Venice: The Remarkable History of the Lagoon City
Denis Romano
Oxford University Press, £31.99, 904 pages
The Renaissance scholar Francesco Sansovino (1521-1586) called Venice, and its watery setting, “the impossible in the impossible”. Situated in a tidal lagoon and built largely on artificial islands, the sheer improbability of magnificent churches and shimmering palaces emerging from the depths creates an abiding sense of the surreal in those fortunate enough to visit.
Denis Romano’s new work seeks to make the miracle comprehensible. It spans a vast temporal sweep: from descriptions of the Roman shore-side settlements which eventually coalesced into Venice to considering the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. The book’s best chapters concern Venice’s surging life as a sovereign republic and maritime empire in the High Middle Ages and Renaissance.
