444 APPENDIX, 4

the façade.¹ On the other hand, a winter residence in Venice is rendered peculiarly disagreeable by the low tides, which sometimes leave the smaller canals entirely dry, and large banks of mud beneath the houses, along the borders of even the Grand Canal.* The difference between the levels of the highest and lowest tides I saw in Venice was 6 ft. 3 in. The average variation² is from two to three feet.

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The measures of Torcello were intended for Appendix 4; but having by a misprint [p. 22] referred the reader to Appendix 3, I give them here. The entire breadth of the church within the walls is 70 feet; of which the square bases of the pillars, 3 feet on each side, occupy 6 feet; and the nave, from base to base, measures 31 ft. 1 in.; the aisles from base to wall, 16 feet odd inches, not accurately ascertainable on account of the modern wainscot fittings. The intervals between the bases of the pillars are 8 feet each, increasing towards the altar to 8 ft. 3 in., in order to allow for a corresponding diminution in the diameter of the bases from 3 ft. to 2 ft. 11 in. or 2 ft. 10 in. This subtle diminution of the bases is in order to prevent the eye from feeling the greater narrowness of the shafts in that part of the nave, their average circumference being 6 ft. 10 in.; and one, the second on the north side, reaching 7 feet, while those at the upper end of the nave vary from 6 ft. 8 in. to 6 ft. 4. in. It is probable that this diminution in the more distant pillars adds slightly to the perspective effect of length in the body of the church, as it is seen from the great entrance: but whether this was the intention or not, the delicate adaptation of this diminished base to the diminished shaft is a piece of fastidiousness in proportion which I rejoice in having detected; and this the more, because the rude contours of the bases themselves would little induce the spectator to anticipate any such refinement.

4. [P. 20] DATE OF THE DUOMO OF TORCELLO

The first flight to the lagoons for shelter was caused by the invasion of Attila in the fifth century, so that in endeavouring to throw back the thought of the reader to the former solitude of the islands, I spoke of them as they must have appeared “1300 years ago.” Altinum, however, was not finally destroyed till the Lombard invasion in 641,³ when the episcopal seat was removed to Torcello, and the inhabitants of the mainland city, giving up all hope

* All these generalizations are imperfect, and several inaccurate. I perceive now that the tides in Venice are under laws which I might write another three volumes on-or four: The Rise, High-water, the Fall, Low-water; and then not exhaust the subject. They have been just now delightfully into everybody’s front door every morning at eleven o’clock, for two months, and running pleasantly fast down any canal I want to go up, in the afternoon-26th December, 1876. [Note added in Ruskin’s copy for revision.]

¹ [See the account of a high tide given above in the Introduction, p. xxxvi.]

² [Ruskin in his copy for revision corrects “fall rise” (a misreading in all editions) into “variation.”]

³ [The history of this time is obscure, but 568 appears to be the date of the destruction and abandonment of Altinum: see above, note on p. 18.]

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