City of Fortune: How Venice Won and Lost a Naval Empire

Thanks to its remarkable geography and outstanding artistic heritage the city of Venice is today one of the major global tourist destinations. But for centuries Venice was far more than a beautiful city. It was the hinge of Eurasian trade and, as Crowley reminds us, of a maritime empire that was ‘Europe’s first full-blown colonial adventure’.

After his books on the 1453 siege of Constantinople and on the 16th-century struggle between Ottomans and Christians, Roger Crowley remains in his beloved Mediterranean and moves back a few centuries to narrate the rise and apogee of the empire acquired by Venice between 1000 and 1500. This is a gripping tale of diplomatic cunning and military engagements, eminently suited to Crowley’s trademark narrative flair and to his ability clearly to describe military strategy and naval manoeuvring, the latter helped by skilfully drawn maps of the most important battles.

Crowley conjures up well the collective nature of the medieval Venetian state, its organisation and its awe-inspiring effectiveness, although in places there is some misunderstanding about the – admittedly extremely complex – functioning of the Venetian government. He successfully conveys how the Republic ‘was wary of individual aggrandisement’ and how ‘an aversion to personal ambition was deeply engrained in this most impersonal of states’, at the same time zooming in on some exceptional individuals whose larger than life exploits are skilfully woven through the narrative. It is very difficult not to be enthralled by the blind nonagenarian Doge Enrico Dandolo, shrewdly negotiating the Republic’s support and then commanding in person the Venetian contingent in the fateful Fourth Crusade, which marked the official beginning of its empire in 1204. Equally towering is Vettor Pisani, in Crowley’s words ‘outspoken, fearless, patriotic, touchy and short tempered’, who in line with so many naval heroes throughout time was worshipped by his men and led from the front the final successful clash with Venice’s arch-rival Genoa.

Frederick Lane – the great historian of Venetian maritime economy and naval exploits – described Venice as a joint-stock company organised to maximise income. Following this classic interpretation, Crowley effectively draws the substantive differences between Venice and Genoa in their centuries-long struggle for commercial and economic dominance. What clearly emerges from his narrative is the constant belief of the Venetian ruling class that dominion of the sea was crucial for the Republic’s well being, tightly intertwining Mediterranean trade hegemony and the Stato da mar. This peculiar European empire, ruled lightly but taxed heavily, provided the income and infrastructure that helped maintain seaways and support the cost of maritime defences; when the Ottomans started to dismantle it, Venetian trading dominance declined. The contemporary oceanic expansion of European states, especially the discovery of a direct sea route to the Indian Ocean, further accelerated Venice’s loss of hegemony.

More than once Crowley repeats that ‘trading was hard-wired into the Venetian psyche’, a rather narrow interpretation in which a lot rests on the ‘Venetian character’: more could have been said of the practical geographical constraints of the Venetian site and the role these played in shaping its economy and foreign policy decisions.

Surprisingly, given Faber’s excellent tradition in this field, the copy editing is in places sloppy, as there are some imprecisions and stylistic infelicities. Italian names are not always properly spelled; most surprisingly the famous Venetian festival of the Sensa becomes the Senza – more evocative of high street shopping than of the well-known ceremony which took place on the Feast of the Ascension. But these are minor quibbles. Crowley’s gift for taut narrative makes the wonderful medieval chronicles that are the basis of his story come alive for contemporary readers and the book will satisfy both lovers of Venice and those with an interest in military and naval history.

Maria Fusaro is Director of the Centre for Maritime Historical Studies at the University of Exeter.