Venice, Italy. March/April 2001.

299. Venetian gondola. Lent by A. T. Morgan, Esq., 1888. N. 1818.

The earlier gondolas has a light arched frame carrying a gaudily-coloured covering, open at each end, but in the 16th century an edict was issued rendering the use of black compulsory.

In 1645 Evelyn writes: – “Taking a gondola, which is the water-coach (for land ones there are many old men in this city who never saw one, or rarely a horse), we rowed up and down the channells, which answer to our streets. These vessels are built very long and narrow, having necks and tails of steele, somewhat spreading the beake like a fishe’s tail, and kept so exceedingly polish’d as to give great lustre; some are adorned with carving, others lined with velvet (commonly black) with curtains and tassells, and the seates like couches, to lie stretch’d on, while he who rows stands upright on the very edge of the boate, and with one oar bending forward as if he would fall into the sea, rows and turns with incredible dexterity. The beakes of these vessels are like the ancient Roman rostrums.”

This description applies to the gondolas at the present time, except that sometimes they are propelled by two men, one forward and one aft. Steam launches, often worked on our omnibus system, are, however, superseding these boats for general traffic in Venice.

The dimensions of this gondola, which is a rather large one, are: – Length, 36 ft.; breadth, 4.5 ft; depth, 1.5 ft. Length of house, 6.5 ft.; breadth, 3.75 ft.; height, 5 ft.

Excerpted from the Catalogue of the Naval and Marine Engineering Collection in the Science Division of the Victoria and Albert Museum, South Kensington. With Descriptive and Historical Notes. Published by Wyman and Sons, 1899.