ers, and crushed his power. In addition to
these papers the Inferior Chancellery contained the documents relating
to the dignitaries of St. Mark's in its capacity as Ducal Chapel; the
order and ceremony of the Ducal household; the expenditure of the Civil
List; and the archives of the Procurators of Saint Mark, which contained
the will, trusts, and bequests of private citizens.

The Ducal Chancellery, which the Council of Ten once called 'cor nostri
status,' was preserved on the upper floor of the palace, and was reached
by the Scala d'oro. The papers were arranged in a number of cupboards
surmounted by the arms of the various Grand Chancellors who had presided
in that office. The documents of the Ducal Chancellery are of far higher
importance than those contained in the Cancelleria Inferiore; they
consist of political papers which it was not necessary to keep secret.
Among the many interesting series of documents which fell to the Ducal
Chancellery, the most valuable are the 'Compilazione delle Leggi,' or
statute-books distinguished by the various colours of their
bindings--gold, roan, and green--to mark the statutes which relate to
the Maggior Consiglio, the Senate, and the College respectively; the
Secretario alle voci, or record of all elections in the Great Council;
the Libri gratiarum, or special privileges. But most important of all is
the great series of documents which include the whole legislation of the
State relating to Venetian affairs on sea and land. Of this vast series
those marked _Terra_ contain 3128 volumes of files, 411 volumes of
registers, and 7 volumes of rubrics; those marked _Mar_ number 1286
volumes of files, 247 volumes of registers, and 7 volumes of rubrics. It
will easily be seen how important the Ducal Chancellery is both for the
verification of dates, and also as displaying so large a tract of the
Venetian home administration.

But important as the Ducal Chancellery undoubtedly is, it cannot vie in
interest with the Cancelleria Secreta, which might, with every justice,
have been called 'cor nostri status', for it is in the papers of that
Chancellery that the long history of the growth, splendour, and decline
of the Republic is to be traced in all its manifold details and
complicated relations. The Secret Chancellery was established by a
decree of the Great Council in the year 1402. Its object was to preserve
those papers of the highest State importance, from the publicity to
which the Duc