You did recommend The Middle Sea to me, I believe. I bought the history of Venice based on my enjoyment of his three-volume history of Byzantium.
On the point of Venetian history being fascinating, after finishing the book I immediately went online and ordered Pietro Bembo's History of Venice from amazon (the I Tatti Renaissance Library edition). I had bought so many Loeb Library books recently that I was buying some directly from Harvard University Press (amazon has some odd gaps in their Loeb offerings, even though they usually have a slight discount off the official Harvard price). While at their website, I stumbled on the Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library and the I Tatti Renaissance Library. Suffice it to say I now have 10 of the former and 12 of the latter.
I want to read more about the Venetian standpoint on the Fourth Crusade because Norwich agrees with us on the impact of the Fourth Crusade and is quite clear about it. I would like to hear some Venetian voice attempting to justify what they did (or, if even then they accepted that it was a terrible thing, a contemporary invective against the Venetian actions).
The entire affair is sickening, though the more I read the more I wonder if perhaps it wasn't the lesser evil - after all, it was likely that the Byzantine Empire would have fallen anyway, and at least the Venetians carted away a lot of priceless treasures intact, something the Turks would probably not have done (although they weren't as extreme as Saudis, even back then they might have destroyed objects they felt were blasphemous or in some way pagan). After all, what happened to the city in 1453 was worse than what happened in 1204 (I'm aware some modern scholars have contested this, but the vast majority of accounts talk about a catastrophe of murder, rape, arson, pillage and then the sale of survivors into slavery).
Either way, Venice did eventually preserve much of Greek culture and passed it along to the rest of the world through her wonderful printing industry.
Let me know if any of the more recent books are good - I find myself reading older sources rather than newer...
On the point of Venetian history being fascinating, after finishing the book I immediately went online and ordered Pietro Bembo's History of Venice from amazon (the I Tatti Renaissance Library edition). I had bought so many Loeb Library books recently that I was buying some directly from Harvard University Press (amazon has some odd gaps in their Loeb offerings, even though they usually have a slight discount off the official Harvard price). While at their website, I stumbled on the Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library and the I Tatti Renaissance Library. Suffice it to say I now have 10 of the former and 12 of the latter.
I want to read more about the Venetian standpoint on the Fourth Crusade because Norwich agrees with us on the impact of the Fourth Crusade and is quite clear about it. I would like to hear some Venetian voice attempting to justify what they did (or, if even then they accepted that it was a terrible thing, a contemporary invective against the Venetian actions).
The entire affair is sickening, though the more I read the more I wonder if perhaps it wasn't the lesser evil - after all, it was likely that the Byzantine Empire would have fallen anyway, and at least the Venetians carted away a lot of priceless treasures intact, something the Turks would probably not have done (although they weren't as extreme as Saudis, even back then they might have destroyed objects they felt were blasphemous or in some way pagan). After all, what happened to the city in 1453 was worse than what happened in 1204 (I'm aware some modern scholars have contested this, but the vast majority of accounts talk about a catastrophe of murder, rape, arson, pillage and then the sale of survivors into slavery).
Either way, Venice did eventually preserve much of Greek culture and passed it along to the rest of the world through her wonderful printing industry.
Let me know if any of the more recent books are good - I find myself reading older sources rather than newer...
Political correctness is the pettiest form of casuistry.
ἡ δὲ κἀκ τριῶν τρυπημάτων ἐργαζομένη ἐνεκάλει τῇ φύσει, δυσφορουμένη, ὅτι δὴ μὴ καὶ τοὺς τιτθοὺς αὐτῇ εὐρύτερον ἢ νῦν εἰσι τρυπώη, ὅπως καὶ ἄλλην ἐνταῦθα μίξιν ἐπιτεχνᾶσθαι δυνατὴ εἴη. – Procopius
Ummaka qinnassa nīk!
*MySmiley*
ἡ δὲ κἀκ τριῶν τρυπημάτων ἐργαζομένη ἐνεκάλει τῇ φύσει, δυσφορουμένη, ὅτι δὴ μὴ καὶ τοὺς τιτθοὺς αὐτῇ εὐρύτερον ἢ νῦν εἰσι τρυπώη, ὅπως καὶ ἄλλην ἐνταῦθα μίξιν ἐπιτεχνᾶσθαι δυνατὴ εἴη. – Procopius
Ummaka qinnassa nīk!
*MySmiley*
A History of Venice by John Julius Norwich
- 29/12/2012 11:39:31 PM
874 Views
Was I the one who recommended this book to you?
- 30/12/2012 03:28:16 PM
624 Views
I bought this one sua sponte from the Folio Society.
- 30/12/2012 05:02:12 PM
685 Views
This is definitely on my list.
- 31/12/2012 07:01:05 PM
775 Views
The Fourth Crusade was a travesty for world civilization
- 31/12/2012 09:48:20 PM
673 Views
Ah, I see your point.
- 31/12/2012 10:58:33 PM
673 Views
Well, the Venetians weren't the ones doing the worst of the looting...
- 01/01/2013 07:36:49 AM
616 Views
It's extremely readable
- 03/01/2013 02:09:23 AM
592 Views
I don't doubt that he extrapolates a bit much
- 04/01/2013 03:48:28 AM
646 Views
I don't recall the specifics.
- 05/01/2013 03:49:26 AM
628 Views