Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Tomb at the top

The tomb of Doge Francesco Morosini, who died in 1694, is covered by the largest funeral slab in Venice (18 ft by 15 ft or 5.5 m by 4.6 m). He was doge from 1688 until his death. Some hold him responsible for destroying the Parthenon, but I think it was the Turks' fault for using it as a powder magazine. He brought back two of the lions now outside the Arsenale from Greece as war booty. The tomb is in the Church of Santo Stefano.
Have you sometimes come across 'San Stefano' as well as 'Santo Stefano'? As far as I can make out, San Stefano is Venetian, and Santo Stefano is Italian. The reason for 'Santo' is that 'Stefano' begins with 's-impura', i.e. 's' followed by a consonant, which also calls for slight differences in the definite article in Italian. I don't know how a letter can be impure.
On the subject of saints, have you ever thought it odd that they seem to have a Saint Cross (Santa Croce), a Saint Trinity (Santa Ternità or Trinità), or a Saint Moses (San Moisè) in Venice (and elsewhere in Italy, I would suppose). When we use the word 'Saint' in English we think of it as applying to a person who died after the time of Christ. But if you think of 'San', Santa' and 'Santo' as meaning 'holy' or 'sacred', then Holy Cross and Holy Trinity and even Holy Moses do not seem so strange.
P.S. Did you notice the previous two photos were posted exactly 12 hours apart?

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