Francesco Zucchi (1672–1750) after Giambattista Tiepolo (1696–1770)
Allegory of Peace and Justice Paying Homage to the Lion of St. Mark
From Ludovico Antonio Muratori, Rerum Italicarum Scriptores (Milan, 1723–51), frontispiece for vol. 12
Columbia University Libraries, Columbia University in the City of New York
Muratori's Rerum Italicarum Scriptores is a twenty-five volume compilation of Italian historical sources, most of which date to the Middle Ages. Among those from whom the Società Palatina secured financial support for the project was the Republic of Venice, which through the agency of its ambassador in Milan, Giacomo Busenello, sponsored volume 12, on Venetian history. Tiepolo designed the frontispiece, in which allegorical figures of Justice (with a sword and weight scale) and Peace (with a laurel branch) flank the lion of St. Mark, symbol of Venice. Other volumes of the Rerum Italicarum Scriptores were supported by the republics of Genoa and Lucca.