A History of Venice

by John Julius Norwich

Overview

As comprehensive as it is engaging, John Julius Norwich's A History of Venice is a complete history of "the most beautiful and magical of cities." This necessary volume traces the rise of Venice from its fifth-century origins through 1797 when Napoleon put an end to the thousand-year-old Republic.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780679721970
Publisher:	Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Publication date:	06/18/1989
Pages:	736
Sales rank:	147,905
Product dimensions:	5.20(w) x 7.90(h) x 1.65(d)

About the Author

John Julius Norwich is the author of many acclaimed works of history, including A History of Venice, Byzantium, and, most recently, Paradise of Cities: Venice in the 19th Century. He has also written and presented some thirty historical documentaries for BBC Television. Formerly chairman of the Venice in Peril Fund, he now heads the World Monuments Fund in Britain.

Table of Contents

	Illustrations	xi
	Maps	xiii
	Acknowledgements	xxii
	Introduction	xxiii
Part 1	The Barbarian Invasions to the Fourth Crusade
1	Beginnings (to 727)	3
2	Emergence (727-811)	15
3	The City Rises Up (811-900)	26
4	The Adventurer and the Saint (900-991)	39
5	The Determined Dynasty (991-1032)	49
6	The Norman Menace (1032-1095)	65
7	In the Wake of the Crusade (1095-1130)	76
8	Between Two Empires (1130-1172)	92
9	Reconciliation (1172-1187)	108
10	The Shameful Glory (1187-1205)	122
Part 2	The Imperial Expansion
11	The Latin Empire (1205-1268)	147
12	The Wages of Arrogance (1268-1299)	164
13	The Oligarchs Triumphant (1297-1310)	181
14	The Conspiracy and the Council (1310)	190
15	The Mainland Dominion (1311-1342)	200
16	Andrea Dandolo and Marin Falier (1342-1355)	214
17	Colonies Lost and Held (1355-1376)	230
18	The War with Genoa (1372-1381)	243
19	The Empire Takes Shape (1381-1405)	257
Part 3	A Power in Europe
20	The Empire Grows (1405-1413)	279
21	The Prophetic Doge (1413-1423)	292
22	Carmagnola (1423-1432)	300
23	The Mainland Upheaval (1432-1455)	313
24	The Fall of Constantinople (1453)	325
25	The Two Foscari (1453-1457)	334
26	The Ottoman Menace (1457-1481)	342
27	The Ferrara War and the Queen of Cyprus (1481-1488)	359
28	France on the March (1489-1500)	369
29	Double Disaster (1499-1503)	383
30	The League of Cambrai (1503-1509)	390
31	Capitulation and Absolution (1509-1510)	403
32	Shifting Alliances (1510-1513)	414
33	The New Venice (1513-1516)	427
34	The Imperial Triumph (1516-1530)	434
Part 4	Decline and Fall
35	Peace (1530-1564)	449
36	The Loss of Cyprus (1564-1570)	464
37	Lepanto (1570-1571)	481
38	The Twilight of the Century (1571-1595)	489
39	The Last Interdict (1595-1607)	506
40	Treason and Plot (1607-1622)	518
41	Zen against the Ten (1623-1631)	530
42	The Cretan War (1631-1670)	542
43	Morosini and the Morea (1670-1700)	561
44	Passarowitz and Peace (1700-1718)	575
45	The Eighteenth Century (1718-1789)	583
46	The Fall (1789-1797)	605
	Epilogue	632
	List of Doges	641
	Bibliography	643
	Index	651

Editorial Reviews

At once the most comprehensive and the most engaging history of Venice available in English, this book will be treasured by all those who share the author's fascination with "the most beautiful and magical of cities."

"As a historian Lord Norwich knows what matters. As a writer he has a taste for beauty, a love of language and an enlivening wit.... He contrives, as no English writer has done before, to sustain a continuous interest in that crowded history." — Hugh Trevor-Roper

"Will become the standard English work of Venetian history." — C. P. Snow, Financial Times

"Lord Norwich has loved and understood Venice as well as any other Englishman has ever done. He has put readers of this generation more in his debt than any other English writer." — Peter Levi, The Sunday Times (London)

From the Publisher

If Venice is your destination, you won't want to go without at least a dip into historian John Julius Norwich's A History of Venice (Vintage. 1989. ISBN 0-679-72197-5. pap. $25) and a full immersion into Jan Morris's less daunting The World of Venice (Harvest: Harcourt. 1995. ISBN 0-15-698356-7. pap. $16), where she applies her intelligence, wit, and insatiable curiosity to an in-depth exploration of this most fascinating of cities. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

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