Illuminating the Serenissima: Books of the Republic of Venice

Isabella Stewart Gardner's commissioni not only reflect her passion for Venice—as seen in her Venetian-style palace and its art from the Serenissima—but also her love of books. She started to collect rare volumes in the mid-1880s before she began to buy art, encouraged by Charles Eliot Norton, Harvard's first professor of art history and an expert book collector. Learn more about Isabella Stewart Gardner’s friendship with Norton and her collection of Venetian manuscripts.