The Venetians

by Paul Strathern

Overview

The Republic of Venice was the first great economic, cultural, and naval power of the modern Western world. After winning the struggle for ascendency in the late 13th century, the Republic enjoyed centuries of unprecedented glory and built a trading empire which at its apogee reached as far afield as China, Syria and West Africa. This golden period only drew to an end with the Republic’s eventual surrender to Napoleon.

The Venetians illuminates the character of the Republic during these illustrious years by shining a light on some of the most celebrated personalities of European history—Petrarch, Marco Polo, Galileo, Titian, Vivaldi, Casanova. Frequently, though, these emblems of the city found themselves at odds with the Venetian authorities who prized stability above all else, and were notoriously suspicious of any "cult of personality." Was this very tension perhaps the engine for the Republic’s unprecedented rise?

Rich with biographies of some of the most exalted characters who have ever lived, The Venetians is a refreshing and authoritative new look at the history of the most evocative of city states.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781605986593
Publisher:	Pegasus Books
Publication date:	11/15/2014
Series:	Italian Histories
Pages:	368
Sales rank:	1,051,927
Product dimensions:	5.70(w) x 8.70(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Paul Strathern’s narrative nonfiction includes The Other Renaissance, The Venetians, Death in Florence, The Medici, Mendeleyev's Dream, The Florentines, Empire, and The Borgias, all available from Pegasus Books. He is also a Somerset Maugham Award-winning novelist. Paul lives in London.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations ix

Maps xi

Prologue 1

Part 1 Expansion 3

1 'Ill Milione' 5

2 Survivors and Losers 22

3 The Saviours of Venice 44

Part 2 The Imperial Age 71

4 Innocents and Empire-Builders 73

5 'We are Venetians, then Christians' 97

6 Father and Son 115

7 Colleoni 126

8 The Venetian Queen of Cyprus 140

9 The End of the Queen 152

10 'Lost in a day what had taken eight hundred years to gain' 171

11 Discoveries of the Mind 187

12 The Loss of Cyprus 197

Part 3 The Long Decline 207

13 The Battle of Lepanto 209

14 Women of Venice 218

15 The Jews of Venice 231

16 Deepening Decline 241

17 An Intellectual Revolution 260

18 'The Seat of Music' 277

Part 4 Dissolution and Fall 293

19 The Last Days 295

20 The Very End 322

Select Bibliography 334

Acknowledgements 338

Index 339

Editorial Reviews

Looks at the magical city of Venice through historical figures including Marco Polo, Galileo, Titian, Vivaldi and Casanova. 

USA Today

Looks at the magical city of Venice through historical figures including Marco Polo, Galileo, Titian, Vivaldi and Casanova. 

USA Today

Very entertaining and well-written book. Strathern is very careful about his sources, so that a finely balanced picture emerges.

The Times Literary Supplement

Using his novelist's eye and a historian's sweep, Strathern makes you care deeply for these complex figures.

The Washington Post Book World