The Likeness of Venice: A Life of Doge Francesco Foscari | Dennis Romano

The Likeness of Venice: A Life of Doge Francesco Foscari | Dennis Romano | Venice Explained

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The Likeness of Ve...

	The Likeness of Venice: A Life of Doge Francesco Foscari Dennis Romano Yale University Press, 2007 - 368 pages average customer review:based on 2 reviews view larger image
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Immortalized in later centuries in works by Lord Byron, Giuseppe Verdi, Eugène Delacroix, and others, Francesco Foscari reigned as the powerful doge of Venice during tumultuous years from 1423 to 1457. The stuff of legends, his life was marked by political conflict, vengeful enemies, family heartbreak, and, at the end, the forced relinquishment of the ducal throne. Yet Foscari left behind no personal papers, and until now, no complete biography of him has been written. This book, a thorough and fascinating biography, fills that longstanding gap, illuminating not only the life of the man but also the history and culture of fifteenth-century Venice.
Dennis Romano reconstructs Foscari?s life through careful reading of extant governmental records and chronicle sources. He also uses architectural monuments built by Foscari and his heirs as critical interpretive keys for unlocking the personality and policies of the doge. Romano analyzes how art and power intersected in Renaissance Italy and how the doge came to represent and even embody the state. With this biography, Romano clears away longstanding myths, fills in previously unknown details about Foscari?s triumphs and ordeals, and allows to emerge the first intimate portrait of this singular doge.

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A very important work

The life and legacy of possibly the most famous doge of Venice. For the reader interested in the mysteries of the Serenissima, this is the perfect book. The politics of the Council of the Ten; the wars of expansion and their mercenary generals (Carmagnola, Gattamelata); the plague which ravaged Venice over and over; the torture, trial, and exile of the doge's son, Jacopo; Foscari's powerfully symbolic architectural additions to the city. This and much more can be found in this beautifully written and thoroughly researched book. The reader will be able to understand why authors like Lord Byron, G. Verdi and Delacroix were inspired by the life of this great doge. A very impressive work.

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Venice Explained

Venice has a unique place in western civilization. Understanding the issues and motivations that governed its remarkable survival are beautifully described in this work of magnificent scholarship and readability. I feel privileged to have found a work in English that explains so precisely the traditions of the Republic as well as the issues of the Foscari era.

Dennis Romano provides a carefully researched-analysis of a critical period of the Venetian Republic, one that survived a thousand years. Romano's description of the events in the life of Francesco Foscari is enlightening in itself, but it can offer perspective to contemporary Americans on the struggle to control the forces that would undermine a republic's internal cohesion as well as erode its external power.

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