A history of Venice from the earliest times - Crusades - Ships and navigation - Byzantine and Gothics - Humanism - Renaissance - Merchant shipping - Scuole.

"Wide-ranging in place and time, yet tightly focused on particular concerns, these new and original specialist articles show how observations on the early history of warfare based on the relatively stable conditions of the late seventeenth century ignore the realities of war at sea in the middle ages and renaissance. In these studies, naval historians firmly grounded in the best current understanding of the period take account of developments in ships, guns and the language of public policy on war at sea, and in so doing give a stimulating introduction to five hundred years of maritime violence in Europe."--BOOK JACKET.

Originally published in 1966. This book collects papers and essays written by historian Frederic C. Lane, who specialized in medieval Venetian history.

ORIGINALLY published in 1934, this major study by Frederic Lane tracks the rise and decline of the great shipbuilding industry of Renaissance Venice. Drawing on a wealth of archival sources, Lane presents detailed descriptions of the Venetian arsenal, including the great galleys that doubled as cargo ships and warships; the sixteenth-century round ships, which introduced dramatic innovations in rigging and were less vulnerable to attack than the galleys; and the majestic galleons, whose straight lines and greater speed made them ideal for merchantmen but whose narrowness made them liable to capsize if loaded with artillery. Lane also includes vivid accounts of the rivalries between the famous shipbuilders of the period. There was the impassioned competition between Leonardo Bressan and Marco Francesco Rosso to design the quickest, lightest galley—a contest that Bressan won when Rosso was crushed to death; the race between Vettor Fausto and Matteo Bressan to build the best galleon for use against pirates; and the rivalry between Bernardo di Bernardo and Nicolò Palopano to be the master builder of great merchant galleys. Additional chapters detail the actual process of ship construction, from the design stage, to framing and ribbing the hull, to building the rigging; the organization and activity of the shipbuilders craft guilds and the various private shipyards; and the development and management of the Arsenal. Tables and appendixes detail the types, measurements, number, and capacity of the ships, as well as the wages of the shipbuilders.

“The rise and fall of Venice’s empire is an irresistible story and [Roger] Crowley, with his rousing descriptive gifts and scholarly attention to detail, is its perfect chronicler.”—The Financial Times The New York Times bestselling author of Empires of the Sea charts Venice’s astounding five-hundred-year voyage to the pinnacle of power in an epic story that stands unrivaled for drama, intrigue, and sheer opulent majesty. City of Fortune traces the full arc of the Venetian imperial saga, from the ill-fated Fourth Crusade, which culminates in the sacking of Constantinople in 1204, to the Ottoman-Venetian War of 1499–1503, which sees the Ottoman Turks supplant the Venetians as the preeminent naval power in the Mediterranean. In between are three centuries of Venetian maritime dominance, during which a tiny city of “lagoon dwellers” grow into the richest place on earth. Drawing on firsthand accounts of pitched sea battles, skillful negotiations, and diplomatic maneuvers, Crowley paints a vivid picture of this avaricious, enterprising people and the bountiful lands that came under their dominion. From the opening of the spice routes to the clash between Christianity and Islam, Venice played a leading role in the defining conflicts of its time—the reverberations of which are still being felt today. “[Crowley] writes with a racy briskness that lifts sea battles and sieges off the page.”—The New York Times “Crowley chronicles the peak of Venice’s past glory with Wordsworthian sympathy, supplemented by impressive learning and infectious enthusiasm.”—The Wall Street Journal

Venice Reconsidered offers a dynamic portrait of Venice from the establishment of the Republic at the end of the thirteenth century to its fall to Napoleon in 1797. In contrast to earlier efforts to categorize Venice's politics as strictly republican and its society as rigidly tripartite and hierarchical, the scholars in this volume present a more fluid and complex interpretation of Venetian culture. Drawing on a variety of disciplines—history, art history, and musicology—these essays present innovative variants of the myth of Venice—that nearly inexhaustible repertoire of stories Venetians told about themselves.

An extraordinary chronicle of Venice, its people, and its grandeur Thomas Madden’s majestic, sprawling history of Venice is the first full portrait of the city in English in almost thirty years. Using long-buried archival material and a wealth of newly translated documents, Madden weaves a spellbinding story of a place and its people, tracing an arc from the city’s humble origins as a lagoon refuge to its apex as a vast maritime empire and Renaissance epicenter to its rebirth as a modern tourist hub. Madden explores all aspects of Venice’s breathtaking achievements: the construction of its unparalleled navy, its role as an economic powerhouse and birthplace of capitalism, its popularization of opera, the stunning architecture of its watery environs, and more. He sets these in the context of the rise and fall of the Byzantine Empire, the endless waves of Crusades to the Holy Land, and the awesome power of Turkish sultans. And perhaps most critically, Madden corrects the stereotype of Shakespeare’s money-lending Shylock that has distorted the Venetian character, uncovering instead a much more complex and fascinating story, peopled by men and women whose ingenuity and deep faith profoundly altered the course of civilization.