Venice: A Documentary History, 1450-1630

This work presents important materials - many previously unpublished in any language, and almost none previously available in English - for the history of the city-state of Venice. These sources cover the period from about 1450, when Venice was approaching the zenith of its power and reputation, to 1630, when there were unmistakable signs of economic and political decline. The work consists of substantial translated extracts from contemporary descriptions, chronicles, diaries, polemical writings, legislation, petitions, minute-books of guilds and religious brotherhoods, wills, notarial acts, and so forth. Containing both literary and documentary evidence, these texts illustrate important themes and are designed to build up a comprehensive account of government and society in Venice, and to present some aspects of its art, architecture and literature in relation to the people and public bodies that commissioned, paid for, bought, enjoyed, and otherwise supported them. Each section carries a succinct introduction and a bibliography intended to help readers to interpret the sources for themselves and to explore the issues that lie behind them. The opening chapter offers descriptions of the city and its inhabitants, by authors who range from Marino Sanudo, the Venetian diarist and historian, writing in 1493, to the English and Spanish ambassadors, Carleton and Bedmar, who observed Venice with very different eyes in the early 17th century. Subsequent chapters deal with the following themes - the ideal and the private wealth; religious life; social orders (nobility, citizenry, and artisans); charity and the poor; foreign communities (Germans, Greeks, Jews and Turks); and cultural and intellectual life - how it was lived, and who paid for it - including literature, book publishing, entertainment, and the visual arts.