Testo di assaggio

ROGER CROWLEY
CITY OF FORTUNE
How Venice Won and Lost a Naval Empire
faber andfaber

æThe people of Venice neither have any foothold on the mainland nor can they cultivate the earth. They are compelled to import everything they need by sea. ItÆs through trade that they have accumulated such great wealth.Æ
laonicus chalcondyles, fifteenth-century Byzantine historian

Contents
Place Names in this Book xix
prologue: Departure i
part i Opportunity: Merchant Crusaders
1 Lords of Dalmatia 9
...at my disposal. Their masts rise as high as its square corner towers. At this very moment, while the stars are muffled by thick cloud, while my walls are shaken by blasts of wind, while the sea roars and bellows horribly, the largest of them casts off on its voyage ...
If youÆd seen this vessel, you would have said it was not a boat but a mountain swimming on the surface of the sea, and so heavily laden with a huge quantity of cargo that the great part of its bulk was hidden beneath the waves.
...
[Fine del testo di assaggio]


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