DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.55699#0129
THE PIAZZA III SAN MARCO.
99
appointment of the purchasers. Heliogabalus used also
to distribute tickets amongst his guests., with such prizes
as ten camels, ten flies, ten pounds of gold, ten pounds
of lead, and ten eggs.
It is not with recollections of splendour and festivity
alone that the Piazza di S. Marco is associated. Spec-
tacles of terror and scenes of blood have been exhibited
within its boundaries. Whenever an open and awful
example of severity was judged to be necessary, this was
the place in which it was displayed to the people. Some-
times the executions took place between the columns of
the Piazzetta, at other times in the Piazza. It was in
the lattei’ place that the body of the unfortunate Antonio
Foscarini was exposed, after he had been strangled by
the order of the inquisitors. The history of this in-
famous transaction, which drew down a just odium upon
the government of the republic, has been related with
some particularity by Sir Henry Wotton, at that time
ambassadoi’ from the English court at Venice.
Two men of mean condition, by name Domenico and
Gerolamo Vani, inhabitants, but not natives, of Venice,
tendered themselves to the inquisitors of state as evi-
dences against certain noble Venetians, who, as they
alleged, were accustomed secretly and in disguise to fre-
quent the palaces of the foreign ministers, and particularly
of the Spanish ambassador, at that time highly obnoxious
to the Venetian government. The informers, having ob-
tained the stipulated reward, delivered to the inquisitors a
list of the accused, at the head of which stood the name
of Antonio Foscarini, a senator of the republic, and as
such strictly inhibited from all intercourse with foreign
n 2
99
appointment of the purchasers. Heliogabalus used also
to distribute tickets amongst his guests., with such prizes
as ten camels, ten flies, ten pounds of gold, ten pounds
of lead, and ten eggs.
It is not with recollections of splendour and festivity
alone that the Piazza di S. Marco is associated. Spec-
tacles of terror and scenes of blood have been exhibited
within its boundaries. Whenever an open and awful
example of severity was judged to be necessary, this was
the place in which it was displayed to the people. Some-
times the executions took place between the columns of
the Piazzetta, at other times in the Piazza. It was in
the lattei’ place that the body of the unfortunate Antonio
Foscarini was exposed, after he had been strangled by
the order of the inquisitors. The history of this in-
famous transaction, which drew down a just odium upon
the government of the republic, has been related with
some particularity by Sir Henry Wotton, at that time
ambassadoi’ from the English court at Venice.
Two men of mean condition, by name Domenico and
Gerolamo Vani, inhabitants, but not natives, of Venice,
tendered themselves to the inquisitors of state as evi-
dences against certain noble Venetians, who, as they
alleged, were accustomed secretly and in disguise to fre-
quent the palaces of the foreign ministers, and particularly
of the Spanish ambassador, at that time highly obnoxious
to the Venetian government. The informers, having ob-
tained the stipulated reward, delivered to the inquisitors a
list of the accused, at the head of which stood the name
of Antonio Foscarini, a senator of the republic, and as
such strictly inhibited from all intercourse with foreign
n 2