News & Notes
San Marco news, hot off the presses.
May 26, 1668—Periwigs banned.
In 1665 Count Vinciguerra of Collalto, a descendant of Gaspara Stampa's reluctant paramour, brought the French periwig to Venice for the first time. In France a wig of this sort cost as much as three thousand francs, and the fashion did not readily catch on in in the...
September 12, 1661—The first gondola on the Thames.
Nowadays of course, gondolas are everywhere, from the Isis to Las Vegas, but the first to appear outside the Serenissima were the pair sent as gifts from the Doge Domenico Contarini to the newly re-established Charles II of England, together with four gondoliers...
February 17, 1600—Giordano Bruno burned at the stake
On February 17th 1600, Giordano Bruno was burnt at the stake in the Campo de' Fiori in Rome. He had been the guest in Venice of one Giovanni Mocenigo, staying in the Ca' Mocenigo Vecchia, the right-hand of the four contiguous Mocenigo palaces on the Grand Canal. It...
April 12, 1204—Constantinople falls
Constantinople falls to the Venetian and French forces, led by the blind and ancient Doge Enrico Dandolo, who had cunningly promoted this detour from the Fourth Crusade. This is John Julius Nowich from 'Venice, The Rise to Empire (1977): “It was Constantinople's...
September 1, 978—Pietro Orseolo leaves Venice.
After two years' successful administration, the rebuilding of the Basilica (at his own expense), and a series of threats against his life, the 23rd Doge Pietro Orseolo had had enough. In the middle of the night, without telling his wife or his son he left Venice: “......
