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The bucentaur ( ; ''bucintoro'' in Italian and Venetian) was the state barge of the doges of Venice. It was used every year on Ascension Day up to 1798 to take the doge out to the Adriatic Sea to perform the "Marriage of the Sea" – a ceremony that symbolically wedded Venice to the sea every year on the "Festa della Sensa" (Ascension Day). Scholars believe there were four major barges, the first significant bucentaur having been built in 1311. The last and most magnificent of the historic bucentaurs made its maiden voyage in 1729 in the reign of Doge Alvise III Sebastiano Mocenigo. Depicted in paintings by Canaletto and Francesco Guardi, the ship was long and more than high. A two-deck floating palace, its main salon had a seating capacity of 90. The doge's throne was in the stern, and the prow bore a figurehead representing Justice with sword and scales. The barge was propelled by 168 oarsmen, and another 40 sailors were required to man it. The ship was destroyed in 1798 on Napoleon's orders to symbolize his victory in conquering Venice. In February 2008, the Fondazione Bucintoro announced a €20 million project to rebuild the 1729 bucentaur. Work started on 15 March 2008 at the Arsenale shipyard and naval dock. ==Origin of the name== The origin of the name ''bucintoro'' is obscure, but one possibility is that it is derived from the Venetian ''burcio'', a traditional term for a lagoon vessel, and ''in oro'', meaning covered in gold.〔.〕 On the other hand, man of letters Francesco Sansovino (1521–1586) proposed, based on documents dating from 1293, that it was named after an earlier boat built at the Arsenale shipyard called the ''Navilium Duecentorum Hominum'' (''Of Two Hundred Naval Men''). It has also been suggested that the vessel was named after the ship ''Centaurus'' referred to by Virgil when describing the funeral rites observed by Aeneas to honour his father's death; the bucentaur was twice the size of the ship mentioned in the ''Aeneid''. The name may also refer to trumpets and horns that were played on board.〔.〕 The term ''bucintoro'' was Latinized in the Middle Ages as ''bucentaurus'' on the analogy of an alleged Greek word ''βουκένταυρος'' (''boukentauros'') meaning "ox-centaur", from ''βους'' (''bous'', "ox") and ''κένταυρος'' (''kentauros'', "centaur"). The common supposition was that the name derived from a creature of a man with the head of an ox, a figure of which served as the barge's figurehead.〔.〕 This derivation is, however, fanciful; the word ''βουκένταυρος'' is unknown in Greek mythology,〔 and representations of the "figurehead" of the bucentaurs in fact depict the lion of St. Mark the Evangelist.〔.〕 The name "bucentaur" seems, indeed, to have been given to any great and sumptuous Venetian vessels. Du Cange quotes from the chronicle of the Doge Andrea Dandolo (reigned 1343–1354): "''... cum uno artificioso et solemni Bucentauro, super quo venit usque ad S. Clementem, quo jam pervenerat principalior et solemnior Bucentaurus cum consiliariis, &c'' (a well-wrought and stately Bucentaur, upon which he came to San Clemente, where a more important and more stately Bucentaur had already arrived with his advisors, ''etc.'' ... )".〔 The term was also used to describe a 16th-century sumptuous transport boat, built and decorated in Modena, to celebrate the marriage of Lucrezia, the daughter of Ercole II d'Este, Duke of Ferrara, to the Duke of Urbino. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Bucentaur」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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