Villa Contarini

The hall was capable of holding a thousand persons, and was lit with wax candles; the boxes were adorned with gilded stucco and mirrors, while on each side of the stage stood two great statues of elephants.

Dr. Piccioli, a dependant of Contarini, has described with great minutiae the splendid fétes given at Piazzola on 7 August 1685, in honor of Ernest Augustus, Duke of Brunswick...he was received under triumphal arches, while forty Swiss Guards, in red and green, and as many carabineers were drawn up in the entrance hall...the cantatas and serenades (Vaticinio della Fortuna, La Schiavitu fortunata di Nettuno, II Rittratto della gloria, II Preludio felice, II Merito acclamato) were played during the fetes which occupied the three days of the Duke's stay... On the wide canals round the palace was an imitation of the Bucintoro, on which supper was served to the sound of music; Neptune and other deities were borne about on sea monsters, from whose open mouths spurted scented waters.

The splendors of the palace amazed the Duke, who paid a visit to the musical library, the collection of instruments, the Conservatory, the printing-press, the church, and the theater.

At the close of a great banquet there descended from the ceiling the representation of some monster of the air; it moved its head, claws, and tail, and came forward on its wings till it reached the middle of the hall, and was "a wonderful sight to see."

There was a sham naval fight, too, between the Venetian and the Turkish galleys, races of barebacked horses, concerts, balls, serenades, and other brave shows.

In the Bucintoro was a sunk place, very deep, all set round with an infinite display of silver bowls; in it was an orchestra of twenty-four, with trumpets and other instruments, who played up to one o'clock in the morning.