Enrico Dandolo and the Rise of Venice

by Thomas F. Madden

Between the eleventh and thirteenth centuries, Venice transformed itself from a struggling merchant commune to a powerful maritime empire that would shape events in the Mediterranean for the next four hundred years. In this magisterial new book on medieval Venice, Thomas F. Madden traces the city-state's extraordinary rise through the life of Enrico Dandolo (c. 1107–1205), who ruled Venice as doge from 1192 until his death. The scion of a prosperous merchant family deeply involved in politics, religion, and diplomacy, Dandolo led Venice's forces during the disastrous Fourth Crusade (1201–1204), which set out to conquer Islamic Egypt but instead destroyed Christian Byzantium. Yet despite his influence on the course of Venetian history,we know little about Dandolo, and much of what is known has been distorted by myth.

The first full-length study devoted to Dandolo's life and times, Enrico Dandolo and the Rise of Venice corrects the many misconceptions about him that have accumulated over the centuries, offering an accurate and incisive assessment of Dandolo's motives, abilities, and achievements as doge, as well as his role—and Venice's—in the Fourth Crusade. Madden also examines the means and methods by which the Dandolo family rose to prominence during the preceding century, thus illuminating medieval Venice's singular political, social, and religious environment. Culminating with the crisis precipitated by the failure of the Fourth Crusade, Madden's groundbreaking work reveals the extent to which Dandolo and his successors became torn between the anxieties and apprehensions of Venice's citizens and its escalating obligations as a Mediterranean power.

Genres: History, Italy, Nonfiction, Medieval

320 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

Thomas F. Madden (born 1960) is an American historian, the Chair of the History Department at Saint Louis University in St. Louis, Missouri, and Director of Saint Louis University's Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies.

He is considered one of the foremost historians of the Crusades in the United States. He has frequently appeared in the media, as a consultant for various programs on the History Channel and National Public Radio.

In 2007, he was awarded the Haskins Medal from the Medieval Academy of America, for his book Enrico Dandolo and the Rise of Venice, which was also a "Book of the Month" selection by the BBC History magazine.

Reviews

[Earl DeVere · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enlightening look at one of Venice's most beloved and important characters of history. Enrico was a pivotal character of the 4th Crusade and this book informs my own view of Doge Dandolo as a complex man and my writing on the 4th Crusade.

Meticulously researched and delightful yo read. Highly recommended!

[Andrew Reece · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thomas F. Madden Studies The Life & Times Of Venice's Legendary Crusader Doge, Enrico Dandolo.

Throughout Venice's considerable history, there have been 120 men who have held the venerable title of doge. Beginning traditionally in the year 697 when the lordship was first created, he was referred to as the Most Serene Prince, or His Serene Highness. These elected dukes ruled the Serenissima until the year 1797, when the city fell to Napoleon Bonaparte & the position was officially abolished, thereafter. The doge did not rule alone, however; his power was checked & balanced by the various great councils of Venice's patrician class, whom would vote on impactful issues or matters which simply were considered too weighty to entrust to the judgment of a single man. Doge Enrico Dandolo's family rose to prominence during the height of the Middle Ages, in the twelfth century while the Crusades were still raging across the Middle East & the coastline known as the Levant. By the time he was finally elected 41st Doge of Venice, Enrico was already 85 years old. Earlier in life he had suffered a violent blow to the back of the head, rendering him almost completely blind & unable even to provide his own signature on official documents. Somehow, the doge overcame all of these handicaps with his keen intellect & superior ability in statecraft, becoming the most well-known doge next to Francesco Foscari, & the most successful doge in Venetian history.

In this masterfully written biographical study of the 41st Venetian doge's life & times, Thomas F. Madden explores not only Dandolo's own deeds, accomplishments, & political career but also the exciting stories of his uncle & father, both of whom were extremely successful in their chosen fields of ecclesiastical & temporal politics, respectively. Enrico & his uncle shared the same name; the elder Enrico was Patriarch of Prato, & an ambitious, outspoken man of the cloth whose famous feud in 1147 with Doge Pietro Polani led to the entire Dandolo clan's expulsion from Venice. As an additional punishment, the vengeful Polani orders all of the family's estates & holdings to be reduced to rubble. Two years later, in 1149, the Dandolo's exile was rescinded & they were welcomed back into Venice by Pietro Polani's successor, Doge Domenico Morosini, who also passed an edict expressly prohibiting church & secular affairs from interfering with each other. The future doge Enrico's father, Vitale Dandolo, became a very close friend & trusted advisor to Morosini's successor, Doge Vitale II Michiel, which made him an influential figure in the sphere of Venetian politics during this time. Late in his career, Vitale Dandolo is dispatched to the Byzantine captial of Constantinople, in an effort to negotiate with the intractable emperor, Manuel Comnenus, on crucial issues considered vital to Venetian interests. Now almost 90 years of age, at this point Vitale is a old man, yet still the stubborn emperor refuses to give him an audience, & in 1174, Vitale Dandolo dies alone in Constantinople, away from his family & his beloved Venice. The author really does an outstanding job with these sections of the book; it reads more like a dynastic fantasy epic than it does a stuffy old history book. I think that if you enjoy the worlds of Robert Jordan, George R. R. Martin, or David Eddings, you will absolutely fall in love with the story Professor Madden limns for us here.

Madden also discusses at considerable length the complex relationship the Serene Republic shared with its larger neighbor Byzantium & its capital city Constantinople, today known as the Turkish metropolis, Istanbul. Venice's sizeable maritime empire was predicated on lucrative trade agreements & commerce just as much as it was upon raw military strength & naval dominance, a truth made evident with the famous 1082 chrysobull of Byzantine Emperor Alexios I Komnenos. This was an extremely beneficial edict exempting Venetian merchants & wholesalers from paying taxes in Byzantine ports-of-call, & making these men & their families unbelievably wealthy. Unfortunately, it also attracted the Byzantines' jealousy & hatred like a magnet. Alexios' son & successor, John II Komnenos, did not wish to honor his father's agreement with the Serene Republic, years later, another emperor went so far as to have families of Venetian merchants residing in Byzantine cities held hostage or imprisoned, their holdings confiscated by the Byzantine state. All of these fascinating events are narrated to dramatic effect by the author. He expertly discusses his subject matter & weaves everything together in a manner truly wonderful to experience as well as being immensely educational. If you are either a history enthusiast or a reader of epic fantasy like I am, I believe you will also enjoy what he has crafted with this rich, compulsively-readable volume of 12th century Medieval Venetian history. In 2005 Enrico Dandolo & The Rise Of Venice won Professor Madden the Otto Gründler Award, for its outstanding contribution to Medieval scholarship.

Later in the study the dogeship of Enrico Dandolo is discussed at great length. Dandolo was 85 years old & practically blind when he was elected doge in 1192. He was a wily, shrewd negotiator who combined the best qualities of his father & uncle, distilling their personalities into an outstanding politician & resourceful statesman who tirelessly acted to further the Serene Republic's position in however he could. After deciding to take up the cross & lead the Venetian fleet himself, Dandolo skillfully manipulated the entire Fourth Crusade, steering its leaders Boniface of Montferrat & Geoffrey of Villehardoin in whichever direction best suited Venetian interests. In a deal brokered after the crusade had ended, the doge purchased the island of Crete from Marquis Boniface for the trifling sum of 1,000 silver marks. Madden's prowess as a writer truly makes reading these sections of the 200-page study a pleasure, & I just couldn't put it down because I wanted to find out what happened next!

Books about Venetian doges that are written in English are few & far between, to say the least. The only other one I am aware of is Professor Dennis Romano's 2007 biography, The Likeness of Venice: A Life of Doge Francesco Foscari 1373 - 1457, which is also excellent, by the way. Because Doge Foscari lived roughly 200 years after Enrico Dandolo, there is much more extant historical documentation available from his reign. It makes Romano's biography much more focused on Foscari's political trials & tribulations as he struggled to protect his power & his son, Jacopo, from the hostile men who comprised Venice's Great Councils during that period in history. You might also want to give D. M. Bueno de Mesquita's wonderful 1941 monograph, Giangaleazzo Visconti, Duke of Milan (1351–1402): A Study in the Political Career of an Italian Despot a try if you enjoy political intrigue & want to learn about how a form of government different from that of Venice functioned during that period.

[Dario Varese · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Doge di Venezia – Enrico Dandolo e la nascita di un impero sul mare”; titolo originale: “Enrico Dandolo & the Rise of Venise”; di Thomas F. Madden, traduzione di Sara Chiessi; edizione Bruno Mondadori, ISBN: 9788861 592919.
Un saggio che ricostruisce la figura di Enrico Dandolo, grande doge di Venezia, noto soprattutto per il suo contributo all’organizzazione e alla direzione della Quarta Crociata conclusasi nel 1204 con la presa e il sacco di Costantinopoli.
L’Autore riesce ad inquadrare molto bene le caratteristiche di questo personaggio, delle sue origini famigliari, dello sviluppo e trasformazione di Venezia, attraverso la sua trasformazione urbana, l’evoluzione e delle sue istituzioni e la regolamentazione dei rapporti fra Stato e Chiesa.
Dandolo, ben lungi dall’essere “l’anima nera” distruttrice di imperi dipinto da parte della storiografia, fu invece uomo che i contemporanei considerarono giusto, saggio, prudente, onesto e lungimirante ed è passato alla storia come uno dei più grandi, se non il “più grande”, doge di Venezia.
Tutto ciò sembra quasi incredibile pensando che egli assunse la più alta carica della Repubblica nel 1192 quando ormai era già molto avanti negli anni (più di ottant’anni) e afflitto da cecità; il che non gli impedirà non solo di dirigere con polso fermo una crociata che sembrava fin dall’origine votata al fallimento, ma neppure di svolgere un ruolo attivo e determinante sul campo di battaglia e nel successivo tentativo di riassesto dei territori ex-bizantini.
Al di là delle inevitabili critiche ed elogi che inevitabilmente si svilupparono intorno ad un personaggio di tanta levatura, certo è che, dopo il suo dogato, Venezia uscì totalmente trasformata, scalando i ranghi delle “Grandi Potenze” dell’epoca.

[Tiago Martins · Rating 3 out of 5]

Four stars for the deep research, but 2 stars for the extremely biased, almost worshipping of Enrico Dandolo by the author. In sum, 3 stars.

The author gives us a totally different perspective from most historians of Venice. For him, Dandolo was not cynical, evil or tactical. Just wise, pragmatic and sometimes even naive.

Madden researched very well the historical setting taking place in Venice and across Zara, Rome and Byzantium, but he contradicts himself in his moral assertions or opinions. In one page, he excuses Dandolo's actions in relation to the Franks as lack of military knowledge, in the other he says that he was only a military leader, not a politician or reformer.

Next, he moves on to acknowledge the supposition that Venice's conquest of Zara was morally justifiable based on an assumed plot between them, Pisans and Hungarians. A few pages later, though, he tells the story of how the name "Dandolo" has always been associated with humiliation and oppression by the Zarans.

It seems that every single one of Dandolo's least morally justifiable actions were always defended by Madden as naivity, or the mere product of chance. A very distant view from most historiography on the subject.

In general, the book is very well written, but these flaws made it painful to read. 3 stars.

[Truls Ljungström · Rating 4 out of 5]

En utmärkt biografi över en skicklig handelsfurste, och den tid som formade honom innan han nådde Venedigs ... tron?

Jag rekommenderar den varmt för alla ekonomihistorienördar, och alla medletidsnördar.

[John Ward · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read a free copy through the NYPL and Project Muse. Good intro to a critical figure in Venetian history. Need more exploration on the why and the long term consequences.

[apercu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well-written narrative history of the political change of Venice in the twelfth century, centred around the three central figures of Enric Dandolo Patriarch of Grado, Vitale Dandolo and his son Enrico Dandolo the doge. M. tends to present the deeds of his Venetians rather positively. The work aims to be nuanced rather than revisionist. The political is very prominent here. Many decisions and actions are explained as a cost-benefit analysis. I presume this is in part due to the fiscal nature of the sources. The book would have benefited from a map or two of Venice and the Adriatic.

Something that left me wondering: at pp. 107 f. a point is made of Dandolo's policy to prevent Venetians from housing new foreigners (fewer than 3 years). The effectiveness of the policy relies on the fact that foreigners could not own property. It made me wonder what determined citizenship and how it was possible for the foreign upstart families like the Dandolo, of which M. speaks so often, to buy property a century before? A quick account of Venetian citizenship, changes in the city's laws, or an admission of our ignorance on the subject would have cleared this up. This is a minor point and does not really detract from the work's strengths: its lucidity, its coherent narrative, and its author's fondness of myth-busting.

[Sally · Rating 3 out of 5]

I visited Venice a year ago, and knew very little about its history. Even though I may never go back, I wanted to know more about Venice, it's archipelago and it's maritime supremacy. This is a study of one particular Doge, and the books explains Venice's unique republican system of government, and how Venice rose to power and how the 4th Crusade got de-railed and ended up with the European coalition sacking Constantinople. Although a history, it was still a fascinating read.

[Tony Gualtieri · Rating 4 out of 5]

A detailed account of Venetian history in the century leading up to the conquest of Constantinople during the Fourth Crusade. A scholarly work, it gives more detail than the casual reader needs, but the prose is lively and the author has an eye for telling details.

It is most valuable for its sympathetic treatmentment of Venetian relations with Byzantium. The conquest is shown to be a natural, if impulsive response to outrages committed against Venice by the Eastern Empire.

[Joanne M Mooney · Rating 5 out of 5]

The history of the Dandolo family from its beginning through the dogeship of Enrico Dandolo and the conquest of Constantinople in 1204. The book also traces the history of the Venetian State as a parallel development.