"With the main lines of business monopolized by the increasingly narrow elite, the decline was under way. Venice appea…"

"Venice once was dear, The pleasant place of all festivity, The revel of the earth, the masque of Italy."

"Venice by moonlight is an enchanted city; the floods of silver light upon the moresco architecture, the perfect absen…"

"Venice's government, eager to maintain its Jewish tax base, officially discouraged the blood libel, but the populatio…"

"Since, furthermore, it was in late-medieval and early modern Europe that new techniques of warfare occurred more freq…"

"Italy is, after France and perhaps in the same degree, the land in which love of country has the deepest roots in the…"

"The Pope, anxiously revolving the sad vicissitudes of the Christians in the east, turned to Venice and Genoa, praying…"

"In any case, an alternative to summit meetings was emerging. For centuries it had been customary to send envoys on sp…"

"I think he suspected I was lying; but it was the sort of large-scale, flamboyant lie that appealed to him. As he told…"

"Once did She hold the gorgeous east in fee; And was the safeguard of the west: the worth Of Venice did not fall below…"