ent.

[Illustration: PIRANO, FROM NEAR THE CATHEDRAL

_To face page_ 97]

An academy, called "Dei Virtuosi," was also sustained at the public
expense, and by it public festivals were organised, with the
accompaniment of decorations and music, &c. The festival of Corpus
Domini is still celebrated with the hanging of cloths and paintings on
the walls of the houses, and with stretching awnings, like the
Florentine mediaeval "cieli," across the streets, which are strewn with
flowers and ornamented with altars and fountains. Processions also still
accompany funerals and marriages, when garlands, flowers, and confetti
are thrown upon the cortege as it passes. The banner and pall are black,
with white embroidery, and the members of a red-clothed confraternity
attend the funerals, bearing a crucifix and tapers. Many of them are
quite old men, and they raise a quavering chant as they climb the steep
ascent to the cathedral, which is a late Renaissance building, and not
interesting, though finely placed. The campanile is an evident copy of
that of S. Mark at Venice.

In 1572, under an altar in the cathedral, a fine Byzantine civil casket
of ivory was found. Presented in 1884 to the Emperor by the
municipality, it is now in the Court museum at Vienna. It has a sliding
lid, the usual borders of rosettes, and long panels of subjects imitated
from the antique. In the library above the sacristy are several early
paintings in carved and gilt frames. The most important represents a
long arcade with four saints on each side of a broader central panel,
on which are the Virgin and Child enthroned. The figures have small
heads and meagre limbs. There is also a Crucifixion, which, from its
shape, was probably the top panel of a large picture in compartments.
These are of the fourteenth century. A later example shows four saints
in trefoil-headed panels, with a cornice above, composed of a series of
shell-headed tops of niches. These originally formed the doors of a
cupboard. There are also said to be a psalter and antiphonary of the
fourteenth century, and a Bull of Urban V. relating to the Crusades of
1365. The ancient baptistery stood opposite the cathedral, if one may
trust the views in Carpaccio's picture, and in one by Domenico
Tintoretto in the town-hall. The modern one is on the slope of the hill,
just below the campanile. It contains an early rectangular font. On the
side facing the door is a carving similar to that on the font a