Girolamo Donato, returning from Rome, where he had been ambassador to Julius II, lingered on the way to transcribe ancient Roman epigraphs; but when a pontiff, perhaps Alexander VI, dares to ask him in an ironic tone, whence the Venetians had received the privilege of the empire over the Adriatic Sea, he, the profound humanist, the eloquent orator, will not hesitate to retort with Venetian wit: "Show me your Holiness the instrument of the patrimony of St. Peter, and on the back you will see recorded the concession made to the Venetians of their dominion over the Adriatic." (p. 30)
— VITTORIO CIAN