ils of S. Mark's are things to write
about. One should go there to see S. Mark's as a whole, just as one goes
to Venice to see Venice.

The Baptistery is near the entrance on the left as you leave the church.
But while still in the transept it is interesting to stand in the centre
of the aisle with one's back to the high altar and look through the open
door at the Piazza lying in the sun. The scene is fascinating in this
frame; and one also discovers how very much askew the facade of S.
Mark's must be, for instead of seeing, immediately in front, the centre
of the far end of the square, as most persons would expect, one sees
Naya's photograph shop at the corner.

The Baptistery is notable for its mosaic biography of the Baptist, its
noble font, and the beautiful mural tomb of Doge Andrea Dandolo. Andrea,
the last Doge to be buried within S. Mark's, was one of the greatest of
them all. His short reign of but ten years, 1343 to 1354, when he died
aged only forty-six, was much troubled by war with the Genoese; but he
succeeded in completing an alliance against the Turks and in finally
suppressing Zara, and he wrote a history of Venice and revised its code
of laws. Petrarch, who was his intimate friend, described Andrea as
"just, upright, full of zeal and of love for his country ... erudite ...
wise, affable, and humane." His successor was the traitor Marino
Faliero. The tomb of the Doge is one of the most beautiful things in
Venice, all black bronze.

It was the good Andrea, not to be confused with old Henry Dandolo, the
scourge of the Greeks, to whom we are indebted for the charming story of
the origin of certain Venetian churches. It runs thus in the translation
in _St. Mark's Rest_:--

"As head and bishop of the islands, the Bishop Magnus of Altinum went
from place to place to give them comfort, saying that they ought to
thank God for having escaped from these barbarian cruelties. And there
appeared to him S. Peter, ordering him that in the head of Venice, or
truly of the city of Rivoalto, where he should find oxen and sheep
feeding, he was to build a church under his (S. Peter's) name. And thus
he did; building S. Peter's Church in the island of Olivolo [now
Castello], where at present is the seat and cathedral church of Venice.

[Illustration: THE CAMPANILE AND THE PIAZZA FROM COOK'S CORNER]

"Afterwards appeared to him the angel Raphael, committing it to him,
that at another place, where he should find a nu