A spellbinding new portrait of one of the world’s most beloved cities
La Serenissima. Its breathtaking architecture, art, and opera ensure that Venice remains a perennially popular destination for tourists and armchair travelers alike. Yet most of the available books about this magical city are either facile travel guides or fusty academic tomes. In Venice, renowned historian Thomas F. Madden draws on new research to explore the city’s many astonishing achievements and to set 1,500 years of Venetian history and the endless Venetian-led Crusades in the context of the ever-shifting Eurasian world. Filled with compelling insights and famous figures, Venice is a monumental work of popular history that’s as opulent and entertaining as the great city itself.
Chapter 1. REFUGEES ON THE LAGOON: THE ORIGINS OF VENICE
Chapter 2. ST. MARK’S REST: THE BIRTH OF THE CITY OF VENICE, 697–836
Chapter 3. COMING OF AGE: INDEPENDENCE, EXPANSION, AND POWER, 836–1094
Chapter 4. A MERCHANT REPUBLIC IN A FEUDAL AGE: ECCLESIASTICAL AND POLITICAL REFORM, 1095–1172
Chapter 5. BETWEEN EMPIRES: THE PEACE OF VENICE, 1172–1200
Chapter 6. BIRTH OF A MARITIME EMPIRE: VENICE AND THE FOURTH CRUSADE
Chapter 7. MARCO POLO’S VENICE: PROSPERITY, POWER, AND PIETY IN THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY
Chapter 8. THE DISCOVERY OF THE WEST: WAR, WEALTH, AND REFORM IN THE EARLY FOURTEENTH CENTURY
Chapter 9. PLAGUE AND TREASON IN THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY
Chapter 10. FROM VICTORY TO VICTORY: THE WAR OF CHIOGGIA AND THE BIRTH OF THE MAINLAND EMPIRE
Chapter 11. DEATH OF A PARENT: THE FALL OF CONSTANTINOPLE AND THE RISE OF THE OTTOMAN TURKS
Chapter 12. SOWING AND REAPING:MEDIEVAL VENICE AND THE BIRTH OF MODERN FINANCE
Chapter 13. THE PERILS OF SUCCESS: THE APOGEE OF THE VENETIAN EMPIRE
Chapter 14. MOST SPLENDID AND SERENE: VENICE AND THE RENAISSANCE
Chapter 15. FOR GOD AND ST. MARK: THE WARS AGAINST THE TURKS
Chapter 16. MASKS, OPERA, AND LOVE: VENICE THE TOURIST DESTINATION
Chapter 18. A CRISIS OF IDENTITY: VENICE IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY
Chapter 19. WAR, WATER, AND TOURISTS: VENICE IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AND BEYOND