No other city in the world has been so extravagantly praised as
Venice. In 1495 the French ambassador Philippe de Commines praised it as
being "the most joyously radiant city" he had ever seen. He mentioned
white marble facades, apartments with gilt antechambers and sumptuously
ornate fireplaces. When Napoleon conquered Venice in 1797, he thought St
Mark's was "the best drawing-room in Europe and only Heaven is worthy of
serving as its ceiling", Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, who stayed in the
island-dotted lagoon in September 1786 while on his Italian journey, spoke
with reverence of the "wonderful island city", which he "was privileged to
visit" and in which he wished to reside "until I have satiated my desire
to gaze on the image of this city". After endless warring with Genoa,
Venice finally conquered her rival in 1380. From that date, the city was
the unchallenged leader in world trade. In 1423 the Venetian Republic commanded a war fleet of 45 galleys specially built for combat and a
merchant fleet of 300 galleys. With a population of over 200,000,
Venice was one of the biggest, and certainly the richest, Western cities.
Prosperity, optimism and cheerfulness reigned: "People sing in the
squares, tn the streets and on the canals. Merchants sing when they are
prizing then-wares; labourers sing when they leave their places of work;
gondolien sing when they are waiting for customers", remarked the
Italian dramatist Carlo Goldoni in the eighteenth century. One wonders
whether the Doge, the ruler of the Republic, sang when conducting the
affairs of state.
At any rate, he had to utter the same invocation each year on Ascension
Day, which was the most important event in the city calendar: "O sea, we
wed thee in the sign of our true and everlasting dominion". With this
incantation, a vow renewed each year, the Venetians hoped to propitiate the primal
forces of the sea to ensure their benevolence and willingness to do their
share in securing the supremacy of the Republic in the Adriatic. In the
days of the veduta painter
Canaletto, the "nuptials with the sea"
were staged as an opulent and colourful cavalcade. The Doge boarded his
ceremonial ship, the bucintoro, and sailed to the Porto di Lido,
the principal gateway to Venice, where the "nuptials with the sea" took
place. There he poured holy water into the sea and cast a gold ring
overboard. The ritual has been revived in recent years. Now, of course,
something very different is at stake. No longer are the power, influence
and wealth of Venice to be enhanced. The decaying city once called the
Serenissima ("Most Serene Republic") must be prevented from subsiding into
the sea should a raging storm unleash the forces of nature.
