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Enrico Dandolo and the Rise of Venice

Thomas F. Madden

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Winner of the 2005 Otto Grundler Award, the International Congress on Medieval Studies
Winner of the Haskins Medal given by the Medieval Academy of America

Between the eleventh and thirteenth centuries, Venice transformed itself from a struggling merchant commune to a powerful maritime empire that would shape events in the Mediterranean for the next four hundred years. In this magisterial new book on medieval Venice, Thomas F. Madden traces the city-state's extraordinary rise through the life of Enrico Dandolo (c. 1107–1205), who ruled Venice as doge from 1192 until his death. The scion of a...

Winner of the 2005 Otto Grundler Award, the International Congress on Medieval Studies
Winner of the Haskins Medal given by the Medieval Academy of America

Between the eleventh and thirteenth centuries, Venice transformed itself from a struggling merchant commune to a powerful maritime empire that would shape events in the Mediterranean for the next four hundred years. In this magisterial new book on medieval Venice, Thomas F. Madden traces the city-state's extraordinary rise through the life of Enrico Dandolo (c. 1107–1205), who ruled Venice as doge from 1192 until his death. The scion of a prosperous merchant family deeply involved in politics, religion, and diplomacy, Dandolo led Venice's forces during the disastrous Fourth Crusade (1201–1204), which set out to conquer Islamic Egypt but instead destroyed Christian Byzantium. Yet despite his influence on the course of Venetian history, we know little about Dandolo, and much of what is known has been distorted by myth.

The first full-length study devoted to Dandolo's life and times, Enrico Dandolo and the Rise of Venice corrects the many misconceptions about him that have accumulated over the centuries, offering an accurate and incisive assessment of Dandolo's motives, abilities, and achievements as doge, as well as his role—and Venice's—in the Fourth Crusade. Madden also examines the means and methods by which the Dandolo family rose to prominence during the preceding century, thus illuminating medieval Venice's singular political, social, and religious environment. Culminating with the crisis precipitated by the failure of the Fourth Crusade, Madden's groundbreaking work reveals the extent to which Dandolo and his successors became torn between the anxieties and apprehensions of Venice's citizens and its escalating obligations as a Mediterranean power.

Reviews

Reviews

An example of the kind of history that should be read and written by all students of history.

This is a very readable book... No one working in the fields of Venetian, Byzantine, or Crusading history (in all three of which Madden is equally comfortable), much less medieval history in general, can ignore this book. With it, Madden more than ever stakes out his place as one of the most important medievalists in America at present.

In addition to a lively narrative, Madden offers a new interpretation of Venice's role in the Fourth Crusade.

A refreshing contribution not only to study of the Fourth Crusade but also to that of medieval Venice.

This book deserves to be considered authoritative because of Madden's use of sources contemporary to the Fourth Crusade and not written afterwards with the advantage of hindsight.

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Book Details

Publication Date
Status
Available
Trim Size
6
x
9
Pages
320
ISBN
9780801885396
Illustration Description
4 halftones, 5 line drawings
Table of Contents

Figures
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. Rise of the New Families
2. Patriarch Enrico Dandolo & the Reform of the Venetian Church
3. Vitale Dandolo & the Reform of the Venetian State
4. Coming of Age, 1175

Figures
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. Rise of the New Families
2. Patriarch Enrico Dandolo & the Reform of the Venetian Church
3. Vitale Dandolo & the Reform of the Venetian State
4. Coming of Age, 1175-1192
5. The Medieval Dogeship & the Election of 1192
6. Enrico Dandolo's Dogeship: The First Decade, 1192-1201
7. The Crucible of the Crusade
8. Venice & the Diversion
9. The Conquest of Constantinople
10. The Venetians in the Latin Empire, 1204-1205
Epilogue: Birth of a Maritime Empire
Appendix: Dandolo Genealogy
Abbreviations
Notes
Bibliography
Index

Author Bio
Featured Contributor

Thomas F. Madden

Thomas F. Madden is an associate professor of history and chair of the history department at Saint Louis University. He is the author of A Concise History of the Crusades, coauthor (with Donald E. Queller) of The Fourth Crusade: The Conquest of Constantinople, editor of The Crusades: Essential Readings, and co-editor (with Ellen E. Kittell) of Medieval and Renaissance Venice.