I

A LETTER TO COUNT ZORZI

1. MY DEAR FRIEND,¹-I have no words in my rough English, nor with any less passionate than Dante’s could I tell you with what thankfulness of heart I see a Venetian noble at last rising to defend the beauty of his native city, and the divinity of her monuments, from the ruin of attempted restoration.

In this effort of yours-the first, as far as I know, made with earnestness and on basis of sure knowledge, to show the error of our modern systems of reconstruction-I recognize indeed the revival of the spirit of the Past; the spirit of reverence for the great Dead, of love for the places which their fame illumined and their virtue hallowed, and of care for all things which once they had care for, which their living eyes beheld, and on which yet, perhaps, they look sometimes back with unchanged affection. In this I indeed acknowledge the heart of the Venetian noble. What emotion so strongly moved the lords of ancient Venice, as their reverence for the dead!

2. How much, also, may I thank you for permitting me to be your companion in this noble enterprise! Yet I partly do indeed deserve to be your accepted ally, being in truth a foster-child of Venice. She has taught me all that I have rightly learned of the arts which are my joy; and of all the happy and ardent days which, in my earlier life, it was granted me to spend in this Holy land of Italy, none were so precious as those which I used to pass in

¹ [The letter, as printed, is undated. It was written during Ruskin’s residence in Venice in the winter of 1876-1877. The year is fixed as 1877 by a remark in § 6: see also the Introduction, above, p. lx.]

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[Version 0.04: March 2008]