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in some degree, accounts for music being so much, and in so costly a manner, cul- tivated by them ; the number too of theatres, in all which the Gondoliers have admission gratis, may account for the superior manner in which they sing compared with people of the same class elsewhere. And in the private families, into which the girls of the Conserva- torios marry, it is natural to suppose that good taste and a love for music are introduced.
The library of St. Mark here, which abounds with books in all other facul- ties, afforded me but few materials on the subject of music. However I gained considerably by the conversation of Sig- nor Zanetti, the first librarian, who was very polite and communicative.
Printing has been carried on in Venice with great spirit, ever since the year 1459, when it was established there by Nicho- las Jansen ; and there is perhaps no city in Italy in which so many books
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