Renowned professor Thomas F. Madden focuses his expertise on what has been called the most beautiful city in the world: Venice. In these lectures, Professor Madden explains how the city on the lagoon was established by refugees escaping the onslaught of northern "barbarians" invading the crumbling Roman Empire. Through its history, Venice housed the world's leading merchants, thrived as a maritime powerhouse, and developed into an independent republic not unlike the present United States. Venice draws millions of visitors each year, and these lectures shed light on why the city is such a continual source of fascination.


Course Syllabus
Lecture 1 Refugees of the Lagoon: The Origins of Venice

Lecture 2 Coming of Age: The Expansion of Venetian Power

Lecture 3 In a Dangerous World

Lecture 4 In the Age of the Crusades

Lecture 5 A Merchant Republic in a Feudal Age: Political Reform in Medieval Venice

Lecture 6 Birth of a Maritime Empire: Venice and the Fourth Crusade

Lecture 7 Birth of Modern Finance in Venice

Lecture 8 The Rise of Venice: Prosperity and Power in the West and East

Lecture 9 A Time of Wars: The Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries

Lecture 10 A New World: The Fall of Byzantium and the Rise of the Renaissance

Lecture 11 A Medieval Republic in a Modern World: The Decline and Fall of Venice

Lecture 12 The Grand Tour and Carnevale

Lecture 13 The Empty House: Venice and the State of Italy

Lecture 14 Modern Venice