In Popular Culture
Galileo Galilei famously demonstrated his telescope to the Doge of Venice Antonio Priuli on August 21, 1609 from the Campanile. There is a plaque commemorating this event at the viewing area of the tower.
The 1902 collapse of the Campanile plays a role in American novelist Thomas Pynchon's 2006 novel Against the Day, in which an aeronautical battle between ambiguously fictitious airships results in the spectacular fall of the structure.
The Campanile, along with much of the city of Venice, appears in the video game Assassin's Creed II, in which the playable character, Ezio Auditore da Firenze, can scale the tower in the years 1480-1499 to view the city from on-high.
The Japanese manga Gunslinger Girl by Yu Aida is set in Italy. Volume 11 of the series revolves mainly around terrorists taking over the Campanile and the subsequent battle with the authorities.
Venice-themed Japanese anime Aria the OVA: Arietta depicts a walk to the top of St. Mark's Campanile, via the pedestrian ramp path, which is no longer accessible to the general public.
Read more about this topic: St Mark's Campanile
Famous quotes containing the words popular culture, popular and/or culture:
“The lowest form of popular culture—lack of information, misinformation, disinformation, and a contempt for the truth or the reality of most people’s lives—has overrun real journalism. Today, ordinary Americans are being stuffed with garbage.”
—Carl Bernstein (b. 1944)
“Like other secret lovers, many speak mockingly about popular culture to conceal their passion for it.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)
“Nobody seriously questions the principle that it is the function of mass culture to maintain public morale, and certainly nobody in the mass audience objects to having his morale maintained.”
—Robert Warshow (1917–1955)