bucentaurs

Three great galleys of the republic, called bucentaurs, issued from the crowd of smaller craft.

New Italian sketches John Addington Symonds 1866

This derivation is, however, fanciful; the name _bucentaurus_ is unknown in ancient mythology, and the figurehead of the bucentaurs, of which representations have come down to us, is the lion of St Mark. [v. 04 p. 0658] The name bucentaur seems, indeed, to have been given to any great and sumptuous Venetian galley.

Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 4, Part 3 "Brescia" to "Bulgaria" Various

The last and most magnificent of the bucentaurs, built in 1729, was destroyed by the French in 1798 for the sake of its golden decorations.

Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 4, Part 3 "Brescia" to "Bulgaria" Various

But what impressed him most of all were the thundering salvoes of artillery which burst from the fleet of galleys, from the arsenal and the Milanese embassy, at one and the same moment, as about five o'clock the Ferrarese bucentaurs reached Malamocco and entered the

Beatrice d'Este, Duchess of Milan, 1475-1497 Julia Mary Cartwright Ady 1887

Here Messer Galeazzo Visconti was awaiting them with a fleet of boats and three bucentaurs, by which pompous name the rude barges in which these high-born personages travelled were glorified.

Beatrice d'Este, Duchess of Milan, 1475-1497 Julia Mary Cartwright Ady 1887

After spending the following night at the Castello di Pavia, the duchess and her large party embarked on the bucentaurs that were awaiting them at the junction of the Ticino and the Po, and reached Ferrara on the 11th of February, there to begin a new series of splendid entertainments in honour of Don Alfonso's marriage with this

Beatrice d'Este, Duchess of Milan, 1475-1497 Julia Mary Cartwright Ady 1887

He describes the procession of barks and gondolas, filled with ladies in gay toilettes, that were seen rowing across the lagoon many hours before the arrival of the illustrious visitors, and tells how the old Doge -- the same whose venerable figure is familiar to us in Giovanni Bellini's altar-piece, at Murano -- made his way to S. Clemente early in the afternoon, and retired to rest for an hour or two, in a chamber prepared for his S.rene Highness, until the Ferrarese bucentaurs were seen in the distance.

Beatrice d'Este, Duchess of Milan, 1475-1497 Julia Mary Cartwright Ady 1887