A History of Venice, John Julius Norwich, Penguin, Harmondsworth, 1982
(1979, 1981)
Introduction (xxi-xxiv): My father showed me Venice when I was sixteen,
speaking of its history. He wanted to write it, dying before he could.
With this book I fulfil his wish.
1 "Beginnings" to 727 (3-14): Barbarians drove people to the
inaccessible lagoon. These settlers traded, helped the Empire. Later
Venetians asserted these were already independent; modern historians
see Venice as within the Empire. Ursus (Orso) was the first doge,
chosen in the rebellion against icon destroyer Leo III.
2 "Emergence" 727-811 (15-25): Early doges met violent ends. Internal
power struggles coincided with Frankish force in Italy. In 805 Doge
Obelario accepted Charlemagne as emperor and received a Frankish bride.
In 810 Venetians deposed Obelario, repelled a Frankish invasion and
named Agnello doge. The Franks acknowledged Venice lay in the Byzantine
sphere of influence.
3 "The City Rises Up" 811-900 (26-38): Angelo appointed three men to
shore up defences and stabilize habitation, driving in numerous wooden
piles. c. 828 the alleged remains of St. Mark were taken to Venice from
Alexandria to add prestige to Venice and its doge. Dalmatians and
Muslims encroached. In 841 Muslims destroyed a combined Byzantine
Venetian fleet; geography spared Venice.
In 856 the Western emperor visited; he became godfather to the doge's
granddaughter. In 864 aged Doge Pietro Tradonico was assassinated.
Civil strife lasted several days. Orso Participazio succeeded. He
strengthened democracy, establishing elected advisers. In 887 Doge
Pietro Candiano fell fighting Dalmatians. His successor, Pietro
Tribuno, secured extraterritoriality for Venetians in the Western
Empire's Italian lands.
4 "The Adventurer and the Saint" 900-991 (39-48): An era of peaceful
economic expansion preceded the election of Pietro Candiano IV in 959.
Previously banished, he knew splendid autocratic courts. He opposed the
slave trade. A marriage provided substantial personal lands. He and his
infant son were assassinated.
His successor, Pietro Orseolo, was later canonized. He poured a
personal fortune into rebuilding what was burnt during Candiano's
overthrow, then retired to a monastery. Eastern and Western factions
feuded. Western Coloprini aided Otto II try to seize Venice. The young
emperor died, as did Stephano Coloprino. Doge Tribuno Memmo accorded
amnesty, but three Coloprini returned to Venice were killed.
5 "The Determined Dynasty" 991-1032 (49-64): Pietro Orseolo II gained
cutting of Byzantine red tape and most favoured trading status for a
commitment to ship Byzantine troops as required. He was close to young
emperor Otto III. Orseolo traded with Islamic leaders around the
Mediterranean. In 1000 he sailed along the Dalmatian coast, peacefully
or by force, receiving agreement to permit unhindered shipping. Nearby
timber and grain became available. The expedition was commemorated by
an annual Ascencion Day ceremony.
Pietro Orseolo II declined Otto III's invitation to an Italian
campaign. Otto secretly visited Venice; he died, aged twenty two,
preparing to retake Rome. Orseolo continued good relations with Henry
II. In 1002 Orseolo drove off Muslims besieging Byzantine Italian Bari.
A som married a Byzantine princess. In 1005 they and their son died in
the plague following the frightful comet. Pietro's son Otto's nepotism
unleashed unrest, Otto was twice driven out, twice recalled, the second
time he died unable to respond.
6 "The Norman Menace" 1032-1095 (65-75): Domenico Flabenico permanently
ended co-regency. Domenico Contarini fostered prosperity. Domenico
Selvo, popularly acclaimed in 1071, wed Alex Comnenius' sister, in 1081
defended Alexius when Robert Guiscard attacked the Balkans. In 1082 the
grateful emperor opened his realm, tax free, to Venetian traders. Twice
defeated, Guiscard won an unexpected victory; Selvo disgraced was
deposed and sent to a monastery. Vitale Falier completed St. Mark's
awesome Basilica, consecrated in 1094. In 1095 Vitale died.
7 "In the Wake of the Crusade" 1095-1130 (76-91): Venice responded
slowly to the Crusades, sending two hundred ships after Jerusalem fell.
At Rhodes these defeated a Pisan fleet. In Lycia they loaded an alleged
body of St. Nicholas. In 1102 Ordelafo Falier succeeded. In 1106 flood
and fire struck. In 1110 a Venetian fleet helped take Sidon. On the way
home, at Byzantium it received St. Stephen's body.
Ordelafo nationalized shipbuilding, began the Arsenal; in 1118 he fell
fighting Hungarians at Zara. That year Byzantine John II rescinded
favoured trading status. Domenico Michiel gained favourable Hungarian
peace, raided Byzantines, destroyed the Egyptian fleet, bargained hard
with the Kingdom of Jerusalem and regained Byzantine favoured trading
status.
8 "Between Two Empires" 1130-1172 (92-107): Pietro Polani became doge,
as cosmopolital Sicily became a kingdom and Roger its king. Roger
survived a joint imperial attack. St. Bernard's Second Crusade was a
fiasco. George of Antioch, Roger's admiral, led a preemptive attack,
seizing Byzantine strongholds and rich booty. Venetians helped slowly
retake Corfu, but greatly strained Byzantium's friendship.
In 1148 Doge Polani died; Domenico Morosini enjoyed peace, prosperity
and a building boom. In 1167 Venice joined the Lombard League against
Frederick Barbarossa. In 1171 Genoese were attacked in the Eastern
Empire; Manuel blamed Venetians, arrested thousands. Doge Vitale
Michiel promptly led a strong fleet, but pausing on imperial overtures,
he lost many men to disease and was assassinated when he came home.
9 "Reconciliation" 1172-1187 (108-121): The doge's pomp and oligarchy's
actual control were strengthened. Capable, experienced and wealthy
Sebastiano Ziani became doge. Rebuffed by Byzantium, Venice allied with
Sicily. In 1177 in Venice Frederick Barbaroosa and Pope Alexander III
met and reconciled. Ziani did reconstruction. Nicolo Starantonio the
engineer raised two columns and placed gambling tables between them.
In 1178 the experienced diplomat Orio Mastropiero became doge. Sicily
stood poised to pass to the Western heir's betrothed. Venice turned
east, reconciled and received Byzantium's naval contract.
10 "The Shameful Glory" 1187-1205 (122-143): Saladin's victories led
Europeans to try another crusade. It failed. in 1193 Enrico Dandolo
became doge. In 1201 he, the oligarchs and the people of Venice agreed
to assist a fourth crusade. When news spread Egypt was the intended
destination, only one third of expected crusaders were ready to go.
Venice, with a claimant to the Eastern throne on board, brought them to
Constantinople.
The claimant quickly crowned, aged, dim sighted Enrico Dandolo, so
courageously first ashore in battle's heat, coolly took months
provoking a fierce fight for the City, its savage sack, then the
division of its assets. A Frank was named emperor, a Venetian
patriarch. Venice took a significant portion of the City and of the
Empire. In 1205 Bulgars captured the new emperor at Adrianople. The
doge led the defeated force back to Constantinople. Soon afterwards
Enrico Dandolo died and was buried at St. Sophia.
11 "The Latin Empire" 1205-1268 (147-163): Pietro Ziani succeeded. He
sagely focused central control on several key Byzantine territories.
Giacomo Tiepolo's coronation oath may have set a pattern. In 1233
Frederick II, "World's Wonder," visied Venice. He commissioned a crown
from a goldsmith, but received little official. It took Venetians time
to realize he had no designs on their city.
In 1261 Michael Palaeologus retook Constantinople. Venice's bitter foe
Genoa was his favourite. Venice won several naval victories. In 1268
Michael granted many previous favours to Venice, retaining Genoese
competition.
12 "The Wages of Arrogance" 1268-1299 (164-180): Venice, fighting
abroad and enriched at home, developed complicated procedures to reduce
potential for absolute power. In 1268 Lorenzo Tiepolo became doge. With
food scare and Italian cities refusing to share, food was brought from
Sicily and Russia; a tariff placed on products proceding to Italy.
Opposition failed. In 1295 Tiepolo died.
He had simply not been able to understand that, however much Venice
might consider herself a place apart, exalted and privileged, having
nothing in common either in her history or traditions with her
sister cities, in their eyes she was still one of their own number:
richer and more powerful perhaps, thanks to a mixture of good luck,
unscrupulous behaviour and boundless self-confidence, but in no way
essentially superior to themselves and - on land at least -
certainly not invincible. p. 169
Attempts to enforce Adriatic domination were resisted. There was papal
and natural opposition. The ducat was introduced. Pietro Gradenigo was
selected in 1289. In 1294 bitter war began against Genoa. One battle
placed Marco Polo in a Genoese prison. In 1299 Milan's Matteo Visconti
mediated peace.
13 "The Oligarchs Triumphant" 1297-1310 (181-189): Oligarchy
solidified. The pope in Avignon demanded Venice yield Ferrara, on
refusal pronouncing interdict. Plague made resistance at Ferrara
impossible.
14 "The Conspiracy and the Council" 1310 (190-199): A coup was quickly
quashed; the Council of Ten was established.
15 "The Mainland Dominion" 1311-1342 (200-213): Giovanni Soranzo was
the first significant successor to the unlamented Gradenigo. Saranzo
made peace with the pope, renewed extensive trade, sending ships to
England and Flanders, increased construction and manufacturing (adding
looking glasses and silk), improved navigation and received Dante as
envoy; forced to return home through fever infested swamps cost the
poet his life.
Francesco Dandolo joined the victorious response to Verona's
expansionism, acquiring substantial mainland possessions. In 1338
Bartolomeo Gradenigo was selected doge. A very destructive flood struck
in 1340. Dandolo declined England's request for ships.
16 "Andrea Dandolo and Marin Falier" 1342-1355 (214-229): Andrea
Dandolo, a learned scholar whose writings include a history of Venice,
presided while Venetian ships took Smyrna and war with Genoa loomed.
Then came the Black death:
When at last it abated, no less than fifty noble families had been
completely wiped out; and Venice had lost three-fifths of her
population. p. 216
Genoa was also seriously stricken. Nevertheless, war was waged with
heavy losses for both sides. Genoa, badly defeated, turned to Milan.
Milan sent Petrarch to Venice. His eloquence failed. In continued
fighting Venice lost heavily. Dandolo died aged forty seven; Marin
Falier succeeded. He led a failed coup against the oligarchs and was
beheaded.
17 "Colonies Lost and Held" 1355-1376 (230-242): Giovanni Gradenigo
promptly made peace with Milan. Giovanni Dolfin made peace with
Hungary. In 1362 Lorenzo Celsi welcomed Petrarch and his library. A
Cretan revolt was crushed. In July 1366 Marco Corner became doge for a
peaceful year and a half. Andrea Contarini repressed Trieste's revolt,
defeating a supporting Austrian force. Francesco da Carrara failed to
break Venice's salt monopoly.
18 "The War With Genoa" 1372-1381 (243-256): Genoa asserted itself on
Cyprus. In 1370 the Eastern Emperor John V visited Venice; he was
placed in a debtor's prison. His second son bailed him out. His first
son usurped the throne and joined Genoa in attacking Venetians on
Tenedos. War spread. Genoa took Chioggia on the lagoon. Vettor Pisani,
a popular admiral, energized the city, resisted, then defeated the foe.
He died in battle near the Apulian coast. Peace came, both sides badly
weakened; Venice swiftly recovered, Genoa did not.
19 "The Empire Takes Shape" 1381-1405 (257-276): In 1381 thirty
families which had rendered outstanding service were enobled. In 1382
Antonio Venier was selected doge. He refused special treatment for his
son who died in prison. Internal affairs ran smoothly. In Italy, focus
was on preventing any one state from growing too strong. Byzantium's
decline continued. In 1396 Venetian ships transported European knights
to fight the Turks. They lost.
Trade continued and expanded. Venice had an agent in Siam by the 1390s.
Her ships carried anything and everything, including lucrative slaves:
A relatively small number of African negroes from East and West
Africa and the Sahara were brought to the slave markets at S.
Giorgio and the Rialto by Arab traders in gold and ivory, but the
overwhelming majority of the slaves were Christians from the
Caucasus -- Georgians, Armenians and Circassians -- who had been
taken prisoner by the Tartars and were sold by them at Black Sea
ports. Most of these found their way, as domestic servants,
bodyguards and concubines, to Egypt, North Africa and the Ottoman
court. Occasionally, some might achieve positions of real power, as
with the slave army of the Memelukes, who were supreme in Egypt from
the thirteenth century until the arrival of Napoleon, or as
Janissaries or eunuchs at the Sultan's court. Others were purchased
by wealthy Italian families in Tuscany and the North. The remainder,
unluckiest of all, probably ended up working the vast agricultural
estates in Crete and Cyprus -- where Federico Corner's sugar
plantations had been built up almost entirely on a slave economy.
pp. 270-271
Venetian industry and commerce were increasingly state controlled.
20 "The Empire Grows" 1405-1413 (279-291): In 1400 Michele Steno became
doge. Trade and the city's beauty increased. In 1406 Padua joined
Vicenza and Verona within Venice. In 1406 a Venetian, Gregory XII,
became pope, entangled in the complexities of schism. Venice and
Hungary struggled over Dalmatia.
21 "The Prophetic Doge" 1413-1423 (292-299): Oligarchs limited further
the doge's power. Commander Pietro Loredan captured Turkish ships
pursuing a Venetian merchant vessel. Venice made gains over Hungary.
Doge Tomasso Mocenifo on his deathbed outlined Venice's strengths; he
warned against Francesco Foscari.
22 "Carmagnola" 1423-1432 (300-312): Francesco Foscari was selected.
Florence appealed against Milan; Venice remained neutral. Milan's top
mercenary commander, fearing Milan's duke, turned to Venice. Appointed
commander of Venice's army, he performed poorly. Criticism spurred him
to a spectacular victory. Years of ineptitude followed. At last, he was
beheaded for treason.
23 "The Mainland Upheaval" 1432-1455 (312-324): Struggle with Milan's
treacherous Visconti continued for years. There was a council at Basel.
In 1437 Emperor Sigismund confirmed Venetian possession of its Italian
lands. Milan continued fighting. Byzantine Emperor John VIII arrived
seeking aid. Milan's duke died. Eventually, mercenary commander
Francesco Sforza became ruler.
End of First Half
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