The rise and fall of the Venetian empire stands unrivaled for drama, intrigue, and sheer opulent majesty. In City of Fortune, Roger Crowley, acclaimed historian and New York Times bestselling author of Empires of the Sea, applies his narrative skill to chronicling the astounding five-hundred-year voyage of Venice to the pinnacle of power.
Tracing the full arc of the Venetian imperial saga for the first time, City of Fortune is framed around two of the great collisions of world history: the ill-fated Fourth Crusade, which culminated in the sacking of Constantinople and the carve-up of the Byzantine Empire in 1204, and the Ottoman-Venetian War of 1499–1503, which saw the Ottoman Turks supplant the Venetians as the preeminent naval power in the Mediterranean. In between were three centuries of Venetian maritime dominance—years of plunder and plague, conquest and piracy—during which a tiny city of “lagoon dwellers” grew into the richest place on earth.
Drawing on firsthand accounts of pitched sea battles, skillful negotiations, and diplomatic maneuvers, Crowley paints a vivid picture of this avaricious, enterprising people and the bountiful lands that came under their dominion. Defiant of emperors, indifferent to popes, the Venetians saw themselves as reluctant freebooters, compelled to take to the open seas “because we cannot live otherwise and know not how except by trade.” From the opening of the spice routes to the clash between Christianity and Islam, Venice played a leading role in the defining conflicts of its time—the reverberations of which are still being felt today. Only an author with Roger Crowley’s deep knowledge of post-Crusade history could put these iconic events into their proper context.
Epic in scope, magisterial in its understanding of the period, City of Fortune is narrative history at its most engrossing.
羅傑·剋勞利(Roger Crowley),曆史學傢。他齣生於英格蘭,劍橋大學畢業後,曾久居伊斯坦布爾,並對土耳其的曆史産生瞭濃厚的興趣。他花費數年時間廣泛遊曆瞭地中海世界,這使他擁有對地中海的淵博的曆史和地理知識。著有“地中海史詩三部麯”《1453》《海洋帝國》和《財富之城》。
地中海三部曲的最后一部,依然精彩异常,和前两部《1453:君士坦丁堡陷落》和《海洋帝国:地中海大决战》有一定的交叉,但时间跨度更大,从公元1200年到1600年,横跨半个中世纪。欧亚大陆由于地理的分隔,本质上是两个相对独立的大文明圈,一个是以中国和印度为中心的东亚南亚...
評分走马观花的去过两天威尼斯,在写这个书评的时候把游记翻出来重看了一遍,想起很多旅游的细节,但是照片则丢失在多年前的一个上网本里。刚刚读完这本书,对比游记又有了些收获,比如在维罗纳看到的十字旗想必是热那亚的旗帜,那场模拟的战争也就显得更make sense了,又比如看到l...
評分从中古欧洲来看,作为海洋城邦崛起的威尼斯并非寡例,但优越的地理位置和商人国家制度则确保了它从与热那亚,比萨等同位面的竞争中脱颖而出,取得了最引人注目的持久成功。 地理位置上不难看出威尼斯的优越性,它位于亚得里亚海最深处,背靠广袤的欧陆腹地和多条贸易路线终点,...
評分一点读书的笔记: “利益与荣耀”是威尼斯殖民视野亘古不变的主线。威尼斯沿用了拜占庭的税收制度,管理则反映着威尼斯自身的形象。是欧洲第一次发展、扩张殖民的经验,用海上霸权维系各个殖民地,对殖民地人民的福祉大体上漠不关心,高度中央集权,对殖民地经济剥削,是未来...
To the honor and profit of Venice
评分歐洲商業第二部
评分五百年興衰 其興也勃焉 其亡也忽焉 最後一章的總結很準確 商業立國 注定瞭不得久遠 可是誰又能說衡量存在的標準就一定得是遺跡與殘垣?威尼斯開創的商業模式經荷蘭與英國一路傳承並發揚光大 又何嘗不是某種意義上更曆久彌新的存在?
评分歐洲商業第二部
评分一聲嘆息。//美第奇那書裏屢屢提到威尼斯,這個意大利一片混亂的政局裏唯一的共和國,而且實力強大。而且看過1453之後一直打算看的。。。
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