VENICE AND ITS STORY

London: J.M. Dent & Co., 1903. Second Issue, one month after the first, with the same text-block and title-page as the first issue but with a half-title page added noting the November issue date. Illustrated throughout with 50 colour plates, 11 reproductions of paintings, 20 tinted illustrations, 31 illustrations in text and 2 maps, one of which is large and multi-folding, all by Nelly Erichsen, W.K. Hinchliff and O.F.M. Ward. 8vo, publisher's original green cloth the upper cover lettered in gilt and elaborately decorated in gilt all-over designs incorporating the Lion of St.Mark's in the city of Venice. The spine panel extensively decorated and lettered in gilt, t.e.g. xv, 332 pp, including appendix and index pp. A bright and clean copy, some light spotting as is typical to the prelims, and a little rubbing from shelving. A BRIGHT AND PLEASING COPY. Illustrated in colour and black and white by Nelly Erichsen, W. K. Hinchliff and O. F. M. Ward.
A comprehensive history of Venice from its earliest settlers, through its complex political, social, and religious development. The author includes a history of economics and commerce, fine arts, and the social classes. He draws from the old histories of antiquity as well as modern sources. He references Ruskin, Berenson, Bode, Burckhardt, and Saccardo. The last half of the book is strictly a guide book, tracing nooks and crannies of the city from a complete chapter on the Basilica of St. Mark, to the Ducal Palace, the Accademia, and Grand Canal.
Colour paintings are interspersed throughout, including some wonderful portraits of local people (bead-threaders in bright dress, Venetian women, Gondoliers), local interest scenes (a wine-shop, a gondola under the Ponte di Rialto, a modern sunset on the Canal, and a curiosity shop on the water-front), and some marvelous views of cathedral interiors and architecture along the water.
“The History of Venice is the history of a State unparalleled in Europe for permanence and stability. For centuries Venice occupied that position of maritime supremacy now held by Great Britain, and time was when an English king was fain to crave the loan of a few warships to vindicate his rights in France. The autonomy of the Venetian Republic so imposed on men’s minds that it was regarded as in the very nature of things, and even so acute an observer as Voltaire wrote in the Dictionnaire Philosophique, less than three decades before her fall: “Venice has preserved her independence during eleven centuries, and I flatter myself will preserve it for ever.”
“The word Venetia,” says Francesco Sansovino, ‘is interpreted by some to mean VENI ETIAM, which is to say, ‘Come again and again’; for how many times soever thou shalt come, new things and new beauties thou shalt see.”