In the “Speculum Perfectionis” is told how that St Francis on coming to Assisi to hold the Chapter of the Order found there a great edifice of stone and mortar, built by the citizens for the meeting place of the brothers, instead of the rude wattle and daub barn in which they were wont to assemble. And the saint, fearing lest the brothers might be tempted to have similar great houses erected where they sojourned, climbed to the roof with his companions, and began to strip off the tiles and cast them to the ground, being minded to destroy the building to the very foundation, nor did he desist until the soldiers forbade him, declaring it to be the property of the town. Up to Doge Giacomo Tiepolo’s time, as we have seen, the friars minor had no monastery in Venice, but here, as elsewhere, the Franciscans were unable to resist that unquenchable impulse in devoted human souls to raise temples made with hands to the glory of God, and about 1230 or 1240 the great monastery and church of Our Glorious Lady of the Friars were begun. The church was opened for service in 1280, and rebuilt during the second half of the fourteenth century. Santa Maria Gloriosa de’Frari may be reached from the S. Tomà Pier on the Grand Canal. It is the largest church in Venice, and one of the finest Gothic churches in Italy. Vasari attributes the design to Nicolo Pisano. The campanile (1361-1396) was erected by the Massegne. From the tracery of the lower windows in the apse, Ruskin derives the tracery of the arcade in the Ducal Palace, the circle of the quatrefoil falling between the arches when it had to support the wall. Over the Porta de’Frari, leading to the left aisle, is a beautiful relief of the Virgin and two angels and kneeling donors by the Massegne. The nobility and simplicity of the vast interior remind us of the great friars’ churches in Tuscany and Umbria. Few Doges are buried here, the monuments inside being chiefly to famous soldiers, admirals, statesmen and artists. In the R. aisle is the Titian monument executed in 1852, and on the third altar a fine statue of St Jerome by Aless. Vittoria, said to have been modelled from the figure of Titian when he was 98 years old. On the R. wall of R. transept is the tomb of Jacopo Marcelle (1484) in the style of the Lombardi. To the R. of entrance to the sacristy is the beautiful late Gothic tomb, wrought by a Florentine sculptor, of the Franciscan S. Pacifico (1437), under whom the church was completed.