Rio S. Stin 313 Rio della Guerra 318 Via Garibaldi 325 The Pesaro Palace, Grand Canal 334 Marco Polo’s Court 339 Ponte della Pietà 344 From the Public Garden at Sunset 348 Boat-Builders 353 The Vegetable Market 355 Fondamenta Weidermann 357 The Salute from S. Giorgio 361 From the Ponte della Pietà 365 On the Way to Fusina, from the Mouth of the Brenta 369 A Lonely Canal 374 Evening 380 The Salute from the Lagoon 385 From the Ponte S. Rocco 397 Campo SS. Giovanni e Paolo 403 So-called House of Desdemona 407 Sails 412 A Gateway 413 SALVE · VENETIA [Illustration: S. MARIA DEGLI SCALZI, GRAND CANAL] I THE ARISTOCRATIC MAGISTRACIES AT THE BEGINNING OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY Like other aristocracies, the Venetian government rarely destroyed or altogether abolished any office or regulation which had existed a long time. When a change was needed the duties or powers of one or more of the Councils were extended, or a committee of the Council of Ten was appointed and presently turned into a separate tribunal, as when the Inquisitors of State were created. In one sense the government of Venice had now existed in a rigid and unchangeably aristocratic form during two centuries, and that form never changed to the very end. But in another sense no government in the world ever showed itself more flexible under the pressure of events, or better able to provide a new legislative weapon with which to combat each new danger that presented itself. This double character of an administration which inspired awe by its apparent immutability and terror by its ubiquity and energy, no doubt had much to do with its extraordinarily long life; for I believe that no civilised form of government ever endured so long as that of Venice.