Chapter III: I

Upon the smiling little islet of San Giorgio in Alga, midway between the Punta di Santa Maria--the westernmost limit of Venice proper, and Fusina--the principal port of the Laguna Morta, there lived, once upon a time, a good-looking young fisherman. Zian Zorzio della Laguna,--so named after his patron Saint, Saint George of Cappadoccia,--as skilful in his calling as he was comely in his person.

Zorzio had wooed and won the prettiest girl in all Rialto, as hard-working as himself and as good to look upon. One day Bella offered her lover an extraordinarily fine fishing-net which she had, unknown to him, knotted with her own fair hands; and, Zorzio delighted with the gift, tossing it over his shoulder, went off to dedicate it to his saintly patron in the island Sanctuary.

Kissed on both cheeks, coloured with the ripest peach-bloom, her golden hair coiled neatly around her shapely head, save for one rebellious love-knot upon her brow, the beauteous _innamorata_ waved loving farewells to her Zorzio as he sculled off in his light _barca_ to make trial of his treasure.

With a daring cast the spider-web-like mesh sank beneath the gentle ripples of the lambent water, and the young fellow, confident of a worthy haul, presently began to pull in his net. “Per Bacco!” cried he, for something eerie had caught itself in the all but invisible strands of Bella’s handiwork. A piece of petrified seaweed,--very delicate in form, very beautiful in colour, very exquisite in texture, verily a scudding flake of opalescent sea-foam transformed by the mermaids of the deep into lovely coral lace,--yielded itself to his ready hand. Zorzio had never beheld such a perfectly beautiful object, and in a transport of delight he hailed his prize as the pledge of his success in life. Speeding homewards in the evening he made Bella the sharer of his good fortune, and she locked up the bit of coral lace safely in the simple home they had prepared against the next festival of the “Brides.”

Alas, the even tenor of their lives was rudely shattered by a call to arms, and brave Zorzio was enrolled among seamen drafted for service in the Orient. Broken-hearted Bella surveyed his empty seat, and her tears fell fast. Should she ever see her Zorzio again she wondered and whispered. Looking up at last, her eyes fell upon her lover’s gift--the lovely spray of coral seaweed. An inspiration seized her mind, and with alacrity she reached down her lace-pillow, and guided by an unseen power, she crossed and crossed her bobbins of fine thread until she had completed, in interlacing arabesques, a similitude of her treasured model. Thus was invented the far-famed and precious _merletto a piombini_--the point-lace of Venice. It is a charming story and it has a striking moral. That piece of coral seaweed was the mascot of the Venetian Renaissance.

In the morning of the “_Vita Nuova_”--it was the hour of “Lauds,”--Commerce,--strenuous father, and Industry,--faithful mother, were busy rearing their numerous family--the vigorous progeny of the Crafts. Away back in the ninth century, in the days of the “Grand” Doge Agnello Partecipazio, the Emperor Lothair issued his “_Constitutiones Olonenses_,” wherein eight cities and towns of Northern Italy are named as suitable centres for the establishment of the revived Roman “_Collegia_” or “_Scholæ_”:--Bologna, Cremona, Firenze, Ivrea, Milano, Padua, Torino and Rivoalto (Venice). In each place the designation of the _Scholæ_ varied: in Venice they were called “_Fragilia_,”--from “_Flagelli_,”--whips,--the exact meaning of which it is difficult to state, perhaps “training schools” wherein learners were _whipped_ into shape!

Each “_Fragilia_” had its teachers, its pupils, its officers, its constitution, its duties, and its bylaws. The earliest distinct mention of a “Trade” is in 826, when a maker of lead pipes for organs was working away near San Giacomo di Rialto: doubtless the artificer in question was a Greek, his name has not been preserved. Orso Partecipazio employed clock-makers in 864 and silversmiths and carvers of ivory: these craftsmen were Greeks however. The “_Cassellari_”--makers of _arcelle_ and _cassoni_--formed already a vigorous Corporation in the time of the rape of the “Venetian Brides.” The first notice of “_Fabbri_”--blacksmiths, was in 1184 as forming a “_Fragilia_,” but the _Calle de’ Fabbri_ was a well-known lane in the tenth century. The Altino Chronicle names Fishermen, Smiths, Saddlers, Carriers by water, Shepherds, Butchers, Masons, Carpenters, Cabinet-makers, Shoemakers and Furriers as the earliest incorporated craftsmen in the islands of the lagunes. “_Marzeri_” or silk-mercers were established in Rivoalto in 942.

Doge Pietro Polani, in 1143 drafted a “Table of Precedence,” which established as the premier “_Fragilia_” or Trade-Guild, the Corporation of Fishermen. Thirty years later Doge Sebastiano Ziani set up the first “_Corte della Giutizia_” in the interest of traders and operatives. Thereafter numerous other Crafts are named in Venetian history; but Venice never attained to the eminence of Florence in the development of her Guilds--she was _sui generis_ a great sea-port rather than a metropolis of industry. The thirteenth century first saw the cradle of the Crafts rocking effectively,--just as the fourteenth furnished the nursery of the Fine Arts,--and Venice felt the impulse of the new industries, along with the rest of Italy.

Doge Arrigo Dandolo had annexed one-fourth of the old Roman Empire to the tutelage of Venice, and ten great Turkish galleons brought home, with the remnant of her forces, vast treasures,--the loot of Constantinople and the islands of the Greek Archipelago. Upon the Piazzetta was outpoured the wealth of the Levant. Never before had Venetian eyes and hands beheld or handled such creations of art and craft. Every church and monastery, every palace and mansion, and every poor man’s home, were enriched by things of joy and beauty. Mothers and maidens laid up in honoured hiding-places tokens of their heroes resting in Paradise, and all the sons of Venice gathered objects of interest which engrossed their intelligences and set their minds and hands at work to imitate--the fall of Constantinople was the rise of craftsmanship in the Lagunes.

The Conquest of Constantinople--a notable turning-point in the history of Venice--was the initial mark of a new era throughout Europe. By common consent every class of the Venetians welcomed the promise of new conditions,--social and political,--and set to work to exchange Oriental ideas and sympathies for the pushful methods and modes of Northern and Western Europe. The first step was the election of a Doge, who should be, not only a desirable figure-head for the State, but who, by his force of character and personal experience, should lead the Commonwealth along progressive ways.

The qualifications for the _Dogado_ were: (1) Ripe age; (2) Urbane temperament; (3) Good birth; and (4) Ample private means. One man, and one man alone, stood out head-and-shoulders above his peers, as possessed of these four qualities, a man whose thirty years of distinguished public service placed him in the unique position of first citizen of Venice. By universal acclamation Pietro Ziani was chosen to wear the laurel-wreathed _berretta_ of the great Dandolo. The son of one of the most distinguished of the Doges--Sebastiano Ziani--he had borne himself nobly as a successful naval commander, a tactful ambassador, and an upright magistrate. Handsome above the ordinary, pious without hypocrisy, talented in linguistic and forensic aptitude, and passionately loyal to the Constitution, he was calmly awaiting his destiny at his country residence at Arbe in Dalmatia.

A deputation of the Lords of the Council boarded the magnificent “_Bucintoro_,” and accompanied by thirty galleys, all splendidly decorated with rare brocades and tapestries, set off to meet and escort the new Doge. Pietro Ziani’s progress was a triumphal procession, calling to mind the unanimous and felicitous election of Domenigo Selvo one hundred and fifty years before. Almost the first act of the new regime was the affirmation of the cordial relations which his father, Sebastiano, had entered into with Guglielmo II.--“The Good,” King of Sicily. Dante refers to the death of this distinguished Sovereign in