pleted in 1424, at a
cost of 40,000 zecchins. In 1435 it was partially burnt, and was
restored under "Onofrio Giordani de la Cava," who had been five years in
the city.

[Illustration: LOGGIA OF THE RECTOR'S PALACE, RAGUSA

_To face page 354_]

[Illustration: CAPITAL FROM THIS LOGGIA, RECTOR'S PALACE, RAGUSA

_To face page 355_]

The second story, which existed as a kind of tower above each end of the
facade, was thrown down by the great earthquake, and never rebuilt. The
loggia has stone benches against the walls, one to the left, and two,
one above the other, to the right, which were the seats for
senators on great _fete_ days. In 1462 there was another fire, so that
only fragments of Onofrio's work remain--the hall on the ground floor
with the seventeenth-century wooden ceiling, several of the caps of the
loggia, and the courtyard within, the great door and the windows of the
first floor. This is all that appears to have been preserved. The great
council then called in Michelozzo the Florentine and George of Sebenico.
The former was at Ragusa in 1463, looking after the building of the
walls of the city; and on February 11, 1464, it was ordered "that the
palace be rebuilt" after his designs; but, in the following June, George
of Sebenico was appointed, working, no doubt, on the general lines laid
down by Michelozzo. The great hall was burnt during the French siege,
and very little remains inside worthy of note. There are two tolerable
pictures, one an early copy of the Paris Bordone in the National
Gallery, the Venus and Adonis, and the other, a Baptism of Christ, in
the manner of Paduan work of the fifteenth century. Both have been
restored. The courtyard has an arcade of round arches, resting on
cylindrical columns with Renaissance caps, and an upper arcade resting
on twin columns and piers, two arches to each bay, both stories being
vaulted with sustaining arches, but without ribs. The loggia in front
has ribs and bosses at the intersections. A small staircase to the right
contains other remains of Onofrio's building--a bracket, on which is
carved a figure of Justice holding a label, and with a mutilated lion on
each side of her; opposite to it is a capital, on which is carved the
Rector administering justice; neither of them in their original place.
The main doorway is pointed with a richly carved moulding and caps,
which belong to Onofrio's work; above it is S. Biagio in a Renaissance
niche, and between the