The City Library Association, Springfield, Massachusetts. LITERATURE: ART: SCIENCE. FROM THE ART LIBRARY IN THE ART BUILDING. S.MARK: VENICE: ITS MO- Peto: 11S: SCULPTURES: AND TFS TREASURES. The Work to be Exhibited. One of the notable illustrated works in the art depart- ment, in the museum building, of the city library, is the “San Marco” of Ferdinand Ongania, in fourteen folio volumes, with eleven hundred full page plates, most. of them in gold and color. Its accomplished author, says Henry Perl, devoted twenty years of his life and a considerable portion of his means to his project of exhibiting to the world, both by pen and pencil, the inestimable treasures which the Church of San Marco possesses. No. 27—5-98—500 Several hundred of the most attractive of the plates from this work are to be shown on screens in the larger lecture room of the art building on a date to be announced. Ruskin Says of the Church of S. Mark. There rises a vision out of the earth; — a multitude of pil- lars and white domes, clustered into a long low pyramid of colored light; a treasure-heap, it seems, partly of gold, and partly of opal and mother-of-pearl, hollowed beneath into five great vaulted porches, ceiled with fair mosaic, and beset with sculpture of alabaster, clear as amber and delicate as ivory. * * * * And round the walls of the porches there are set pillars of variegated stones, Jasper and porphyry, and deep green serpentine spotted with flakes of snow, and marbles. * * And above them in the broad archivolts, a continuous chain of language and life — angels, and the signs of heaven, and the labors of men, each in its appointed season upon the earth; and above these another range of glittering pinnacles, mixed with white arches edged with scarlet flowers,—a con- fusion of delight. The Glory Within. Its great glory within, says Mr. Fergusson, is the truly Byzantine profusion of gold mosaics which cover every part of the walls above the height of the capitals of the columns, and are spread over every part of the vaults and domes, being, in fact, the real and essential decoration of the church, to which the architecture is entirely subordinate. Without, its great beauty consists in the number of marble columns which surround and fill all the front and lateral porches. Like those in the interior, they fill no constructive office, but are in themselves rich and beautiful, and dispersed in most admired disorder. Mr. Fergusson is of the opinion that the design was copied from the original Church of S. Mark at Alexandria, from whence the Evangelist’s body was translated to Venice. And it is probable that many of the columns now standing at Venice were at the same time brought from the church at Alexandria. Historical Note. The first church erected at Venice, in honor of S. Mark, was destroyed by fire in 976. Its rebuilding was immediately commenced, and the existing church was consecrated in 1085. Since that time nearly every Doge has added to the richness of A 3 Roy. - ho Gm Fe, , \e rl é a ww its decorations. The main body of the church ts of the eleventh century, the Gothic additions of the fourteenth, and the re- stored mosaics of the seventeenth. Some of the Books on Venice in the City Library. 1. Venice, an historical sketch of the republic; by H. F. Brown. (1893) (A clear, readable history.) 2668.9. 2. History of the Venetian republic, her rise, her greatness, and her civilization; by W.C. Hazlitt. 4 v. (1860) (Very full.) 2567.4. 3. Calli e canali in Venezia; edited by F. Ongania. (1891) (A collection of beautiful pictures of most attractive scenes in Venice.) Art Library. 4. Literary landmarks of Venice; by L. Hutton. (1896) (Gives glimpses of the surroundings of many famous people who were born or have spent a part of their lives in Venice.) 2973.121. 5. Guide to the paintings of Venice; an historical and critical account of all the pictures in Venice, * * * * and _ short lives of the Venetian masters; by K. Karoly. (1895) 1041.28. 6- Stories of Venice and the Venetians; by J. B. Marsh. (1873) (Popular, entertaining sketches of Venetian history). 2974.25. 7. Makers of Venice; by M. O. W. Oliphant. (1887) (Histori- cal and biographical.) 2340.27. | 8. Venezia, * * * * with 210 full-page and text illustrations from original drawings. (1894) (Largely descriptive of buildings and of life in Venice, containing such chapters as, Buildings on the Grand Canal — Walks in Venice — Industrial Venice, eéc., *2970.118. g. Gondola days; by F. H. Smith. (1897) (A chatty sketch of Venetian life.) 2952.2. 10. Venice of to-day; by F. H. Smith. (1895) (A delightful description of the Venice of the present.) *Case II. Shelf I. No. 23. 11. Venice ; from Lord Byron’s Childe Harold, with 30 original drawings made in Venice by L. Sambourne. (1878) (Selec- tions from the poem descriptive of the illustrations.) *Case III, Shelf II, No. 70. 12. Venice; by A. Wiel. (1894) (Story of the nations.) (A general historical account.) 2775.12. 7) Spe) NA 13. Venice: its history — art —industries and modern life. (1880) (Especially full along the line of art, containing many copies of paintings by Venetian artists.) *Case III, No. 3. Books on Venice Having Special Reference to the Church of S, Mark. 14. Queen of the Adriatic, or Venice past and present; by W. H. D. Adams. (1869) (On pp. 297-309 is a very good descrip- tion of St. Mark’s, particularly of the interior.) 2974.6. 15. Queen of the Adriatic, or Venice, medizeval and modern; by C. E. Clement. (c. 1893) (Pp. 259-274 describe many inter- esting details about the building.) **2973.117. 16. Venice; the city of the sea; by E. Flagg. (185 3) (An excel- lent account of the cathedral, especially of the mosaics, will be found on pp. 121-131 of vol. 1.) 2977.8. 17. Venice; by A. J.C. Hare. (Pp. 14-35 describe the. cathe- dral.) 2974.28. 18. Churches and pictures; by W. D. Howells. (z Acs Vene- tian life.) (Pp. 157-162 describe the effect the cathedral has upon a devout observer.) 2974.17. 19. Handbook for travellers in Northern Italy, published by J. Murray. (Contains a clear and condensed account of ‘the cathedral on pp. 361-367.) 20985.118. 2°. Veniceand St, Mark’s; by C.E. Norton: (Zz 4zs Historical studies of church building in the middle ages.) (On Pp. 39-83 will be found an account of St. Mark’s, largely historical.) 844.9. 21. St. Mark’s rest; by J. Ruskin. (An interesting little volume of which chapter viii is given up to descriptions of the mosaics and ornaments of St. Mark’s.) 765.20. 22. Stones of Venice; by J. Ruskin. (Pp. 60-1 Ig of vol. 2 give a very full description of the architecture and ornamenta- tion of St. Mark's.) “It was at once a type of the Redeemed church of God, and a scroll for the written word of God. It was to be to them both an image of the Bride, all glorious within, . . . and the actual Table of the Law.” Ruskin, 775.6, 23. Venice; an illustrated lecture by J. L. Stoddard. (On pp. 316.328 is a very general description of the building.) **2981.116 24. Venice: its history —art—Zindustries and modern life ; by C. Yriarte. (On pp. 129-141 is a description of the archi- tecture of the cathedral.) **2973.1202.