I have not the least doubt that these window-jambs and traceries were
restored after the great fire;[59] and various other restorations have
taken place since, beginning with the removal of the traceries from all
the windows except the northern one of the Sala del Scrutinio, behind
the Porta della Carta, where they are still left. I made out four
periods of restoration among these windows, each baser than the
preceding. It is not worth troubling the reader about them, but the
traveller who is interested in the subject may compare two of them in
the same window; the one nearer the sea of the two belonging to the
little room at the top of the Palace on the Piazzetta Façade, between
the Sala del Gran Consiglio and that of the Scrutinio. The seaward jamb
of that window is of the first, and the opposite jamb of the second,
period of these restorations. These are all the points of separation in
date which I could discover by internal evidence. But much more might be
made out by any Venetian antiquary whose time permitted him thoroughly
to examine any existing documents which allude to or describe the parts
of the Palace spoken of in the important decrees of 1340, 1342, and
1344; for the first of these decrees speaks of certain "columns looking
towards the Canal"[60] or sea, as then existing, and I presume these
columns to have been part of the Ziani Palace, corresponding to the part
of that palace on the Piazzetta where were the "red columns" between
which Calendario was executed; and a great deal more might be determined
by any one who would thoroughly unravel the obscure language of those
decrees.
Meantime, in order to complete the evidence respecting the main dates
stated in the text, I have collected here such notices of the building
of the Ducal Palace as appeared to me of most importance in the various
chronicles I examined. I could not give them all in the text, as they
repeat each other, and would have been tedious; but they will be
interesting to the antiquary, and it is to be especially noted in all of
them how the Palazzo _Vecchio_ is invariably distinguished, either
directly or by implication, from the Palazzo Nuovo. I shall first
translate the piece of the Zancarol Chronicle given by Cadorin, which
has chiefly misled the Venetian antiquaries. I wish I could put the rich
old Italian into old English, but must be content to lose its raciness,
as it is necessary that the reader should be fully acquainted with its
facts.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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