A topographical cabinet card showing the Biblioteca Marciana on the west side of the Piazzetta. Named after St. Mark, the patron saint of Venice, the library is one of the earliest surviving public manuscript depositories in Italy and holds one of the greatest classical texts collections in the world. Like the British Library at a later date, the Biblioteca Marciana profited from a law of 1603 that required that a copy be deposited there of all books printed in Venice.

The column and statue of Saint Teodoro of Amasea – the lesser known of Venic’s two patrons – may be seen at the water’s edge in the background.

Photographed by Carlo Ponti of Venice.

Carlo Ponti studied photography in Paris in the 1840’s. In 1852, he obtained a license to produce and sell photographs in Venice. He ran the first of the big photographic businesses in the city, producing albums with architectural views of great artistic sensitivity. He was also the inventor of camera lenses suitable for panoramic photography.