AMPHITHEATRE OF EL JEMM.

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architect of so many admirable churches, palaces, and monuments, the founder of a celebrated school, await their last asylum. The library of the seminary, a splendid edifice, formerly the convent of the Salute, contains about twenty thousand volumes, and some interesting MSS.; amongst the latter, a letter from the Emperor Charles V. to Pope Julius II. on the re-union of the Greek and Latin churches.

The Dogana, or Custom-house for transit goods, claims attention, not merely from the intimate connection between the commerce and the history of Venice, but from the beauty and symmetry of its proportions, and its prominent position on the Grand Canal. The design, which is an object of the highest admiration, is by Giuseppe Benoni, and its foundation not earlier than 1683. The façade consists of a magnificent colonnade of marble pillars, supporting an enriched entablature, from which rises a square tower of delicate proportions, surmounted by a group emblematic of navigation, commerce, and power. A statue of Venice holds a golden globe, representing our earth, in its hands, on which stands a figure of Fortune, whose fickleness is expressed by its restlessness being acted on, like a vane, by every breath of wind.

Titian was appointed to the direction of customs at Venice, but not in the Dogana, which is confined to the regulation of transit goods solely; his official residence was the old brokerage-house near the Rialto, the exterior of which was painted by himself, assisted by his master Giorgione.

THE northern coast of Africa, and the country that retires but a little distance from the Mediterranean shores, are rich in historic and antiquarian reliques. The architectural remains that now render the solitude and desertion more conspicuous, are of the highest beauty, and prove that these warm regions were once the abode of a civilized and powerful community. Temples of worship are found in every ancient country all over our globe; and it is natural that they should be constructed after the most costly design, and of the most lasting materials; but it is only when a people have advanced very far indeed in arts, wealth, power, and civilization, that they can afford, or desire to possess such structures, as the vast pile which the illustration represents. The little village of El Jemm or Jemme, in the Beylik of Tunis, is situated about eighty miles south from Tunis, and a short distance from the shore of the Gulf of Ghabs, the Syrtis