ALSO BY PETER ACKROYD FICTION The Great Fire of London The Last Testament of Oscar Wilde Hawksmoor Chatterton First Light English Music The House of Doctor Dee Dan Leno and the Limehouse Golem Milton in America The Plato Papers The Clerkenwell Tales The Lambs of London The Fall of Troy The Casebook of Victor Frankenstein NONFICTION Dressing Up: Transvestism and Drag: The History of an Obsession London: The Biography Albion: The Origins of the English Imagination BIOGRAPHY Ezra Pound and His World T.S. Eliot Dickens Blake The Life of Thomas More Shakespeare: The Biography ACKROYD’S BRIEF LIVES Chaucer J.M.W. Turner Newton Poe: A Life Cut Short POETRY Ouch! The Diversions of Purley and Other Poems CRITICISM Notes for a New Culture The Collection: Journalism, Reviews, Essays, Short Stories, Lectures edited by Thomas Wright Copyright © 2009 by Peter Ackroyd All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Nan A. Talese / Doubleday, a division of Random House, Inc., New York. www.nanatalese.com Originally published in Great Britain by Chatto & Windus, The Random House Group Ltd., London, in 2009. Doubleday is a registered trademark of Random House, Inc. Nan A. Talese and the colophon are trademarks of Random House, Inc. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Ackroyd, Peter, 1949– Venice : pure city / Peter Ackroyd. — 1st ed. in the United States of America. p. cm. “Originally published in Great Britain by Chatto & Windus, London, in 2009”—T.p. verso. 1. Venice (Italy)—History. 2. Venice (Italy)—Social conditions. 3. Venice (Italy)—Social life and customs. 4. Venice (Italy)—Civilization. I. Title. DG672.2.A25 2009b 945′.311—dc22 2010010350 eISBN: 978-0-385-53153-5 v3.1 For Alison Samuel Acknowledgements I would like to thank my two research assistants, Thomas Wright and Murrough O’Brien, for their invaluable work on this project. I would also like to extend my thanks to my editor, Jenny Uglow, and my copy-editor, Jenny Overton. Contents Cover Other Books by This Author Title Page Copyright Dedication Acknowledgements List of Illustrations Map I City from the Sea 1 Origins 2 Water, Water Everywhere 3 Mirror, Mirror Photo Insert 1 II The City of Saint Mark 4 The Saint Comes 5 Refuge Photo Insert 2 6 Against Nature 7 Stones of Venice Photo Insert 3 III Ship of State 8 “Let it be everlasting” 9 The Chosen People Photo Insert 4 10 The Prison House 11 Secrets 12 Chronicles IV Republic of Commerce 13 The Merchants of Venice 14 The Endless Drama 15 Wheels within Wheels V Empire of Trade 16 The Lion City 17 Cities in Collision 18 A Call to Arms VI Timeless City 19 Bells and Gondolas 20 Iustitia 21 Against the Turks VII The Living City 22 The Body and the Building 23 Learning and Language 24 Colour and Light 25 Pilgrims and Tourists VIII The Art of Life 26 Hurrah for Carnival 27 A Divine Art 28 The Eternal Feminine 29 What to Eat? IX Sacred City 30 Divine and Infernal 31 Of Belief X The Shadows of History 32 Decline and Fall? 33 Death in Venice XI City of Myth 34 The Map Unrolls 35 The Huddled Family 36 Moon and Night 37 While the Music Lasts A Venetian Chronology Bibliography List of Illustrations