DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.55699#0081
THE DOGANA.
57
lustre, which renders its history as interesting to the ima ¬
gination of the poet as to the mind of the philosophical
politician. Trade., which in other states ministers only
to the comfort or support of the people, poured a flood
of wealth through every avenue of the Venetian republic.
It was the magician which converted her humble cabins
into palaces of marble—which awoke the minstrelsy of
her light-hearted, festive population, and which fixed her
standards on the towers of many a noble city and island,
till they at last floated on the walls of Constantinople
itself. Even the melancholy splendour which still sur-
rounds the fallen Venice calls up visions of her com-
mercial grandeur. The richest ornaments of her halls
and temples were brought from lands which her mer-
chants had rendered tributary. The genius of Titian
was nursed into immortality by their luxurious taste; and
his paintings, and those of Tintoret, Paul Veronese, and
Giorgione, are as precious monuments to the memory of
these traders.
It is not so much for a spirit of romantic enterprise as
for the comprehensive ability of their designs, that the
Venetian merchants deserve renown. They became ac-
quainted with the sea and its storms from hard necessity.
They passed an apprenticeship of centuries before they
could anchor without fear in the ports of foreign lands 5
and when they had gained strength by an increase of
wealth and the conquest of new territories, they retained
the cautious and calculating prudence of their parsimo-
nious forefathers. But by the mere extent of their trans-
actions—by the enormous wealth which resulted from
their ordinary profits, and the success which attended
57
lustre, which renders its history as interesting to the ima ¬
gination of the poet as to the mind of the philosophical
politician. Trade., which in other states ministers only
to the comfort or support of the people, poured a flood
of wealth through every avenue of the Venetian republic.
It was the magician which converted her humble cabins
into palaces of marble—which awoke the minstrelsy of
her light-hearted, festive population, and which fixed her
standards on the towers of many a noble city and island,
till they at last floated on the walls of Constantinople
itself. Even the melancholy splendour which still sur-
rounds the fallen Venice calls up visions of her com-
mercial grandeur. The richest ornaments of her halls
and temples were brought from lands which her mer-
chants had rendered tributary. The genius of Titian
was nursed into immortality by their luxurious taste; and
his paintings, and those of Tintoret, Paul Veronese, and
Giorgione, are as precious monuments to the memory of
these traders.
It is not so much for a spirit of romantic enterprise as
for the comprehensive ability of their designs, that the
Venetian merchants deserve renown. They became ac-
quainted with the sea and its storms from hard necessity.
They passed an apprenticeship of centuries before they
could anchor without fear in the ports of foreign lands 5
and when they had gained strength by an increase of
wealth and the conquest of new territories, they retained
the cautious and calculating prudence of their parsimo-
nious forefathers. But by the mere extent of their trans-
actions—by the enormous wealth which resulted from
their ordinary profits, and the success which attended