Enrico Dandolo and the Rise of Venice by Thomas F. Madden (9780801873171)

Description - Enrico Dandolo and the Rise of Venice by Thomas F. Madden

Between the 11th and 13th centuries, Venice transformed itself from a struggling merchant commune to a powerful maritime empire that would shape events in the Mediterranean for the next 400 years. In this 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. This full-length study of Dandolo's life and times aims to correct the many misconceptions about him which have accumulated over the centuries, offering an 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 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.

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