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                   [Illustration: CALLE DEL PISTOR]




                          LITERARY LANDMARKS

                                  OF

                                VENICE


                                  BY

                            LAURENCE HUTTON

               AUTHOR OF “LITERARY LANDMARKS OF LONDON”
                   “LITERARY LANDMARKS OF EDINBURGH”
                   “LITERARY LANDMARKS OF JERUSALEM”


                              ILLUSTRATED


                       [Illustration: colophon]


                               NEW YORK
                     HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS
                                 1896

                Copyright, 1896, by HARPER & BROTHERS.

                        _All rights reserved._




                                  TO
                         WILLIAM DEAN HOWELLS
                          WHOSE VENETIAN LIFE
                              MADE HAPPY
                           MY LIFE IN VENICE




ILLUSTRATIONS


CALLE DEL PISTOR                              _Frontispiece_

ORNAMENTAL HALF-TITLE                   _Facing page_   xii

THE COUNCIL CHAMBER OF THE DOGES.
IN OTHELLO’S TIME                           “      “      6

THE OTHELLO HOUSE                          “      “      10

PETRARCH AND LAURA                             _Page_    16

THE HOUSE OF PETRARCH                   _Facing page_    20

A CHARACTERISTIC CANAL                     “      “      26

BYRON’S PALACE                             “      “      30

THE RIALTO BRIDGE. AS SHYLOCK KNEW IT      “      “      32

ENTRANCE TO THE MERCERIA                   “      “      34

CASA FALIER, WHERE MR. HOWELLS LIVED       “      “      40

GOLDONI’S STAIRCASE                        “      “      42

GOLDONI’S STATUE                           “      “      44

BYRON’S STUDY IN THE ARMENIAN MONASTERY    “      “      48

THE “NOAH CORNER” OF THE DOGE’S PALACE     “      “      56

THE HOUSE IN WHICH BROWNING DIED           “      “      60




INTRODUCTION


In a chapter upon “Literary Residences,” among _The Curiosities of
Literature_, Isaac D’Israeli said: “No foreigners, men of letters,
lovers of the arts, or even princes, would pass through Antwerp without
visiting the House of Rubens, to witness the animated residence of
genius, and the great man who conceived the idea.” This volume is
intended to be a record of the Animated Residences of Genius which are
still existing in Venice; and it is written for the foreigners, for the
Men of Letters, for the lovers of art, and even for the princes who pass
through the town, and who care to make such houses a visit.

It is the result of many weeks of patient but pleasant study of Venice
itself. Everything here set down has been verified by personal
observation, and is based upon the reading of scores of works of travel
and biography. It is the Venice I know in the real life of the present
and in the literature of the past; and to me it is Venice from its best
and most interesting side.

The Queen of the Adriatic is peculiarly poor in local guide-books and in
local maps. In the former are to be found but slight reference to that
part of Venice which is most dear to the lovers of bookmen and to the
lovers of books; and the latter contain the names of none but the larger
of the squares, streets, and canals, leaving, in many instances, the
searcher after the smaller thoroughfares entirely afloat in the
Adriatic, with no compass by which to steer.

The stranger in Venice, accustomed to the nomenclature of the streets
and the avenues, the alleys and the courts, of the cities and towns with
which he is familiar in other parts of the world, may be interested to
learn that here a large canal is called a _Rio_, or a _Canale_; that a
_Calle_ is a street open at both ends; that a _Rio Terrà_ is a street
which was once a canal; that a _Ramo_ is a small, narrow street,
branching out of a larger one; that a _Salizzada_ is a wide, paved
street; that a _Ruga_ is just a street; that a _Rughetta_, or a
_Piscina_, is a little street; that a _Riva_ is a narrow footway along
the bank of a canal; that a _Fondamenta_ is a longer and a broader
passage-way, a quay, or an embankment;