Describing the City, Describing the State

Representations of Venice and the Venetian Terraferma in the Renaissance
Erscheinungsjahr 2020
ISBN: 978-90-04-41590-4
Verlag: Brill

Buch, Englisch, Band 221, 332 Seiten, Format (B × H): 155 mm x 236 mm, Gewicht: 612 g

Reihe: Studies in Medieval and Reformation Traditions

In Describing the City, Describing the State Sandra Toffolo presents a comprehensive analysis of descriptions of the city of Venice and the Venetian Terraferma in the Renaissance, when the Venetian mainland state was being created. Working with an extensive variety of descriptions, the book demonstrates that no one narrative of Venice prevailed in the early modern European imagination, and that authors continuously adapted geographical descriptions to changing political circumstances. This in turn illustrates the importance of studying geographical representation and early modern state formation together. Moreover, it challenges the long-standing concept of the myth of Venice, by showing that Renaissance observers never saw the city of Venice and the Venetian Terraferma in a monolithic way.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Toffolo, Sandra

Fachgebiete

• Geowissenschaften Geographie | Raumplanung Regional- & Raumplanung Stadtplanung, Kommunale Planung
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Geschichte einzelner Länder Europäische Länder
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Europäische Geschichte

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Acknowledgements

List of Figures

A Note on the Book

Introduction

1 Geographical Descriptions, the Myth of Venice, and the Venetian Terraferma

2 Placing Texts within Literary Contexts

3 Constructing a Mainland State

4 Outline of the Book

part 1: Perceptions of Venice in Its Urban Setting

1 Venice, Religious City

1 God’s Role in the Foundation of Venice

2 Divine Protection throughout History

3 Connections to Saint Mark

4 External Religious Structures

5 The Piety of the Venetians

2 Venice, Centre of Material Culture

1 A City Situated ‘in the Stormy Fury of the Sea’

2 Urban Structure

3 Wealth

4 Commerce

5 Industry

6 Art and Scholarship

3 Venice, Seat of an Ideal Government

1 The Development of a Political Narrative of Venice

2 Elements of a Political Venice

3 The Ideal of a Mixed Constitution

4 The Concept of Liberty

5 Politics and Morality

4 Venice, Morally Exemplary City

1 ‘It Presses Every Gathered Virtue to Its Bosom’

2 A Moral Venice from Its Foundation

3 Morality and Poetry

part 2: Perceptions of Venice and the Terraferma as a State

5 Venetian Views on Venice and the Terraferma as a State

1 Justifications for Mainland Expansion

2 The Conquest of Friuli

3 Links between Venice and the Terraferma

4 Political Affiliation as a Factor in the Depiction of Territories

6 Viewing the Venetian Mainland State from the Mainland

1 Two Poems Dedicated to Local Families

2 Ubertino Posculo’s Oratio de laudibus Brixiae

3 Michele Savonarola’s Praise of Padua

4 Silvestro Lando’s Preface to the Statutes of Verona

5 A Paduan Pilgrim on His Way to the Holy Land

6 Four Poems by Bartolomeo Pagello

7 Jacopo Sanguinacci’s Inchoronato regno sopra i regni

8 Francesco Corna da Soncino’s Poem on Verona

7 Foreign Views of the Venetian State

1 ‘Hit Is also Vnder the Domynyon of the Venysyans’: Views of Formal Political Affiliation

2 Political and Geographical Affiliation: the Case of Greece

3 Conflicting Ideas on Venice and the Venetian State

4 Interpreting Venice and Its Dominions in One Common Framework

Conclusion: Venice as City, Venice as State

Bibliography

Index

Über Autor(innen)

Sandra Toffolo, PhD (2013, European University Institute, Florence), is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of St Andrews. Her research focuses on Venice and the Venetian mainland state in the Renaissance.