Jacopo de' Barbari's View of Venice, a woodcut first printed in the year 1500, presents a bird's-eye portrait of Venice at its peak as an international hub of trade, art, and culture. An artistic and cartographic masterpiece of the Renaissance, the View depicts Venice as a vibrant, waterborne city interconnected by canals and bridges and filled with ornate buildings, elaborate gardens, and seafaring vessels. The contributors to A View of Venice: Portrait of a Renaissance City draw on a high-resolution digital scan of the over nine-foot-wide composite print to examine the complexities of this extraordinary woodcut and portrayal of early modern Venetian life. The essays show how the View constitutes an advanced material artifact of artistic, humanist, and scientific culture. They also outline the ways the print reveals information about the city's economic and military power, religious and social infrastructures, and cosmopolitan residents. Featuring methodological advancements in the digital humanities, A View of Venice highlights the reality and myths of a topographically unique, mystical city and its place in the world.

Contributors. Karen-edis Barzman, Andrea Bellieni, Patricia Fortini Brown, Valeria Cafa, Stanley Chojnacki, Tracy E. Cooper, Giada Damen, Julia A. DeLancey, Piero Falchetta, Ludovica Galeazzo, Maartje van Gelder, Jonathan Glixon, Richard Goy, Anna Christine Swartwood House, Kristin Love Huffman, Holly Hurlburt, Claire Judde de Lariviere, Blake de Maria, Martina Massaro, Cosimo Monteleone, Monique O'Connell, Mary Pardo, Giorgio Tagliaferro, Saundra Weddle, Bronwen Wilson, Rangsook Yoon

About the Author
Kristin Love Huffman is an independent scholar of the art, architectural, and urban history of Renaissance Venice and coeditor of Visualizing Venice: Mapping and Modeling Time and Change in a City.

Reviews
"This intriguing book guides the reader on a compelling journey around the physical and social milieu of Renaissance Venice. Its magisterial essays invite the viewer to take an imaginary walk through the city's empty streets, as seen in Jacopo de' Barbari's celebrated bird's-eye view of 1500. The book guides us step-by-step from the map's stunning artistic virtuosity into the cosmopolitan lives of the people who inhabited the fabric of the city." -- Deborah Howard, Professor Emerita, University of Cambridge
"A View of Venice offers an engaging consideration of the ideation, creation, historical significance, idiosyncrasies, and scholarly potential of Jacopo de' Barbari's View. A fascinating and valuable collection of research and analysis of de' Barbari's remarkable print and of the Venice in which he lived and worked, this volume will greatly interest general readers and specialists alike." -- Gary M. Radke, Professor Emeritus of Art History, Syracuse University
"One of the most remarkable Venice books in decades, the kind of thorough and detailed study of a city caught in time that scholars can only dream about for most other hinge-points in history. De' Barbari's View cost the hefty sum of three florins, and as these scholars make clear, there were plenty of buyers for something that must have seemed borderline miraculous in an era before photography. A View of Venice is the definitive anatomy of that miracle." -- Steve Donoghue * Open Letters Review *
"Offering meaningful insights about the artists, residents, and visitors who interacted with one another and left indelible marks on the city, the research covers many aspects of the cultural, sociopolitical, and economic history of Venice. The studies in this collection make a compelling argument that the View encompassed reality and myth and that both facets affected art, architecture, and experience in Venice during the early modern period. Recommended. General readers through faculty; professionals."
-- D. H. Cibelli * Choice *



Book Information
ISBN 9781478019176
Author Kristin Love Huffman
Format Paperback
Page Count 456
Imprint Duke University Press
Publisher Duke University Press
Weight(grams) 1315g