A little masterpiece of narrative history.


I read it a few times over the years, I really like that book.

The only down point I found out about reading far more scholarly books on Venice is that Norwich is constantly criticized, not for his facts which seem to be considered accurate and well-researched (only once I remember seing someone mentioning he used for a chapter and "uncritically" a source now considered unreliable), but however specialized historians I've read, whether American, Canadian or Italian seem to all think fairly poorly of his interpretations/explanations they either call dubious, simplistic or simply outdated.

But well, except perhaps for Alvise Zorzi, whose works are far superior historically but not nearly as well-written as NorwichMs, good general histories of Venice don't exactly abound.

I've read a few fascinating monographs about Venice over the years, though. It still refer often to Norwich or Zorzi for refreshers/context.