“THE MAGPIE’S NEST” 435

collateral evidence to be meant for angels.¹ Courage, little Venice; we shall do better, in a time, and times. The buildings belonging to this epoch of the Magpie’s Nest are recognizable at a glance by their narrow round arches, their slender shafts, their Byzantine, or else entirely plain, capitals, and the circlets or upright tablets of sculpture set for ornament on their façades, always with a cross in the centre. This last is indeed the infallible sign of the time; note it first as the main ornament between the angle leaves of the Piazzetta shafts, and then go into the piazza of Santa Maria Formosa, where there is a house of this period, quite unaltered in its main story, with its medallions and cross complete.²

¹ [As on the monument of the Doges Jacopo and Lorenzo Tiepolo: see Aratra Pentelici, § 79 (Vol. XX. p. 251).]

² [See Stones of Venice, vol. ii. (Vol. X. p. 166, and Plate XI.).]

[Version 0.04: March 2008]