andiano IV.,[104] and just
repaired, and richly adorned by Orseolo himself, who is spoken of by
Sagornino as having also "adorned the chapel of the Ducal Palace" (St.
Mark's) with ornaments of marble and gold.[105] There can be no doubt
whatever that the palace at this period resembled and impressed the
other Byzantine edifices of the city, such as the Fondaco de Turchi,
&c., whose remains have been already described; and that, like them, it
was covered with sculpture, and richly adorned with gold and color.

Sec. XI. In the year 1106, it was for the second time injured by
fire,[106] but repaired before 1116, when it received another emperor,
Henry V. (of Germany), and was again honored by imperial praise.[107]
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;"[108] 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. As,
therefore, the old Byzantine building was, at the time when those works
first interfered with it, in the form given to it by Ziani, I shall
hereafter always speak of it as the _Ziani_ Palace; and this the rather,
because the only chronicler whose words are perfectly clear respecting
the existence of part of this palace so late as the year 1422, speaks of
it as built by Ziani. The old "palace, of which half remains to this day,
was built, as we now see it, by Sebastian Ziani."[109]

So far, then, of the Byzantine Palace.

Sec. XII. 2nd. The GOTHIC PALACE. The reader, doubtless, recollects that
the important change in the Venetian government which gave stability to
the aristocratic power took place about the year 1297,[110] under the
Doge Pietro Gradenigo, a man thus characterized by Sansovino:--"A prompt
and prudent man, of unconquerable determination and great eloquence, who
laid, so to speak, the foundations of the eternity of this republic, by
the admirable regulations which he introduced into the government."

We may now, with some reason, doubt of their admirableness; but their
importance, and the vigorous will and intellect of the Doge, are not to
be disputed. Venice was in the zenith of her strength, and the heroism
of her citizens was displaying itself in every quarter of the
world.[111] The ac