DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.55699#0160
126
THE LANDSCAPE ANNUAL.
literature. That, in his early youth, he had not only copied
several volumes in his own hand, but had expended all
the little money he could save in the purchase of manu-
scripts. That although he had ever been earnestly bent on
such acquisitions, yet that, after the destruction of Con-
stantinople, he had consumed his entire strength, care,
power, and industry, in increasing his collection of the
Greek writers •, and that he had now selected the city of
Venice as the depository of his library, on account of its
admirable government, the number of Greeks who fre-
quented it, and the benefits which he had himself de-
rived from that city. This splendid gift was gratefully
received by the Venetians, and by a decree of the senate
was lodged in the ducal palace. The learned Sabellicus
was the first librarian to whom the care of this collection
was confided.
At the period of the extinction of the republic, the
books which formed the library of St. Mark were re-
moved from the beautiful edifice of Sansovino, and de-
posited in the ducal palace. The hall of the Great
Council, a large and noble room, was prepared for their
reception, and poets, and philosophers, and scholars, now
fill the magnificent apartment where the sovereigns of
Venice were accustomed to hold their councils. The
hall likewise contains a collection of antique statues
presented to the republic by Grimani, the patriarch of
Aquileia, besides the splendid collection of pictures, of
which some notice was taken in the former volume of
this work.
The chief benefactors to the library of St. Mark, after
its illustrious founders, Petrarch and Bessarion, were
THE LANDSCAPE ANNUAL.
literature. That, in his early youth, he had not only copied
several volumes in his own hand, but had expended all
the little money he could save in the purchase of manu-
scripts. That although he had ever been earnestly bent on
such acquisitions, yet that, after the destruction of Con-
stantinople, he had consumed his entire strength, care,
power, and industry, in increasing his collection of the
Greek writers •, and that he had now selected the city of
Venice as the depository of his library, on account of its
admirable government, the number of Greeks who fre-
quented it, and the benefits which he had himself de-
rived from that city. This splendid gift was gratefully
received by the Venetians, and by a decree of the senate
was lodged in the ducal palace. The learned Sabellicus
was the first librarian to whom the care of this collection
was confided.
At the period of the extinction of the republic, the
books which formed the library of St. Mark were re-
moved from the beautiful edifice of Sansovino, and de-
posited in the ducal palace. The hall of the Great
Council, a large and noble room, was prepared for their
reception, and poets, and philosophers, and scholars, now
fill the magnificent apartment where the sovereigns of
Venice were accustomed to hold their councils. The
hall likewise contains a collection of antique statues
presented to the republic by Grimani, the patriarch of
Aquileia, besides the splendid collection of pictures, of
which some notice was taken in the former volume of
this work.
The chief benefactors to the library of St. Mark, after
its illustrious founders, Petrarch and Bessarion, were