New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1905-12-08

tons nv
SO pp < 5I7; K. al The Macmillan Company.
,,.r have been writing about Venice for gen.
.,o,s ana so many Of them have written well
49, - would be impossible to set aside single
- oyt OF the mass embodying the last
80 a., the most radiantly beautiful city in
- 1zorld. Yet this much at least may be said
= AR Crawford's "Salve Venetia"-it fnvali-
ss.ss at a stroke all of those recent volumes
-bich have been put together for the delectation
- the general reader. not as works of history or
= IMPRESSIONS Of travel. but popular" blends
- both. He gives novelist's treatment OF
,ovelistic place; instead Of an agglomeration
:, Facts and dates, he draws the portrait of
-,s7tic enchantress. and he does this not only
.ttb the art which he has disclosed in so many
..iss of IMAGINATION, but without ever departing
.,on, the strict lines Of truth. Though he does
-. rretend TO be an historian IN the strict
s.,se he presents an excellent summary Of
venetian history. Indeed. he has gone very
.to-orehIv into the subject. and the reader
christ for information need not fear disap-
-,,ntrnent in these volumes. On the other hand,
sssIvs venetia" is as confidently addressed to
Al those who realize that Venice is above all
.,,nzs what Mr. Crawford calls her "a form
- besutv'' and Is therefore not to be weighed
:, the scales like any other historical centre,
tnt Is TO be apprehended as g. kind Of fantastical
roqaant a thing Of human nature and thing
NJ fairyland. The book brims over with clever
sketches by Mr. Pencil, which If inexcusably
gloomy in many instances are generally success
frI in denoting the picturesqueness which is in
the very air of the lagoons.
NJ Crawfords method IS simple enough. He
follows the development Of his subject along
chronological lines, interrupting the narrative
n his first volume with chapters on such salient
matters as the manners and customs Of the
venetians at a given period. the conspiracy Of
Marine FaIiero and the like. In this volume he
carries the record on through the fifteenth cen
Jury IN the second he rounds out the story
With the same careful system. but gives topical
headings 10 more OF his chapters, dealing at
some length with, for example The Last Great
ladies'" The Last Magistrates or THE Last
Doges" and, with a certain dramatic point.
THE Last Hour" 4 list Of the Doges and a
table Of the principal dates in Venetian history
are Given at the back Of each volume, with a
table Of books consulted in the first, and one Of
eminent Venetians in the second. There is, Of
course full index. Obviously all the machin-
err Of a well balanced book is here. But what
we Ike best about Mr.. Crawfords work is the
way in which it is based throughout quick
feeling for the natural human way in which the
city has accumulated its stores of romantic le-
gends He says Of Venice that it is ''the most
personal Of ali cities in the world, the most
feminine. the most comparable to a woman, the
least dependent for her individuality, upon her
Inhabitants, ancient or MODERN" and IN a meas
ure he is right. But he was perhaps I'll advised
to open his book with these words, for, true as
they are. they are necessarily contradicted by
THIS or that characteristic episode. Never was
there city IN which the inhabitants played
more potential part. Many q hill town famous
In the annals of Italy bears ineffaceably the
stamp Of a single despot. or that Of his family
-T,I,-- - .,7,
scurest types of centuries ago. Take the two
columns Of Saint Theodore and Saint Mark
which stand in the Piazzetta, near the Grand
Canal. They preserve, at least for the Jealous
investigator, the memory Of Venetian who
would otherwise have ages since been forgotten
Mr.. Crawford thus tells the tale:
These two columns which had g been brought to
Dome8ioo Mcbfef had been set up about fifty years
later by the skill Of certain Lombard, Eamed
dialect that this engineer went to the Signor1a,
asked for ropes, timber and beams and then set 10
piles for the Foundations. and having completed
these in seven days he set up the columns on the
eighth by means Of ropes and capstans- When ne
was asked what reward he wished for his work.
exist his descendants should be enfranchis9d end
he free 70 keep gamlnE tables 9e{Teen me b IG6
forbade all games Of chance IN Nence-and ne
stipend. Il may be noted that his name, .BaTat-
Here, means at once a money changer ana 4 as
as nickname after the fact At all events his re-
guests were granted, and ne set up gaming esI1
his own profit. AT q later time this privilege be
ceased to exist in 1879, nearly three hundred and
fifty later when the destruction Of all gam
ing tables and booths which narred the beauty
sof the Square. was commanded by the government
In this clancy way were things often done in
Venice. Men and women, too, who de-
served wei Of their city were not treated on
perfunctory terms of reward. but were made to
feel that they were part of a civic whole. Once
conspirator was on his way TO St Marks,
when woman of the people named Rossi'
dropped from her window a utensil of stone
which killed his standard bearer, and when the
whole plot was revealed and those concerned in
T. had been disposed Of, this humble contributor
70 the safety of the state was asked TO name her
Own reward. She requested, in the first place
TO be allowed TO fly the standard Of st. Mark
from her window on the day of St Vitus (June
49, and on the other solemn festivals of the year"
ana furthermore, with the shrewdness typi-
cal Of her race she asked that neither she nor
her descendants should ever be required to pay
higher rent for the house in which she lived,
and which belonged to the patrin1Ony of St
Marx Both boons were granted, and, in fact
II Is recorded that when, more than century
later, one Of the woman's descendants protested
because his rent had been raised he won his
case. To this day. says Mr.. Crawford, the
standard which Lucia Rossl used to display at
her window IS preserved in the Correr Museum
Another illustration of the manner in which any
Venetian might expect in the old days to be
honored for worthy achievements is provided by