Renowned professor Thomas F. Madden focuses his expertise on what has been called the most beautiful city in the world—Venice. In these lectures, Professor Madden explains how the city on the lagoon was established by refugees escaping the onslaught of northern “barbarians” invading the crumbling Roman Empire. Through its history, Venice housed the world’s leading merchants, thrived as a maritime powerhouse, and developed into an independent republic not unlike the present United States. Venice draws millions of visitors each year, and these lectures shed light on why the city is such a continual source of fascination.
Lecture 1 Refugees of the Lagoon: The Origins of Venice
Lecture 2 Coming of Age: The Expansion of Venetian Power
Lecture 3 In a Dangerous World
Lecture 4 In the Age of the Crusades
Lecture 5 A Merchant Republic in a Feudal Age: Political Reform in Medieval Venice
Lecture 6 Birth of a Maritime Empire: Venice and the Fourth Crusade
Lecture 7 Birth of Modern Finance in Venice
Lecture 8 The Rise of Venice: Prosperity and Power in the West and East
Lecture 9 A Time of Wars: The Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries
Lecture 10 A New World: The Fall of Byzantium and the Rise of the Renaissance
Lecture 11 A Medieval Republic in a Modern World: The Decline and Fall of Venice
Lecture 12 The Grand Tour and Carnevale
Lecture 13 The Empty House: Venice and the State of Italy
Lecture 14 Modern Venice