THE ST MARK’S ANTHEM BOOKS RESTORED BY PRIVATE COMMITTEES

Fortunately we can at times write good news. The precious seventeenth- and eighteenth-century anthem books used in St Mark’s basilica by the singers during religious services have been restored thanks to the sensitivity of private committees. There are eighteen books in all and the first eleven have been recently restored by the American private committee ‘Save Venice’ in association with the Swiss ‘Pro Venezia Svizzera’ committee. The St Mark’s anthem books are kept in the patriarchal archive but always need restoration work, partly because they are highly decorated. So the British committee ‘Venice in Peril’ will finance the work on the last seven. When they have all been restored, the books will also be digitalised and thus subsequently made available for consultation online.