Description

pp. 3875, b/w and colour illustrations, “Venice: The Biography of a City is a vivid, highly readable and completely original account of this most beautiful of cities — at once a narrative, a social history and a guide-book. Christopher Hibbert’s similar book, Rome: The Biography of a City, was praised for its lucid style, innovative approach to the problems of combining narrative and architectural history, revealing character sketches and skillfully chosen illustrations. Venice was one of the great marvels of the medieval world. By war and cunning diplomacy, by the prosperity of her trade and the originality of her shipbuilders, she maintained for five centuries her position as Queen of the Adriatic, the Most Serene Republic. In the 18th century the city became the glittering showcase of the Grand Tour (and the ‘brothel of Europe’) until, powerless against Napoleon, she became the property first of France, then of Austria. Yet she never lost her power to fascinate; and the Venice of Byron and Shelley, Ruskin, Proust and George Eliot, Henry James and many other foreign visitors is described in all her changing moods, throughout the 19th century, generation after generation. An account of Venice in the 20th century and recent efforts to save the city from the disasters of pollution and flood bring the story current. A comprehensive gazetteer describes every building mentioned in the text and every monument and work of art of importance in Venice. Christopher Hibbert’s account is therefore the ideal companion (history-book, guide-book and picture-book) for anyone who has ever visited, or hopes to visit, this most miraculous of cities. Illustrated in color and black and white.”