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A review by maitrey_d
City of Fortune: How Venice Won and Lost a Naval Empire by Roger Crowley
4.0
This was a great narrative history chronicling the Venetian trading enterprise roughly from 1000-1500 CE. Overall, it gave me a great picture of what was happening in the trading cities of the eastern Mediterranean in the late middle ages, a world I only knew hazily about.
Roger Crowley appears to be a full time history writer, but not an academician. This book has a great bibliography (both newer English language editions, and primary sources in many languages) but it is by no means an academic work by a professional historian. Make of that what you will.
I felt Crowley did a great job with the narration, I was glued from the beginning. Yet at the same time, I got a good glimpse of the big picture. How Venetian trading contracts might have worked, what motivated many of the traders, Venice's complicated relationship with Constantinople, and of course, the troubling legacy that Venice was Europe's first blown "coloniser". A few characters in this saga make appearances, and Crowley only makes simple biographical sketches where appropriate. Overall, the narrative is always the driving force in this book, no asides are made to explain say who were the ruling families or factions, or what their individual motives might have been. Again this depends on individual readers, while it makes for great reading, I think realism and diversity is lost.
This is a great introduction to the trading and naval empire of Venice. Recommended for its narrative verve and action-packed prose.
Roger Crowley appears to be a full time history writer, but not an academician. This book has a great bibliography (both newer English language editions, and primary sources in many languages) but it is by no means an academic work by a professional historian. Make of that what you will.
I felt Crowley did a great job with the narration, I was glued from the beginning. Yet at the same time, I got a good glimpse of the big picture. How Venetian trading contracts might have worked, what motivated many of the traders, Venice's complicated relationship with Constantinople, and of course, the troubling legacy that Venice was Europe's first blown "coloniser". A few characters in this saga make appearances, and Crowley only makes simple biographical sketches where appropriate. Overall, the narrative is always the driving force in this book, no asides are made to explain say who were the ruling families or factions, or what their individual motives might have been. Again this depends on individual readers, while it makes for great reading, I think realism and diversity is lost.
This is a great introduction to the trading and naval empire of Venice. Recommended for its narrative verve and action-packed prose.