her citizens. The money, hastily and easily amassed, went as rapidly as it
came. It went chiefly for dress, in which the Venetian still indulges very
often to the stint of his stomach; and the ladies of that bright-colored,
showy day bore fortunes on their delicate persons in the shape of costly
vestments of scarlet, black, green, white, maroon, or violet, covered with
gems, glittering with silver buttons, and ringing with silver bells. The
fine gentlemen of the period were not behind them in extravagance; and the
priests were peculiarly luxurious in dress, wearing gay silken robes, with
cowls of fur, and girdles of gold and silver. Sumptuary laws were vainly
passed to repress the general license, and fortunes were wasted, and
wealthy families reduced to beggary. [Footnote: Galliciolli, _Memorie
Venete_.] At this time, when so many worthy gentlemen and ladies had
need of the Uncle to whom hard-pressed nephews fly to pledge the wrecks of
prosperity, there was yet no Monte di Pieta, and the demand for
pawnbrokers becoming imperative, the Republic was obliged to recall the
Hebrews from the exile into which they had been driven some time before,
that they might set up pawnshops and succor necessity. They came back,
however, only for a limited time, and were obliged to wear a badge of
yellow color upon the breast, to distinguish them from the Christians, and
later a yellow cap, then a red hat, and then a hat of oil-cloth. They
could not acquire houses or lands in Venice, nor practice any trade, nor
exercise any noble art but medicine. They were assigned a dwelling-place
in the vilest and unhealthiest part of the city, and their quarter was
called Ghetto, from the Hebrew _nghedah_, a congregation. [Footnote:
Mutinelli.] They were obliged to pay their landlords a third more rent
than Christians paid; the Ghetto was walled in, and its gates were kept by
Christian guards, who every day opened them at dawn and closed them at
dark, and who were paid by the Jews. They were not allowed to issue at all
from the Ghetto on holidays; and two barges, with armed men, watched over
them night and day, while a special magistracy had charge of their