Byzantium, Venice and the Medieval Adriatic

Spheres of Maritime Power and Influence, c. 700-1453

Magdalena Skoblar

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN:
  9781108840705
• eBook ISBN:
  9781108898676
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: European History
• Index: History

The Adriatic has long occupied a liminal position between different cultures, languages and faiths. This book offers the first synthesis of its history between the seventh and the mid-fifteenth century, a period coinciding with the existence of the Byzantine Empire which, as heir to the Roman Empire, lay claim to the region. The period also saw the rise of Venice and it is important to understand the conditions which would lead to her dominance in the late Middle Ages. An international team of historians and archaeologists examines trade, administration and cultural exchange between the Adriatic and Byzantium but also within the region itself, and makes more widely known much previously scattered and localised research and the results of archaeological excavations in both Italy and Croatia. Their bold interpretations offer many stimulating ideas for rethinking the entire history of the Mediterranean during the period.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-title
• Series information
• Title page
• Copyright information
• Contents
• List of Figures and Maps
• List of Tables
• List of Contributors
• Foreword
• Acknowledgements
• Note on Citation, Transliteration, Names, Titles and Dates
• Introduction
• 1 The Adriatic Sea 500-1100: A Corrupted Alterity?
• 2 Thinking of Linking: Pottery Connections, Southern Adriatic, Butrint and Beyond
• 3 A Winter Sea?: Exchange and Power at the Ebbing of the Adriatic Connection 600-800
• 4 The Origins of Venice: Between Italy, Byzantium and the Adriatic
• 5 The Northern Adriatic Area between the Eighth and the Ninth Century: New Landscapes, New Cities
• 6 Provincia Iadrensis: Heir of Roman Dalmatia or a Stillborn Child of Byzantine Early Medieval Adriatic Policy?
• 7 Ravenna and Other Early Rivals of Venice: Comparative Urban and Economic Development in the Upper Adriatic c.751-1050
• 8 Byzantine Apulia
• 9 From One Coast to Another and Beyond: Adriatic Connections through the Sigillographic Evidence
• 10 Icons in the Adriatic before the Sack of Constantinople in 1204
• 11 The Rise of the Adriatic in the Age of the Crusades
• 12 Venice in the Twelfth Century: Between the Adriatic and the Aegean
• 13 Venice, the Ionian Sea and the Southern Adriatic after the Fourth Crusade
• 14 Sea Power and the Evolution of Venetian Crusading
• 15 Reassessing the Venetian Presence in the Late Medieval Eastern Adriatic
• 16 'Strangers in the City?': The Paradoxes of Communitarianism in Fifteenth-Century Venice
• Conclusion
• Index