instruct native workmen. The King moreover formed a

remarkable collection of masterpieces of Murano glass-ware.

There was a quaint saying in Murano:--“The first woman was made of

Murano glass--beautiful and brittle!”

CHAPTER VII

I

The Doge and Dogaressa of the Fisher folk!

If imitation be the sincerest form of flattery, then must the Most

Serene Doges and Dogaressas of Venice, during the fifteenth and

sixteenth centuries, have experienced gratification combined with

amusement at the spectacle of the mock Court of the Zattere.

The fisher-folk of the parishes, wherein they principally resided, San

Raffaele, Santa Marta, and San Nicolo degli Orfani, and others, were

accorded the privilege of electing annually a Doge and Dogaressa to

preside over the affairs of the fishing industry. They were chosen by

vote and by acclamation, they were accountable to a Council of “Forty,”

and they had their installation and coronation ceremonies. They were

attended by duly appointed officers: the Dogaressa had her attendant

maids of honour, the Doge his body-guard. At functions,--joyous or

sad,--they wore official costumes, modelled upon those of the Doge and

Dogaressa at the Ducal Palace--robes of State, the _Corno_ and the

regalia.

Upon the Election of a Doge of the Republic, the Fisher Doge and

Dogaressa proceeded in mock State to the Palace to offer the

congratulations of the fisher community, and then they went on to

the Palace of the Dogaressa to salute her Serenity. Each Ascension

Day--“_La Sensa_”--the Head of the State and his Consort entertained

the fisher folk generally at collation, and the subsequent proceedings

partook of the character of a saturnalia,--full license being granted

by the _Signori della Notte_, or police, but no one was at all the

worse for their conviviality.

* * * * *

There was no little stir in official circles, when, in 1557, the

Council of “Forty” determined that, after being in abeyance nearly

eighty years, the ceremonials of Entry and Coronation should be revived

in honour of Signora Zilia Dandolo-Priuli. Two generations of Venetians

had come and gone and had not beheld the most striking of all Venetian

pageants. To be sure they had not been without gorgeous processions and

bountiful festivals; the twelve annual _Andate_ of the Doge and

the Lords of the Council had been scrupulously carried out under each

succeeding Head of the State; but demonstrations of magisterial dignity

and military pomp are very poor equivalents for feasts of grace and

beauty, love and chastity.

The Election of Messir Lorenzo Priuli to the Ducal throne, in 1556,

was in a very great measure due to the attractive personality and

ancestral dignity of his Consort. She was acknowledged to be the most

distinguished noblewoman in Venice. Daughter of Messir Marco Dandolo,

in direct descent from Doge Andrea Dandolo, and with the blood of the

hero Doge Arrigo Dandolo coursing through her veins, she was in the

best and truest sense a _virago_. Her marriage took place in 1526,

but was as a matter of rank, a _mésalliance_, for the Priuli were

one of the latest ennobled families,--dating their title only from 1450.

The Palazzo Priuli, upon the Fondamento dell’ Osmarin, was in its

day one of the most magnificent in Venice, being entirely faced with

superb frescoes by Palma Vecchio--alas they have all perished. Another

Priuli palace belonged to Messir Girolamo Priuli, Procurator of San

Marco, and brother of the new Doge: it was situated on the opposite

_riva_ of the Grand Canal, near the church of San Barnaba. A third

Palazzo Priuli, or perhaps Casa Priuli, existed in the Cannaregio, a

_sestiere_ with its distinctive customs, peculiar physiognomy of

its people and its special dialect. Built in 1520 by Messir Agnello

Priuli youngest brother of the Doge, who married in 1517 Donna

Andreiana Venier, daughter of Messir Francesco Venier, a two years’

Doge in 1554–1556, it was famous for its orchards and its great shady

trees--the rendezvous of many a gay company under Dogaressa Zilia’s

patronage.

[Illustration: I.

II.

(I) DOGARESSA ZILIA DANDOLO-PRIULI, 1557.

(II) „ LOREDANA MARCELLO-MOCENIGO, 1570.

FROM “LIBRO DE’ CERIMONIALI.”

(Archivio del Stato di Venezia).]

[Illustration: I.

II.

(I) DOGARESSA ZILIA DANDOLO-PRIULI, 1559.

(II) „ CECILIA CONTARINI-VENIER, 1578.

(In Mourning Attire).

FROM LIBRO DE’ CERIMONIALI.

(Archivio del Stato di Venezia).]

The preparation for the Dogaressa’s solemn Entry and Coronation were on

a very elaborate scale. The “_Bucintoro_,” which had borne no bevy of

Venetian beauties for well-nigh one hundred years, was overhauled and

covered with gold and blazonry. The Trade-Guilds--the _Fragilie_--were

hard at work with new costumes, new banners, and new gifts for her

Serenity. The clergy carefully recensioned their office-books and

looked out their richest vestments. Music-masters and chorus-leaders

furbished up their instruments, wrote festal marches, and rehearsed

odes of welcome. The companies of _La Calza_ gave busy work to all the

Trades for new festal garbs. The dignified Lords themselves needed

new robes, their consorts new dresses. Venice was alive with craftsmen

and craftswomen, for the time was short, and very much to do.

Although the Election of Doge Francesco Priuli was effected late in the

year 1556, the solemn Entry of the Dogaressa did not take place until

the autumn of the year following. The reason for this unusual delay

we need not canvass but assign it to the want of preparedness for the

revival of a long disused observance.

On the 18th of September 1557, the “Forty,” the “Ten,” and fifty other

nobles, assembled in the _Sala d’Udienza del Doge_, to inaugurate

the solemnity. They despatched Cavaliere Giovanni Cappello,--the father

of his Serenity’s son-in-law Andrea Cappello,--habited in a magnificent

costume of richest red damask cloth of gold, stiff as herald’s tabard,

with a distinguished and splendidly appointed suite to welcome in

their name, in the Piazza, the ambassadors of the Emperor and of the

Dukes of Savoy and Urbino. Passing under a triumphal arch erected near

the public slaughter-houses, by the Guild of Butchers, the procession

advanced to the quay of the Piazzetta and there embarked upon the

gala-decked “_Bucintoro_.” A short cruise took the party, at the

landing-steps of the palace of Messir Girolamo Priuli, which was hung

from top to bottom with draperies of silk and cloth of gold, to pay

their respects to her Serenity.

Dogaressa Zilia awaited her distinguished visitors at the entrance of

the palace, accompanied by one hundred young noblewomen and attended

by the Officers of State. She wore the full robes of her rank, her

veil was of the finest white net of Candia, her chemisette and the

edging of her great ermine sleeves were of the richest Burano lace, her

_Corno_ was of crimson velvet with a jewelled bandeau, and shoes

of velvet, to match her head-dress, completed her costume. The jewels

she wore were the most gorgeous owned by any gentlewoman in Venice,

heirlooms in the Dandolo family, and taken from the Sultan’s treasury

by Doge Arrigo Dandolo at the capture of Constantinople,--they were

barbaric in magnificence.

Very graciously the Dogaressa bowed her acknowledgments of the

reverential greeting of visitors, and, when the Cavaliere offered her

the _Promissione_ of her Consort, she assented to the clauses affecting

herself, and thereafter bestowed upon each member of the deputation

a richly embroidered purse of cloth of gold containing ten golden

ducats. Then, seated in tribunes erected along the _riva_, the noble

company witnessed a regatta of _fisolere_--long and narrow unprowed

gondolas. This popular feature in the day’s proceedings was followed by

a gorgeous water-pageant, undertaken by the _Fragilie_, the _Compagnie

della Calza_, and other notable organisations.

Fourteen galleys, almost as big as the “_Bucintoro_,” belonging

to the great Guild of Goldsmiths, covered with crimson damask and gold

lace, led the way. The Canal was a mass of moving craft of every sort

and size, full of merrymakers, and bands of music, space being riskily

found for the bulky “_Bucintoro_” to steer her course with the

Dogaressa seated on the Ducal throne at the prow, her gallant and

beautiful Court around her. Salvoes of artillery, clangings of bells,

soundings of horns and trumpets, and the clamour of the spectators

accompanied the Progress to the Piazzetta. At the Butchers’ triumphal

arch two hundred and fifty young girls of the city welcomed her

Serenity. They were arrayed in crimson satin, green silk damask and

white taffetas, and were adorned with magnificent jewels which had

not been displayed in public for well-nigh one hundred years. Many

wore great pearls, the biggest ever seen in Venice,--and gold chains

of cunning workmanship with numerous rubies, emeralds, and sapphires:

upon their heads were diamond coronets and lace veils spangled with

brilliants. In this constellation of grace, beauty, and affluence, was

a striking group of twelve brides,--recalling to everyone the romantic

Venetian story of the past. Their golden hair, falling at will over

their bare and painted shoulders, was restrained only by coronets of

gold and silver leaves of myrtle: their costumes were of white satin

and lace with golden girdles worn _à la Grecque_. Behind the

brides were ranged two-and-twenty older matrons, clothed in black

velvet, and covered with precious stones. This feature in the reception

must have been arranged by a scenic painter or a master of costumes,

for nothing so well tones masses of strong and vivid colours as here

and there a sable touch.

The procession thus doubled in numbers, passed superlatively between

the hundred German guards in the service of the Republic, making

for the Basilica. Immediately before the Dogaressa came the wives

of the Procurators of Saint Mark, with Madonna Marina, the wife

of Messir Vettor Grimani at their head, all robed in black satin

with long hanging scarves like those of the Dogaressa’s State

robe. Attended by the Secretaries of the High Chancellor marched

the Doge’s two sons-in-law,--Cavalieri Antonio Morosini and Pietro

Cappello,--supporting Cavaliere Giovanni Priuli, their Serenities’ only

Son, all vested in Ducal dress,--tabards of emblazoned cloth of gold,

with trains or long togas of crimson silk velvet, worn over silver-gilt

suits of armour.

Most becomingly costumed in richest silver damasked white silk

velvet walked the Doge’s two daughters Madonne Antonio Morosini and

Pietro Cappello followed by Cavaliere Matteo Dandolo, brother of the

Dogaressa, in full Ducal robes, who immediately preceded her Serenity.

He was attended by two Councillors of the Doge,--Messiri Antonio

Giustiniani and Marco Centanni. Under the State Umbrella of cloth of

gold, with erect figure and stately carriage, passed along the new

First Lady of Venice,--conscious that, in her person, was revived the

most gorgeous of all the noble “Triumphs” of Venice. The historic

splendours of all the crowned Dogaressas of the past were centred in

her, and men and women thanked God that the glories of Venice were once

more dazzling their eyes, and making promise for their children.

The three pages of honour, who bore the Ducal train and held the heavy

sleeves of fur and gold, paused before the Grand Portal of San Marco,

and the Lords of the Council and State officials gathered around the

Dogaressa and her children and relatives to keep back the pressure of

the enthusiastic crowd. The Chapter of the cathedral were awaiting

Her Serenity and the Prior at once sprinkled her with Holy Water, the

acolytes holding aloft great lighted candles, and tossing big silver

censers in the air. The Dogaressa humbly knelt to kiss a holy relic

of Saint Mark whilst the choristers and musicians gave forth joyous

anthems. Conducted by the ecclesiastics into the choir the Prior seated

her upon the Doge’s throne and then “Te Deum,” was chanted. To each

canon Dogaressa Zilia gave a purse of cloth of gold with one hundred

gold ducats. The ritual of the Entry was celebrated as in the days of

Dogaressa Regina Gradenigo-Vendramin. Upon the sacred Missal, held

by the Bishop of Castello, the new Dogaressa swore to observe her

_Promissione_. Several addresses were read to her, but nobody

could hear a word because of the tremendous vociferations of the

applauding multitude inside and outside the sacred edifice.

Bowing reverently to the High Altar Dogaressa Zilia passed through the

Sanctuary and ascended the Foscara staircase, on her way to the Ducal

Palace. As in days gone by, the Guilds made lavish displays in each

room of delectable dainties for the palate and of supreme examples of

their respective craftsmanship. The hairdressers were the first to

offer their duty, being specially under the new Dogaressa’s patronage.

They had spread a table with a very beautiful Oriental carpet and

placed upon it a resplendent crystal mirror of Murano with the golden

appurtenances of the toilet--splendid gifts for her Serenity. Possibly

they warily foresaw the need of a new dressing of the Most Serene

locks of auburn hair after the trying formalities already graciously

performed! The _Gastaldo_, or Master of the Guild, advancing

with many reverences addressed the Dogaressa: “Right welcome is Your

Serenity, we hairdressers are your devoted servants, we rejoice with

you, and beg you still to extend to us your Serene patronage.” Then,

with a motion of the hand he invited her to partake of the delicacies

and to quaff the rare vintage on silver dishes and out of crystal

flagons, which His Serenity the Doge had provided for the use of all

the Guilds.

The Dogaressa graciously replied:--“I am delighted that everything is

so well arranged and I thank you heartily. I am not able to stay with

you because I have to visit seventeen other rooms. I hope to see you

all another time, I must now say farewell.”

Entering the room allotted to the Guild of Goldsmiths, her Serenity

was saluted in a similar manner, and offered two splendid panels of

tapestry, mounted in exquisitely carved frames overlaid with gold and

silver. Passing through a corridor, which gave upon the Piazza, she

beheld the immense awning of light blue canvas covered with golden

stars, which stretched away to the four columns in front of the offices

of the _Signori della Notte al Criminali_, which were draped in

crimson damask and carried six-and-twenty emblazoned shields, and

every window festooned and decorated with the Dandolo arms. As she

went on her way the massed bands of the Guilds, in the Piazzetta,

played a triumphal march. Each of the sixteen rooms was adorned by a

separate Guild, and each Guild made a distinctive offering, saluting

her Serenity with loyal devotion. In the last room the Officers of

the Murano glass-workers were in charge of a rare exhibition of the

lustrous objects of their craft. The offering of this ancient and

noble Guild was a suite of glass new in style, shape and colour and

jewelled,--_chefs d’œuvre_ of the most fragile art of Venice. In

honour of the new Dogaressa quite naturally the service was called “La

Zilia.”

At length this very agreeable but very tiring Progress ended at the

_Sala del Gran Consiglio_, where Dogaressa Zilia was placed upon

the Ducal throne, having on her right the older ladies of her escort,

the State Councillors, the Heads of the “Forty,” her brother, Cavaliere

Matteo Dandolo and the Cavalieri Antonio Morosini and Pietro Cappello.

The nobles and gentlemen all were in crimson satin having removed their

heavy tabards of cloth of gold; they wore stoles of cloth of gold over

their left shoulders. Upon benches opposite were seated ambassadors,

judges, knights, members of the Council, and the more distinguished

guests of the Government. The younger gentlewomen of the Dogaressa’s

suite were upon her left hand, and with them an equal number of young

nobles,--Companions of _La Calza_ and young officers of the fleet

and army. The ducal _Corno_ was held over her head by the High

Chancellor, who addressed her in the same terms as those used at the

Coronation of Dogaressa Regina Gradenigo-Vendramin.

Shades of evening were falling on the golden glory of a glorious festal

day, as, by magic, torches burning coloured fires were kindled in every

window of the Palace,--every _Sala_ was lighted _al giorno_. Then

defiled before the Serene Dogaressa in the Grand Courtyard a pageant

of the Arts and Crafts, every member thereof bearing a lighted torch.

In the van marched two by two, one hundred of the handsomest young

gallants of Venice,--all tightly costumed in silks and satins,--and

twenty-five gentlemen of the Doge’s private cabinet,--wearing long

togas of black velvet and heavy gold chains of office.

Collations were spread in the _cortili_ of the Palace, and banquets

were given in the Council chambers, and then, in the Piazzetta, were

athletic exhibitions of posed human pyramids and other figures, and a

grand display of fireworks. The festivities wound up with dance and

music, games and flirtations, till the new day began to peep through

window and doorway as the pale moon withdrew her light before the fiery

car of the advancing Sun God.

The festival of the Coronation was carried over three days, days

of unalloyed pleasure and success. Bull-baiting, bear-baiting,

cock-fighting, boxing, wrestling, skiff-races, swimming matches, well

filled twenty-four hours, and then followed dramatic performances by

members of _La Calza_. Venice was in a delirium of music, dancing, and

general rejoicing. Rich and poor alike were feasted by the munificent

Doge and Dogaressa, and, when on the last day of the festival, they

made a round of visits to thank the Masters of the Guilds and others

who had been conspicuous by their services in general, every one felt

that rest was welcome, and that life might again return to its normal

conditions.

The “Triumph” of Dogaressa Zilia Dandolo-Priuli marked a red letter in

the annals of the Republic. It was taken as a proof that the spirit

of the Venetians was by no means dead, but, at the same time, it

served as a warning of the enervating effect of wanton enjoyment and

leisured opulence. A poet-laureate arose, unknown now by name, who thus

apostrophised the happy Signora Zilia:--

“Quæ decus ætherum, terrarum gloria tandem

Zilia progreditur, patuit Dea, vertice odorem

Spiravere comæ divinum, vestis ad imos

De fluxitque pedes ...”

The reign of Lorenzo and Zilia Priuli was, for the most part, peaceful,

so far as the intermittence of sporadic hostilities was concerned.

To be sure the Turks never let the Venetians quite alone, and Venice

kept on quietly pushing diplomatic aggression everywhere. Still the

hindrances to home development were not unduly harmful and industry and

commerce throve exceedingly. The Dogaressa, good as her word, spoken

after her Coronation--“I hope to see you all another time”--extended

her heartiest patronage to the Trades which most appealed to her in

matters of taste, and she fostered new fashions in upholstery, napery,

and table appointments, as well as personal adornments.

Alas, her wearing of the _Corno_ was limited to three short years,

for, in 1559, Doge Priuli was laid upon his death-bed,--another victim

to pestilence. He was buried at San Salvatore, under the statue of his

patron Saint Lorenzo. The Council paid unusual honours to the widowed

Dogaressa, a decree, dated 24th June, immediately after the burial

of her Consort, appointed her a household of eight maids of honour,

and servitors for her sedan, and her gondola. She was to be attended

in her visits to churches, hospitals and other institutions, by four

elderly gentlewomen of distinction, and she was required to wear in

public black satin brocade cut after the pattern of the cloth of gold

State robes but without jewels. These instructions were to serve as the

decree stated “_per maggior decoro et honor de la Republica_,” and

the dowager Dogaressa was accorded the title of “Princess.” Furthermore

a monthly allowance was granted her of fifty gold ducats, and the

supervision of her affairs was delegated to the State Chamberlains.

The “_Libro dei Cerimoniali_,” still preserved among the Archives

of the Republic, has a representation of Dogaressa Zilia Dandolo-Priuli

in the costume of a widow. The dress is apparently of black cashmere,

with full deep sleeves of black silk. Her widowhood lasted seven

years, and she died regretted by all on 13th October 1566. Her funeral

obsequies were conducted upon a scale commensurate with the unusual

honours bestowed upon her in her lifetime. After the excision of the

bowels and brain,--which were placed in a marble vase,--her body was

“washed,” says the writer of the “_Cerimoniali_” “in pure spring

water, and wrapped in tow, with sponges under the armpits.” Embalmed

with aromatic wax and spices, the dead Princess was shrouded in the

habit of a nun of the Convent of Sant’ Alvise, of the foundation of

Donna Antonia Venier in 1388: over it was cast a chemise of cloth of

gold, and a delicate lace veil shaded the face arranged under a Ducal

_Corno_.

The lying-in-state was upon a bier in the _Sala dei Pioveghi_.

During three days the Papal Legate, the Ambassadors, the Lords of

the Councils, the Captains of the “Forty” and of the “Ten,” the

Procurators, Judges, and all the Officers of State with the clergy and

religious orders, the Religious congregations, the inmates of the State

Orphanages and Homes for Women, and a vast concourse of citizens passed

before the coffin. On the last day the Doge Girolamo Priuli,--his

brother’s successor,--in full State ascended the _Scala d’Oro_

accompanied by the Papal Legate and Cavaliere Giovanni Priuli,--the

son of the late Doge and Dogaressa,--and entered the funeral chapel to

assist at the final ceremonial.

A procession of the Prior and Chapter of San Marco with cross, banners,

and lighted yellow wax torches, accompanied by the clergy of the

church of San Fantino,--usually attended by the late Dogaressa,--and

her private chaplains, filed into the _Sala_, and, after prayers and

absolution, the coffin was raised upon the shoulders of master-marines

of the Arsenal, borne down the _Scala de’ Giganti_, and carried

solemnly across the Piazzetta to the portal of the Basilica, where the

remains were blessed by the Bishop of Castello. The funeral cortège

then advanced between military guards through the Piazza and Merceria

to the Ponte d’Olio, and so on to the great church of SS. Giovanni e

Paolo. All the _calli_ were covered with black hangings, and every man,

woman, and child was in deepest mourning. Within the church the coffin

was placed upon an imposing catafalque, and surrounded with torches

and candles. Conducted to his Chair of State the Doge laid aside his

_Corno_, whilst the priest of the Collegiate Church of San Fantino

delivered an impressive oration, ending with the apostrophization

“_Jam vero Ziliæ virtuti quæ potest per oratio inveniri?_”

Such an imposing ceremonial at the burial of a widowed Dogaressa was

unprecedented. Zilia Dandolo-Priuli came to her throne in the grand

Ducal Palace and to her grave in the simple church of San Salvatore in

a couple of “Triumphs” unique of their kind.

II

The _dogado_ of Lorenzo Priuli was conspicuous only so far as it

was adorned by the personality of a wealthy, talented, and fascinating

wife. Had the reign of his brother Girolamo Priuli, his immediate

successor, been graced by the presence of as illustrious a consort,

certainly history would have recorded her charms, her influence, and

her example. Alas, we know nothing about Signora Elena Diedo-Priuli

beyond her name: the date of her birth, marriage, and death are

unnoted, nor do we find any reference to her family, her forebears, or

her offspring.

One of the most ornamental and useful bridges in Venice is the Ponte

Diedo, where on 3rd October 1607, Fra Paolo Sarpi, theologian, lawyer

and patriot was done to death. The nomenclature of another bridge, in

the same _sestiere_ Cannaregio--the Ponte Priuli, may suggest that

the Priuli and Diedi were neighbours and probably engaged in the same

industry.

The Priuli were among the noble families of 1450, and possibly the

Diedi were patrician citizens not yet ennobled. Doge Girolamo Priuli

occupied the Ducal throne eight years, during which episodes and events

were few. Strenuous periods of national history have their reflex

action in times of rest and recuperation. Venice was quiescent, her

enemies left her pretty much alone, and internal troubles appeared

to be exhausted. The burial of the Doge in 1567 was conducted at

the church of San Salvatore: he was laid alongside his brother Doge

Lorenzo, in the family vault, beneath the statue of his patron saint,

San Girolamo.

Pietro Loredano wore the _Corno_ for three years, 1567–1570: his

Consort was Madonna Maria Cappello. Probably he was a son of “Grand”

Doge Lionardo Loredano, and she was the daughter of a noble family

which had given very many famous sons to Venice, although not one of

them reached the throne. Two events marked this _dogado_,--both

calamitous,--the terrible famine of 1569, when the harvest of all

northern Italy and the contiguous countries entirely failed, and the

destruction by fire of the famous Arsenal, the fountain-head of the

whole naval and military system of the Republic.

The annals of Venice are blank what time Dogaressas Elena Diedo-Priuli

and Maria Cappello-Loredano held their State within the Ducal Palace.

The Republic was at peace, dormant and self-indulgent,--an unwonted

experience for her once vigorous, aggressive, and victorious citizens.

The end of the war with the Turks left her free to enjoy to the full

her love of leisure and her fondness of festivity. The still evening

of an eventful life was the twilight of her fame: her sun was near the

setting, yet, ere she laid herself down no more to rise, expiring

flashes of brilliant deeds and dying fires of fearsome catastrophes

illuminated her political horizon.

The succession of Doge Alvise Mocenigo and Dogaressa Loredana

Marcello-Mocenigo, in 1570, found Venice plunged in a sea of anxieties

and perils. Incessant warfare, with defeats counteracting victories,

produced solicitude and stupefaction which were subversive of all

thoughts and sentiments of festivity. “_Venus Calva_,” once more

was the figure the “Queen of the Adriatic,” bereft of all consolation,

presented to an unfriendly world. The Doge’s election, of course, was

conducted with the traditional solemnities, but the Dogaressa was

denied the honour of a solemn Entry and Coronation: Pageants were out

of the question in such anxious circumstances.

The Doge was the fourth member of his family,--ennobled in 1289,--to

wear the golden _Corno_: he belonged to the San Samuele branch of

the Mocenighi,--the “_Casa Vecchia_” as it was called, resident

in that _campo_. A man of great strength of character, extremely

charitable, and renowned for urbanity and conscientiousness, and truly

he needed all these qualities in the upkeep of his dignity, and in

the encouragement of his people. The Dogaressa was Loredana, daughter

of Messir Giovanni Alvise Marcello,--a man of wealth and of a Ducal

family, his ancestor, Doge Nicolo Marcello had occupied the supreme

office just one hundred years before. She was married in 1533.

[Illustration: DOGARESSA LOREDANA MARCELLO-MOCENIGO.

FROM A COLOURED PRINT.

“Famiglie Celebri.”--P. G. Litta.]

Dogaressa Loredana was a woman as handsome and virtuous as she was

talented and accomplished. As a writer of letters and as a classical

scholar, she had few equals in Venice. With her sisters, Donne

Bianca, Daria, and Marina, she led not only the wits of the women

of Venice, but also their tastes and their modes--“_fiore de’l

secolo_,” they and their likes were called. Women had only very

gradually and intermittingly achieved prominence in literary and

artistic circles, but the end of the sixteenth century witnessed the

rich blossoming of the New Women, for almost every “_gentildonna di

Venezia_” was distinguished for her mental attainments as well as

for her charms of person.

Dogaressa Loredana had at least one hobby,--botanical research. The

Villa gardens of Venice and on the Brenta contained rare examples

of plant life, the flower gardens of the convents, and the physic

gardens of the monasteries had their unique treasures, but the fair

botanist had other nurseries whence she obtained the objects of her

devotion. Venetian agents in every port ministered to her passion, and

the gardens of the Marcello Palace were filled with exotics. Alas,

that her analyses and studies of plants and their properties have

been lost, along with her letters, her translations, and her poems.

The Dogaressa’s botanical researches however were not merely for

personal gratification, they were of immense value to the faculty of

medicine; her formulas and recipes were invaluable during the grievous

visitations of plague which decimated the population soon after her

death.

Short, sad to say, was the reign of the cultured and charming

Dogaressa, she died of plague on 12th December 1572, but testimony of

her virtues has been preserved in Messir Ottaviano Maggi’s “_Oratio

in funeralibus Lauraæ Moccenicæ_,” a Latin panegyric pronounced at

her funeral, which concludes with the ascription:--“_Tu vero Lauredana

matrona integerrima converte aliquando oculos in hanc rempublicam_.”

Palazzi also, in his “_La Virtu_,” extols the dead Signora: that

famous pack of Playing-Cards at the Museo Civico has upon the “Knave

of Cups”:--“Loredana Marcello-Mocenigo, was a Princess of great

attainments, wherefore the painter finds it difficult to illustrate her

virtues, Nobility rather than wealth is the distinction of Queens.” He

calls her:--“_Giantessa di merito!_”

Amaden in the “_Archivio privato de’ Marcelli_” also recounts the

praises of Dogaressa Loredana:--“She was remarkable for her constancy,

both in the experiences of adversity and in the distractions of

prosperity, judicious and discreet in the supervision of her household,

reverent and charitable in her church duties, benevolent to her

relatives and to her dependants, in a word, she was a most virtuous and

noble Princess.”

Her obsequies were duly celebrated, though shorn of much of the

usual State pageantry, in the Church of SS. Giovanni e Paolo. Her

lying-in-state was arranged in the _Sala de’ Pioveghi_; where,

simply shrouded in the habit of a nun of the Convento della Croce on

the Giudecca, with the cowl: the embalmed body was wrapped in a great

mantle of cloth of gold lined with lynx fur. Over the nun’s black fall

was cast a rich veil of white silk edged with gold which covered the

shoulders. Her head rested upon a cushion of cloth of gold, but it bore

no _Corno_ for the Dogaressa had not been crowned. A long stole of

white silk ornamented with gold lace descended from her neck to her

feet which were encased in the finest white silken hose and white kid

shoes embroidered with gold.

The pall was of white silk brocade covered with gold embroideries,

all the mourners wore purple, except the Vice-Doge and the foreign

ambassadors. The Papal Nuncio and Cavaliere Giovanni Mocenigo, the

Doge’s brother, were the principal pall-bearers. In all respects

the funeral rites followed the ritual of that of Dogaressa Zilia

Dandolo-Priuli. So highly had she been esteemed by all classes of the

community, that, during six days, a constant stream of people--chiefly

poor--passed before the dead Dogaressa’s grandiose bier. Doge Alvise

bestowed munificent alms upon these needy admirers of his lamented

Consort. The last “_Requiem_” was celebrated in the presence of

the Doge, merely habited as a noble and without special ceremony, who

then assisted in the entombment within the massive monument next the

great portal of the Venetian Pantheon.

It was perhaps a misfortune for Venice that the virtuous Dogaressa died

when she did, for, had she lived but two short years or more, she might

have exerted a moderating influence upon the profligacy of the nobles

and citizens, who hailed with so much enthusiasm the visit of King

Henry III. of Poland and France. No Royal visitor, in the whole history

of the Republic, had ever been entertained with such a lavish display

of magnificence and such unbounded prodigality. Everybody put on the

most splendid gala costume, and all Venice was decked with the most

gorgeous of festival tokens.

Henry found himself the object of universal homage, and, amorous

prince that he was, he dallied delightedly in the sunshine of

unrestrained enjoyment. Venice was full of courtesans of the boldest

and most fascinating seductiveness. Sprightly, vivacious, and

accomplished, they were endowed with the most captivating and coaxing

ways. They hovered around their Royal guest, most superbly dressed,--or

if you will the reverse,--bedizened with flashing jewels, their golden

hair more resplendent than their robes of cloth of gold and chains of

gold and pearls, was coiffured with subtle artifice. Their breasts were

bare, supported by broad bands or belts of gold with screws arranged to

tighten them at will.

The nuns in the convents were as gay and as approachable as were the

glittering women of the Piazza; their “parlours” were the rendezvous

of gallants,--young and old. All Venice went as mad as in the time of

Carnival, and no voice was raised in Church or Council to restrain the

infatuation. Every sort of entertainment was offered Henry and his

suite of three hundred greedy courtiers. His body-guard was formed by

thirty of the best-looking, best-dressed, and gayest young nobles.

There were jousts, regattas, _ridotti_, masked balls, banquets,

and theatricals galore. Bevies of beautiful maidens, in silken tissue,

like nymphs in a moonlit glade, scattered flowers in the King’s way,

and displayed their charms, unmoved by the curiosity of the bold French

knights-errant.

Amid all the feverish frenzy of these demonstrations one pair of

eyes fastened their mesmeric glare upon these of the happy monarch

with peculiar significance, and he yielded unresistingly to the

fascination. Veronica Franco,--“the Aspasia of Venice,”--was the centre

of a brilliant but debonnaire literary and artistic circle. Born in

1546, in the parish of Sant’ Agnese, she was in the full bud of her

virginity. She, like her frail sisters, was as they have been aptly

described, “made up of three things--wood, clothes and breasts,”--their

high pattens, their tightly clinging silk tissues, and their paints and

puffs.

The amours of Henry and Veronica were sung by poets and philosophers,

painters painted her on canvas and in miniature, and she herself made

poems as full of love as were the whispers of her lover. Her awakening

was sudden and effectual. After Henry had taken her love and kisses

away with him to Paris, she renounced the reckless life of a courtesan

and became the inspiring Venetian Sappho. Then she turned to religion

and tried to undo the evils of the past by good works and the founding

a penitentiary for fallen women. Michael Montaigne, who saw her at

Santa Maria Formosa, tells us all this and more about her in his

“Journal.”

“She gave me,” he says, “a book--‘_Lettere Famigliarie

Diverse_,’--erotic and ascetic,--which she had dedicated to another of

her admirers, the Cardinal Luigi d’Este.” “I saw also in Venice,” he

adds, “one hundred and fifty noblewomen courtesans who were kept in the

greatest luxury, spending money like Princesses in jewels, dresses,

portraits, cosmetiques, and personal adornments.” The resplendent and

repentant Veronica died in 1591, not more than forty-five years of age,

worn out with enervating pleasures and austere penances: her heart

the while being yielded a captive to the King of France. The love of

a Venetian woman was fierce and all-absorbing in its intensity, and

Sanguinacci’s poem--“_Le Donne di Venegia_” exactly gives the measure

of their pulse:--

“Con atti adorni, assai politi e belle

Le Donne vedi andar con tal maniera

E con la fresca Ziera

Che ’l par, che le vigna del Paradiso.”

What the worthy Doge thought about all this wantonness he never

divulged: his life was overshadowed by an irreparable sorrow--some say

he never smiled after gentle Dogaressa Loredana closed her eyes in

death.

The _dogado_ of Alvise Mocenigo was marked by public grief as well

as private sorrow. The loss of Cyprus and the battle of Lepanto made

many a _casa_ fatherless, where mothers and children wept for those

they would see no more. Three years after the death of good Dogaressa

Loredana, Venice was visited by a terrible calamity: forty thousand of

the inhabitants were struck down by pestilence. Death came upon them

with gaunt giant strides: men left home for the day’s work and duty

well and hearty, before the curfew sounded they were repulsive corpses.

Lords of the Council fell in the Council Chamber, words of wisdom dying

on their dying lips. One quarter of the population was wiped out.

Doge Mocenigo displayed, as might have been expected, heroic courage.

His self-denial and absolute disregard of personal risk found him

comforting the dying and consoling the sorrowing: he was nurse, priest,

and guardian to the poorest of the poor. What would not Signora

Loredana have given to share her consort’s ministry! His piety took the

shape of the foundation of the splendid church of Il Redentore, built

by the great architect Palladio,--his master-piece,--to propitiate the

Deity and to serve as a thank-offering for the cessation of the plague.

Five years of widowerhood ended for the Doge in 1577, and then his

embalmed body was laid beside that of his Consort in SS. Giovanni e

Paolo. A clause of his will proves his life’s devotion to her. Property

at Villabona, which he had intended should be hers if he predeceased

her, he left to his eldest niece, on condition that she and her

daughter after her, took the names Loredana Marcello before their

surname Mocenigo.

III

A Hero Doge!

Still green were the laurels which enwreathed the noble brow of

Sebastiano Venier,--gracious emblems of the triumph of Lepanto, where

his strategy, more than anything else, had won a famous victory.

Acclaimed Doge by the tumultuous voice of the people in the Piazza,

as well as by the unanimous suffrages of the “Forty” in the Council

Chamber, Venier aroused the latent warlike spirit of all Venetians.

Venice was herself again,--no longer “_Venus Calva_.” The lion

of San Marco once more bristled his hoary mane, and all the gallants

of _La Calza_ strutted up and down,--their effeminate costumes

exchanged for the bravery of martial uniform,--the cynosure of

admiring matrons and blushing maidens.

“The Hero of Lepanto” was no youthful soldier breathing lustily the

battle-smoke but an aged warrior of fourscore years and more--one

more exponent of the vigour of old age so characteristic of Venetian

manhood. He wiped out the disgrace of Cyprus, for Turkish standards

flew proudly from the tall flagstaffs before St Mark’s. Great was the

loss of precious lives to Venice--great their glory too!

A grand _Andata_, or Progress, swept the Doge and Dogaressa within

the portals of the Basilica, upon the feast of Santa Giustina--the

heroine patron of the Republic. Four days of religious processions and

four nights of craft-pageantry kept all Venice in a whirl of enthusiasm

such as she had not experienced for many a day. Whether solemn “_Te

Deum_” or hilarious odes to Victory held the citizens most strongly,

it was hard to say.

Whilst the Spaniards under their princely admiral, Don Juan, evinced

a spirit of apathy, quite unworthy of this military renown, the

Pontiff,--the other ally of Venice,--crowned the eulogy of Marco

Antonio Colonna, his Chief in Command, by the bestowal of the “Golden

Rose” upon the noble Doge and Dogaressa. Amid all the jubilation and

marks of high esteem Doge Sebastiano Venier and Dogaressa Cecilia

Contarini-Venier maintained a dignified bearing and modestly sought

the seclusion of their palace. There, deputations followed in quick

succession from friendly States and Cities. The Brescian embassy,

in particular, came full of “gratitude for precious services and in

token of the devotion and infinite love felt for his Serenity by all

the citizens of our city.” Calling at the Casa Venier the envoys were

received first of all by the Dogaressa without ceremony, who told them

that the Doge was upstairs in his study and said:--“I much fear he

will be unwilling to accept your offering but I will go and hear what

he says.” The reply was couched in grateful terms but, whilst he was

pleased to possess a trifling recognition of his small services, he

politely declined the costly shield of beaten copper, and the case of

rare old Brescian wine.

Sebastiano Venier was the third Doge of his family, brother of Doge

Francesco Venier, 1554–1556,--a family ennobled among the thirty by the

_Serrar del Consiglio_, in 1289. Dogaressa Cecilia belonged to

the renowned “Apostolic” family of Contarini, and was married in 3rd

June 1544, in the Church of Santa Maria degl’Angeli at Murano. Doge

Venier and she were busily engaged in working out the order of the

ceremonial to be observed at the Coronation when he was struck down

suddenly by paralysis on 3rd March 1578. He died within the year of his

election, and he was buried in the choir of the Church of his Nuptials.

Sebastiano Venier must be accounted the Twelfth “Grand” Doge of Venice.

The Lords of the Council grieved greatly at his demise and unanimously

agreed to accord to the widowed Dogaressa a pension of four hundred

gold ducats per annum, and made provisions for her similar to those

bestowed upon Dogaressa Zilia Dandolo-Priuli in 1559--“in happy

memory of noble Prince Sebastiano Venier.” Her residence, her

household, her visits in the City, her gondola, and even her dress,

were all prescribed by rigid but benevolent conventions. In the

“_Cerimoniali_” (1464–1592) are two figures of Dogaressa Cecilia

Contarini-Venier, along with those of Dogaressas Zilia Dandolo-Priuli

and Loredana Marcello-Mocenigo, all in full State robes and also in

widow’s weeds. Her death and burial have not been recorded.

Nicolo da Ponte, who succeeded the heroic Doge, was cast in quite

another kind of mould. He was an ecclesiastic in proclivity if not in

ordination, a theologian of high order and renown, but by no means an

adherent politically of the Papal See. He represented the Republic,

along with the Patriarch, at the Ecumenical Council of Trent. He

actually refused to allow the Pope’s Nuncio to inspect the Venetian

monasteries and affirmed the prerogative of the Patriarch of Venice on

that behalf. The Doge’s Consort was Madonna Arcangela Canali, but there

is nothing to record of her or of her family.

Possibly Doge da Ponte is best remembered by the kindly part he played

in the romance of bewitching Bianca Cappello. Deceived and deserted by

a good-for-nothing young Florentine banker’s clerk the young mother

became a “_Cosa di Francesco_”--the Grand Duke of Tuscany. For

years a price was put upon her head, but time is fruitful of revenge,

and the daughter of proud Cavaliere Bartolommeo Cappello,--disowned

by him, and outlawed by the State,--was, ten years later, created “a

True and Special Daughter of Venice.” The Doge wrote as follows to the

Grand Duke on 16th June 1579:--“We are thrilled with the greatest

pleasure ... when we learn that your Highness has chosen such a wife on

account of her distinguished virtues.”

The Grand Duchess’ marriage and Coronation were splendidly celebrated

in Florence. Doge da Ponte was specially represented and the noble

ambassadors Cavaliere Giovanni Michielo and Antonio Tiepolo bestowed

upon the Queenly bride, in the name of the Council, a costly crown of

gold and jewels, a rich cincture of solid gold, and a superb ruby ring.

Venice also gave her “Daughter” a glorious necklace of diamonds, worth

ten thousand gold ducats. Bianca loved Francesco and no other man, and

her devotion was returned quite as faithfully. The power she exercised

was wholly for his good and for the welfare of his sovereignty; and she

lives, in unbiassed history, as the inspirer of most of the noble works

which marked the reign of the last “Grand Medici!” Infatuated, he wrote

of her:--

“A shining gem from Heaven’s treasury

Hath Mother Human Nature taken

And, wrapping it in a silken veil,

Hath sweetly bestowed it on Florence--

Saying,--‘To thee, fairest one, I give

This beauteous Flora, choice gift of value.’”

Torquato Tasso, her Poet-laureate, celebrated her beauty and

benignity:--

“Bianca--the new ‘Sun of Florence’

Causes all things worthy to be done

Sun she is--no moon, pale and sad

Flashing with splendours of Charity.”

The Grand Duchess Bianca Cappello-Medici was the third and last

“Daughter of Venice.” That tender title had first been bestowed by the

Republic upon Donna Ginevra, daughter of Messir Matteo Tiepolo, Podesta

of Belluno, who was married in 1503 to Signore Giovanni Sforza, Lord of

Pesaro. He died a few months after their nuptials and she entered the

Convent of San Pietro de’ Fiorentini. Girl-like she soon wearied of the

life of the cloister, and, renouncing her vows, she once more entered

the world of fashion and romance. Many a suitor offered her his hand,

and heart and purse, but she would not be again a wife, and she ended

her days the inmate of a convent--that of San Nicolo di Murano.

The second “Daughter of Venice” was of course Donna Caterina Conaro,

Queen of Cyprus, Jerusalem and Armenia. Pathos of the deepest was

blended with the splendour of the _rôle_ she was called upon to

play, and with the romance of her later days. The daughter of Messir

Conaro or Corner of the “Evangelistic” noble family, which gave four

Doges to Venice, Donna Caterina, in 1468, was betrothed, when only

fourteen years of age, to Giacomo di Lusignano, King of Cyprus. It was

said that he had the pick of fifty eligible brides, but chose Donna

Caterina Conaro by way of paying off the mortgage on his island kingdom

held by Messir Marco Conaro and his partners: a sum of a hundred

thousand gold ducats was written off as her hypothetic dowry. King

James died in 1473, the year after their marriage, and Queen Caterina

bore his posthumous son six months later. Rivals for the throne

fought for the child and against one another,--even in the Queen’s

bed-chamber,--and then she was rescued by an expedition from Venice,

but her babe died in her arms upon the homeward voyage.

Venice seized the kingdom, rendered royal honours to her “Daughter,”

and assigned her a palace and a regal maintenance at the Castle of

Asolo in the Marca Trivigiana. There she reigned over a miniature

Court of cultured and distinguished men and women, where literature

and romance played many parts. The leader of her revels and symposia

was Pietro Bembo, who in his “_Gli Asolani_” discourses after

the manner of Giovanni Boccaccio of love, pleasure, and philosophy.

The while he was writing sonnets to his Queen and bending his knee in

homage he was carrying on a liaison with the Princess Lucrezia Borgia,

and then by her influence he was created a Cardinal,--an example of

ecclesiastical incontinence. Gentile Bellini, in his master-piece

at the Venice Accademia, “The Miracle of the Cross,” painted Queen

Caterina and many of the ladies and gentlemen of her Court. The faces

are life studies, the costumes regal in magnificence.

Queen Caterina was treated with the utmost distinction by all

Venetians, and when she died, in 1510, her remains were accorded

honours similar to those rendered to a departed Dogaressa. She was

first buried in the church of SS. Apostoli and then translated, in

1665, to San Salvatore. Over her coffin Andrea Navagero pronounced a

remarkable oration in which he extolled the Queen’s beauty, grace, and

gentleness, her goodness, erudition, and constancy. With Pietro Bembo,

in one of his delightful _Canzone_ may we sing of her:--

“Non si vedra giammai stanca ne sazia

Questa mia penna Amore,

Di renderti, Signore,

Del tuo cotanto onore alcuna grazia:

A cui pensando volentier si spazia

Per la memoria il cuore,

E vede ’l tuo valore

Ond ’ci prende vigore e te ringrazia.”

A “Daughter of Venice” was of course a Dogaressa in rank, hence brief

stories of the three Venetian Queen-Graces, Ginevra, Caterina and

Bianca, are by no means superfluous in the “_Libro d’Oro delle

Dogaresse di Venezia_.”

Three years of unbroken peace followed the death of Doge Nicolo da

Ponte in 1588, under the administration of Doge Pasquale Cicogna. The

Dogaressa was Madonna Laura Morosini. He was the son of an apothecary,

ennobled after the Genoese War of Chioggia: she was of an “Apostolic”

family, but nothing is recorded of her. The Doge was reckoned as a

parsimonious and unsympathetic sort of man, and was very unpopular with

the citizens by reason of his niggardliness in the matter of largesse

at his election Progress through the Piazza. Their tomb is at Santa

Maria de’ Gesuiti, where he and his Consort lie side by side peacefully

sleeping.

IV

At the very end of the sixteenth century one more resplendent Dogaressa

passed through Venice in solemn State to her Coronation--Signora

Morosina Morosini-Grimani. She was a daughter of Messir Andrea

Morosini, the head of the senior branch of the second family in the

highest grade of nobility,--the “Apostolic,”--members of which grade

had come to be looked upon not only as merchant-princes, but as Princes

of the State. She was married to Messir Marino Grimani, from her

father’s house, Palazzo Morosini (now Sangredo), upon the Grand Canal,

in the no longer existent church of San Cristoforo on 27th November

1560.

[Illustration: DOGARESSA MOROSINA MOROSINI-GRIMANI.

Giovanni Contarini. 1599.

VILLA PISANO, VESCOVANA, PADUA.]

The newly-married pair set up housekeeping in splendid fashion in the

Palazza Grimani (now the Court of Appeal). Messir Marino Grimani was

one of the very foremost Venetians who plumed themselves as being “the

first gentlemen in Europe not considering it a disgrace to be merchants

as well.” The fruits of his commercial success were displayed, not

only in the appointments of the palace, but in the delights of his

lovely villa-gardens at Santa Caterina, with their lovely views over

the lagunes to Murano and her sister isles. Madonna Morosina shared her

husband’s al fresco tastes, for her father’s gardens at San Canciano

were as charming as any of those Venetian beauty-spots.

Messir Marino was the popular candidate for the throne, left vacant by

the death of Doge Pasquale Cicogna. He was famed for his generosity and

was especially delighted to provide entertainment for poor people and

their families. His election by the “Forty” was unanimous: probably

the gracious Madonna Morosina, her personality, her refinement, and

her wit, had a good deal to do with the decision! Maintaining his

reputation for magnificent hospitality the new Doge furnished banquets

for three whole days to every working man and woman in Venice.

His Election Progress around the Piazza was accompanied by lavish

largesse, and, not satisfied with what his suite scattered broadcast,

the amiable Dogaressa, accompanied by her three daughters, from the

State balcony of the Ducal Palace, threw handfuls of silver and copper

coins among the crowds in the Piazza. Not only was the Doge generous

and the Dogaressa affable, but he was pompous and she ambitious. They

determined that her Entry in State and her Coronation should surpass

anything yet “seen in Venice.”

The spirit of going-one-better-than-one’s-neighbours, was a very

strongly marked characteristic of Venetians all through their history.

Certainly there was something of vulgarity in the idea, but there was

also distinction in the realisation. If the Doge and Dogaressa were

high and mighty sort of people their elevation also raised the tone of

society, and materially improved the condition of employment. Hence the

public were quite responsive to the call of their Serenities.

The pageant, or “Triumph” of Dogaressa Morosina Morosini-Grimani

was postponed until May 1597, in order that the new appointments,

decorations, and personal adornments, might be made as splendid as

possible. Every craftsman and craftswoman went to work with a will, and

nobody cared in the least about any sumptuary laws of the past nor any

other arbitrary indictment. The “Forty” and the “Ten” made no move and

consequently everything went on with the greatest equanimity.

One new feature was noted with respect to the Dogaressa and her

Coronation--the delivery, printing, and circulation broadcast, of

elegant and eloquent panegyrics. Commissions were eagerly accepted by

poets, orators, and publishers--one of these effusions, as an example,

ran as follows:--

“O magnanimous Duchess

O most glorious grand Duke

No such two Divinities

Ere have gladden’d Venice skies!”

The Dogaressa was addressed by her admirers as “Most Singular and Most

Serene Lady, words fail to assure your Highness of the devotion of your

enthusiastically admiring servants.” Much the same high-flown sentiment

distinguishes Palazzi’s pack of Playing-cards, for, on the Knight of

Coins (Diamonds), we read:--“The Coronation of Morosina Morosini, wife

of Doge Marino Grimani Anno 1597. She commands not alone herself but

she is Mistress of a mighty Empire.”

Upon the morning of her “Triumph” the Dogaressa, attended by four

hundred young noblewomen, all beautifully dressed in white silk

lace,--in honour of her Serenity’s patronage of Burano,--and

covered with newly-mounted jewels,--each girl an animated miniature

Golconda--took her place upon a dais in the great hall of the Grimani

palace,--lately completed (1581) by the famous architect Sammichieli.

The walls of the noble apartment were hung with a novel and effective

decoration,--stamped leather, gilded and emblazoned. This was a new

artistic adjunct in princely mansions lately introduced from Cordoba

in Spain. The vogue spread at once in Venice, and, before the end of

the century, it was computed that three thousand skilled workers were

employed by the Guild of Leather-merchants, and a sum of one hundred

thousand gold ducats was added to their annual revenues.

Meanwhile a lordly deputation had been despatched by the “Forty” to

salute “The First Lady of Venice” and bespeak her acceptance of the

_Promissione_, and thereafter to escort her on her solemn Entry.

The noble Lords found her Serenity sumptuously attired in tissue of

fine gold with an immense State mantle of cloth of gold embroidered

all over with silver floral designs in high relief,--quite a novel

and truly rich production of Venetian brains and Venetian hands. It

was reported that this magnificent robe was manufactured under the

Dogaressa’s personal directions and after her own design.

The cap of the new _Corno_ was of the same costly material, the

coronal was a mass of immense precious stones, and from underneath

it fell a delicate veil of white silk lace shot with gold and silver

threads and heavily spangled with jewels. Upon her open bosom, lightly

covered with a fichu of priceless Burano lace sewn with pearls, reposed

a flashing cross of brilliants, suspended by a very exquisitely

interlaced chain of burnished gold. Her fingers were covered with

gemmed rings, which her Serenity was very careful not to hide within a

pair of beautifully embroidered gloves held by one of her ladies.

The ceremony of the presentation of the _Promissione_ was soon over,

and, in return, the Dogaressa personally handed to each noble Lord

of the deputation the customary gift of a purse of cloth of gold

containing, not the usual number of gold ducats, but a special

token--an _osella_ of gold, after the example of Doge Antonio Grimani,

her Consort’s great-uncle, in 1521. The _osella_ had, on the obverse,

a profile in relief of the Dogaressa wearing the Ducal _Corno_, with

her name “Mavrocena Mavioceni:” upon the reverse was a raised wreath of

laurel encircling the legend:--“Manus Mavrocenæ Grimanæ Ducessæ: Venet:

1597.”

The “_Bucintoro_” received on board just such another illustrious

company as that which graced the water-pageant of Dogaressa Zilia

Dandolo-Priuli forty years before. The costumes of the suite

were richer and in better taste than those of Dogaressa Zilia’s

Court;--cloth of silver sewn with pearls and raised flowers in gold

looked more delicate than the customary heavy cloth of gold. The

palaces, the dwelling-houses, and the churches by the Canal, were

all lavishly decorated upon a uniform and beautiful plan. Coronation

favours, bestowed upon all applicants at the Doge’s command, imparted a

note of festivity quite striking but harmonious. Venice for the nonce

became the city of the Morosini-Grimani; but, perhaps, some of the

noble Lords regarded these tokens of popularity with uneasy minds; they

had, in all their generations, a wholesome dread of a personal Ducal

rule.

The pageant on the Canal was the most remarkable ever undertaken by

the Trade-Guilds. Almost every gondola and barca was formed into a

fabled beast of the earth or some fearsome sea monster. The whole Court

of Parnassus was enlisted in honour of the Dogaressa, and the Gods

and Goddesses floated proudly and quaintly by. An immense fleet of

_bregantini_,--great vessels with sweeps,--filled with spectators

of all classes, followed in the wake of the “_Bucintoro_.” Once

more the ripples of the quiet tideway were charged with sweetest

perfumes, and covered with flowers--mostly damask roses--the floral

emblem of Morosini.

The ceremonies of the Landing, in the Basilica, and in the Ducal

Palace, were all performed with splendour, and the Dogaressa retired

to her private apartments to remove her heavy State robes and assume

her ball-costume--for, of course, dancing was the finale of all Court

functions. Dogaressa Morosina’s ball was unique and historical:

all Venice danced where there was any room, for every place was

crowded--more than two hundred thousand visitors had to be accommodated

somewhere or other. Dancing platforms were erected upon ranges of

barges on the canals, and Venice sang and danced--danced and sang,

the livelong night in ecstasy. Within the Ducal Palace the _Sala

dello Scrutino_ was set apart for refreshments of the choicest

kind. The old Greek menus, which had delighted the sybaritic Romans of

Mecænas’ time were revived. At the great banquet, given by the Doge and

Dogaressa to the dignitaries of the Church and State, and the foreign

Princes and Ambassadors, there were forty-seven courses, beginning with

spiced sturgeon and ending with “apples of Paradise.”

The day after the Coronation was occupied in giving and viewing

presents. To every noble and gentle person assisting at the ceremonies,

the Doge and Dogaressa gave an _osella_, to the officials and

domestics gifts of golden ducats, to the worthy poor hospitable spreads

of good cheer. Pope Clement VIII. sent a Legate with a “Golden Rose”

to the Dogaressa and a jewelled _Corno_ to the Doge. The Duke of Savoy

offered a massive belt of thirty golden rosettes covered with fine

pearls, but it was incontinently seized by the _Provvidetori delle

Pompe_, possibly as a mean protest just to show their power! Many other

costly gifts found their way into the hands and the collection of the

Most Serene couple.

On the third day was held a grand naval review before the island of San

Giorgio Maggiore, in which ships of England, Holland, and Flanders took

part. A regatta and aquatic sports were contested between the native

gondoliers and marines, and the foreign sailors, dressed severally in

white and red costumes. The contention was the keenest of the keen.

The Nicolotti and Castellani mainly held their own, but when some of

their men were defeated, their wives drove them home with sticks and

banter:--“_Va! Va! Via di quid, parca, infame vituperoso!_”

In the evening all Venice was illuminated, and we can very well imagine

the glory and the eerieness of the spectacle,--Venice,--standing in

and out of the water, the serenity of a May night over her, and her

flashing moving gondola lights was like the city of a dream, the home

of Gods and fairies.

“A City magical in splendour

Rising out the light beyond the Sea.”

All through the eleven-years _dogado_ of Doge Marino Grimani, peaceful

and prosperous conditions were the lot of a busy people. The arts and

crafts had reached the apogee of their fame. The Dogaressa was the

patroness especially of the lace-workers of Burano,--following the

example of Dogaressa Dandolo-Malipiero of a hundred and forty years

ago. Moreover she headed a committee of noble ladies to encourage the

delightful craft among the gentlewomen of Venice.

Doge Marino Grimani died in 1608, and the widowed Dogaressa gave

herself to works of piety,--for example she restored the church of

San Sebastiano. She survived her Consort eight years and died on the

21st of January 1613–1614--directing in her will that her body should

not be embalmed. The funeral was a State function, recalling that of

Dogaressa Zilia Dandolo-Priuli, at SS. Giovanni e Paolo, where an

impassioned oration was pronounced:--“_Illinc clamor, hinc silentium:

illinc lætitia, hinc mæmor: illinc ludi, hinc lacrymæ_.” The Doge

and Dogaressa took their long last sleep under the splendid monument by

Girolamo Compagna, in the simple church of San Giuseppe di Castello,

just beneath the splendid picture by Tintoretto of “St Michael slaying

the Dragon,” which the Doge had commissioned, and wherein he is

represented kneeling in the red robes and ermine of a Captain of the

“Forty.”

In “The Merchant of Venice,” Shakespeare, in two concise paragraphs,

illustrates quite characteristically the prosperity and peace enjoyed

by the Venetians at the end of the sixteenth century:--

“The trade and prosperity of the City

Consisteth of all nations----”

Act III., Scene iv.

“How sweet the moonlight sleeps upon the bank!

Here will we sit, and let the sounds of music

Creep on our ears. Softest stillness and thought

Become the touches of sweet harmony....”

Act I., Scene iv.

CHAPTER VIII

I

The Sun of Venice had set! Her bright gold was turned to tarnished

brass, her jewels had lost their lustre, and her pearls were moribund!

Yet she lingered on for many and many a year--well-nigh two hundred.

The beacons of the lagunes and the shrines on the canals burnt dimly,

and the incense in the churches seemed to have lost its aroma.

Sighs and yawns from dispirited and indolent citizens indicated the

dissolution of her industries. Brawls and disputes were exchanged for

courtly greetings: gambling dens and brothels prostituted men and women

once renowned for temperance and probity.

A lingering death is always the most distressing, both for the

individual and the watchers standing by: this was to be the melancholy

ending of the “Queen of the Adriatic.” Nevertheless, as with the man,

so with the City, lucid intervals recurred and hopeful rallies, wherein

episodes, pathetic and stirring, moved the torpid brain and feeble

pulse. Venice was “_Venus Calva_” at her birth--so would she die.

Each year saw her robbed of some possession, each year saw her enemies

closing more nearly in, each year saw foreigners compressing more and

more her markets; and yet, men came and went, and women too, who moved

the body politic mightily, and made the lookers-on wonder whether,

after all, the Lion of Saint Mark was dying or only sleeping.

Heavy-footed were those decadent years, they took their step from the

dismal tramp of mourners at the frequent obsequies of the Doges and

Dogaressas. The great bell of the Basilica, announcing year after year,

or nearly so, with muffled knell the demise of a Chief Magistrate came

to be listened to without emotion. In some hearts, perhaps beating more

loyally than the rest, were pangs of remorse for a glorious past never

to return, and misgivings for a fateful future fraught with fears, but

patriotism, honour, and devotion, were the precious possession of a

dwindling minority.

Between 1605 and the end of the Republic in 1797, thirty-one Doges

mounted the Ducal throne in turn: their names and dates we know,

but very little about their deeds or the times in which they

lived,--history was silent. Of their Consorts ten only are known by

name and nothing much beside: only four or five of them, in one hundred

and ninety years, have left any record in the “_Libro d’Oro delle

Dogaresse di Venezia_.”

The men and women of Venice had become a little less animated and

articulate than the face cards in a pack. Indeed the end of Venice was

much like the popular game of “_La Trappola_,” in which thirty-six

cards out of the fifty-two were used--the mother of the present-day

whist. The suits were four:--“_Spade_,”--Swords, or Spades,--threatened

the faint-hearted; _Coppe_,--Cups or Hearts,--suggested delights to

the perceiving; _Denari_,--Coins or Diamonds,--hinted at profitable

investments; and _Bastoni_,--Sticks or Clubs,--promised punishment

to the dishonest. Venice was a card-table, and Venetians were content

to prolong their enervating leisure, beguiled by the chance of the

“_Naibi_,”--tricks,--so named by their children in imitative games.

Certainly the craftsmen and craftswomen still wove rich lengths

of cloth of gold, the goldsmiths still made precious jewels, the

glass-blowers still produced their fragile virgin-ware, the lacemakers

their delicate network, and the hairdressers still turned, tossed,

and frizzed, rare strands of golden hair; but princely patronesses

at the Ducal Palace were few and unresplendent. The painters went on

painting--Canaletto, Guardi, and Longhi, were, in their time, quite as

characteristic and far more topical than were Tintoretto, Veronese, and

Palma Vecchio, but palette-masters as well as sculptors and architects,

were clients of the Doges not of the Dogaressas.

The 10th of January 1645, was a black-letter day for women’s art

and artifice in Venice. The Council issued an edict forbidding

the Coronation of the Dogaressa as a “_cosa non neccessaria_!”

Apparently her Serenity was not to be denied the solemn Entry, but

even that stately function was to be curtailed of much of its pomp

and circumstance. The “_Bucintoro_” was not to be used, the solemn

Benediction in the Basilica was discouraged, and the Ducal Palace was

closed against the wonted exhibitions of the Trade-Guilds.

[Illustration: THE GAME OF LA TRAPPOLA.

Michelino da Bedozzo.

PALAZZO BONARDO, MILAN.]

After Doge Marino Grimani there followed a dogal line of ten very old

men,--all octogenarians,--one after the other, halting to their waiting

graves,--striking but lamentable figures of the decay and death

of Venice. Whether eight of them were widowers we know not, but only

two Dogaressas’ names are recorded,--Signore Elena Barbarigo-Priuli

(1618–1623), and Chiara Delfino-Conaro (1625–1629). Those ten old

Doges were mostly parsimonious, very weary of life, and generally

uninteresting, and probably their wives and families were as prosaic

and uninteresting as themselves.

There was however something naively burlesque in the decision of

Dogaressa Paolina Loredano-Contarini, the Consort of Doge Carlo

Contarini (1655–1656), not to appear in any public ceremonial. She was

an immensely stout woman and unusually plain-looking, and she feared

that the salutations of the populace would not partake of their usually

complimentary character. Venetians had an innate sense of humour,

and personal peculiarities appealed irresistibly to their risible

faculties. Dogaressa or not, she would undoubtedly have been the butt

of ridicule!

Palazzi in his “_Fasti Ducales_” says of her, “_non volvendo mostrarsi

in publico_.” He adds that on the façade of the church of San Vitale,

Guiseppe Guoccola sculptured the busts of Doge Carlo and Dogaressa

Paolina Contarini, placed there in gratitude for their noble bequests

to the clergy. He also records that Madonna Paolina Loredano, the

daughter of Messir Lorenzo Loredano, of the Ducal line, was married

to Messir Carlo Contarini on 22nd February 1600, in the Church of San

Polo--so they were blessed to see their golden jubilee.

Seven undistinguished Doges followed Doge Carlo Contarini, during

thirty-two years--1656–1688. The names of only three Dogaressas are

noted:--Signore Andriana Priuli-Conaro (1656), Elisabetta Pisani-Valier

(1656–1658), and Lucia Barbarigo-Pesaro (1658–1659); but we know

nothing more about them.

In 1688 Venice roused herself once more to welcome home, with

enthusiastic honours, one of the greatest generals she had ever

produced--Cavaliere Francesco Morosini. Thrice he bore the grand rank

of Captain-General of the Venetian fleet, and thrice he carried her

colours nobly on to victory. The twenty-five years’ war with Turkey

for the possession of Candia gave the Admiral and his devoted forces

rare opportunities for the display of patriotism and prowess, and right

worthily they acquitted themselves. The worsted Turks were compelled to

yield the Morea and its classical sites to the victorious Venetians.

That was the rare gift Francesco Morosini laid at the feet of the aged

“Queen of the Adriatic.”

No foreign conquest for many a long year had been scored to Venetian

arms, and she had lost all that she had fought for; but now new life,

new hope, new enterprise swept over _canali_, _campi_, and _case_.

Every man was a soldier or sailor, every boy an embryo hero. Turkish

flags again waved before the Basilica, Turkish prisoners again filled

the Arsenal, Turkish treasures again were poured out upon the Lido. The

Captain-General’s return was a triumph. Greeted by nobles and citizens

in unison, he was dubbed “_Peloponesiaco_,” and lifted tumultuously

upon the Ducal throne,--lately vacated by the death of Doge Marcantonio

Giustiniani.

Alas, we know not whether a jubilant Dogaressa shared his honours.

Possibly the valiant hero had had little or no time during his lifelong

service to the State for serious love-making, and though, by a sailor’s

licence, he may have had a wife in every port, no _cicisbeo_ or

_patita_ was possible as Dogaressa. Relics of Doge Francisco Morosini

may be seen at the Museo Civico, his tomb is in San Stefano, and a

triumphal arch, erected in his honour by the Government, is within the

_Sala del Scrutino_ of the Ducal Palace.

If the hero Doge had no Consort, his successor was more fortunate:

indeed Doge Silvestro Valier (1694–1700), lives in history upon the

fair fame of his wife--many rulers of States and lesser magnates

have had the same fortunate experience. We may read, in relation to

Dogaressa Elisabetta Quirini-Valier, the true old saying “manners

maketh man” as woman maketh man!

In spite of the prohibition of 1645 the new First Lady of Venice made

her solemn Entry and was crowned with all the usual ceremonies. On the

4th of March 1694, the Dogaressa, robed in a great State mantle of

cloth of gold trimmed with sable, and wearing upon her head a white

lace veil and a jewelled _Corno_, with a collar and pendant cross of

diamonds, and attended by a numerous suite of gentlewomen, awaited the

deputation of salutation from the Council of “Forty.” Her _osella_ had

her profile in relief and the legend:--“_Elisabetta Quirina-Valeria

Ducissa Venetiarum 1694_.” Her progress from the Palazzo Valier to the

Ducal Palace has not been described, but it appears that her assumption

of the _Corno_ gave umbrage to the _Provvidetori delle Pompe_, and

other captious critics, for a curious enactment of the Council, on

13th July 1700, forbade the Dogaressa wearing at any time a _Corno_ on

her head.

Doge Silvestro Valier and Dogaressa Elisabetta Quirini-Valier had been

married in the church of Santa Maria Formosa, on the 18th of July 1649:

consequently they lived to celebrate their golden wedding in 1699.

In the case too of Dogaressa Elisabetta another restriction of the

_Promissione_ was cancelled--her right to receive foreign ambassadors.

Surrounded by her Court of maids of honour and gentlewomen-in-waiting,

she entertained all the envoys in turn accredited to Venice, and

moreover, accepted at their hands costly gifts against all the

prohibitory clauses of State decrees.

At the Museo Civico is a putative portrait of the Dogaressa. She has

fair hair entwined with silver thread, perhaps to foil the natural

silver strands, her features retain traces of distinction and of

beauty. Her skin is pale, her eyes bright, and she wears an air of

repose and refinement with no little natural dignity of carriage.

Several of her letters have been preserved, wherein she shows herself

to have been a woman of sympathetic and charitable disposition, but of

retiring and unassuming manners.

Doge Sebastiano Valier died in 1700, and was buried near the second

altar in the right aisle of SS. Giovanni e Paolo, under the enormous

monument erected by his father, Doge Betruccio Valier, who died in

1658. There too, eight years after, the widowed Dogaressa was laid

to rest. Her memorial statue by Giovanni Bonazza represents her as

a large and wrinkled woman, with elaborate curls round her face,

and covered to her feet with brocade, furs, laces, embroidery, and

jewels--something perchance like a Venetian replica of our own

Elisabeth! The epitaph is as follows:--“_Elisabetta Quirini Silvestri

Conjux, Romana virtute, Veneta Pietate, et Ducale Corona Insignis.

Obiit MDCCVIII._”

II

The seventeenth century in Venice, was essentially one of lean years,

strangely contrasting with the exuberant life of its predecessor;

whilst the eighteenth century saw eight decades of disaster, famine,

and death! Candia, the only remaining jewel in the crown of Venice,

was rudely snatched from its tarnished setting and no effort was

forthcoming to regain the lost treasure. Everything went from bad to

worse. The nobles unblushingly proclaimed their contempt for commerce

and conquest. The armed bands of the Republic were not maintained as a

fighting force, and the ships of war were allowed to rot and rust at

their anchorage. The citizens, imitating the madness of their betters,

allowed industry and trade to slip through their fingers; and ceased to

care when foreign capitalists and foreign workmen settled down among

them, and exploited their looms and tools.

Pleasure, extravagance, gaming, and immorality, ate like foul cancers

into the vitals of society.

The one and only aim of Venetians of every class was to dissipate

the splendid heritage and spend the resources of their ancestors. A

noble would light-heartedly wager his bank-balance, his estate, his

palace and his all, on some ephemeral passion; and yet the gaiety

of life was never so effulgent in the city of Venus. Venice was the

plaything of Europe, the pantomime of Italy, and the shadow-dance of

herself--bewitching in her heedless spendthrift self-indulgence, a

whirling _ballerina_, scattering her favours, her kisses, and her

pleas for plaudits everywhere.

The first eight Doges of the eighteenth century passed sadly across the

Dogal pageant ground,--“lean, slippered pantaloons” as Shakespeare has

it, or little better. With them went solitarily and unemotionally but

two Dogaressas--Signora Laura Conaro-Conaro, 1709–1722, and Signora

Elena Badoero-Pisano, 1735–1741. The last we know only by her name,

and yet that name is a golden one, for was not the family of Badoero

or Partecipazio, the very first of all the nobility, and was not her

great ancestor, Agnello Partecipazio, the first Maker and the first

“Grand Doge of Venice!” Donna Laura Conaro, daughter of Messir or

Cavaliere, Nicolo Conaro,--all the men of Venice claimed knightly rank

in her decadent days,--married Messir, or Cavaliere Giovanni Conaro,

her cousin, on 11th October 1667, in the church of Gli Gesuati. She

appears to have been a very proper sort of woman: at all events the

fast life of the nobles and their ladies had no charms for her, and

she set her face resolutely against the extravagances and indecencies

around her. Consequently, when Doge Giovanni Conaro died in 1722, the

Dogaressa entered Religion and became a postulant of the Order of the

Augustinians of SS. Gervaso e Protasio. There she passed the residue of

her days in fasting, praying, and alms-giving, being consoled greatly

by the visits of her three devoted sons, Francesco, Nicolo, and Alvise,

whom she received within her narrow cell with its little iron-barred

window.

The devout Signora had retained,--rather contrary to any vow of poverty

she may have taken,--a quantity of personal belongings--money, articles

in gold and silver, and other valuables: these she bequeathed to the

Prioress of the Convent, the Reverend Mother Maria Lucia. In a purse

were found one thousand six hundred and ninety-four _zecchini_,--small

silver coins,--another purse contained one hundred and forty gold

ducats. Among the treasures were crosses, reliquaries, candlesticks,

salvers, sconces, _pomi_ or hand-warmers, bowls, knives, forks, spoons,

flagons, vases, medals, thimbles, toilet-boxes and brushes, trays,

inkstands, etc. etc., all of pure and beautifully wrought silver.

In a chest of drawers, were articles of jewellery, silver filigree

work, gold medals, and very many other objects,--lover’s offerings,

curios, and rock-crystal beads. Among the personal ornaments were

bracelets, rings, and necklaces of diamonds and turquoises. Perhaps the

most unexpected property was the Signora’s gilded walnut bedstead, with

its coverlet of silk and gold, edged with rare Burano point-lace and

gold and silver fringe, and lined with blue and yellow Chinese satin.

In a cedar coffer were found a rich robe of crimson velvet worked with

gold, a skirt of pink satin trimmed with silver lace, and other costly

garments, but, alas, they were all in rags and tatters,--eloquent

tokens of the rottenness and emptiness of earthly glory.

Dogaressa Laura, quietly and unregretfully laid aside the robes of

State, to die and to be buried in the sackcloth of humility, may she

rest in peace. Ten years after reverent hands had laid “Sister” Laura

in her humble grave, within the burial-plot of the Convent, two other

hands were clasped in the joyous pledge of matrimony,--Cavaliere

Giovanni Alvise Mocenigo, Procurator of San Marco, and Donna Pisana

Conaro, daughter of Messir Federico Conaro, who, on 5th October 1739,

were made man and wife together, in the new and sumptuous church of

Santa Maria del Salute. This was an alliance of the two most powerful

families of the time, and great things were expected from the union.

The “_Archivio Privato di Mocenigo_” contains an inventory of Donna

Pisana’s trousseau, which gives an excellent idea of the expensive

splendour of the wedding outfit of a noble bride.

Cavaliere Mocenigo’s sister, Paolina, had married Prince Trivulzio of

Milan, and she, despite her rank, undertook to purchase at first-hand

things of beauty and joy for the bride-elect. From Milan went gold

brocades and silver silken stuffs of crimson, blue, and pearl colour,

embroidered with gold and silver. Paris supplied bodices, fichus and

tippets of rich corded silk worked with floral designs in gold and

silver, silk handkerchiefs, collarettes, and sleeves of lace and gold

and silver thread, and toilet appointments in gold and silver. Antwerp

contributed caps, collars and cuffs, of the finest linen thread and

linen articles for the toilet--perhaps also underclothing, although

not named--ladies were perhaps not so particular then as now in this

respect! From England came a gold repeater-watch with a jewelled chain,

and many more articles in metal. Home industries were not overlooked

for the bill for Burano _punto in aria_, reached six hundred and

sixty gold ducats. The total value, not including magnificent jewels

and other splendid items of the goldsmith’s craft, exceeded twenty

thousand gold ducats!

In 1763, Cavaliere Giovanni Alvise Mocenigo was unanimously elected

Doge by the Council of Forty, and the people acquiesced in his election

without demur. The new Doge determined to revive the ceremonies of

the sixteenth Century, and the “Forty” appear to have offered no

opposition,--indeed they were quite favourable to the project. The

_Promissione_ contained several notable clauses with respect to the

privileges and honours pertaining to the new Dogaressa. Three days

before the election of the Doge the Council decreed that the solemn

Entry should be conducted with traditional full State. Her Serenity’s

robes of State were to be fashioned on the old-time models, although

she was forbidden to assume the _Corno_. Her right to accept the

offerings of the Trade-Guilds, of Ambassadors, and others, was

acknowledged.

Upon the morning of her “Triumph,” 22nd April, the Council despatched

the Secretaries of State to greet the new First Lady. One of them,

Messir Cesare Vignola, offered a flattering address, in the name of

the Council, praising her virtues and extolling her charms:--“Your

Serenity has the noble and particular admiration of all the Courts of

Italy, and their Excellencies look for a great revival of industry and

prosperity within the Republic under your discriminating patronage....”

The water-pageant, which conducted the Dogaressa to the Ducal Palace,

saw no “_Bucintoro_” certainly, but innumerable flotillas of decorated

barcas and gondolas. Within the _Sala di Udienza del Doge_ she was

welcomed by the nobles and State officials.

The fêtes were prolonged, as in former times, for three days, upon each

of which the Dogaressa appeared in the richest of rich costumes, and

her jewels varied with her dress. Upon the first day, after she had

removed her heavy State mantle of silver embossed cloth of gold, she

wore a _sottana_, or gown, of silver tissue overlaid with sprays of

flowers in gold relief, the bodice was covered with palettes of solid

gold with a white cincture of gold and immense brilliants, her long

veil of fine white silk lace fell from under a coronet of gold and

precious stones. She wore too the customary large pectoral cross of

diamonds and many fine gemmed rings.

Each day wound up with a Court ball, at which the Dogaressa danced

minuets in turn with each of the Procurators of San Marco. The company

included Princess Faustina Rezzonico, niece of the Pope, the wives and

daughters of the foreign ambassadors, and all the more distinguished

gentlewomen of the Court and City. Great were the public rejoicings at

this splendid revival of prestige and prosperity. Surely Venice was

once more herself,--the radiant Golden Queen,--at least a second

youth was hers. Her silver locks amongst the gold appeared to be

recoloured, wrinkles of and witherings of brow and breast vanished, her

step was once more lilting. Yes, it was even so, the last flash in the

pan,--the expiring effort of a long life. No more Dogaressas followed

in Signora Pisana Cornaro-Mocenigo’s golden pageant footsteps,--Venice

had no more honours to bestow.

[Illustration: THE FORTUNE-TELLER.

Piero Longhi. (xviii Century).

NATIONAL GALLERY. LONDON.]

It was only what might have been expected that poets, musicians,

orators, and chroniclers, should illustrate these unwonted festivities,

but alas their efforts partook of the fulsome and insincere. The Muse

of Poetry, the Spirit of Music, and the Sibyl of History were dying in

the common death: their inspirations were as the vapourings of delirium.

“Non le Reine su la cipria sponda

Del cornar germe gloriosa e forte

Domma a veder l’invita oggi la sorte

Che il sangue in te che la virtu secondo.”

Such was their tenor.

Dogaressa Pisana however herself took up her pen, and dipped it in the

ink of commonsense. The marriage of her eldest son Alvise, in 1766,

with the very youthful Donna Francesca Grimani,--granddaughter of Doge

Pietro Grimani, 1741–1752,--was a splendid affair, wherein all the

arrangements were personally superintended by the Dogaressa, and she

adds in her account “would you believe it, the expenses were more than

456,487 lire.” The marriage was in every way satisfactory, the young

couple were talented, highly educated, and very comfortably provided

for. As in most things human when fair skies are overhead, a contrary

Providence provides unlooked-for tempests, and so the joy-bells of

maternity were cruelly changed for the sad knells of mortality. The

accomplished and virtuous young wife,--she was only seventeen years of

age,--had been nursing her first-born but three short months, when, by

some accident or other, as it was reported, she fell swooning into the

fire blazing upon the mosaic hearth of her bed-chamber, and, before

help could reach her, the bride of a year perished in fearful agony.

This was a stunning grief to good Dogaressa Pisana. She eschewed all

ceremonies and mourned in secret for her dear daughter-in-law. At her

Consort’s villa at Cordignano, near Ceneda, she found consolation,

and there she braced herself for the duties of her station. Among her

papers are letters addressed to the steward of the estate, which reveal

many natural home-like touches of the simple life she loved so well.

The country folk almost worshipped the ground the noble lady trod; she

was sponsor to their children, visitor of their sick, their confidante

in sorrows and in joys. But her days too were numbered, for, on 10th

March 1769, the big bell of the Basilica announced to a sympathising

city the death of the magnanimous Dogaressa.

“Near twenty-two o’clock” wrote her Chaplain, “a severe fit of coughing

ruptured a blood-vessel in my beloved mistress’s breast and she ceased

to live.” Three days after her death the body of the Dogaressa was

carried to her burial with every mark of respect and honour. “In

death,” the same writer goes on to say, “her Serenity’s face was

beautiful and full of colour. She seemed to be wrapt in sweet repose,

and her expression betokened what she had been in her life, virtuous,

charitable and estimable....”

The funeral obsequies followed the usual custom, only her

lying-in-state was in the Basilica, not in the _Sala de’ Pioveghi_.

Four hundred yellow burning wax torches were placed around the bier and

the candles of all the altars were alight. The remains were exposed in

an open casket, wrapped in a State robe of cloth of gold, with white

kid gloves, lace sleeves, and a veil across her bosom to her feet. The

“_Requiem_” and Absolutions were sung by full choir, and the Master

of the Ceremonies, Messir Francesco Venier, pronounced the funeral

oration. An imposing procession bore the dead Dogaressa across the

Piazza and by a circuitous way to SS. Giovanni e Paolo.

Doge Alvise Mocenigo survived his beloved Consort nine years, but in

1771 he contracted a second marriage with a very young girl, Donna

Polissena, daughter of Messir Giulio Contarini-Da Mula. It does not

appear that she was accorded the position of a Dogaressa and she

resided chiefly at the Doge’s country villa, where he was wont to

gather all the young, bright and talented people he could around him.

His _dogado_ of eleven years was adorned by many cultured women, who

displayed phenomenal enthusiasm for classical study, philosophy,

poetry, and literature. Probably this was a sublime attempt on the part

of the fair sex to correct in some way the indolence and unintelligence

of their leisured men-folk. Madonna Polissena Contarini-Da

Mula-Mocenigo, was the centre of a little Court of high-souled

admirers who greeted her:--

“L’Alme tue glorie echeggiano

Ecclesa Polissena....”

There appears to have been two principal candidates for the Ducal

throne upon the death of Doge Alvise Mocenigo in 1779,--Cavaliere

Andrea Tron and Messir Paolo Renier. The former, however, was

overshadowed by a scandal affecting his wife Madonna Caterina and the

Secretary of State Antonio Gratarolo, and Renier was elected. He was

an accomplished statesman, highly talented, and very ambitious. But

his reputation very soon became assoiled by reason of the traffic he

made of posts of influence and emolument under Government. His avarice

became so grasping that it was said in Venice:--“The Doge makes the

beggars at the door of San Marco pay him for their stations!”

Doge Renier’s family had not hitherto been conspicuous for services to

the State, although it belonged to the Second grade of the nobility,

dating its enrolment from the Genoese War of 1391. His first wife,

Madonna Giustina Dona-Renier, to whom he was married on 28th April

1733, was a daughter of Messir Lionardo Dona, or Donato, a Ducal

house,--but she never became Dogaressa for her death took place in

1751, and she is buried in the church of San Antonio at Padua.

Renier however was not a widower when he stepped upon the Ducal dais

of Estate, but his spouse was not recognised in Court circles, for

she had been a rope-dancer! He had picked her up accidentally at

Constantinople, the same year that he buried Madonna Caterina: her

name was Margherita Delmaz. Friends and descendants of this marriage

had quite another story: they said Madonna Margherita had never been a

dancer or anything else of the kind. He found her, they affirmed, at

Constantinople, where he was an Agent or Consul of his Government,--in

a Catholic school for poor girls. He took her away, had her educated

at Padua, and then married her. Doge Renier signalised his elevation

to the throne by profuse distribution of largesse, hoping thereby to

pave the way for Madonna Margherita’s solemn Entry. This was never

accomplished, but “_La Falsa Dogaressa_,” as she was slightingly

called, was allowed to reside with her husband in the Ducal Palace.

The couple became more and more unpopular by reason of their meanness,

insincerity, and ostentation. One story perhaps illustrates as well as

another the selfishness and petulance of the Doge and his wife. It was

said that she very much disliked the clanging of the church bells,--San

Basso, on the North side of the Ducal Palace, was the worst offender.

Madonna Margherita sent a peremptory order to the _Pievano_, or Rector,

that if he would not stop his bell she would cut the bell rope! The

bells of the Basilica next came into the controversy, but the Prior

refused the behest of silence. The Doge interfered and told the Prior

that his “bells set all the Dogaressa’s teeth on edge.” A bargain

however was struck, the Doge, on his part, promised a monthly subsidy,

but whenever this was overdue the Prior was at liberty to ring his

bells as before!

During the reign of Doge Renier the last valorous deeds for Venice

were done by Admiral Agnello Emo. He attacked the Barbary pirates in

1784–1788 and freed the Adriatic and the coasts of North Africa from

their depredations. The valiant Emo took up the baton of Francesco

Morosini, and, had his lot been cast in less degenerate days, he would

have received from the Venetians a similar “Triumph.” He died alone and

in a way dishonoured in the Palazzo Diedo in 1792. It was Doge Marco

Foscarini, 1762–1763,--the last of the literary Doges,--who wrote thus

of Venice and the Venetians:--“This century will be a terrible one for

our children and our grandchildren!” He probably, seer-like, perceived

the imminence of the death of the liberties of Venice, but he could not

have known that this forecast would come true within fifteen years of

his death.

Doge Paolo Renier died on 18th February 1789, and his burial was

conducted in secret within the church of San Nicolo da Tolentino,--the

reason for this cannot be stated, perhaps he directed this unusual

arrangement in his will, fearing the ebullition of popular feeling

against himself and his spouse. Madonna Margherita lived on till the

11th of January 1817: her death took place in her apartments in the

Mocenigo Palace at San Stae but the place of her burial has not been

recorded.

We now reach the last scene in the vivid and venerable pageant of

Venice. The body-politic was infinitely more insecure than the

_fondamento_ of the least stability; she had no policy, no

consistency, and no reserve of energy. Her men and her women were

absolutely indifferent to her fate, and ribaldry and buffoonery

appeared to be her only _rôle_. Two circumstances sufficiently

illustrate the conditions of society at the end of the eighteenth

century: Marital infidelity became so rampant that between 1782–1796,

the “Ten” registered two hundred and seventy-four applications for

nullity. When the celebrated Princess Gonzaga visited Venice no one

would have anything to do with her, although everybody lived in a house

of glass. At last Madonna Caterina Tron, wife of a Procurator of Saint

Mark, offered to chaperon her and present her at Court. “Ladies,”

she said, speaking to her fellow-noble courtesans, “this is Princess

Gonzaga, she belongs to an illustrious family: as for the rest I will

not answer either for you nor for myself!” The tempest was gathering

up its strength to make a last and overwhelming attack upon Venice,

defenceless as she was. Quite significant of coming catastrophe the

feeblest, the weariest, and the least resourceful of all the long

line of Doges,--Lodovico Manin,--in 1789 sat down despondently upon

the Ducal throne--the last of the Doges of Venice. A man of strong

character or of supreme patriotism might have saved the Republic

at least for a time, but no popular leader appeared, and everybody

accepted the inevitable without a struggle. The Dogaressa was a simple,

good and modest woman, had she been a Valrada Candiano or a Zilia

Dandolo she might have made a man of her husband, but she shrank with

him from every responsibility and every effort.

Dogaressa Elisabetta Grimani-Manin, daughter of Messir Antonio Grimani,

became the wife of Lodovico Manin on 14th September 1748, in the

Church of Santa Maria Salute. She died at Treviso on 31st August 1792

of a nervous malady which affected her head. Her body was carried to

Venice and was buried with the same honours as those rendered to the

departed Dogaressa Pisana Grimani-Mocenigo in 1769, in the Church of

Santa Maria degli Scalzi, where the Doge erected the monument which

covers his remains as well as hers. She was laid to rest in the last

State robe of cloth of gold ever made in Venice, and with her were

buried the last insignia of her rank:--her grave was the grave of

Venice.

For five years more dragged on the dying Queen of the Adriatic in

constant alarm and in peril of death, every day seemed likely to be her

last. The funeral peals which had signalised the passing of the last

Dogaressa of Venice had scarcely exhausted their echoes over the islets

of the lagunes, when upon men’s ears smote another and a less melodious

sound--the stunning roar of cannon! The “second Attila” was at hand,

his legions were massing in view of San Marco and the Campanile, and it

needed but a word to set loose raiders and looters upon palace, church,

and homestead, quite as desperate and as cruel as those barbarians, who

fourteen hundred years before, had driven the panic-stricken forebears

of the men of Venice from terra-firma to the lagune quicksands. Manin

feebly backed by the emasculate “Forty,” tried to temporise with the

invader of Italy, but Buonaparte knew no such policy. War was declared

upon Venice on 1st May 1797, and the Venetians collapsed without

striking a blow in self-defence.

Lodovico Manin on 3rd June 1797, divested himself of his mantle of

State and his jewelled _Corno_, and delivered them unresistingly

into the hands of Buonaparte’s lieutenant. The “_Libro d’Oro_”

of the nobility was also voluntarily surrendered and publicly burned

with the Ducal Regalia in the Piazza. The last state of Venice was

infinitely worse than the first. The annihilation of her independence

was celebrated by her depraved nobles add citizens with enthusiastic

demonstrations of joy, banal doctrines of up-to-date republicanism were

madly accepted, and everything that partook of the glorious past was

swept away without remorse. The atrophy of the Venetians developed into

lunacy--Venice died insane!

The fall of a great man, the end of a great cause, the ruin of an

Empire all call forth lamentation, but no tears were shed for the dead

Queen, no sighs were breathed for lost liberty, no regrets were uttered

for “_Venus Calva_.” The echoes of a mighty past were stilled, and

the gallantries of a thousand years were silenced--save only for the

harmonious cries of gondoliers.

“I am coming--_stalì_--but you know not for whom!

_Stalì_--not for whom!

I am passing--_premè_--but I stay not for you!

_Premè_--not for you!”

* * * * *

I lay down my pen with regret--and as I close my “_Libro d’Oro

delle Dogaresse di Venezia_” I fall into an enchanting reverie,

wherein I descry many benevolent faces smiling at me, amid iridescent

scintillations of Venetian rainbows. Their hair is golden, but here and

there are strands of silver, which only add to the lustre of the gold.

Their faces, if wrinkled,--for they are not maidens,--and their open

bosoms, if withered, bear no signs of age, for they are beautified by

the cunning artifices of the toilet. Their heads are crowned by horned

diadems encrusted with flashing jewels, veils of white point-lace lend

grace to their coiffures. From their shoulders downwards the figures of

my benevolent visitors are vested--some in crimson silk, but most in

regal wealth of cloth of gold. Diamonds flash upon their breasts and

around their waists.

They are smiling at me, for I have written about them nothing but

what is pleasant, and I fancy I hear their sweet melodious voices,

whispering in unison, and saying:--“We played our _rôle_ in the best

way we could, we made no enemies, but we left many friends--friends

such as those who shall read our Story in your ‘Book of Fame.’”

I awoke from my dream, and I knew that I had seen a vision of the noble

and devoted Dogaressas of Venice.

ROLL OF THE MOST SERENE DOGARESSAS OF VENICE

_Dogaressa._ _Doge._ _Date._

1. MARTZA D’ESTE(1) } = OBELARIO ANTENORIO 804–810

2. CAROLA (2) }

3. ELENA = {AGNELLO BADOERO

{ or PARTECIPAZIO 810–827

(“Grand” Doge)

4. FELICITA = {GIUSTINIANO BADOERO

{ or PARTECIPAZIO 827–830

5. ANGELA SANUDO = PIETRO TRIBUNO 888–912

6. ARCIELDA = PIETRO CANDIANO III. 942–959

7. GIOVANNICCIA (1) }

8. VALDRADA (2) } = PIETRO CANDIANO IV. 959–976

9. FELICITA MALIPIERO = PIETRO ORSEOLO I. 976–978

(Saint)

10. MARINA = TRIBUNO MEMO 979–991

11. MARIA = PIETRO ORSEOLO II. 991–1009

(“Grand” Doge)

12. GRIMELDA D’UNGHERIA = OTTONE ORSEOLO 1009–1026

13. TEODORA COMMENO = DOMENIGO SELVO 1071–1084

14. CORNELLA BEMBO = VITALE FALIERO 1084–1096

15. FELICIA = VITALE MICHIEL I. 1096–1102

16. MATELDA = ORDELAFO FALIERO 1102–1116

17. ALICIA = DOMENIGO MICHIEL 1116–1130

(“Grand” Doge)

18. SOFIA = DOMENIGO MOROSINI 1148–1156

19. FELICIA MARIA }

DI BOEMODO } = VITALE MICHIEL II. 1156–1172

20. CECILIA = SEBASTIANO ZIANI 1172–1178

(“Grand” Doge)

21. FELICITA BEMBO = ARRIGO DANDOLO 1192–1205

(“Grand” Doge)