The Venetian Empire

3 Nov, 2024 940 History of Europe

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the remarkable rise of Venice in the eastern Mediterranean. Unlike other Italian cities of the early medieval period, Venice had not been settled during the Roman Empire. Rather, it was a refuge for those fleeing unrest after the fall of Rome who settled on these boggy islands on a lagoon and developed into a power that ran an empire from mainland Italy, down the Adriatic coast, across the Peloponnese to Crete and Cyprus, past Constantinople and into the Black Sea. This was a city without walls, just one of the surprises for visitors who marvelled at the stability and influence of Venice right up to the 17th Century when the Ottomans, Spain, France and the Hapsburgs were to prove too much especially with trade shifting to the Atlantic.

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Guests

  • Maartje van Gelder No other episodes
    Professor in Early Modern History at the University of Amsterdam
  • Stephen Bowd 2 episodes
    Professor of Early Modern History at the University of Edinburgh
  • Georg Christ 2 episodes
    Senior Lecturer in Medieval and Early Modern History at the University of Manchester

Reading list

  • The Sea in History: The Medieval World
    Michel Balard and Christian Buchet (eds.) (Boydell & Brewer, 2017)
  • Venice's Most Loyal City: Civic Identity in Renaissance Brescia
    Stephen D. Bowd (Harward University Press, 2010) Google Books →
  • Venice: A Maritime Republic
    Frederic Chapin Lane (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1973) Google Books →
  • Cultures of Empire: Rethinking Venetian rule 1400-1700: Essays in Honour of Benjamin Arbel
    Georg Christ and Franz-Julius Morche (eds.) (Brill, 2020)
  • A Companion to Venetian History, 1400-1797
    Eric R. Dursteler (Brill, 2013)
  • The Ceremonial City: History, Memory and Myth in Renaissance Venice
    Iain Fenlon (Yale University Press, 2007) Google Books →
  • Venice: History of the Floating City
    Joanne M. Ferraro (Cambridge University Press, 2012) Google Books →
  • Political Economies of Empire: The Decline of Venice and the Rise of England 1450-1700
    Maria Fusaro (Cambridge University Press, 2015)
  • Trading Places: The Netherlandish Merchant Community in Early Modern Venice, 1590-1650
    Maartje van Gelder (Brill, 2009)
  • The Architectural History of Venice
    Deborah Howard (Yale University Press, 2004) Google Books →
  • A View of Venice: Portrait of a Renaissance City
    Kristin L. Huffman (ed.) (Duke University Press, 2024) Google Books →
  • Venice and the Veneto: Artistic Centers of the Italian Renaissance
    Peter Humfrey (Cambridge University Press, 2008) Google Books →
  • Venice Reconsidered: The History and Civilization of an Italian City-State, 1297-1797
    John Jeffries Martin and Dennis Romano (eds.) (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2000) Google Books →
  • Venice's Intimate Empire: Family Life and Scholarship in the Renaissance Mediterranean
    Erin Maglaque (Cornell University Press, 2018) Google Books →
  • The Military Organization of a Renaissance State Venice, c.1400 to 1617
    Michael E Mallett and John Rigby Hale (Cambridge University Press, 1984) Google Books →
  • Venice: The Hinge of Europe
    William Hardy McNeill (The University of Chicago Press, 1974) Google Books →
  • The Venetian Empire: A Sea Voyage
    Jan Morris (Faber & Faber, 1980) Google Books →
  • Men of Empire: Power and Negotiation in Venice's Maritime State
    Monique O'Connell (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009) Google Books →
  • Venice: The Remarkable History of the Lagoon City
    Dennis Romano (Oxford University Press, 2023) Google Books →
  • Myths of Venice: The Figuration of a State
    David Rosand (University of North Carolina Press, 2001) Google Books →
  • The Imperial Age of Venice, 1380-1580
    David Sanderson Chambers (Thames and Hudson, 1970) Google Books →
  • Describing the City, Describing the State: Representations of Venice and the Venetian Terraferma in the Renaissance
    Sandra Toffolo (Brill, 2020) Google Books →

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Programme ID: m0024fj3

Episode page: bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0024fj3

Auto-category: 945.31 (History of Venice)