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that the full-blown classicism of Sansovino’s design for the Scuola Grande
della Misericordia overstepped the social rank of a confraternity of citta-
dini and that this failure of decorum may account for its unfinished state.103
At the same time, it could be argued that this remarkable statement of
artistic ambition by the citizen class may have itself stimulated the patri-
cian oligarchy to initiate the renovatio in Piazza San Marco a few years
afterwards.
Whereas “imperial” architectural projects were mainly confined to
Piazza San Marco and the Grand Canal, on peripheral sites the myth of
the simplicity of the first settlers encouraged a simpler mode of expres-
sion. A crucial text for the ideals of republican architecture was the letter
of the Roman official Cassiodorus, written in 537 c.e., which claimed that
all Venetians “have abundance only of fish; rich and poor live together
in equality. The same food and similar houses are shared by all; where-
fore they cannot envy each other’s hearths and so they are free from the
vices that rule the world.”104 Mentioned by Sanudo and published in
full in Sansovino’s guidebook of 1581, Cassiodorus’s text orchestrated the
“memory” of the city’s foundation myth.105 Even wealthy members of the
ruling elite sought to emulate the simple lagoon life in their palaces on
the margins of the city—the palaces of Doge Andrea Gritti, the Senator
Leonardo Moro and Doge Leonardo Donà (Fig. 20.8) all display reticent
exteriors in local vernacular language.106
Town and CountryEver since the first edition of Pompeo Molmenti’s lively work La storia di
Venezia nella vita privata, first published in 1880, curiosity about life within
the walls of Venetian houses has continued to grow.107 The difficulty in
gaining access to domestic interiors, combined with the need to subdivide
and modernize dwellings has highlighted the threat to the preservation
103 Tafuri, ed., Venezia e il Rinascimento, p. 144.
104 As cited in Deborah Howard, The Architectural History of Venice (New Haven/
London, 2002), p. 4.
105 Sanudo, De origine, pp. 11, 14; Sansovino, Venetia città nobilissima, fols 207v–208r.
106 Foscari and Tafuri, L’armonia e i conflitti, pp. 24–27; Howard, Jacopo Sansovino, pp.
146–54; Giulia Ceriana Sebregondi, “Un doge e il suo manifesto: Il palazzo di Leonardo
Donà (1536–1612) alle Fondamenta Nuove a Venezia,” Annali di architettura 14 (2002),
231–50.
107 Pompeo Molmenti, La storia di Venezia nella vita privata dalle origini alla caduta
della Repubblica ( 1880 ) expanded into 3 vols in the 4th edition (Bergamo, 1905–08).