Medieval and Renaissance Venice - Hardcover

"The contributions are marked by careful scholarship and lively (even racy) presentation. As befits a celebration of Queller, they also contain genial humor ... engaged but warm-spirited debate ... and serious whimsy." -- James S. Grubb, Journal of Interdisciplinary History "A substantial and thought-provoking volume... Glued together by a common focus on Venice between the twelfth and the eighteenth centuries, the thirteen articles exhibit a unity of interest alongside a heartening diversity of subject matter, methodology and writing style... The crop of American and British historians and topics represented here is of the best, and the book in effect constitutes a declaration about the state of Anglo-Saxon research on Venice at the end of the twentieth century." - Kate Lowe, Times Literary Supplement "Thanks to studies of this kind, we get a more complex and realistic idea of the long-term relationship between Jews and Christians in the city of the lagoons." -Benjamin Arbel, The Medieval Review "A real harvest of the Middle Ages... In this single volume readers not only can see reflected the interests of one of America's foremost medievalists but also can track the historiographical trajectory of medieval history as practiced in America." -- Louis Haas, The Historian "The whole volume is well prepared, with endnotes by chapter, a comprehensive index, and a contributor list. It will be a useful addition to the bookshelf of the Venetian expert, the student of Italian Renaissance, and the collectors of the classic works by and about the principal laborers in this vineyard." -- Margaret L. King, Journal of Modern History ADVANCE PRAISE "This collection, marked by an impressive list of authors of distinction, captures the breadth and depth of scholarly inquiry medieval and Renaissance Venice has inspired over the last few decades."-Joanne Ferraro, author of Family and Public Life in Brescia, 1580-1650: The Foundations of Power in the Early Modern Venetian State "The intelligence and substance of Donald Queller's personal scholarly legacy is in its own way a unifying force for this choice and rich collection. The contributors are all first-rate, world-class scholars in their fields, and their essays embody some of their latest work in their individual areas of research and thinking. This is a volume for scholars, but there is much here that would also appeal to the lay enthusiast."-John W. Barker, author of Justinian and the Later Roman Empire

For the first time in a generation, leading scholars of medieval and Renaissance Venice join forces to define the current state of the field. Forays into neglected aspects of Venetian studies reveal new insights into coinage and concubinage, the first Jewish ghetto and the Fourth Crusade, and other matters from dowry inflation to state spectacle to cheese. These essays are emblematic of the dynamism that has marked Venetian scholarship over the past half-century, reflecting a shift in the definition of 'history' and 'historiography' from states, military engagements, and economies to prostitutes, brawlers, peasants, and the poor. Contributors bring to this volume impressive experience and expertise in the use of archival material to explore a rich variety of subject matter, interpretations, and methodologies. They draw on both public and private sources - tourist guides, eyewitness reports, government edicts, police records, diary entries, and literary sources in dialect - to articulate a compelling narrative of cultural change in an age of social discipline. Through topics such as "Venice's Hostage Crisis: Diplomatic Efforts to Secure Peace with Byzantium between 1171 and 1184", "The Abbot's Concubine", and "Curfew Time in the Ghetto of Venice", contributors explore diplomatic, economic, and architectural matters, as well as social and cultural trends. Many take interdisciplinary and intercultural approaches, employing innovative methodologies that take Venetian historiography in new directions. Marked by an interweaving of texts and contexts that represents a microcosm of the kind of discussion that continues to animate the discipline, "Medieval and Renaissance Venice" demonstrates the ways in which historiography continuously seeks to make the past vitally present.