d on, or near, the spot where the Ducal Palace now stands,
he built a palace for the administration of the government. The history
of the Ducal Palace therefore begins with the birth of Venice, and to
what remains of it, at this day, is entrusted the last representation of
her power....

In the year 1106, it was for the second time injured by fire, but
repaired before 1116, when it received another emperor, Henry V. (of
Germany), and was again honored by imperial praise. Between 1173 and the
close of the century, it seems to have been again repaired and much
enlarged by the Doge Sebastian Ziani. Sansovino says that this Doge not
only repaired it, but "enlarged it in every direction;" and, after this
enlargement, the palace seems to have remained untouched for a hundred
years, until, in the commencement of the fourteenth century, the works
of the Gothic Palace were begun.

Venice was in the zenith of her strength, and the heroism of her
citizens was displaying itself in every quarter of the world. The
acquiescence in the secure establishment of the aristocratic power was
an expression, by the people, of respect for the families which had been
chiefly instrumental in raising the commonwealth to such a height of
prosperity....

In the first year of the fourteenth century, the Gothic Ducal Palace of
Venice was begun; and as the Byzantine Palace was, in its foundation,
coeval with that of the state, so the Gothic Palace was, in its
foundation, coeval with that of the aristocratic power. Considered as
the principal representation of the Venetian school of architecture, the
Ducal Palace is the Parthenon of Venice, and Gradenigo its Pericles.

Before it was finished, occasion had been discovered for farther
improvements. The Senate found their new Council Chamber inconveniently
small, and, about thirty years after its completion, began to consider
where a larger and more magnificent one might be built. The government
was now thoroughly established, and it was probably felt that there was
some meanness in the retired position, as well as insufficiency in the
size, of the Council Chamber on the Rio.

It appears from the entry still preserved in the Archivio, and quoted by
Cadorin, that it was on the 28th of December, 1340, that the
commissioners appointed to decide on this important matter gave in their
report to the Grand Council, and that the decree passed thereupon for
the commencement of a new Council Chamber on the Gran