Product Description

Francesco's Venice is the extraordinary story of the life of an intriguing city, told by a descendant of an old and distinguished Venetian family. Francesco da Mosto's ancestral history is inextricably intertwined with that of this amphibious city. Fiercely proud and protective of the rich cultural and architechtural heritage of his birthplace, Francesco gives us a unique insight into the inner workings of one of the most beautiful cities in the world. He explores Venice's remarkable history, from the fifth century when settlers retreated to the safety of the lagoon and began to create their homes on tiny islands, through its glorious years as a successful maritime nation, adept at trade, exploration, diplomacy and protecting its independence, to the fragile city of the twenty-first century. Venice's history is a tale of warfare and conspiracies, of artistic excellence and ingenuity, of the battle of wills and of ideas, and of strength in the face of disaster, and Francesco brings to life the places, events and people that have sculpted this living theatre through the ages. These include a colourful array of his own ancestors, such as the six da Mostos who were involved in the rise and fall of the ambitious and corrupt Doge Falier, and the young Alvise da Mosto, a courageous and deterrmined explorer of the fifteenth century. Beautifully illustrated with stunning images by John Parker of both the magnificent symbols of the city, including St Mark's Basilica and the Doge's Palace, and the more secluded corners, Francesco's Venice celebrates the mesmerizing beauty and surprising strength of this unique city.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #6719 in Books
• Published on: 2007-02-08
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 240 pages

Review
Francesco Da Mosta, the author of this book and the presenter of the BBC TV programme that it accompanies, is passionate about Venice. He is proud of this great city's history and is passionate about its future. Francesco, himself from an ancient and noble Venetian family, has illustrated this history of Venice with information on his own ancestors, therebyunravelling some of the intrigue and hardships of the city's past. This is a historical overview of Venice from the 5th century - when the first inhabitants eked out an existence on marshy swamps - to today, where the dual threat of pollution and tourism threaten Venice's fragile ecology. Francesco examines how Venice became a city of marvels built upon water, a great trading nation, and also charts its eventual decline. From the grand heart of the city - St Mark's Square - to the city's lesser known corners and canals, photographer John Parker's images capture Venice at her most splendid. The intelligently written text, the passion of the author and the superlative photos make this an irresistible, lavish book of the Fairytale City. (Kirkus UK)

The Sunday Times
"sumptuous series"

Synopsis
Francesco's Venice is the extraordinary story of the life of an intriguing city, told by a descendant of an old and distinguished Venetian family. Francesco da Mosto's ancestral history is inextricably intertwined with that of this amphibious city. Fiercely proud and protective of the rich cultural and architechtural heritage of his birthplace, Francesco gives us a unique insight into the inner workings of one of the most beautiful cities in the world. He explores Venice's remarkable history, from the fifth century when settlers retreated to the safety of the lagoon and began to create their homes on tiny islands, through its glorious years as a successful maritime nation, adept at trade, exploration, diplomacy and protecting its independence, to the fragile city of the twenty-first century. Venice's history is a tale of warfare and conspiracies, of artistic excellence and ingenuity, of the battle of wills and of ideas, and of strength in the face of disaster, and Francesco brings to life the places, events and people that have sculpted this living theatre through the ages.

These include a colourful array of his own ancestors, such as the six da Mostos who were involved in the rise and fall of the ambitious and corrupt Doge Falier, and the young Alvise da Mosto, a courageous and deterrmined explorer of the fifteenth century. Beautifully illustrated with stunning images by John Parker of both the magnificent symbols of the city, including St Mark's Basilica and the Doge's Palace, and the more secluded corners, Francesco's Venice celebrates the mesmerizing beauty and surprising strength of this unique city.

Customer Reviews

Read this book, its Fantastic
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 and broken down into key sections.

So much more than an accompaniment to the TV series
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. These in themselves are enough to merit applause, but Francesco's text is a good read and full of personal insight. He clearly is no lightweight historian, but has delved deeply into his own and his city's past.

The book is in 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"; and 5. "Ether - Life under Uncertainty".

There is a healthy dose of scepticism adopted by the author of traditions in relation to the early history of the city, and 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 and its political beginnings. It was then not a matter of display or grandeur or empire, but trade and commerce and industry, especially where salt and 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 history in 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 see in print those marvellous birds' eye view drawings of the naval base before and after Napoleon's conquest. Francesco is also good on the subject of trade, such as the mechanics involved in 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 involvement in the Tiepolo plot of 1310 and 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 communion in Saint Mark's Cathedral, about his first experience of a Titian painting, about witnessing the fire at the La Fenice opera house, and about life in 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 appear in the numerous additional textboxes that populate the whole book. These allow the reader to focus in more detail on particular aspects, whether it's the doge's hat, robes and 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 elsewhere in Italy; Francesco explains that it is partly down to laziness.

There are, as one would expect, many links to the TV series. He repeats in 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 nowhere in its pages, but John Singer Sargent appears in his place.

Francesco's coverage of twentieth century Venice is a pleasure to read, as this is often an overlooked episode in its history, for understandable reasons. And yet, it has a richness of drama all of its own, especially in his family reminiscences of war and peace.

So why only four stars? On the negative side, Francesco mentions books in 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 city in its geographical setting and for providing bearings in relation to many places named in the early chapters, such as Torcello, Aquileia, Grado, Ravenna and Chioggia.

This review is of the softback print. Unfortunately, there are errors arising from the reduction in size and 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 Venice in English by John Julius Norwich? Although Francesco spends some time to accounts about the city's wars in the east and its political relations with the Italian mainland, there is by far a greater amount of information and history given to the development - architectural, social and economic - of the city itself. For example, space is given by Francesco to the paving of streets and the standard of cleanliness, to clothes and 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 wholly in vain for such details in Norwich's history. The downside is that there are only two paragraphs devoted to the role of Paolo Sarpi whereas the more political and 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 and you takes your choice', but if you are seeking an introduction to the city of Venice as opposed to an introduction to the politics and 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 and the plains of Lombardy, rather than in the city itself (see my amazon.co.uk review).

A pictorial gem almost as good as the dvd set of the series.
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 and 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 seen in 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.