20 THE STONES OF VENICE

from the water’s edge, traversed by a scarcely traceable footpath, for some forty or fifty paces, and then expanding into the form of a small square, with buildings on three sides of it, the fourth being that which opens to the water. Two of these, that on our left and that in front of us as we approach from the canal, are so small that they might well be taken for the outhouses of the farm, though the first is a conventual building, and the other aspires to the title of the “Palazzo publico,” both dating as far back as the beginning of the fourteenth century; the third, the octagonal church of Santa Fosca,¹ is far more ancient than either, yet hardly on a larger scale. Though the pillars of the portico which surrounds it are of pure Greek marble, and their capitals are enriched with delicate sculpture, they, and the arches they sustain, together only raise the roof to the height of a cattle-shed; and the first strong impression which the spectator receives from the whole scene is, that whatever sin it may have been which has on this spot been visited with so utter a desolation, it could not at least have been ambition. Nor will this impression be diminished as we approach, or enter, the larger church, to which the whole group of building is subordinate.* It has evidently been built by men in flight and distress,† who sought in the hurried erection of their island church such a shelter for their earnest and sorrowful worship as, on the one hand, could not attract the eyes of their enemies by its splendour,

* Appendix 4: “Date of the Duomo of Torcello” [p. 444].

† A great deal of this talk is flighty, and some of it fallacious; I should have to rewrite it all, or must leave it alone. Aquileia, not Torcello, was the true mother of Venice;² but the sentiment and essential truth of general principle in the chapter induce me to reprint the available part of it in this edition.³ [1879.]

¹ [This church dates from about 1000 A.D. It contains the remains of Sta. Fosca, a virgin of noble birth, who, together with her nurse, Marca, had, during the persecution of Decius (A.D. 249-251), earned the palm of martydom at Ravenna, her native city.]

² [Aquileia was a more important city than Torcello; its inhabitants took refuge in the lagoons as early as 452, and they were among the communities which made the first election of tribunes in 466.]

³ [In the “Travellers’ Edition” §§ 4-8 were omitted as not available, i.e., as requiring illustrations, and § 9 (there § 4) began after asterisks: “And observe...”]

[Version 0.04: March 2008]