OF GASPAR

CONTARINI, PATRICIAN OF VENE-

tice, on the magistracies & the re-

public of the Venetians, book

one.

I have frequently observed that many foreigners, men of prudence and not ignorant of the liberal arts, when they first arrived in Venice and contemplated the grandeur of that city, were so struck with admiration and a kind of stupor that they declared, and showed by the expression of their whole countenance, that they had never seen anything more worthy of wonder or more illustrious. Yet, it was not admiration for the same thing that seized everyone. For to some, it seemed a marvelous and truly incredible thing that such a great abundance of all kinds of merchandise, from all the shores and regions of the world, should be brought into this one city in a perpetual and constant