Venetian History

The Republic of Venice: The History of the Venetian Empire and Its Influence across the Mediterranean dives into the city's origin story, how it became one of the most important powers in Europe, and its inevitable undoing. Along with information about important people, places, and events, you will learn about the Venetian Republic like never before.

The Republic of Venice was the first great economic, cultural, and naval power of the modern Western world. After winning the struggle for ascendency in the late 13th century, the Republic enjoyed centuries of unprecedented glory and built a trading empire which at its apogee reached as far afield as China, Syria, and West Africa. This golden period only drew to an end with the Republic's eventual surrender to Napoleon. The Venetians illuminates the character of the Republic during these illustrious years by shining a light on some of the most celebrated personalities of European history.

“[Steve Berry] has a genuine feel for the factual gaps that give history its tantalizing air of the unknown.”—The New York Times Book Review After narrowly escaping incineration in a devastating fire that consumes a Danish museum, Cotton Malone—former Justice Department agent turned...

A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK A NEW YORKER RECOMMENDED BOOK IRISH BESTSELLER “A stylish escapade that even Henry James might relish." —Wall Street Journal A masterful, enthralling new novel from the Booker Prize winner Everything was a puzzle, everything a trap set to mystify and...

Venice, 1576. Five years after the defeat of the Ottoman Empire at the Battle of Lepanto, a ship steals unnoticed into Venice bearing a deadly cargo. A man, more dead than alive, disembarks and staggers into Piazza San Marco. He brings a gift to Venice from Constantinople. Within days the city is infected with bubonic plague - and the Turkish sultan has his revenge. But the ship also holds a secret stowaway - Feyra, a young and beautiful harem doctor fleeing a future as the sultan's concubine.

The Adriatic is a narrow sea, but it has always been full of secrets. Between its mountains and islands, whole empires rose and fell, and in the spaces between them, pirates made their living. Pirates of the Adriatic tells the story of the Kačić pirates of Omiš and the Uskoks of Senj — fierce, desperate sailors who defied popes, doges, sultans, and emperors. They built swift boats and struck without warning, surviving by taking what they needed from anyone who passed their coast. This is not the story of romantic swashbucklers. It is the story of hunger, of geography, of men and women ...

Gregory Wentz's yacht is marooned on an uncharted island in the Pacific Ocean. The U.S. Senator's fifteen-year-old son ventures into the tree line and finds something amazing: the scattered remains of a plane wreck with the number N16020 stamped on its wing. Wentz, a former Air Force pilot, instantly recognizes what he's looking at. He contacts someone he knows he can trust, a man who is supposed to be dead, Solomon Raegor, Director of the Tactical Archaeological Command.

A body surfaces in a quiet Venetian canal at dawn. The police call it an accident. Julian Vale knows better. When the dead man is identified as a respected art restorer, Vale uncovers a detail no one wants to examine: the victim was days away from authenticating a priceless Renaissance painting. A painting already insured. Already sold. Already accepted as real. The problem? It isn’t. As Vale digs deeper into Venice’s elite art circles, he discovers a sophisticated forgery network hiding in plain sight — protected by foundations, legitimized by insurers, and enforced by silence. ...

It's 1911, and war is brewing across Europe. However, Melody Chesterton, an independent young woman with her own fortune, has more important things on her mind. Melody is determined to do more with her life than marry well; she wants exciting escapades with perhaps some romance sprinkled in along the way. Chaperoned by her older brother, Rat, who secretly works for Britain's newly formed Secret Service Bureau, Melody sets off for the first stop on her Grand Tour of Europe, Venice.

Venice, 1510. Maria Bartolini wants nothing more than to carry on her father's legacy as a master gilder. Instead, her father has sent her away from the only home she's ever known to train as an apprentice to Master Trevisan, a renowned painter. Maria arranges to leave the painter's workshop to return to her family workshop and to a secret lover waiting for her back home. But the encroaching Black Death foils her plans.... When the painter's servants uncover the real reason why Maria has been sent away to train with Master Trevisan, they threaten to reveal a secret.

“[Steve Berry] has a genuine feel for the factual gaps that give history its tantalizing air of the unknown.”—The New York Times Book Review After narrowly escaping incineration in a devastating fire that consumes a Danish museum, Cotton Malone—former Justice Department agent turned...

When we think of Venice, we think of masks, canals, murals and frescoes, and little “gondoliers” with picturesque boats. Venice, indeed, has an impressive artistic history. But did you know that Venice was also, for a while, a considerably sized empire? Although no enduring historic records associate with the creation of Venice, the Republic of Venice's history is typically said to start at 12 a.m. on Friday, March 25th, AD 421, when authorities from Padua established the city to develop a trading center in that area of northern Italy.

The mystical floating city of Venice has inspired awe for generations and continues to be one of the most visited European cities for good reason. Tourists are drawn to the stunning blend of classical, Gothic, and Renaissance-inspired architecture across the picturesque towns and villages, the charming open-air markets, the mouthwatering traditional cuisine, and of course, the famous gondolas drifting down the twinkling blue waters.

When Jacopo came back home, he could not have ever imagined that in a few hours he would have found himself running for his life across the most mesmerizing maze ever built, Venice. He would have never believed he would be dragging himself like a wounded animal, breathless and clueless through the alleys and across the canals of the city, desperately trying to solve a murder he did not commit, to find the key of the mysterious labyrinth of events he had entered without even noticing.

Beneath the city of Venice lies a mysterious warren filled with dark secrets. When Vatican Intelligence discovers that a sacred artifact is about to be claimed by a treasure hunter, the Vatican Knights are sent on a mission to stop the thievery of the church’s most cherished article. But to reach the treasure, they must solve the Templar riddles that are as deadly as they are complexing while opposing an elite group of assassins, the Russian Spetsnaz.

Their troubled past behind them, married couple, Rob and Louise, visit Venice for the first time together, looking forward to a relaxing weekend. Not just a romantic destination, it's also the most haunted city in the world and soon, Louise finds herself the focus of an entity she can't quite get to grips with - a veiled lady who stalks her.

A chronicle of an influential villa by Renaissance architect Andrea Palladio that brings a sense of discovery to the Italian countryside and its larger national history. “If a vacation in Italy this summer just isn’t going to make the cut, this book might be the next best thing.”...

On the Day of the Dead, the citizens of Venice make their way to the cemetery island of San Michele to pay their respects to the departed. When an empty coffin is unearthed in the English section of the graveyard, a day of quiet reflection for Nathan Sutherland becomes a journey into the dark past of a noble Venetian family. A British journalist, investigating the events of 40 years previously, disappears. A young tourist - with an unhealthy interest in Venice's abandoned islands- is found drowned in the icy lagoon. A terrible secret is about to be brought to light.

1899. As the new century approaches, English hack-writer Evelyn Dolman marries Laura Rensselaer, the daughter of a wealthy American plutocrat. But in the midst of a mysterious rift between Laura and her father, Evelyn's plans of a substantial inheritance are thrown into doubt. As the unhappy newlyweds travel to Venice at Palazzo Dioscuri - the ancestral home of the charming but treacherous Count Barbarigo - a series of seemingly otherworldly occurrences exacerbate Evelyn's already frayed nerves: is it just the sea mist blanketing the floating city or is he losing his mind?

Struggling to forget a crumbling marriage, 40-year-old Anna Lucia Lottol comes to Venice to visit an old friend - but instead of finding solace, she is dragged into the police station and accused of murdering a money-laundering count with whom she had a brief affair. A US Treasury officer with brains and athleticism, Anna fights to clear her name in a seductive city full of watery illusions. As she works to pry information from a cast of recalcitrant characters sometimes denying what she sees and hears, she succeeds in unleashing a powerful foe bent on destroying her.