An influential and prolific Victorian author, Margaret Oliphant (1828–97) is best remembered for her Chronicles of Carlingford – novels which sketch the religious and domestic politics of a provincial community – particularly the most popular in the cycle, Miss Marjoribanks (1866), and for her many book reviews, essays and serialised fiction for Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine. Her output included ninety-eight novels, some fifty short stories, works of biography and non-fiction, and a series of cultural histories of European cities, of which this is the second. Originally published in 1887, the book paints a compelling picture of the cultural development of the great city of Venice during the middle ages and the Renaissance through biographical sketches of its key figures. They include the doge Enrico Dandolo, the explorer Marco Polo, and the artists Titian and Tintoretto. The volumes on Florence (1876) and Rome (1895) are also reissued in this series.
