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their palaces into numerous smaller properties, through repeated subdivi-
sion of their inheritance.
Like variations on a musical theme, the palaces exhibit shared char-
acteristics that endured for centuries. The underlying type that became
the standard model from about 1200 onwards consisted of four parallel
load-bearing walls perpendicular to the façade (Fig. 20.3).48 On each floor,
these four spine walls enclosed a long central circulation space running
from front to back—known on the main living storeys as the portego—
flanked on either side by smaller, more private rooms. There is consider-
able evidence to suggest that the mercantile oligarchy used the ground
floors of their palaces for the storage of merchandise, although this view
has recently been challenged.49 The amount of space needed for storage
of imported goods varied over time, depending on the timing of sea voy-
ages and fluctuations in commodity prices, but merchants often sublet
surplus space to each other during slack periods. Commodities particu-
larly susceptible to damp, such as sugar, might be stored in the attic, and
additional warehousing at the Rialto market could supplement the stor-
age space in the owner’s house.
Despite the resistance to change, long-established traditions did
undergo modifications. In the design of palaces, for example, the pic-
turesque external staircases that adorned the courtyards of 15th-century
palaces reached their climax in the remarkable spiral ascent of the Scala
del Bovolo of 1500. From this date onwards, the more ostentatious fam-
ilies sought instead to display their wealth by means of grand internal
staircases that swallowed up valuable floor space. Similarly, by the 18th
century, in the grandest palaces the ballroom replaced the central hall or
portego as the principal room for entertaining.50
It is the tension between the shared features of the type and the indi-
viduality of the particular example that enlivens the discussion of any
typology. Some building types, such as the confraternity meetinghouses
48 Paolo Maretto, La casa veneziana nella storia della città: Dalle origini all’Ottocento
(Venice, 1986), pp. 76–139 (with useful plans); Goy, Venetian Vernacular Architecture,
pp. 126–35; Dorigo, Venezia romanica, v1:298–333, 352–95; Juergen Schulz, The New Palaces
of Medieval Venice (University Park, Pa., 2004), pp. 10–21.
49 The term casa fondaco, suggesting a hybrid between the house and the warehouse,
is a 20th-century term (Richard Goy’s variation, “palazzo-fondaco,” as introduced in his
Venetian Vernacular Architecture, p. 123, has not gained wide acceptance). On the use
of palaces for storing merchandise, see Howard, Venice & the East, pp. 133–37; for an
alternative interpretation, see Schulz, The New Palaces, pp. 23–27.
50 Elena Bassi, Architettura del Sei e Settecento a Venezia (Naples, 1962); eadem, Palazzi
di Venezia: Admiranda urbis Venetae (Venice, 1976).