Beautifully written, very funny at points, and readable. However it is excessively concerned with military and international political history, spending huge amounts of time on wars and shifting borders, largely in the first half of the second millennium. Astonishingly little attention is given to the cultural history of the city and only slightly more to its domestic political development. I skimmed heavily. It also suffers from what feels like a dated analytical frame, looking at the city's decline and eventual surrender to Napoleon by saying things like "Venice lost the will to live" rather than trying to provide good and detailed context. The concrete reasons for the decline are mentioned as asides rather than given any in-depth analysis. A modern lens would be preferable. I'm glad I read it but will be seeking out additional, more up-to-date sources.

Конец у истории грустный, но середина, которую читать совершенно невозможно, грустна не менее.

I would give this zero stars if possible. I had to skim to get through it. I read this for my bucket list challenge and would only recommend to people who are struggling with insomnia.

This is #91 of 100 on my bucket list challenge.

If I could have super powers, I'd be able to read books as fast as Johnny Five from Short Circuit and write them as beautifully as John Julius Norwich. Loved every page of this sumptuous romp through a thousand years of history; effortlessly learning a great deal in the process. Venice is at the heart of a great many pivotal events of the Middle Ages and on the periphery of many more. To see the era from the Venetian perspective is to get a different take on it; one that is more hard nosed and practical against the crusading fervour, grand-standing imperialism and dogmatic intolerance of Venice's neighbours. I emerged from reading the book with a profound respect for a city state which survived for a thousand years without being conquered by an enemy or burning a heretic and which despite valuing the blessings of peace and trade more than most, nevertheless enjoyed a share of glory.
Stonking - frankly.

top

Very informative, shame about my EPQ...

It provided a great retelling of every event ever to beset this little island nation. EVERY EVENT. That's not so bad, there is a lot that happened and you need all of it to make a coherent story. But very little thought was given to try and make the history pop. Every event was cataloged such that I thought I was reading a long timeline in paragraph form. Maybe I expect more from my histories, but this was written so dryly it could have come from the Gobi.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book which spans a near 1500 year time period from the settling of the island to the decline of Venice. This book made me immediately pick up The Right Honourable The Viscount Norwich's Byzantium trilogy... which is so far good, but honestly not as good as A History of Venice. The notes are great!

proud of myself for getting through this. though long and dense and at times dizzying with the dearth of similar-sounding doge names, this managed to captivate me. i went into this knowing very little about venice and in truth, only picked this up in preparation for my trip to italy later this year. to be honest, i’m not sure if i feel any more connected to venice after reading this; the author, while certainly not dry, leaves a distance between the reader and the character of venice without necessarily leaving out any essential details. though rich with descriptions of the city and examples of festivities, i could never quite put myself in the shoes of a venetian, but maybe that will change once i see the city for myself. but what is so clear is that this book was written from a place of love, which is perhaps why i read on and on. mostly though, this brought be back to high school, sitting in a classroom listening to my professor talk about ancient and medieval and early modern european history. it’s a time when i was falling more in love with the subject, so to be able to a) learn about historical events that were skipped over for the sake of brevity back then and b) see events that i was familiar with from a new perspective, was just incredibly gratifying to me. so moral of the story, this is a good book tor read if you’re curious about venice and/or an insane person who feels that reading about history is life-affirming. 3.5/5

The reader will naturally have very high expectations on beginning Lord Norwich's History of Venice. At the time this book was published, John Julius Norwich had already established himself as an historian or the first rank with his two volume history of the Norman Kingdoms in southern Italy. The city of Venice was perhaps the greatest love of his live. For many years, he chaired the international Venice in Peril Fund which raises money to preserve the unique architecture of this city in a Lagoon. Norwich in other words brought talent, erudition and passion to this project. The result is a marvellous book that fulfills all its promises.

Norwich is a great historian of the old school. He is capable of reading medieval French, Latin, and several Italian dialects in the original handwritten form. Moreover, he has the instincts of a natural historian to read between the lines in all these obsolete languages and patois. He can sense who is being truthful, who is lying and who is simply passing on second-hand information. He has a spreadsheet in his mind that can calculate the travel times between destinations according to whatever the dominant travel technology of the decade happens to be. It is a true pleasure to read the work of such a masterful hand.

Norwich makes several key points about Venice's success and its incredible ability to survive as a leading European power for over 1000 years before being blown away in a matter of weeks by the Napoleonic Whirlwind. First, the Venetians were resolutely collegial in their approach to government. While Milan came to be tyrannized by the Viscontis, Rome by the Borgias and Florence by the Medicis Venice never had to suffer under the erratic hand of a dictator with near totalitarian control of the state. The Doge was elected by the Aristocracy and no Doge could be succeeded by a member of his family. Moreover the constitution placed limits on powers of the Doge who ultimately had to govern based on consent.

The second key factor was the strong Venetian instinct for peace. As much as possible they lived at peace with their Orthodox Byzantine neighbours. When Constantinople fell, the Venetians made every effort to be at peace with the turks. Moreover, the Venetians were very tolerant. According to Norwich they are the only Catholic European state never to have burned a heretic.

The end came slowly. When the Portuguese discovered a sea route to India and more importantly began making Caravelles which had the ability to sail there and back with cargoes, Venice went into a long term decline.

At the end the Venetians lost their admirable diplomatic touch. In a matter of weeks the 1000 year old republic went from being a French district governed to a become a possession of the Austrian empire due to incredibly inept negotiating with Napoleon.

The great weakness of Norwich's book by contemporary standards is its complete lack of quantitative and economic analysis. While describing Venice as a commercial empire on seemingly every page, he never attempts to quantify the total volume of the trade nor the customs revenues collected from it. Similarly, he gives only anecdotal evidence as to what type of goods were traded. He does not indicate which of Venice's cities in the middle east gathered what type of goods nor does he indicate where the primary customers were for the different categories of products.

Also surprisingly he never analyzes how the extraordinary evolution of banking, letters of exchange and other instruments developed by Italian bankers to facilitate the transfer of funds without the risk of transporting gold physically. Venice's period of prosperity was in all likelihood extended by these advances in banking but Norwich never discusses them.

Finally Norwich's discussion on the notorious sexual mores of Venetian society is to say the least limited.

The best thing perhaps is that after finishing this wonderful book one can look for a more recent title that will cover the issues that Norwich chose not to. One can then have one more read about this fascinating state.

A very enjoyable read, four stars rather than five because its general facility occasionally becomes a little too much and because the focus is a little too much on exhaustive chronological military and political history. More sections like the summing up in the epilogue interspersed into the narrative would have been nice.

Fantastic read about Venice.

JJN finds the perfect balance of depth and pace, great balance of focus on politics and war, and other parts of the life of Venice and the people of it. I find it that most books try to hard to pretend that it just as important how a peasant lived (which wasn't that much different anywhere in the world), to the world changing political events that set the course of history. This book has no such issues.

A book you can read in a few days despite it's huge size and small font.

Highly recommended