Page:The Voyage Of Italy Or A Compleat Journey through Italy, The Second Part.pdf/139

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of Italy.
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impute the fault partly to themselves; seeing admirable things are liable to this inconvenience, that they are also inexpressable.

The Pallaces of Signori Balbi.6. I saw also the two Pallaces of the Signori Balbi, in the Street of the Annunciata. In the one whereof (on the left hand) I saw, among other rich things, a Looking Glass, valued at threescore thousand crowns. Its much of the size of those Looking-glasses, which Seneca calls specula toti corpori paria, that is, as bigg, and brittle, as those that look themselves in them. The Frame of it is all of Silver, set thick with a thousand little armed Figures, like Cupids: as if the plain Mirrour of this Looking-Glass were the plain field where Cupid pitcheth his Tents, and begins his Conquests over fair Ladies. The round Pillars set in the Porch of this house, and the Giuochi d'acqua in the Garden, will make themselves be taken notice of.

The Doges Pallace.7. The Pallace of the Doge, or biennial Prince here, with the several Chambers of Justice, and the Armory in it for thirty thousand

men