220			179
                                                                      
                                                                      		       BYZANTINE HOUSE NEAR FOSCARI
                                                                      	fourthly at x and y No 124 are in their place two fragments
                                                                      of a Byzantine bold flower plinth with roses between its
                                                                      masses of leaves;  the curling tops have been broken away,
                                                                      but the flank of a leaf group: with its main curl oppo-
                                                                      site, and our vase are at fig 1 and its section fig 2 p 751
                                                                      Gothic book.
                                                                      Note that the longest leaf lobe has two incisions, as if to
                                                                      suggest a kind of rib.
                                                                      I suppose this leaf cornice to be in its place above the
                                                                      arches;  the intermediate space having been faced with
                                                                       marble;  as still the case in St Marks;  and that this
                                                                      was the real position originally of all the leaf cornices
                                                                      scattered through the city now almost always above
                                                                      obtresols and under first floors;  as at the Ruin del
                                                                      Conbon, and in fragments extending nearly to the Loredan
                                                                      past the Casa Dandolo;  and in the Palazo Santo inside and
                                                                      outside - and close to the Miracolo in house before describ
                                                                      ed now supported on an open arcade.
                                                                      I am a little at a loss whether these carved plinths on the
                                                                      pure flat cornice of the Fondaco de Turchi be the earlier
                                                                      form, but this question may perhaps be set at rest by
                                                                      the plain plinths of the later Byzantine Police house
                                                                      and that opposite post office;  and by that described
                                                                      p 76 Gothic book when the flat plinth is a peculiarly
                                                                      large and finished development is associated with pure
                                                                       pointed arches

[Version 0.05: May 2008]