Note 43 — INTRODUCTION.

The Archives of Venice, at the beginning of this century, contained memorials of Columbus which can no longer be found (Marin, Storia civile e politica del commercio de’ Veneziani, Venezia, 1800; Harrisse, Bibl. Amer. Vet. Additions, p. xxi). This is perhaps owing to the Austrian depredation upon the Venetian archives in the Frari and Marciana in 1803-1805, and in 1866. Not a little, however, of use has been preserved in the Calendar of State Papers in the Archives of Venice published by the British Government, in the Rolls Series, since 1864. They primarily illustrate English history, but afford some light upon American affairs. Only six volumes (the last volume in three parts) have been printed. Mr. Rawdon Brown, who edited them, long a resident of Italy, dying at Venice, Aug. 25, 1883, at eighty, has sent, during his labors in this field, one hundred and twenty-six volumes of manuscript copies to the English Public Record Office.