Excerpt from The Stones of Venice, Vol. 3: The Fall The reason of this is, that the finial is properly the orna ment of gabled architecture; it is the compliance, in the minor features of the building, with the spirit of its towers, ridged roof and spires. Venetian building is not gabled, but horizontal in its roots and general masses therefore the finial is a feature contradictory to its spirit, and adopted only in that search for morbid excitement which is the infallible indication of decline. When it occurs earlier, it is on frag ments of true gabled architecture, as, for instance, on the porch of the Carmini. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.