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Sansovino (1663) was first published in 1581. The Daula Law, a key element of the myth of Venice, required that all houses should be of the same height. Its purpose was to show the equality of all citizens. Sansovino recorded it in 1581 as something that one reads about, but something which was ignored when commerce made people rich. The 1663 edition reads at page 381:
Si legge che ne primi tempi, volendo i nostri mostrare unione & parità in tutte le cose loro, edificarono in virtù della lege Daula, le case tutte uguali in altezza. Ma cresciute poi la ricchezze per la mercatura che fu sempre il nervo di questa republica, s’alzarono, & abbassarono secondo l’appetito de i fabricanti.
So Sansovino, page 387, comments that what he saw as the four outstanding buildings (and the buildings are outstanding in several senses of the word) of Venice - cioè il Loredano a San Marcuola [i.e. Vendramin Calergi], il Grimani a San Luca, il Delfino a San Salvadore, & il Cornaro a San Mauritio - owed their form to the skill and learning of their architects, but also to the wealth of patrons who could afford ‘oltra a 200 mila ducati’ to make a public display.
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[Version 0.05: May 2008]