This drawing shows an elevation of the Marciana Library and of the Procuratie Nuove in Venice with a plan of the ground floor portico below. The Marciana Library was built from 1537 after the design of Jacopo Sansovino (1486-1570) to house Bishop Bessarion’s donation of 750 codices and 250 manuscripts to the Venetian City State. It is depicted in the left of the elevation and is composed of two superimposed orders of three arched bays. Adjacent to it, the Procuratie Nuove were begun in 1586 after the design of Vincenzo Scamozzi (1548-1616) to house the offices and the apartments of the procurators of San Marco—the highest functionaries of the Venetian Republic after the Doge. Scamozzi modeled the first two orders of the Procuratie on Sansovino’s library to achieve the impression of a continuous front along St. Mark’s Square. At ground level both buildings consist of an order of engaged Doric columns set against arches on piers. This order is terminated by a Doric entablature which carries across the entire elevation. The second level is composed of an order of engaged Ionic columns on pedestals with contracted serlianas - a structure composed of an arch with two lower rectangular openings on the sides. The entablature of this order is discontinuous. The third level of the Procuratie consists of an order of engaged Corinthian columns on pedestals with alternating triangular and segmental pediments over the openings.

During the Napoleonic period, the Procuratie Nuove were chosen as the site of the Royal Palace.

The drawing belongs to a set of 66 measured drawings of Italian Renaissance and Ancient Roman architecture which the V&A purchased from Edwin Parsons in 1886. The Parsons set may belong to a larger series of over 700 architectural drawings scattered in English and international collections formerly owned by the British Consul at Venice, Joseph Smith (1682-1770). A proponent of Palladian architecture, Smith began collecting measured drawings of classical and Renaissance architecture from the early 1740s. Today, most of this material exists in a series of bound volumes at the Royal Collection (where the Admiranda Artis Architecturae Varia is kept) and at the British Library (which holds the three-volume Admiranda Urbis Venetae), as well as in loose sheets scattered in collections across Europe and North America including the Royal Institute of British Architects and the Canadian Centre for Architecture.

The author of these drawings is unknown. However, their style and subject matter suggests the involvement of the Venetian architect, painter, engraver and theorist Antonio Visentini (1688-1782). A member of the Venetian Academy since its foundation in 1755, Visentini was affiliated with Smith and executed a vast number of architectural drawings for the British Consul as well as for a broader British collector base. Most of these drawings are scaled in English feet and consist of simplified plans and elevations of exemplary Italian architecture. Often produced as a series, the drawings were purchased by British Gentlemen to be included in their libraries and collections. The present drawing forms part of this material. The drawing is not signed by Visentini, but may have been produced by one of Visentini’s workshop members or pupils or by an unknown draughtsman working in the style of Visentini.