Venice Books

 

My Venice Essays:

My Miracle in Venice (Ekstatis Magazine)

Titian: A Painter Crawling Toward God (Hedgehog Review)

Venice: A Drowning City (Dillydoun Journal)

 

We traveled to Venice in 2019 to see Titian's Transfiguration. But --sad to say--it was under conservation, so all we saw was a huge reproduction in the Frari 泣泣泣泣泣.

Despite this major calamity, the trip still became a Titian pilgrimage, as we were staying in the quarter where Titian lived and found ourselves breaking down in tears in front of his last painting in the Academia. That work, the Pieta, made a great impression on us both--in great part because of a fabulous book we read by Mark Hudson, called Titian's Last Days. It was my favorite non-fiction of the year. I wrote about my experience here at the Hedgehog Review. Other wonderful reads on Titian were : Titian: His Life, by Sheila Hale; The Titian Committee, by Iain Pears; Titian: Lady in White, by Andreas Henning (Norton Simon Museum Exhibition Catalog)

One essay I wrote on Bellini, called My Miracle In Venice, was published in a gorgeous Canadian magazine called, Ekstasis.  Books included, The Anxieties of a Citizen Class: The Miracles of the True Cross of San Giovanni Evangelista, Venice 1370-1480 by Kiril Petkov and Daughter of Venice: Caterina Corner, Queen of Cyprus and Woman of the Renaissance by Holly S. Hurlburt. My notes are here. 

Also on Carpaccio: Ciao, Carpaccio!: An Infatuation, by Jan Morris [Re-read twice and it's still out to read again!}; Carpaccio: Major Pictorial Cycles, by Stefania Mason

My reading so far:

• Venice Ecology:  If Venice Dies, by Salvatore Settis; The Science of Saving Venice, by Caroline Fletcher; Also fascinating: Venice: Extraordinary Maintenance, by Gianfranco Pertot 
• Venice the beautiful: Venice Is a Fish: A Sensual Guide, by Tiziano Scarpa (and Dream of Venice in Black and White)
• Jewish history:  Shylock's Daughter: A Novel of Love in Venice, by Erica Jong [worst book of 2019]; A Fury in the Words: Love and Embarrassment in Shakespeare's Venice, by Harry Berger Jr.;Venice and Its Jews: 500 Years Since the Founding of the Ghetto, by Lenore Rosenberg
• Venice the amazing:  The Horses of St Mark's: A Story of Triumph in Byzantium, Paris and Venice, by Charles Freeman [FANTASTIC!!! GOING TO RE-READ];  The City of Falling Angels, by John Berendt (runner up for best in non-fiction!) 
• Venice Cooking: Fantastic Cookbook:Venice: Four Seasons of Home Cooking, by Russell Norman. Also FUN: Brunetti's Cookbook, by Roberta Pianaro, Donna Leon.

And not to neglect the classics below: Ruskin's Stone's of Venice, Norwich's A History of Venice, and Jan Morris' famous The Venetian Empire. Also Crowley's City of Fortune, which I am unable to locate despite having bought two copies. Also beautiful: Ruskin's Venice: The Stones Revisited, by Sarah Quill.

The Frari with the reproduction hanging in the painting's place in the altar

Below: Vendetta should not be in that pile since that book is about Urbino. 

Comments

[Paul Hoff]

Another book to carry on your next trip to Venice, Milton Grundy's Venice:An Anthology Guide.

Thank you for your list of books on Venice. There's much to read!

[Leanne Ogasawara]

Thank you, Paul! I just ordered a copy. Venice is my obsession! An essay I wrote on a few of Venice's miracles will be posted at Dillydoun Review this month. So much to read indeed.