Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 3.djvu/399

Rh and many dwellings, to the great profit of the city of Venice.

Many persons affirm, therefore, and more particularly the illustrious Messer Luigi Cornaro, a Venetian noble of great prudence, experience, and learning, that if it had not been for the forethought of Fra Giocondo, all that collection of earth which has filled the lagoon of Chioggia, and perhaps more, would have been brought into those of Venice, to the indescribable injury, or almost to the ruin of that city. The same noble, who was the intimate friend of Fra Giocondo, as he ever was and is of all able men, affirmed, moreover, that his country has on this account an eternal debt to the memory of Fra Giocondo, who may justly be called the second founder of Venice; nay, that the latter may be said to merit higher praise for having by the means thus adopted, preserved the amplitude and nobility of a city so admirable and so potent, than do those who first erected it with but weak and inconsiderable commencements; seeing that the benefit thus conferred will ever be, as it hitherto has been, of inconceivable utility and advantage to Venice.

No long time after this holy work had been perfected by Fra Giocondo, the Bridge of the Rialto in Venice was consumed by fire, to the great loss of the citizens, since the magazines of their most precious merchandize, and as it may almost be called the richest treasures of that city are there accumulated. This happened, too, precisely at the moment when the republic had been reduced, by long-continued wars and by the loss of almost all her possessions on the main land, to a very much straightened condition. The Signori then governing stood in doubt therefore, and remained unresolved as to what they ought to do: still, as the reconstruction of that edifice was of the very highest importance, the determination was at length formed that in any case it should be reinstated. That resolved on, it was further determined that, to render it worthy of the greatness and magnificence of that republic, and for the more honourable and suitable execution of the same. Fra Giocondo, whose ability and the powers he possessed in architecture were already known to the Signori, should receive orders to prepare the design for the fabric, when he fulfilled his commission in the following manner.