Few episodes in the history of Venice more clearly show her astuteness, her prescience, and her patient determination than does the story of Caterina Cornaro, by which we see that from the beginning the object of the Senate was to obtain possession of Cyprus. For this cause the little maid of fourteen was made the child of the Republic. Venice had not the faintest claim to Cyprus. If James justly bore the title and authority which Venice recognized as his, his will should have been regarded. The simple truth is that Venice coveted Cyprus, and {241} Caterina was the cat's paw with which she could work her will. Ninety-two years later the Turks robbed her of it, and during this short rule there were endless costs and constant difficulties to be overcome. Historians believe Cyprus to have been an incalculable injury to the Republic. The unbridled luxury and license in the life of the island had its evil effect on Venice, and the early part of the sixteenth century developed there such expensive living as threatened financial ruin,--such license, even in the religious houses, as brought her world-wide disgrace, and such growth in vice, decay of health, and increase of infectious diseases as threatened the extermination of the noble and wealthy classes. ROSALBA CARRIERA. Born in 1675, this artist belongs to modern Venice. Her father, Andrea Carriera de Costantino, was chancellor of the little village of Gambarare, on the Brenta; and as his salary was insufficient for the support of his wife and three daughters, Rosalba, the eldest, worked with her mother at making Point de Venise lace. Fortunately for Rosalba's fame, this lace went out of fashion, and she then attempted the painting of miniatures on tobacco boxes, in which art she was instructed by a French painter, Jean Stève, having before had lessons in drawing from a Hungarian, Bencowich. The boxes she painted are now much prized. Later she studied under Antonio Lazzari, Diamantini, Balestra, and others. She practised painting in oils, but preferred miniature and crayons. Her taste for crayons was cultivated by an English artist, Cole, who excelled in that art. When twenty-four years old, Rosalba had become famous for her miniatures and portraits in crayon. Carlo Maratti and Crespi compared her {242} to Guido Reni, and she was made an Academician at St. Luke in Rome and at the Clementina at Bologna.