quiescence 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.

The Serrar del Consiglio fixed the numbers of the Senate within certain
limits, and it conferred upon them a dignity greater than they had ever
before possessed. It was natural that the alteration in the character of
the assembly should be attended by some change in the size, arrangement,
or decoration of the chamber in which they sat.

We accordingly find it recorded by Sansovino, that "in 1301 another
saloon was begun on the Rio del Palazzo, _under the Doge Gradenigo_, and
finished in 1309, _in which year the Grand Council first sat in
it_."[112] In the first year, therefore, 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.

Sec. XIII. Sansovino, with a caution very frequent among Venetian
historians, when alluding to events connected with the Serrar del
Consiglio, does not specially mention the cause for the requirement of
the new chamber; but the Sivos Chronicle is a little more distinct in
expression. "In 1301, it was determined to build a great saloon _for the
assembling_ of the Great Council, and the room was built which is _now_
called the Sala del Scrutinio."[113] _Now_, that is to say, at the time
when the Sivos Chronicle was written; the room has long ago been
destroyed, and its name given to another chamber on the opposite side of
the palace: but I wish the reader to remember the date 1301, as marking
the commencement of a great architectural epoch, in which took place the
first appliance of the energy of the aristocratic power, and of the
Gothic style, to the works of the Ducal Palace. The operations then
begun were continued, with hardly an interruption, during the whole
period of the prosperity of Venice. We shall see the new buildings
consume, and take the place of, the Ziani Palace, piece by piece: and
when the Ziani Palace was destroyed, they fed upon themselves; being
continued round the square, until, in the sixteenth century, they
r