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| 1489 |
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| Acquisition of Cyprus (partly by gift, partly by extortion) from Catherine Cornaro, widow of James of Lusignan. | 1 |
| VENETIAN CULTURE IN THE QUATTROCENTO. The second half of the 15th century witnessed the restoration by Gentile Bellini (1429–1507) of the massive mural paintings in the Great Council Hall of the ducal palace (where the patricians gathered every Sunday afternoon to conduct affairs of state), the beginnings of the great narrative paintings in the scuola (lay confraternities formed for purposes of mutual aid and devotion), and the completion of the tympanum relief on the Scuola di San Marco by the architectural sculptor Bartolomeo Buon (1374–c. 1465). Nevertheless, Venetians' preoccupation with commercial enterprises and wars with the Ottoman Turks; with massive shipbuilding at the Arsenale, which employed perhaps 16,000 workers and at one time produced one galley a day for 100 days; and with the replacement of wooden bridges with stone ones over the canals delayed the full flowering of Venetian Renaissance art until the 16th century. | 2 |
| The printing press apparently appealed to the practical Venetian nature, and the senate decreed (1469) that the art of printing should be fostered. Much of the finest early printing issued from the Venetian presses of the 15th and 16th centuries. (See Venice) (See Italy) | 3 |
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