The Rialto, now the topographical centre of Venice, takes its name from the island, Rivo Alto (high bank), which was the place in 421 of one of the earliest settlements in Venice. It was later to form the nucleus of the city and was the capital of the Venetian State in 810. From the beginning of the Republic it was the commercial and economic centre of Venice, with the progenitors of the markets referred to by Ruskin in the text established as early as 1097. The Grand Canal was bridged at the Rialto from early times and the bridge there remained the only one across the Grand Canal throughout the Republic. The existing Ponte di' Rialto was constructed from 1588-91 by Antonio da Ponte following his success in a competition for the design, which included proposals by Palladio, Sansovino, Vignola, and possibly Michelangelo. The market was reconstructed after a fire in 1514 by Scarpagnino, his fabbriche Vecchie di Rialto remaining behind the current Erberia. In the 'Venetian Index' appended to the third volume of The Stones of Venice, Ruskin describes the bridge as the 'best building raised in the time of the Grotesque Renaissance; very noble in its simplicity, in its proportions, and in its masonry' ( Works, 11.400).