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Rh said to have been founded in 432. The canals between these clusters of houses were deepened and cleared out, and in some cases trees were planted along the banks, or fondamenta; we hear of the cypresses on San Giorgio Maggiore, of an ancient mulberry tree at San Salvadore, of a great elder tree, near the Procuratie Vecchie where the magistrates were wont to tie their horses. There were vineyards and orchards (broli) on land reclaimed from the sea, and lying between the various clusters of houses, which had not yet been consolidated into one continuous city. The canals were crossed by, wooden bridges without steps, and in the case of the wide Grand Canal the bridge at Rialto was carried on boats. Gradually, however, stone bridges came into use. The earliest of these was the bridge of San Zaccaria, mentioned in; a document of 1170. The Rialto bridge was designed in 1178 by Nicolo Barattieri, and was carried on pontoons. In 1255 and 1264 it was rebuilt, still in wood. It was carried on beams and could be raised in the middle, as we see it in Carpaccio's picture of “The Miracle of the Cross.” The present bridge, the work of Antonio or Giovanni Contino, whose nickname was da Ponte, dates from 1588-91, and cost 250,000 ducats. The same architect was responsible for the lofty “Bridge of Sighs” (1595-1605), connecting the ducal palace with the state prisons (1591-97) on the opposite side of the narrow canal Jon the east of the Rio del Palazzo.

The early bridges were inclined planes and could easily be crossed by horses. It was not till the city became more populous and when stone-stepped bridges were introduced that the use of horses died out. As late as 1365 the Doge Lorenzo. Celsi owned a famous stud of chargers, and in 149O the Doge Michele Steno's stables, where the present Zecca stands, were famous throughout Italy. In 1392 a law put an end 'to riding in the Merceria, on account of the crowd, and all horses and mules were obliged to carry bells to warn foot-passengers. The lanes and alleys of the early city were unpaved and filthy with slops from the houses. But in the 13th century;the Venetians began to pave the more frequented streets with brick; Ferries or traghetti for crossing the canals were also established as early as the 13th century; we find record of ferries at San Gregorio, San Felice, San Toma, San Samuele, and so on, and also of longer ferries to the outlying islands like Murano and Chioggia, or to the mainland at Mestre and Fusina. The boatmen early erected themselves into gilds.

Gondolas.—The characteristic conveyances on the canals of Venice-which take the place of cabs in other cities-are the gondolas, flat-bottomed boats, some 30 ft. long by 4 or 5 aft. wide, curving out of the water at the ends, with ornamental bow and stern pieces and an iron beak (ferro), resembling a halberd, which is the highest part of the boat. The gondolier stands on a poppa at the stern with his face towards the bow, and propels the gondola with a single oar. There is a low cabin (felze) for passengers; the ordinary gondolas can take four or six persons, and larger ones (barca or battello) take eight. Gondolas are mentioned as far back as 1094, and, prior to a sumptuary edict passed by the great council in the 16th century, making black their compulsory colour, they were very different in appearance from now. Instead of the present boat, with its heavy black cabin and absence of colouring, the older forms had an awning of rich stuffs or gold embroideries, supported on a light arched framework open at both ends, this is the gondola still seen in Carpaccio's and Gentile Bellini's pictures (c. 1500). Since 1880 services of omnibus steamers (now municipal) have also been introduced.

Byzantine Architecture.—We can trace the continuous growth of Venice, through the successive styles of Byzantine, Gothic, early Renaissance and late Renaissance architecture. The whole subject is magnificently treated in Ruskin's Stones of Venice. The two most striking buildings in Venice, St Mark 's and the Doge's Palace, at once give us an example of the two earlier styles, the Byzantine and the Gothic, at least in their general design, though both are so capricious in development and in decoration that they may more justly be considered as unique specimens rather than as typical examples of their respective styles. In truth, owing to its isolated position on the very verge of Italy, and to its close connexion with the East, Venetian architecture was an independent development. Though displaying a preponderance of Oriental characteristics, it retained a quality of its own quite unlike the styles evolved by other Western countries.

The church of St Mark's, originally the private chapel of the doge, is unique among the buildings of the world in. respect of its unparalleled richness of material and decoration. It grew with the growing state whose religious centre it was, and was adorned with the spoils of countless other buildings, both in the East and on the Italian mainland. A law of the republic required every merchant trading to the East to bring back some material for the adornment of the fane. Indeed, the building has been compared to the treasure den of a gang of “sea sharkers,” and from a museum of sculpture of the most varied kind, nearly every century from the 4th down to the latest Renaissance being represented. The present church is the third on this site. Soon after the concentration at Rialto (see History, below), a small wooden church was erected about the year 828 for the reception of the relics of St Mark, which had been brought from Alexandria when the Moslems pulled down the church where he was buried. St Mark then became the patron saint of Venice in place of St Theodore, This church was burned in 976 along with the ducal palace in the insurrection against the Doge Candiano IV. Pietro Orseolo and his successors rebuilt the church on a larger scale in the form .of a basilica. with three eastern apses and no transept, and Byzantine workmen were employed. As