VENICE AND ITS STORY.*
IT is a strong witness to the perennial charm of Venice that a new book on the subject is always welcome, though one would have thought that everything had been said already a dozen times over. But it seems that the riches of the old chronicles are far from being exhausted. In the bibliography which Mr. Okey, following a useful fashion, appends to his book, few of the more modern works are concerned with any- thing beyond the history and the art of Venice. Her private life, for which there are plenty of materials, is generally a good deal left out of account. Molmenti's book on the private life of Venice—which Mr. Okey leaves out of his list of authorities, though including other books by the same author —is picturesque and scandalous enough. Doubtless the morals and manners of the Venetians were rather less to their credit than those of most great cities—at least, up to the end of the eighteenth century—and to their more than Italian laziness and love of pleasure the ruin of the Republic was greatly owing. Mr. Okey passes very lightly over all • Venice and its Story. By T. Okey. Illustrated by Nally Erichsen,W. H. Hinchliff, and 0. F. N. Ward. London : J. M. Dent and Co. Db. net
this, though he makes large use of the old chronicles in his vivid descriptions of the public splendour of Venice. Thus, while treating her outward magnificence more fully perhaps than any modern writer; he leaves still one whole side of her life-history practically untouched. The shadows that lie behind the glory are only hinted at here and there, when the true character of her gorgeous nobles peeps out through some accidental rent.
From the point of view of an historical pageant, Mr. Okay's book is interesting and delightful to read. The well-known story is told in excellent language; full of vivid pictures, beginning with the early settlements on the lagoons in the fifth century, following the gradual growth of the city and her surrounding towns and villages, the rise of that marvellous Government which kept its distinctive character throughout the centuries till it rotted away and died, the birth and maturity of arts and manufactures, all, like the architecture, touched with that Oriental strain which accounts for so much that is Venetian. Mr. Okey gives long and welcome quota- tions from Canale, Sanudo, Philippe de Comines, and others, successfully translated, as the following from Comines will show :-
"I was taken along the Grande Rue, which they call the Grand Canal, and it is very broad. Galleys cross it, and I have seen great ships of four hundred tons and more near the houses, and it is the fairest street I believe that may be in the whole world, and fitted with the best houses, and it goes the whole length of the Said city. The mansions are very large and high and of good stone: the ancient ones all painted. Others, made a hundred years ago, are faced with white marble, and yet have many a great piece of porphyry and serpentine on the front. Inside they have chambers with gilded ceilings and rich chimney-pieces of -carved marble, gilded bedsteads of wood, and are well furnished. It is the most triumphant city I have ever seen, and that doeth most honour to ambassadors and to strangers, and that • most wisely doth govern itself, and where the service of God is most solemnly done ; and though they have many faults, I believe that God bath them in remembrance for the reverence they bear to the service of His Church."
This was in 1494, at the time of Charles vm.'s invasion of
Italy. Even in the eighteenth century, when the Republic was tottering to its fall, the wise Constithtion and Govern- ment of Venice were so highly famed that Voltaire could not see, he said, why the State, which had lasted for eleven centuries, should not last for ever. So great was the franid- work, and so little evident its decay.
One special charm of Mr. Okey's book is his evident personal love and intimate knowledge of Venice. It seems as if he had set himself to write down everything he knew and could collect regarding the city of his enthusiasm, and the result is
what he must have desired. From beginning to end we feel that he is leading us on what the French call a promenade a travers lea ages. In his part as a showman, rather than an
historian,, he refrains mostly from the moral reflections often so obvious, and suggested by Venetian history more than by any other. It seems a natural conclusion to this sort of book that history should be followed by description, and that from the Venice of the past with all her chequered glory we should
be led on into the Venice of the present; guided among her canali and rii, along fondamente and calli, across ponti and campi and corti, through all those intricate labyrinths of the
city, on water or land, in the depths of which one comes upon so many an entrancing corner, such hidden churches sacred to art and palaces known to history. The book is somewhat large and heavy to carry about ; otherwise it would be a perfect companion for a visit to Venice. As regards her outer personality, there is little left to be known outside Mr. Okey's pages. Those readers who are curious beyond this must dive for themselves into more purely Venetian sources. One little
fact surprises us that Mr. Okey on his title-page treats the city of his love as an inanimate thing. " Its " is surely not the pronoun to use for la bella Venezia, for so many centuries the joy of the known world, and even now, in the evening of her days, the special delight of all lovers of beauty.
We have said enough of the literary side of this charming book, and must keep a little space for its artistic merits. It is very fully and richly illustrated. Its fifty coloured pictures by Mr. Ward and Mr. Hinchliff include not only delightful sketches of all the principal features of modern Venice and characteristic scenes on street or canal, but also typical portraits of Venetian characters of to-day, such as a Quite as charming are Miss Nelly Erichgen's many sketches in black and white ; and the reproductions of pictures, from photographs by Messrs. Alinari, are unfailingly good. All this artistic interest helps to make the book a most valuable guide to the intimate knowledge of Venice. Those who are yet strangers to the city cannot fail to enjoy such an intro- duction to her treasures of Nature and art ; and we need hardly recommend it to those who love Venice already. They will find much delight in it, and will probably agree with us that Mr. ()key in his preface, calling his book a " slight and imperfect sketch," errs on the side of modesty.
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