Venice: A New History by Thomas F. MaddenMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
This was excellent preparation for our upcoming trip to Venice. I had gone a couple times on school trips and with friends, but never really knew much about Venice per se.
Some takeaways:
Venice was never Roman. Attila sacked Aquilea, and the residents fled to various islands in the marshes, creating Venice. So from its inception is always looked more toward Byzantium than Rome, and rarely had anything to do with the mainland.
The lack of land meant no feudal lords and therefore more meritocratic and more business-like.
So basically merchants were doing business all over the Byzantine Empire (think Marco Polo, who traveled even farther East).
This was true until the Renaissance, when it basically embraced art (Titian, Tintoretto, Paolo Veronese, etc)
And then other stuff. The Venetian republic lasted until Napoleon.
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