A History of Venice - John Julius Norwich

Il consiglio più prezioso che chiunque vi possa dare prima di visitare Venezia (ma lo stesso vale per tutta l'Italia), ancor più del nome di un ottimo albergo o ristorante a buon prezzo, è quello di studiare un po' la storia di Venezia, che è assolutamente affascinante. Infatti, la storia di Venezia è forse l'esempio più eclatante di quanto la geografia fisica, la geografia politica, e un pizzico di fortuna possano influire sulla nascita e determinare lo sviluppo di una città, e conoscere la storia di Venezia è la chiave per apprezzarla appieno. Venezia ha sempre affascinato gli storici e continua a farlo, quindi non è difficile trovare libri dedicati alla storia di questa bellissima città. Per esempio, tra i libri in lingua inglese pubblicati di recente troviamo: City of Fortune, di Roger Crowley (2011); Venice, Pure City, di Peter Ackroyd (2009); The Spirit of Venice, di Paul Strathern (2012); Venice: A New History, di Thomas Madden (2012); Venice, Lion City, di Garry Wills (2001); Venice: A New History of the City and Its People, di Elizabeth Horodowich (2009); Venice: History of the Floating City, di Joanne Ferraro (2012); The Siege of Venice, di Jonathan Keates (2005); Italian Venice: A History, di R.J.B. Bosworth (2014); quindi non c'è che l'imbarazzo della scelta. Ma addentrarsi nella storia di Venezia, soprattutto per quanto riguarda i primi secoli, non è facile se non si ha una conoscenza generale della storia del Tardo Impero romano, e di ciò che è accaduto dopo la caduta dell'Impero romano d'Occidente. Abbiamo alcuni studenti che conoscono la storia d'Italia e dell'Europa meglio di tutti noi messi insieme ma, per coloro che volessero informarsi di questo periodo storico, c'è un corso di storia online assolutamente fantastico, The Early Middle Ages, 284 -1000, della Yale University, di 22 lezioni, del professor Paul Freedman. Se avete il tempo vi suggeriamo di vedere tutte le lezioni perché sono interessantissime, ma, se non avete tanto tempo a disposizione, abbiamo inserito in basso le lezioni che ci sembrano più pertinenti per capire meglio i primi secoli della storia di Venezia.

The most precious advice anyone can give you prior to visiting Venice (but the same applies to the whole of Italy), even more so than the name of an inexpensive excellent hotel or restaurant, is to study a little the history of Venice, which is absolutely fascinating. In fact, the history of Venice is perhaps the most striking example of how the physical geography, the political geography, and a pinch of fortune can influence the birth and determine the development of a city, and acquainting oneself with the history of Venice is the key to appreciating it to the fullest. Venice has always fascinated historians and continues to do so, therefore it's not difficult to find books dedicated to the history of this most beautiful city. For example, amongst the books published in English in recent times we find: City of Fortune, by Roger Crowley (2011); Venice, Pure City, by Peter Ackroyd (2009); The Spirit of Venice, by Paul Strathern (2012); Venice: A New History, by Thomas Madden (2012); Venice, Lion City, by Garry Wills (2001); Venice: A New History of the City and Its People, by Elizabeth Horodowich (2009); Venice: History of the Floating City, by Joanne Ferraro (2012); The Siege of Venice, by Jonathan Keates (2005); Italian Venice: A History, by R.J.B. Bosworth (2014); therefore we are quite spoilt for choice. But to delve into the history of Venice, above all in relation to the early centuries, is not easy if one doesn't have a general knowledge of the history of the Late Roman Empire, and of what happened after the fall of the Western Roman Empire. We have some students who have a greater knowledge of the history iof Italy and Europe than all of us put together but, for those who would like to learn more about this historical period, there's an excellent Yale University online history course, The Early Middle Ages, 284 -1000, made up of 22 lectures presented by Professor Paul Freedman. If you have the time we reccomend you watch all the lectures because they are very interesting, but, if you don't have much time on your hands, we've embedded below the lessons which to us seem the most relevant at understanding better the first centuries of Venice's history.       

Ecco un documentario molto interessante che parla di Diocleziano e di Costantino, tratto dalla serie di sei puntate, della BBC, del 1997, I, Caesar. Nelle sei puntate della serie vengono esaminate le vite di Cesare, Augusto, Nerone, Adriano, Costantino e Giustiniano e potete acquistarla su Amazon. In basso, vi proporremo anche la puntata dedicata a Giustiniano. 

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The origins of Venice encircle her still. No great city has managed to preserve, in its immediate surroundings, so much of the atmosphere and environment which gave it birth. The traveller approaching Venice, whether by sea as she should be approached, or by land across the causeway, or even by air, gazes out on the same flat, desolate expanse of water and reed and marsh that the first Venetians chose for their own; and is struck, more forcibly every time, not just by the improbability but by the sheer foolhardiness of their enterprise. It is a curious world, this world of the Venetian lagoon; some 200 square miles of saltwater, much of it shallow enough for a man to wade through waist-deep, but criss-crossed with deeper channels along which Venetian shipping has for centuries made its way to the open sea; studded with shoals formed by the silt which the Brenta, Sile and other, grander streams like the Po and the Adige have brought down from the Alps; scored with endless lines of posts and piles driven into its sandy bed to mark invisible but important features - lobster pots and fishing-grounds, wrecks and cables, moorings, shallows, and recommended routes to be followed by the vaporetti that ply to and fro between the city and the outlying islands. In any season, under any light, it appears strangely devoid of colour; the water is not deep enough to take on either the rich, velvety blue of the Central Mediterranean or that astringent green that characterizes much of the Adriatic. And yet, especially on autumn evenings when the days are drawing in and the surface glistens like oil under a low, misty sun, it can be beautiful - so beautiful that one is surprised that the great Venetian painters, seduced as always by the splendour of their city, took so little interest in their less immediate surroundings. How differently the Dutch would have reacted! But then the Venetian school was essentially joyous; the lagoon, for all its beauty, can be quite unutterably sad. Who in their senses, one wonders, would leave the fertile plains of Lombardy to build a settlement - let alone a city - among these marshy, malarial wastes, on little islets of sand and couchgrass, the playthings of current and tide? This is a question to which there can be only one answer, since there is only one motive strong enough to induce so apparently irrational a step fear. The first builders of Venice were frightened men. 

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A History of Venice, di John Julius Norwich, continua ad essere uno dei migliori libri sulla storia di Venezia. Norwich è indubbiamente innamorato di Venezia, e lo ammette apertamente nell'introduzione, ma A History of Venice non è un'agiografia della città. Infatti Norwich appartiene alla folta schiera di storici, non Italiani, spesso di lingua inglese, che scrivono sulla storia italiana senza quel fastidioso attaccamento al proprio luogo d'origine e appartenenza politica che spesso caratterizza gli storici italiani. Inizialmente A History of Venice venne pubblicato in due volumi: il primo volume, Venice: the Rise to Empire, risalente al 1977; il secondo, Venice: The Greatness and the Fall, al 1981. L'attuale versione tascabile, facilmente reperibile in libreria [Penguin: $26.99], include entrambi i volumi, ed è la storia cronologica di Venezia dalle origini alla «caduta» della Repubblica in seguito all'occupazione napoleonica della città nel 1797. Norwich si concentra sulla storia politica di Venezia e non si sofferma molto sulla storia sociale e culturale della città, ma è bravissimo a rendere la storia politica di Venezia avvincente e a mettere in risalto sia gli episodi straordinari, purtroppo spesso crudeli, che i personaggi indimenticabili che hanno reso Venezia unica al mondo. Ecco un passo del libro tratto dal primo capitolo (bellissima la frase: «The first builders of Venice were frightened men.»):     

A History of Venice, by John Julius Norwich, continues to be one of the best books on the history of Venice. Norwich is undoubtedly fond of Venice, and he openly admits so in the introduction, but A History of Venice is not a hagiography of the city. In fact Norwich belongs to the extensive group of non-Italian, often English-speaking, historians who write about Italian history without that annoying attachment to one's birthplace and political persuasion that often characterises Italian historians. A History of Venice was first published in two volumes: Venice: the Rise to Empire, in 1977; and Venice: The Greatness and the Fall, published in 1981. The current paperback edition, readily available in bookstores [Penguin; $26.99], includes both volumes, and is a chronological history of Venice from its origins to its eighteenth century "fall" of the Republic following the Napoleonic occupation of the city in 1797. Norwich focuses on the political history of Venice and he doesn't dwell much on the social and cultural history of the city, but he has a knack for making the political history of Venice enthralling and for picking out both the extraordinary episodes, unfortunately often cruel, and the unforgettable characters which have made Venice unique in the world. Here's a passage from the first chapter of the book (the phrase: "The first builders of Venice were frightened men.", is simply wonderful):

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Byzantine Empire in c. 717