EDICT STONE, RIALTO 301 BYZANTINE CROSSES--CAMPO S. MARIA MATER DOMINI 302 DOORWAY WITH COLOURED RELIEF OF SS. MARK AND ANIANUS; COBBLERS’ GUILD HOUSE, CAMPO S. TOMÀ 307 FISHING BOATS ON THE GIUDECCA 311 HEADPIECE TO SECTION XVII. 314 MURANO 315 VENICE FROM THE SOUTH 322 MAPS SKETCH MAP OF ITALY AND THE EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN _facing page_ 1 VENICE IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY 215 [Illustration: _SKETCH MAP of ITALY & the EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN_] [Illustration] PART I.--THE STORY CHAPTER I _The Foundation at Rialto_ “Venice seems a type Of life--’twixt blue and blue extends, a stripe, As life, the somewhat, hangs ’twixt nought and nought.” --_Browning._ Of the original home of the earliest settlers in that province of North Italy known to the Latins as Venetia, little can be told with certainty. Historians and antiquarians are pleased to bring them, under the name of Heneti or Eneti, from Paphlagonia, and explain some characteristic traits they subsequently developed--the love of colour and of display, the softness of their dialect--by their eastern origin. They were an independent, thriving and organised community when the Roman Empire first accepted their aid in the fierce struggle against the invading Gauls, and so they continued to be until they were absorbed as a province of the Empire. The land they cultivated, “mervailous in corne, wine, oyle, and all manner of fruites,” was one of the richest in Europe. Its soil was formed by ages of alluvial deposit brought by the rapid streams that drain the southern slopes of the Alps.