History of Venice Podcast

After a quick recap of Venice’s ups and downs in the 1020s and early 1030s, we watch the city continue to navigate a delicate diplomatic route between her powerful neighbours. With peace and stability returning to the city, renewed trading wealth brings an outburst of church building, including the jewel in the crown, the Basilica of San Marco, which begins to take its final shape under Doxe Domenico Contarini starting in 1061. There may be ominous signs of trouble ahead in the wider world, but for now the city is making money while the sun shines.

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18-year-old Casanova has a job offer as an assistant Bishop (Assistant to the Bishop, that is). But before he can take his first step on this road to the fame, fortune and social prestige that surely await him in a glittering church career, he is desperate to take revenge on his enemy, Antonio Razzetta. Once that is accomplished, he faces a lengthy journey to the south of Italy, which will involve poor decision-making, a couple of bouts of venereal disease, some very dubious company, and a steep learning curve in how to navigate his way through a world of tricksters and charlatans. But at the end of it all, his new life awaits him. Find out how he copes as we conclude this two-parter on his transition from teenager to adult.

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At the age of 17, Casanova suddenly lost his grandmother, his house, and his chief patron / stand-in father figure. Feeling rootless, he started to lash out and ended up being sent to a seminary in an attempt to keep him on the straight and narrow. This was a predictably terrible idea. But help was on the way, in the unlikely shape of a Bishop who would soon take Casanova away and set him on the road to a brilliant career in the Church. Young Giacomo even dreamt of becoming Pope one day. Don't hold your breath on that one, though. Join us as we follow the ups and downs of one of the 18th century's great adventurers.

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A slighty different episode this week, as we do an outside broadcast from Venice. We look at the sights and sounds of Campo San Barnaba, in Dorsoduro. Like almost anywhere in Venice, you don't have to look very far beneath the surface to discover a rich tapestry of historical stories.

To find Campo San Barnaba when you're in Venice, take the Vaporetto No. 1 to Ca Rezzonico, then walk one minute down the Calle del Traghetto.

To see whereabouts it is relative to other sights, try this link on Google Maps: https://maps.app.goo.gl/8obEPfETxZzuTz2k6

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St Theodore, or Tòdaro, stands on a crocodile-dragon at the top of one of the two huge columns on the picture-postcard San Marco waterfront. He’s usually described as the original patron saint of Venice, before the arrival of St Mark. But what’s the story behind the man himself, his very unusual statue, and his connection with a city that he never went anywhere near in life? This week we investigate the crocodile-slaying saint.

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After last week's adventures with Patriarch Poppo, we go back to look at what was happening inside Venice. Neither a fully fledged hereditary state nor a recognisable Republic, the city's future political structures could go in either direction. But as internal divisions abound and external pressures multiply, the city emerges from the crucible of the 1020s with a clearer view of her future political direction, and the stage is set for the trailblazing Republic that she will become.

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Venice was moving confidently into the new millennium when we last checked in on her. But with a powerful and resurgent Holy Roman Empire on her doorstep, danger lurks around every corner. When the ambitious and amusingly named Patriarch Poppo turns up just across the border in Friuli, the city's ongoing independence hangs by a thread, as the unresolved conflict between the rival Archbishoprics of Aquileia and Grado descends into murder, rape, and pillage.

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Casanova's reputation is often more of a hindrance than a help in understanding the character of the man himself. In the third part of our series marking the 300th anniversary of the birth of Venice's most notorious son, we look at his formative teenage years. Giacomo is back in his home city, with minimal parental supervision. The highs and lows of his experiences, and the habits and attitudes that he picks up from the people he interacts with, will be crucial influences on the adult that he later becomes. 

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We've reached the year 1000 in our story, so it's time to take a breath and think about what sort of society Venice is right now. The traces of the city's future stone-and-marble elegance are there, but it's a very different place from the Venice that we know and love today. What were their houses like? Where did their food and drinking water come from? And why did they keep bringing holy relics back home with them from their travels?

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We reached the first millennium in the last episode, and that means that it's time to look back at the Doges of the past 100 years and think about how we rate them. We've got three guys with the same name; four guys who leave office to become monks (including one actual Saint), and an extremely valuable Golden Bull. Who will come out as our favourite? Will it be Inferno Doge? Pirate-slaying Doge? Nothing-to-see-here Doge? Or one of the many Monk Doges? Tune in and find out.

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Our recommended companion listening this week is the History of the Germans podcast: https://historyofthegermans.com/

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As the new millennium dawns, the Venetians take a decisive step that will be commemorated for the next 800 years in the increasingly elaborate and spectacular Marriage to the Sea ceremony. The episode also paves the way for the city to become the recognised Queen of the Adriatic -- a waterway that she would dominate so completely that foreign mapmakers referred to it as the “Gulf of Venice”. And the Venetians didn’t have to throw tantrums or hissy fits to force anyone to use that name.

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Young Giacomo Casanova has been sent away to Padova at the age of 9 to cure his nosebleeds and get an education. He soon starts enjoying his schooling, and finds himself particularly fascinated by his teacher’s teenage sister, Bettina. What are these strange new emotions that he feels for her? And how will he feel when an older boy takes an interest in her? Stand by for an ogress, a rat-infested bedroom, a brilliant quip in Latin, an accidental romantic intrigue with a pair of knitted socks, and a series of failed exorcisms.

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The Venice blogs that we recommended in the show were:

https://www.theveniceinsider.com/

https://seductivevenice.wordpress.com/

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When you're walking a political tightrope you need strong nerves, good judgement, and sometimes a bit of luck. But with the resurgent Holy Roman Empire on her doorstep, Venice is politically divided between those who want to cosy up to their large and acquisitive neighbour, and those who want to keep a safe distance. The city's independence is on the line as the millennium approaches. Find out how she handles Emperor Otto's uncomfortably close attentions.

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On a hot August afternoon in 976, the city of Venice burst into flames, both politically and literally. After spending most of the century trying to steer a delicate but serene course between the competing interests of her much larger friends, neighbours, and rivals, the young republic could no longer contain its political tensions. If cleansing by fire was the only way to cure the sickness at the heart of the body politic, then let the conflagration rip. 

Get ready for a boatload of identically named all-action Doges, interspersed with a couple of peaceful monk-like ones, and a return to the bad old days of violent regime change.

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We begin our investigation into the life of the original Casanova -- a famous name whose popular reputation tends to obscure the much more interesting man who lies underneath. We start by looking at his earliest memories, and his relationship with his parents. We've got a mysterious witch, an alleged indiscretion by the Prince of Wales, copious nosebleeds, and much more.

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We're back in Venice this week with a couple of local legends set in the 8th and 9th centuries. First, we look at the story of the 12 Marias, featuring pirates, wedding calamities, sea battles, and the etymology of the marionette. Then we explain the supposed origin of the Venetian practice of giving a "bocolo", or rosebud, to your beloved on St Mark's Day, to commemorate the sad love story of Vulcana and Tancredi.

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We conclude our four-part investigation into the life of our own local heroine, Margaret Marshal, first Duchess of Norfolk, and we find a couple of unlikely connections to our main subject of the city of Venice in the process.

Margaret and Walter are now a serious power couple, but the Golden Age of Edward's Arthurian court is slowly starting to fade. Find out what happens to them both as the 14th century draws to a close.

Next week, we'll be back to some more Venetian content, so stay tuned.

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In the third part of our mini-series on our own local heroine, Margaret Marshal, we catch up with the glittering career of Walter Manny, the purveyor of relentless amounts of derring-do whom she married in 1353, after a long struggle to have her first marriage annulled. Get ready for Walter to buckle monumental quantities of swash as he cuts a dash through early stages of the Hundred Years War and wins the heart of our heroine.

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We continue our Rabbit Hole series on the life of Margaret Marshal, England's First Duchess. Margaret and her younger sister Alice are trying to negotiate their late teens and early 20s in an environment where, behind the veneer of courtly love and chivalric culture, danger lurks around every corner. Both sisters will be the subject of scandals. For one of them, it will prove fatal. 

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In a break from our usual narrative, today we start a special Rabbit Hole mini-series. This is the first of four episodes on the life of Margaret Marshal, the 14th century owner of our own local landmark, Framlingham Castle, and a customer of the many exotic foods and luxury goods that were traded by medieval Venetian merchants. Today we're looking at her background and her childhood, as a prelude to the scandals of her early adulthood, which we'll cover in part 2.

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All music used under Creative Commons licence from musopen.org