Customer Reviews
Read this book, its Fantastic - By: A. P. Moore, 07 Jul 2008 
I have read this book twice! This book will tell you all you need to know about Venice. Its well written which makes it an easy read, so many books have been written on Venice, but one is clear & broken down into key sections.
So much more than an accompaniment to the TV series - By: Nicholas Casley, 13 Jan 2008 
This is the accompanying book to the TV series, but so much more too!
Firstly, the book is replete with stunning photography by John Parker. Thesein themselves are enough to merit applause, but Francesco's text is a good read & full of personal insight. He clearly is no lightweight historian, but has delved deeply into his own & his city's past.
The book isin five chapters (one more than the TV series) with titles that explain much of the subject they contain: 1. "Water - From the Waters to the City"; 2. "Earth - The Boundaries of Land Enlarge"; 3. "Air - La Serenissima Evaporates"; 4. "Fire - Venice Burns Its Past"; & 5. "Ether - Life under Uncertainty".
There is a healthy dose of scepticism adopted by the author of traditionsin relation to the early history of the city, & his own tentative assertions ring true. He is good on this period, whereas other histories skip over it lightly. He focuses on the physical origins of the city & its political beginnings. It was then not a matter of display or grandeur or empire, but trade & commerce & industry, especially where salt & fish were concerned. It is also a healthy sign that Francesco sheds doubt on the blindness of Doge Enrico Dandolo, the scourge of the Fourth Crusade to Constantinople.
He is also good on the Arsenale, which presently lacks any detailed historyin English. It is still very much out-of-bounds to tourists, but it would have been nice, though, to have had plans of its development. And I have yet to seein print those marvellous birds' eye view drawings of the naval base before & after Napoleon's conquest. Francesco is also good on the subject of trade, such as the mechanics involvedin sailing convoys, as well as their destinations (but, alas, no map, not even any line drawings of how to distinguish a galley, or a galleass from a navi).
There is more emphasis on how Francesco's own family history has become intertwined with that of the city: this is, after all, Francesco's history of his birthplace! We learn of its involvementin the Tiepolo plot of 1310 &in that of Doge Marin Falier, the only doge to be sentenced to death,in 1355. Francesco provides insightful personal reminiscences too about the time he received his first communionin Saint Mark's Cathedral, about his first experience of a Titian painting, about witnessing the fire at the La Fenice opera house, & about lifein his own home, which was the setting for part of Anthony Minghella's film "The Talented Mr Ripley." There is much more.
Many of these recollections appearin the numerous additional textboxes that populate the whole book. These allow the reader to focusin more detail on particular aspects, whether it's the doge's hat, robes & regalia, or the antics of Baron Corvo. Those boxes devoted to the language of Venice proved very useful to me. I always wondered why the Venetians often failed to pronounce the suffixes used elsewherein Italy; Francesco explains that it is partly down to laziness.
There are, as one would expect, many links to the TV series. He repeatsin the book his castigation of the bridge to the mainland as a folly; its name - Ponte della Liberta - he insists is ironical. But there are differences with the TV series too. For example, the painter Turner appears nowherein its pages, but John Singer Sargent appearsin his place.
Francesco's coverage of twentieth century Venice is a pleasure to read, as this is often an overlooked episodein its history, for understandable reasons. And yet, it has a richness of drama all of its own, especiallyin his family reminiscences of war & peace.
So why only four stars? On the negative side, Francesco mentions booksin his introduction, but there is no bibliography to guide the reader further into the details of the subjects raised. And where are the maps? Maps of the lagoon would have been useful for placing the cityin its geographical setting & for providing bearingsin relation to many places namedin the early chapters, such as Torcello, Aquileia, Grado, Ravenna & Chioggia.
This review is of the softback print. Unfortunately, there are errors arising from the reductionin size & pages from the original hardback, for example, the "see above" on page 107 is meaningless, as are the picture credits (although these can be worked out with a little patience). The index is good, but there is no entry, for instance, for either "Messeteria" or "Modone".
How does this book compare with the standard introduction to the history of Venicein English by John Julius Norwich? Although Francesco spends some time to accounts about the city's warsin the east & its political relations with the Italian mainland, there is by far a greater amount of information & history given to the development - architectural, social & economic - of the city itself. For example, space is given by Francesco to the paving of streets & the standard of cleanliness, to clothes & how nobles greeted each other (it would have been nice to have one of Longhi's pictures to accompany these social points); you will look almost whollyin vain for such detailsin Norwich's history. The downside is that there are only two paragraphs devoted to the role of Paolo Sarpi whereas the more political & wider geographical sweep of Norwich's book devotes a chapter or more to the workings out of the papal crisis of the early seventeenth century.
So, `you pays your money & you takes your choice', but if you are seeking an introduction to the city of Venice as opposed to an introduction to the politics & external relations of the city, then Francesco's must be the better buy. However as great as Norwich's history is, it does spend more than half its time on the coasts of the eastern Mediterranean & the plains of Lombardy, rather thanin the city itself (see my amazon.co.uk review).
A pictorial gem almost as good as the dvd set of the series. - By: Mr. P. J. R. LEWIS, 07 Sep 2006 This is a really fabulous book to accompany his breathtaking series on his home city of Venice.Its your typical beautifully illustrated volume highlighting the gorgeous architecture & rennaisance splendour that is Venice.
If you missed the 2004 masterpiece that was his history of Venice then YOU MUST buy the BBC dvds to accompany his series, it is withought doubt the finest historical series i have seenin many years.This book is a beautifull reminder of that series both compliment each other beautifully.
It is rare for me to sing the praises of a book so highly,but this guide to Venice makes me want to sing a Puccini aria to the best of my capabilities.
a sense of plenty - By: Lothar M. Stejskal, 23 Jan 2006 Francesco da Mosto's Venice is full of information, historical, modern, apparent to the firsttime visitor & a discovery to those who know the city.
There is plenty of information & beautyin pictures & text, very suitable for this beautiful city. A good book, which avoids the notions of 'have seen it already'.
Pure Magic - Quattro Stelle! - By: N. Clarke, 23 Jan 2005 Francesco da Mosto's book brings together the threads of history & culture so marvellously presentedin his eponymous TV series with a flair for communication that is neither patronising nor overly highbrow - somehow he strikes a balance which is a refreshing change fom the third-hand anecdotes that litter the pages of many guide books. Just when you begin to feel just a little fatigued by the weight of all that history, he dropsin a little titbit from his own family's extensively documented accounts & any fatigue is suddenly alleviated. More importantly, unlike many other so-called guides to the city, he asks the awkward but agonisingly relevant question - what will become of Venice? By addressing concerns for its future through the kaleidoscope of its past, Francesco da Mosto has achieved something very unusual - to have breathed a little life into a destination, & a history, that seemed pickledin Aspic until comparatively recently. I've lived & workedin the Veneto for more than a decade & I find myself increasingly asking the kind of questions that da Mosto demands of himself & his readership. Essential if you're going there to live & work, recommended if you're popping over for a holiday, & worthwhile even if you have just a passing interestin chunky coffee-table books about glorious Italian cities.
