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Venice: History of the Floating City
This book is a sweeping historical portrait of the floating city of Venice from its foundations to the present day. Joanne M. Ferraro considers Venice's unique construction within an amphibious environment and identifies the Asian, European, and North African exchange networks that made it a vibrant and ethnically diverse Mediterranean cultural center. Incorporating recent scholarly insights, the author discusses key themes related to the city's social, cultural, religious, and environmental history, as well as its politics and economy. A refuge and a pilgrim stop; an international emporium and center of manufacture; a mecca of spectacle, theater, music, gambling, and sexual experimentation; and an artistic and architectural marvel, Venice's allure springs eternal in every phase of the city's fascinating history.
310 pages, ebook
First published July 30, 2012
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
October 22, 2024
Amazing history of Venice, mostly from about 1000AD until about 1800, when Venice lost its independence. So many details, no need to absorb them all, but I felt like I picked up broad themes about what Venice is all about and what it has meant to the world. A lot about the powerful elite families of course, but also paid a lot of attention to middle class life, and also the struggling and the indigent. Also lots of different ethnicities such as Jews, Albanians, Greeks, etc. Such amazing and baroque political and social structures that evolved through time. The writing was a bit academic but so much close attention is paid to interesting details that it was pretty fun to read through.
July 18, 2026
Dr. Ferraro, Ph.D., is a renown authority of early Italian history; and especially on the subject of the Renaissance.
Her book "Venice History of the Floating City" is a must read for students of history and, in particular, history of early Venice.
Her book "Venice History of the Floating City" is a must read for students of history and, in particular, history of early Venice.
September 3, 2013
“Venice: History of the Floating City” is strictly an academic affair.
Author Joanne Ferraros's enthusiasm shines through and she feels the poetry of Venice, cites it often, but doesn't quite conjure it in this work.
Read together with a novel about Venice, let's say, Gabriele D'Annunzio's “Flame of Life,” this book would help put things in high relief: make clear where the fabulous fabric hailed from, valuate the rank of a fading Countess's family, explain why the shipyard is an important place.
Someone with a basic of knowledge of Venice will find their stores greatly increased after finishing this work, which does a top-to-bottom examination of the city's political and social structures. It covers Venice's rise through war, trade, and Mediterranean colonialism. It restores the profiles of novel thinkers, forgotten by time, to their rightful place in the history of the floating city.
Without knowing much about Venice-related scholarship (the author shares the perspectives of others with her readers) this book may be breaking new ground by putting in historical perspective the contributions and tribulations of women (they were many) during the rise and plateauing of Venetian might.
Similarly, we get a glimpse of what life was like for the poor, the unmarried and others who didn't fit a rather strict of behavior determined by a group of wealthy folks on high.
Which is to say the rich and powerful, as always, have their story told, but the contributions or aspirations of the weak or marginal are given air time, too.
Not to say this book is some Marxist tract. The author enjoys and revels in the commerce the once-great city-state engaged the world through and provides a comprehensive account of how Venice raked in treasure and how it was spent.
“Venice,” will not grip you. The “story” of the city is subject to the business of correctly ordered facts, and necessities that don't always thrill, but ensure the record accurate. It is worth the effort to take a chapter-by-chapter approach and marvel at the beauty of things past Ferraro has curated, and at the horrors, too.
March 28, 2014
After what must have been a long long time I decided to read something based in reality and also felt a little nostalgic about a couple of times I'd visited the floating city as a kid. Hence, the choice.
Many a review call this a purely academic book... and it probably is. However, coming from astrophysical background, with my last formal history education being eight years ago at high school, this was a very different "academic" that what I'm used to. I may add, that added to the experience, in a positive sense.
From the, unfortunately only a few, aspects I remember about my history classes, one of the overarching themes related to the way the material was presente to us. History always seemed to me to desperately want to be a cool novel but had to keep reminding itself it needs to be research-based. It consisted of stating dates and events, sometimes getting distracted and elaborating on the events and, on rare occasions, throwing in an expression, or sentence, right out of poetry. These days - and in this book - I actually liked it, when after reading through a semi-dry elaboration on this or that aspect of the Venetian life, something like "united under the Lion of St. Mark" appeared.
Judging the contents of the book itself is kind of useless, same as saying I don't like the Maxwell equations or something. However, I ran into a couple of issues (that I admit may be competely normal in the history circles but I found them disturbing). Lists - the author tends to list out loads of data at one time. Even though it may be good for completeness, there is completely no value for me in reading ten lines of names or fifty different kinds of businesses you could find in the streets of Venice. Shorten that, move it to footnotes or something, please.
The second issue was with the choice of topics and their arrangement into chapters. Again, it might have been by me not being used to this kind of academic writing, but only about halfway through the book did I realize, that my original theory - the chapters covering different parts of venetial life (art, merchandise, etc.) were actually arranged chronologically, but focused on a particular life aspects as well (I relalized this when I didn't found Antonio Vivaldi mentioned once in a music subsection). Was I reading this wrong or, again, is this normal?
The last thing, an issue that came up sometimes and, despite sounding serious, did not surprisingly bother me too much - big chunks of text focus on details of particular historical events, without talking about these in the first place. For example, the fall of the republic in 1797 is mentioned at the beginning of the book in the list of historical events (that I skipped, since it's a good reference but not a reading material) and then appears here and there, most prominently in the last chapter, when it's mentioned how people reacted to it... but by itself it doesn't really get all the mention I'd think it should have.
All in all, I found this a good read, if not as poetic as I was hoping for, though that's a thing I cannot complain about, having known what I was getting into. Anyway, thanks for resparking my memories!
Many a review call this a purely academic book... and it probably is. However, coming from astrophysical background, with my last formal history education being eight years ago at high school, this was a very different "academic" that what I'm used to. I may add, that added to the experience, in a positive sense.
From the, unfortunately only a few, aspects I remember about my history classes, one of the overarching themes related to the way the material was presente to us. History always seemed to me to desperately want to be a cool novel but had to keep reminding itself it needs to be research-based. It consisted of stating dates and events, sometimes getting distracted and elaborating on the events and, on rare occasions, throwing in an expression, or sentence, right out of poetry. These days - and in this book - I actually liked it, when after reading through a semi-dry elaboration on this or that aspect of the Venetian life, something like "united under the Lion of St. Mark" appeared.
Judging the contents of the book itself is kind of useless, same as saying I don't like the Maxwell equations or something. However, I ran into a couple of issues (that I admit may be competely normal in the history circles but I found them disturbing). Lists - the author tends to list out loads of data at one time. Even though it may be good for completeness, there is completely no value for me in reading ten lines of names or fifty different kinds of businesses you could find in the streets of Venice. Shorten that, move it to footnotes or something, please.
The second issue was with the choice of topics and their arrangement into chapters. Again, it might have been by me not being used to this kind of academic writing, but only about halfway through the book did I realize, that my original theory - the chapters covering different parts of venetial life (art, merchandise, etc.) were actually arranged chronologically, but focused on a particular life aspects as well (I relalized this when I didn't found Antonio Vivaldi mentioned once in a music subsection). Was I reading this wrong or, again, is this normal?
The last thing, an issue that came up sometimes and, despite sounding serious, did not surprisingly bother me too much - big chunks of text focus on details of particular historical events, without talking about these in the first place. For example, the fall of the republic in 1797 is mentioned at the beginning of the book in the list of historical events (that I skipped, since it's a good reference but not a reading material) and then appears here and there, most prominently in the last chapter, when it's mentioned how people reacted to it... but by itself it doesn't really get all the mention I'd think it should have.
All in all, I found this a good read, if not as poetic as I was hoping for, though that's a thing I cannot complain about, having known what I was getting into. Anyway, thanks for resparking my memories!
January 18, 2020
Ferraro tells one in the preface that she will give an account of historical scholarship on Venice written since Frederick Lane's Venice: A Maritime History. Readers are thereby put on notice that they should go read Lane first. I didn't. It wasn't a bad choice. I still want a rigorously chronological account of Venice's history, but now I know why.
The book's chapters discuss the multicultural origins of Venice's architecture; its European, Asian and North African trade empire; the clever, ruthless, disciplined, adaptable oligarchies who ruled it; the diverse people who lived crowded together there, and how they got along; how historical lies, art, pageant, and procession were used to control that diverse population through participatory displays of state power; how deviant behavior was managed; and, finally, how a thousand years of control through pageantry and procession prepared Venice for its final fate as a performance for tourists. It is postmodern history, with a strong interest in the lives of ordinary people and in schism and conflict within ruling narratives. It shows that postmodern history is intrinsically more interesting than tidy, chronological accounts of how power changed hands, particularly if you are an ordinary person.
I had not realized how strange the Venetian Republic was. It was a technological marvel, resting on partly artificial islands, drinking rainwater caught in cisterns, and getting its living from ships and the sea. It was neither European, Asian, nor African, but some mixture. Its patricians maintained power by forbidding most of their sons to marry and putting most of their daughters in convents. Part of its social stability was maintained by letting citizens from different neighborhoods fight on bridges in mobs with fists as part of festivals. It was elaborately, ostentatiously Catholic, but rejected Rome's authority. It had an extraordinarily high concentration of skilled artisans. It was in part an enormous armory and shipyard. If this book were not quite so scholarly, it could easily be taken for a science fiction novel about visiting aliens from another planet.
The book's chapters discuss the multicultural origins of Venice's architecture; its European, Asian and North African trade empire; the clever, ruthless, disciplined, adaptable oligarchies who ruled it; the diverse people who lived crowded together there, and how they got along; how historical lies, art, pageant, and procession were used to control that diverse population through participatory displays of state power; how deviant behavior was managed; and, finally, how a thousand years of control through pageantry and procession prepared Venice for its final fate as a performance for tourists. It is postmodern history, with a strong interest in the lives of ordinary people and in schism and conflict within ruling narratives. It shows that postmodern history is intrinsically more interesting than tidy, chronological accounts of how power changed hands, particularly if you are an ordinary person.
I had not realized how strange the Venetian Republic was. It was a technological marvel, resting on partly artificial islands, drinking rainwater caught in cisterns, and getting its living from ships and the sea. It was neither European, Asian, nor African, but some mixture. Its patricians maintained power by forbidding most of their sons to marry and putting most of their daughters in convents. Part of its social stability was maintained by letting citizens from different neighborhoods fight on bridges in mobs with fists as part of festivals. It was elaborately, ostentatiously Catholic, but rejected Rome's authority. It had an extraordinarily high concentration of skilled artisans. It was in part an enormous armory and shipyard. If this book were not quite so scholarly, it could easily be taken for a science fiction novel about visiting aliens from another planet.
May 11, 2014
For someone interested in the history of Venice, the book could initially be pretty frustrating as it takes a thematic approach which sometimes seems to assume knowledge of the history and politics of Europe of the time. I found it worth bearing through, however, as in the later chapters, once we were past the lists of food eaten and fish caught, a fascinating portrait of a class-ridden republic, with fraught gender relations, and a mostly neutered aristocracy emerges. Ferraro is adept at weaving how the rising and falling of the Venetian economy and empire affected the everyday lives of its citizenry. The book left wanting more, particularly on the Venetian Byzantine connection, and the lives of the upper class nuns, middle class courtesans and enslaved female servants alluded to.
May 29, 2019
Fascinating!
December 27, 2019
Definitely not the usual political/economic history type book. In so far as the evidence makes it possible, Ferraro covers many social aspects of life perhaps not given enough attention in older accounts, especially women's condition and status.
The first chapter, "Reconstructing the Floating City," deals with much of the physical makeup of the city. Despite all the details, I thought some key things were missing. I suppose anyone who thinks of Venice will think of the fact that it sits on water. In a boxed section on page 26, there is a short paragraph about the foundations, but I thought a lot more could be written. And a diagram would also have helped. In fact, although there are quite a few maps, I had to consult other books because this book's maps were too small. I don't believe there is a single full-page map included.
Considering the importance of Venice's navy, I think the author should also have spent a little more space explaining and describing their ships and how they evolved, at least in generalities. She has a boxed section on page 36, but it only covers half the page.
Given that the book really does cover lots of material in great detail, it's still worth reading. But some of what I thought should have been included seems critical.
The first chapter, "Reconstructing the Floating City," deals with much of the physical makeup of the city. Despite all the details, I thought some key things were missing. I suppose anyone who thinks of Venice will think of the fact that it sits on water. In a boxed section on page 26, there is a short paragraph about the foundations, but I thought a lot more could be written. And a diagram would also have helped. In fact, although there are quite a few maps, I had to consult other books because this book's maps were too small. I don't believe there is a single full-page map included.
Considering the importance of Venice's navy, I think the author should also have spent a little more space explaining and describing their ships and how they evolved, at least in generalities. She has a boxed section on page 36, but it only covers half the page.
Given that the book really does cover lots of material in great detail, it's still worth reading. But some of what I thought should have been included seems critical.
February 20, 2021
This would most accurately be thought of as a 'description' or an 'analysis' of Venice.
If you are looking for a narrative history, to find out what actually occurred in Venice's history, this book is not for you. If, instead, you already have some knowledge of the narrative history and would like to deepen your understanding of Venetian society and culture, then this is a good book for you. However, it focuses mostly on the early modern period, particularly the 16th century, and in fact Ferraro often jumps about between the centuries, if she even gives dates at all.
If you are looking for a narrative history, to find out what actually occurred in Venice's history, this book is not for you. If, instead, you already have some knowledge of the narrative history and would like to deepen your understanding of Venetian society and culture, then this is a good book for you. However, it focuses mostly on the early modern period, particularly the 16th century, and in fact Ferraro often jumps about between the centuries, if she even gives dates at all.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews