Information and Communication in Venice
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This is a unique investigation of the political uses of different forms of communication - oral, manuscript, and printed - in sixteenth and seventeenth century Venice. De Vivo uses a rich and diverse range of sources - from council debates to leaks and spies' reports, from printed pamphlets to graffiti and rumors - to demonstrate just how closely political communication was intertwined with the wider social and economic life of the city.The book also engages with important wider problems, inviting comparison beyond Venice. For instance, today we take it for granted that communication and politics influence each other through spin-doctoring and media power. What, however, was the use of communication in an age when rulers recognized no political role for their subjects? And what access to political information did those excluded from government have?
In answering these questions, de Vivo offers a highly original reinterpretation of early modern politics that steers a course between the tendency of the political historian to view events from the windows of government buildings and the 'history from below' of social historians. As this account shows, neither perspective is sufficient in isolation, because even the most secretive oligarchs, ensconced in the Ducal Palace's most restricted councils, were constantly preoccupied by their vociferous subjects in the squares below. Challenging the social and cultural boundaries of more traditional accounts, the book goes on to show how politics in early modern Venice extended far beyond the patrician elite to involve the entire population, from humble clerks and foreign spies, to notaries, artisans, barbers, and prostitutes.
Features
- A unique investigation of the political uses of different forms of communication - oral, manuscript, and printed - in sixteenth and seventeenth century Venice
- Makes use of a rich and highly diverse range of sources - from council debates to political 'leaks' and spies' reports, from printed pamphlets to graffiti and rumours
- Transcends the boundaries of 'political history 'from above' and social history 'from below' to illustrate the political involvent of all Venetian social groups - and how the patriciate could ill afford to ignore the lower social orders
- Raises wider analytical questions on the nature of the relationship between communication and politics
Reviews
"A very original and significant contribution, both for its methodology and for its uses of sources. Information and Communication in Venice is an example of first class scholarship, based on an impressive series of arguments, written in a vivid, compelling style. I would strongly recommend this book to anybody interested in political history; in cultural and intellectual history; in the history of communication; in early modern European history -- as well as, of course, in the history of Venice." --Professor Carlo Ginzburg, UCLA
"An impressive first book, based on a formidable range of sources. De Vivo's perceptive comments on the management of communication should be read by all historians of early modern Europe and by scholars in media studies as well."--Professor Peter Burke, University of Cambridge
About the Author(s)
Filippo de Vivo is the author of numerous scholarly articles on the history and historiography of the Republic of Venice. He was educated at the University of Cambridge and at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales in Paris. He was a Research Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, and since 2003 has been a Lecturer in the School of History, Classics, and Archaeology at Birkbeck College, London.
