The convoys of public galleys, the typical form of Venetian medieval sea-faring, had disappeared gradually by the time of the battle of Lepanto. This disappearance was not the sign of a general economic crisis, but was nevertheless the corollary of important political, economic and social changes which marked the history of sixteenth-century Venice. Through the study of economic actors, their identity, their practices and their functions, this book analyses public and private commercial navigation in relation to the evolution of forms and functions of the State, within a general context of...

The nineteen essays assembled in this Festschrift represent the multiplicity of interests evident in Elisabeth (Elisheva) Revel-Neher's work. They cover a variety of subjects dealing with pictorial messages encrypted in various artistic media, and address a broad array of topics: Jewish identity in the late antique period; patronage in late antique Jewish and Christian religious architecture; Jewish-Christian polemics and the representation of the "Other"; the question of Jewish or Christian illuminators of Hebrew books; the cultural background of illustrations in Hebrew manuscripts;...

This book provides critical editions with previously unpublished versions of all related texts, translations of all texts into English and a detailed analysis of the origins, known history, possible fate and exact nature of the Image of Edessa.

Analysing different conflicts in Late Medieval Alexandria, this book offers new insights into the micro-mechanics of Venetian life and trade in Egypt and recalibrates the narrative of the strictly regulated and often violent contacts between East and West. This thorough microanalysis, based on the private archive of a Venetian merchant and consul in Alexandria read in conjunction with other Venetian and Mamluk sources, provides a differentiated image of conflict patterns cutting across the cultural divide. It transforms our image of Alexandria as a city at the intersection of Orient and...

In The Anxieties of a Citizen Class: The Miracles of the True Cross of San Giovanni Evangelista, Venice 1370-1480 Kiril Petkov identifies the socio-psychological preoccupations accompanying the formation of the leading commoner group of early Renaissance Venice, the cittadini originarii, as revealed in a cycle of miracles performed by a fragment of the True Cross owned by the brotherhood of San Giovanni Evangelista. The study's principal contention is that the miracles trace the evolution of the citizen elite from members of a large, fluid group of men of affairs to community...