Various

“ The intermediate stage is a magnificent arcade supporting very vigorous tracery and divided from the stages above and below it by large and pronounced lines of carved and moulded string-courses.
"It is important to observe that up to the top of the second string-course the whole of the architecture is of the very best kind of Venetian pointed, and is, I believe, the very best and truest specimen of Gothic architecture south of the Alps. ”

“ The original Doges' Palace, probably a small fortified castle, was built early in the ninth century, and in the troublous period of early Venetian history was frequently burned and rebuilt. At the end of the twelfth century Sebastiano Ziani restored and enlarged it. The present palace was begun in 1300 by the building of the west façade, and was a slow growth extending over nearly three centuries, the older building of Ziani being gradually pulled down as room was required for the new work. ”

“ In place of the extreme boldness which marks every part of the former, we see mouldings reduced in the latter to the smallest and meanest section possible; the windows of the upper stage are badly designed, whilst the traceries of the second stage are as fine as they can possibly be; the parapet too is not equal in its design to any of the lower work, and crowns with an insignificant grotesqueness the noble symmetry of the two lower arcades ”

“ In 1422 a decree was passed that the new palace should be extended over the site of Ziani's building; and in a few years the remainder of the external façade was completed up to its juncture with the Church of St. Mark. The Porta della Carta, which unites the Palace with the Church, was added in 1439. The internal block in the great court, joining the Porta della Carta to the east façade was built about 1462. In 1479 a fire consumed part of the fourteenth century buildings along the east front, and this part was then rebuilt, mostly between 1480 and 1550. ”