At the Centre of the Old World: Trade and Manufacturing in Venice and the Venetian Mainland, 1400–1800

The articles in this volume position Venice and her economy from the fifteenth to the eighteenth century in relation to the larger European and Mediterranean context. In doing so, they engage firmly in a debate with recent historiographical discussions about the European "peripheries," the role of craft guilds and rural industries, the impact of fashion and demand-driven markets in production specialization, and the emergence of regional markets and proto-industrial districts.

“The articles in Lanaro’s volume provide an up-to-date picture, the first in English, of the many facets of Venetian economic life in the Republic’s last centuries. After the work of these scholars, the notion of Venice’s economy as one-dimensionally anchored in maritime commerce is no longer viable.” 

-Stanley Chojnacki, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

“This volume presents a kaleidoscopic picture that brings to the fore a variety of industries and highlights many factors—including governmental policies, entrepreneurship, the role of women’s and immigrant labour, networks of roads, canals and fairs, and the impact of geography and of guilds—which shaped the economy of Venice and the Veneto in the fifteenth to the eighteenth centuries. The volume will serve as a model for scholars interested in the economic history of other regions in Europe and elsewhere.” 

-Dennis Romano, Syracuse University

PAOLA LANARO is full professor in economic history at the Ca’ Foscari University of Venice. Her field of research is the economic and social history of Europe in the late Middle Ages and Early Modern Period, with particular reference to Italy and the Venetian State. Her books include I mercati della Repubblica veneta (Venice, 1999) and La pratica dello scambio: Sistemi di fiere, mercanti e città in Europa (1400–1700) (Venice, 2003).

REVIEWS
American Historical Review, 113.1 (2008), pp. 276-278. Reviewed by Benjamin Arbel.
Canadian Journal of History, 42.3 (2007), pp. 497-499. Reviewed by Gayle K. Brunelle.
The Journal of Interdisciplinary History, 38.4 (2008), pp. 607-608. Reviewed by Steven A. Epstein.
Renaissance Quarterly, 60.2 (2007), pp. 219-521. Reviewed by James S. Grubb.
Seventeenth-Century News, 65.3-4 (2007), pp. 219-221. Reviewed by R. Burr. Litchfield.