Marco Antonio Sabellico. [On the Site of Venice. The Oldest Guide to Venice]. Edited by Maurizio Vittoria

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Marco Antonio Sabellico
Del sito di Vinegia
La più antica guida di Venezia
[On the Site of Venice. The Oldest Guide to Venice]

Edited by Maurizio Vittoria

Venice, Venipedia editrice, 2016

Review by Giovanni Mazzaferro

Antonello da Messina, San Cassiano Altarpiece, 1476, Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum
Source: bilddatenbank.khm.at via Wikimedia Commons

A meritorious edition

If I were reviewing On the Site of Venice by Marco Antonio Sabellico (1436? -1506) exclusively for the purposes of art literature, I could only repeat what Schlosser already wrote on it in his handbook Die Kunstliteratur 1924: "A work of little use to the history of art" (p. 337). The only two paintings mentioned in the text are a "panel by a Messinese painter [editor's note: ‘Messenio dipintore’ is Antonello da Messina], which seemingly is not lacking anything but soul" (p. 47) in the Saint Cassiano Church (it is the San Cassiano Altarpiece, only a part of which has reached us and is preserved today at the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna) and, in the San Giobbe Church, the San Giobbe Altarpiece by Giovanni Bellini now in the Academia Gallery in Venice ("We can see in the church a noticeable panel by Giovanni Bellini, which shows us the main principles of his art" - p. 53). For the rest, Sabellico simply adds (speaking generically of Venetian churches) that "upon the altars are gilded tables, which are commonly called altarpieces" (p. 78). Nevertheless, it should be noted that these few citations are significant of a taste holding the view that the golden altarpieces (those of the 'primitives') are not worthy of a single quote. According to that same taste, instead, Sabellico believes that it is worth reporting (albeit in an entirely inadequate form) the ‘new’ way of painting, of which Antonello and Giovanni Bellini are two of the most important representatives.

Giovanni Bellini, San Giobbe Altarpiece, about 1487, Venice, Gallerie dell'Accademia
Source: https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/renaissance-reformation/renaissance-venice/venice-early-ren/v/bellini-san-giobbe-altarpiece

Still, I do not think this would be the most appropriate type of assessment of this text. Let me start, first of all, by mentioning that the publication of an Italian edition of the work (originally released in Latin in 1494 or 1495 and in Italian in 1544) is factually meritorious. In fact, aside from an edition prepared for a 'wedding' in 1957, this is the first modern version. We owe it to the Committee for Venice (and to Maurizio Vittoria, in particular), an association of individuals which aims at spreading Venetian culture and heritage in particularly difficult years, without any fear of 'getting their hands dirty' with an intelligent dissemination policy to the broader public. In fact, any detractor might point out immediately, for example, that Mr Vittoria did not produce a critical edition, and did not meet the scientific standards of the academic world. Against this claim, it would be easy to argue (and I will do so below) that the academic world did not produce anything in this field, and that I find this is really serious.

Probably On the Site of Venice should be distributed, free of charge, to the millions of tourists visiting the city every year; surely, the text should be made known to those traveling to or from Venice with large 'cruise ships' (I have nothing against touristic cruises; just I do not think it is appropriate that the cruise ships pass along the Giudecca canal), just to remind them that Venice is not an amusement park, and it has a different story to Disneyland. Much more modestly, hopefully I will have the opportunity to give me a free day to walk in the city with Sabellico’s booklet in hand, following the traces of what he describes in his work. In this sense (i.e. considering it as a curious and valuable record of the late fifteenth century, to be checked against what remains to this day) On the Site of Venice can be considered today as a guide of the town. With an important caveat: when it was published, it was not a 'guide'. 

Humanism and Chorography

Revisiting the history of humanism would go much beyond the scope of this post. It is however worth recalling that Marco Antonio Sabellico (actually Marco Antonio Coccio or Coccia) was an integral part of this cultural stream. One of the key features of humanism is the resumption of literary models from antiquity, including the description of regions or cities from a 'qualitative' point of view, which is called chorography, opposed to (or rather, joined with) a comprehensive and quantitative description, which takes on the name of geography. The distinction is directly derived from Ptolemy's Geography. "While geography aims at a comprehensive and accurately measured representation of the entire world, chorography meticulously portrays individual regions. The Cosmographia of Peter Appiano 1533 displays a visualisation of this distinction [editor's note: see the image below]. The picture shows a globe with a human head under the term "Geography" and a city landscape with metaphor of the eye and the ear of Ptolemy under "Chorography" [1]. 

Petrus Apianus, Cosmographia, Antwerp 1540, Difference beetween geography and corography, f. 4r,
Source: https://ia800703.us.archive.org/4/items/cosmographiaapia00apia/cosmographiaapia00apia.pdf

On the Site of Venice fits perfectly in the latter domain. So this is not a guide, but a chorographic description, the kind of works deriving from the Italian humanist tradition, which starts with the Italia illustrata (Italy illustrated) by Flavio Biondo, published posthumously in 1474; the first chorographic texts are written in Latin, and here we are right in line with the general trend. Moreover, it is certainly no coincidence that, in 1527, On the Site of Venice is reprinted in Latin in Turin together with De Roma instaurata (On Rome established) and De Italia illustrata (On Italy illustrated) by Biondo. Over the years, Latin has become Italian; this explains the first Italian translation of Sabellico’s description, edited by Michele Tramezzino in 1544, but always published together with the corographic works of Biondo and others. It is a trend that six years later will lead to the Descrizione di tutta l’Italia (Description of the whole Italy) by Leandro Alberti. De situ urbis Venetae (this is the original Latin title of Sabellico’s work 1494) is dedicated to Girolamo Donà, who is going to move as Venetian ambassador to Rome. Honestly, I am not sure to agree, when the curator of this edition writes that Sabellico dedicate it to him to comfort him of the planned long absence from Venice; it seems more likely that he did it to make sure that Donà would bring with him a chorographic description of the city to be read in the Roman humanist circles. In any case, when it is first published, and even in 1544, when the first Italian edition is released, the work of Sabellico is not meant to be a guide.

Jacopo de' Barbari, View of Venice, 1500 Museo Correr, Venice
Source: Godromil via Wikimedia Commons

The description of a city

On the Site of Venice is divided into three books. In each of the first two ones, Sabellico describes three town districts i.e. sestieri (first Dorsoduro, San Polo and Santa Croce, i.e. those placed in the West and South of the Grand Canal, then Cannaregio, Castello and San Marco). The third book is devoted to the 'lagoon', understood in a very broad sense, since it is divided into ten regions an area that extends from the Po river mouth to the Natisone. The division into regions corresponds roughly to the identification of inland waterways that flow into the sea and which were used for inland navigation. Still, most of the attention is devoted to the islands immediately near the city, such as Murano, Burano and Torcello.

Having to describe Venice in words, that is, having to express 'its real image like it was on a panel' (the curator draws a correct comparison with the famous map of Venice by Jacopo de' Barbari, dated 1500), Sabellico essentially bases himself on churches and places (such as the "colleges", i.e. the schools) that testify to the piety and, more generally, the ethical life of people living in Venice. Talking about it, the author describes the elements that, according to the standards of those times, served to praise the city, starting from the relics that are found there (they include heads, hands, feet, thighs of saints, as well as nails and other various tools for their martyrdom), the preciousness of the materials they are made of (of course, the S. Marco basilica stands as the "golden church"), the fact of being more or less antique, the number of monks or 'virgins' (nuns) that populate the convents. Of course, a special attention is devoted to bridges; about the Rialto bridge (still in wood, although he does not mention it), Sabellico writes that "there is almost no hour during the day when the route is not tightly filled by the multitude of people who have to pass through it" (this applies even now, i.e. 550 years after). But the real focus of the description, in my opinion, is the presence of people, or an indication of the thousand trades and business taking place in the city. From this point of view, Sabellico manages to give the image of a city teeming with life (an undoubtedly sweetened image, in which, for example, the trade deals at the Rialto Market are made quietly, to denote the education of the people). This flood of people becomes more alive and active at Rialto and in the loading and unloading areas for goods in the ships. In short - to put it a bit more appropriately – I feel that the best feature of Sabellico’s description is that he is able to portray vividly the presence of a varied and pulsing anthropic fabric. The Arsenal deserves a separate mention; it is judged 'beautiful' and so majestic that one would believe that there cannot be any war, which would be so long or difficult that the Arsenal, with his ships and his weapons, would not cope with the necessary military needs; and I'm not entirely sure whether here the author only wants to celebrate the quality of the infrastructure with beautiful words, or also to address a warning to foreign readers on the 'firepower' of the city.

Venice, Saint Mark Basilica, Internal view of the Dome of the Ascension
Source: Tango7174 via Wikimedia Commons

S. Alipio facade door of Saint Mark's Basilica, Venice
Source: Roman Bonnefoy (Romanceor) via Wikimedia Commons

For the study of the artistic guides of Venice

As said, that of Sabellico is not a guide. Not that the Venice missed guides and – in the case of my particular interest – even artistic guides. It is debatable whether the Venetia città nobilissima et singolare di Francesco Sansovino (Venetia as noble et singular city by Francesco Sansovino) (1581) precisely belonged to this genre, but certainly it were part of it Le minere (The mines) (1664) and the Ricche minere della pittura veneziana (Rich mines of Venetian painting) (1674) by Marco Boschini and the Descrizione di tutte le pubbliche pitture della città di Venezia e isole circonvicine (Description of all public paintings of the city of Venice and some neighbouring islands) (1733) by Anton Maria Zanetti the Younger. The banal question is: of how many of these texts do we have a modern critical edition? The answer is equally simple: of none of them, except for the publication of the Breve istruzione (Brief introduction) to the Rich mines (added to the Charter of pictorial navigation by Boschini, curated by Anna Pallucchini in 1967). What's happening in Venice? Why do Florence and Rome have their annotated guides and the lagoon city does not? Mind you: this is not just about making the original text available. Of course, the Internet makes it now possible for anyone to consult a pdf copy of the mentioned above works. It is however about much more, i.e. studying heritage in the connective tissue to which he belonged. We cannot be satisfied – and I will not be satisfied – with the citation of a single work. It is necessary to take a holistic view analysing all texts, because the comparison between ancient and present heritage is the prerequisite of any heritage protection. Here, in my opinion, the Venetian academic world should, by force of circumstances, come into play. I do not belong to these circles at all. But the question I ask myself is: why is it so that none of the Venetian academics realized there is a gap to be filled? My hope is that forthcoming events will reveal that I have been too pessimistic, and that I will be contradicted by facts. For now, unfortunately, I do not see any hint into this direction.

NOTES

[1] The quote is from Isabel Zinman, From Ausonia to Batavia: the artists of Hadrianus Junius reconsidered in «Simiolus. Netherlandish quarterly for the history of art», vol. 37 2013-14 n. 3-4 p. 205).