Overview

"A sweeping and comprehensive history of Venice--from its formation in the early Middle Ages to the present day--that traces its evolution as a city, city-state, regional power, and overseas empire. No city stirs the imagination more than Venice. From the richly ornamented palaces emerging from the waters of the Grand Canal to the dazzling sites of Piazza San Marco, visitors and residents alike sense they are entering, as fourteenth-century poet Petrarch remarked, ""another world."" During the Middle Ages and Renaissance, Venice was celebrated as a model republic in an age of monarchs. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, it became famous for its freewheeling lifestyle characterized by courtesans, casinos, and Carnival. When the city fell on hard times following the collapse of the Republic in 1797, a darker vision of Venice as a place of decay, disease, and death took hold. Today tourists from around the globe flock to the world heritage site as rising sea levels threaten its very foundations. This comprehensive account reveals the adaptations to its geographic setting that have been a constant feature of living on water from Venice's origins to the present. It examines the lives of the women and men, noble and common, rich and poor, Christian, Jew, and Muslim, who built not only the city but also its vast empire that stretched from Northern Italy to the eastern Mediterranean. It details the urban transformations that Venice underwent in response to environmental vulnerability, industrialization, and mass tourism. Alongside the city's commercial prominence has been its dramatically changing political role, including its power as a city-state, regional stronghold, and overseas empire, as well as its impact on the development of fascism. Throughout, Dennis Romano highlights the city's cultural achievements in architecture, painting, and music, particularly opera.This richly illustrated volume offers a stunning portrait of this most singular of cities."

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9780190859985

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Reviews

Romano's new history of Venice is a triumph of scholarship and satisfying storytelling. His book surpasses previous treatments by balancing sweeping narrative and the telling detail, and by covering a far greater chronological span: from the last Ice Age, some 12,000 years ago, to the present day. His skillful discussions of political, military, and economic history are enriched by examinations of artworks and topics such as spying, book publishing, the early development of opera, and climate change across millennia. Those who love Venice and want it to thrive for generations to come will be indebted to Romano's erudition and analysis. * Frederick Ilchman, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and Chairman, Save Venice * Romano's book is a marvel. It is a total history from the beginnings to Venice as it is today. Romano covers almost two millennia and offers not just an account of high politics and culture but of all those whose lives were in some fashion made by Venice. Keep a copy near your most comfortable armchair. Browse the book again and again when thoughts of your visits to this most beautiful of cities drift back into your mind (as surely they must). * R.J.B. Bosworth, author of Italian Venice: A History * From the primordial waters of the lagoon to the touristed global Venice, Dennis Romano's book offers an eloquent and innovative account of the rise of one of the world's most beautiful cities. Romano assesses how the city on the water became so remarkable despite the many challenges its citizens faced for the past millennium and a half. By exploring many obscure byways other histories have ignored, he makes the rich history of the city and its culture come alive. * Edward Muir, Northwestern University * This masterful summary offers a richly textured narrative of one of the longest-lived republics in history from its mythic origins to the present day and beyond. Read a chapter a day of this lengthy saga and in just three weeks you'll be rewarded with a multi-faceted view-war and peace, politics and trade, society and religion, civic ritual and the visual arts-of the full sweep of Venetian history. * Patricia Fortini Brown, author of The Venetian Bride: Bloodlines and Blood Feuds in Venice and Its Empire *

Romano's new history of Venice is a triumph of scholarship and satisfying storytelling. His book surpasses previous treatments by balancing sweeping narrative and the telling detail, and by covering a far greater chronological span: from the last Ice Age, some 12,000 years ago, to the present day. His skillful discussions of political, military, and economic history are enriched by examinations of artworks and topics such as spying, book publishing, the early development of opera, and climate change across millennia. Those who love Venice and want it to thrive for generations to come will be indebted to Romano' erudition and analysis. * Frederick Ilchman, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and Chairman, Save Venice * Romano's book is a marvel. It is a total history from the beginnings to Venice as it is today. Romano covers almost two millennia and offers not just an account of high politics and culture but of all those whose lives were in some fashion made by Venice. Keep a copy near your most comfortable armchair. Browse the book again and again when thoughts of your visits to this most beautiful of cities drift back into your mind (as surely they must). * R.J.B. Bosworth, author of talian Venice: A History * From the primordial waters of the lagoon to the touristed global Venice, Dennis Romano's book offers an eloquent and innovative account of the rise of one of the world's most beautiful cities. Romano assesses how the city on the water became so remarkable despite the many challenges its citizens faced for the past millennium and a half. By exploring many obscure byways other histories have ignored, he makes the rich history of the city and its culture come alive. * Edward Muir, Northwestern University * This masterful summary offers a richly textured narrative of one of the longest-lived republics in history from its mythic origins to the present day and beyond. Read a chapter a day of this lengthy saga and in just three weeks you'll be rewarded with a multi-faceted view-war and peace, politics and trade, society and religion, civic ritual and the visual arts-of the full sweep of Venetian history. * Patricia Fortini Brown, author of The Venetian Bride: Bloodlines and Blood Feuds in Venice and Its Empire *

Romano's new history of Venice is a triumph of scholarship and satisfying storytelling. His book surpasses previous treatments by balancing sweeping narrative and the telling detail, and by covering a far greater chronological span: from the last Ice Age, some 12,000 years ago, to the present day. His skillful discussions of political, military, and economic history are enriched by examinations of artworks and topics such as spying, book publishing, the early development of opera, and climate change across millennia. Those who love Venice and want it to thrive for generations to come will be indebted to Romano's erudition and analysis. * Frederick Ilchman, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and Chairman, Save Venice * Romano's book is a marvel. It is a total history from the beginnings to Venice as it is today. Romano covers almost two millennia and offers not just an account of high politics and culture but of all those whose lives were in some fashion made by Venice. Keep a copy near your most comfortable armchair. Browse the book again and again when thoughts of your visits to this most beautiful of cities drift back into your mind (as surely they must). * R.J.B. Bosworth, author of Italian Venice: A History * From the primordial waters of the lagoon to the touristed global Venice, Dennis Romano's book offers an eloquent and innovative account of the rise of one of the world's most beautiful cities. Romano assesses how the city on the water became so remarkable despite the many challenges its citizens faced for the past millennium and a half. By exploring many obscure byways other histories have ignored, he makes the rich history of the city and its culture come alive. * Edward Muir, Northwestern University * This masterful summary offers a richly textured narrative of one of the longest-lived republics in history from its mythic origins to the present day and beyond. Read a chapter a day of this lengthy saga and in just three weeks you'll be rewarded with a multi-faceted view-war and peace, politics and trade, society and religion, civic ritual and the visual arts-of the full sweep of Venetian history. * Patricia Fortini Brown, author of The Venetian Bride: Bloodlines and Blood Feuds in Venice and Its Empire * The best single-volume guide to the city's past... Readers will delight in Romano's vivid accounts of Venice's constantly evolving cityscape, its architecture and its art... Few writers dare to cover the history of a single place over such an extended period. That Romano has done so is a gift. * John Jeffries Martin, Washington Post * An impressive synthesis of Venice's political, economic, cultural and environmental history. * Revd Alexander Faludy, Catholic Herald * Romano succeeds in offering fresh points of view-and telling us stories that often get overlooked, particularly about the less privileged members of Venetian society...The most important new element in this history is its attention to the poorer classes of Venice. Mr. Romano gives us surprisingly well-documented accounts of the lives of ordinary people, like oarsmen, prostitutes and bead-stringers...The book succeeds brilliantly in providing an exhaustive account not only of the commercial, political, military and environmental history of the city but also of the magnificent art, architecture, music and literature that it produced and inspired. * Gregory Dowling, Wall Street Journal * The book is a long-awaited masterpiece...Romano...begins his book, an indispensable addition to the busy shelves of popular histories of the Serene Republic, in the fifth century and brings it all the way down to the present day, when the old city is being threatened by rampant gentrification and rampant climate change...This is the story of a city where men and women have worked and laughed and dreamed and coveted, and Romano's curiosity is so omnivorous that he delves into all of it. Most readers have absolutely no idea how fascinating Venice's history is in its blizzard of details; Romano's Venice narrates more of those details than any other one-volume book on the subject, everything from warships to glasswork, opera to Ottomans, and all of it built on a compendious bibliography. * Steve Donoghue, Open Letters Review *

Romano's new history of Venice is a triumph of scholarship and satisfying storytelling. His book surpasses previous treatments by balancing sweeping narrative and the telling detail, and by covering a far greater chronological span: from the last Ice Age, some 12,000 years ago, to the present day. His skillful discussions of political, military, and economic history are enriched by examinations of artworks and topics such as spying, book publishing, the early development of opera, and climate change across millennia. Those who love Venice and want it to thrive for generations to come will be indebted to Romano's erudition and analysis. * Frederick Ilchman, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and Chairman, Save Venice * Romano's book is a marvel. It is a total history from the beginnings to Venice as it is today. Romano covers almost two millennia and offers not just an account of high politics and culture but of all those whose lives were in some fashion made by Venice. Keep a copy near your most comfortable armchair. Browse the book again and again when thoughts of your visits to this most beautiful of cities drift back into your mind (as surely they must). * R.J.B. Bosworth, author of Italian Venice: A History * From the primordial waters of the lagoon to the touristed global Venice, Dennis Romano's book offers an eloquent and innovative account of the rise of one of the world's most beautiful cities. Romano assesses how the city on the water became so remarkable despite the many challenges its citizens faced for the past millennium and a half. By exploring many obscure byways other histories have ignored, he makes the rich history of the city and its culture come alive. * Edward Muir, Northwestern University * This masterful summary offers a richly textured narrative of one of the longest-lived republics in history from its mythic origins to the present day and beyond. Read a chapter a day of this lengthy saga and in just three weeks you'll be rewarded with a multi-faceted view-war and peace, politics and trade, society and religion, civic ritual and the visual arts-of the full sweep of Venetian history. * Patricia Fortini Brown, author of The Venetian Bride: Bloodlines and Blood Feuds in Venice and Its Empire * The best single-volume guide to the city's past... Readers will delight in Romano's vivid accounts of Venice's constantly evolving cityscape, its architecture and its art... Few writers dare to cover the history of a single place over such an extended period. That Romano has done so is a gift. * John Jeffries Martin, Washington Post *

Author Information

Dennis Romano is the Dr. Walter Montgomery and Marian Gruber Professor of History emeritus at Syracuse University. He is the author and editor of numerous books, including The Likeness of Venice: A Life of Doge Francesco Foscari, 1373-1457 and Venice Reconsidered: The History and Civilization of an Italian City-State, 1297-1797. Romano is an honorary fellow of the Venetian Athenaeum. He lives in Washington, DC.

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