Pietro Aretino
,
Selected Letters
(Penguin, o/p). Edited
highlights from the
voluminous
correspondence of a
man who could be
described as the
world's first
professional
journalist. Recipients
include Titian,
Michelangelo, Charles
V, Francis I, the
pope, the doge, Cosimo
de' Medici - virtually
anybody who was
anybody in
sixteenth-century
Europe.
Helen Barolini
, Aldus and his
Dream Book (Italica
Press). The innovative
printer and
typographer Aldus
Manutius was a crucial
figure in the culture
of Renaissance Europe,
but for every thousand
visitors to Venice who
have heard of Titian
there's perhaps one
who knows anything of
Aldus. This concise,
elegant and scholarly
study deserves to
rectify that
situation, and is
copiously illustrated
with pages from the Hypnerotomachia
Poliphili , a
recondite allegory
that was the most
beautiful book Aldus -
or anyone else for
that matter - ever
published. The
complete Hypnerotomachia
is now available in
English from Thames
& Hudson, in an
edition that's in the
same format as the
original and
reproduces all 174 of
its woodcuts; it's a
fine piece of
publishing, but the
lay reader is likely
to find the text
somewhat abstruse.
Joseph Brodsky
, Watermark
(Hamish Hamilton, o/p;
Noonday). Musings on
the wonder of being in
Venice and the wonder
of being Joseph
Brodsky, Nobel
laureate and friend of
the great. Flashes of
imagistic brilliance
vitiated by some
primitive sexual
politics.
Giacomo Casanova
, History of My
Life (Johns
Hopkins). For pace,
candour and wit, the
insatiable seducer's
autobiography ranks
with the journals of
James Boswell, a
contemporary of
similar sexual and
literary stamina. The
twelve-volume sequence
(here handsomely
repackaged into six
paperbacks) takes him
right across Europe,
from Madrid to Moscow.
His Venetian escapades
are covered in volumes
two and three of
Willard Trask's
magnificent
translation.
Roberta Curiel
and Bernard Dov
Cooperman , The
Ghetto Of Venice (Tauris
Parke, o/p). Prefaced
by a concise history
of the Jewish
community in Venice,
the main part of this
lavishly produced book
is a
synagogue-by-synagogue
tour of the ghetto.
Milton Grundy
, Venice: An
Anthology Guide
(De la Mare). A series
of itineraries of the
city fleshed out with
appropriate excerpts
from a huge range of
travellers and
scholars. Doesn't
cover every major
sight in Venice, but
the choice of
quotations couldn't be
bettered.
Henry James
, Italian Hours
(Penguin). Urbane
travel pieces from the
young Henry James,
including five essays
on Venice. Perceptive
observations on the
paintings and
architecture of the
city, but mainly of
interest in its
evocation of the tone
of Venice in the 1860s
and 70s.
Henry James
, Letters from the
Palazzo Barbaro (Pushkin
Press; Turtle Point
Press). Palazzo
Barbaro was the home
of the Curtis family,
whose circle of
friends included not
just Henry James (who
was a frequent guest
in the house) but also
John Singer Sargent,
James Whistler and
Robert Browning.
Consisting primarily
of letters by James
(some of them
previously
unpublished), this
engaging little book
also contains
correspondence from
the Curtis family, and
creates a vivid
composite portrait of
life among the city's
expatriate American
community a hundred
years ago.
Ian Littlewood
, Venice: A
Literary Companion
(Penguin; St Martin's
Press). Wide-ranging
anthology of writings
on the city, including
many pieces that will
be unfamiliar to all
but the most scholarly
devotees of Venice.
Giulio
Lorenzetti , Venice
and its Lagoon
(Lint). The most
thorough cultural
guide ever written to
any European city -
Lorenzetti seems to
have researched the
history of every brick
and every canvas.
Though completely
unmanageable as a
guidebook (it even has
an index to the
indexes), it's
indispensable for all
those besotted with
the place. Almost
impossible to find
outside Venice, but
every bookshop in the
city sells it.
Mary McCarthy
, Venice Observed
(Penguin; Harcourt,
Brace). Originally
written for the New
Yorker ;
McCarthy's clear-eyed
and brisk report is a
refreshing antidote to
the gushing enthusiasm
of most first-hand
accounts from
foreigners in Venice.
The UK Penguin edition
combines it with her
equally entertaining The
Stones of Florence
.
James Morris
, Venice
(Faber; published in
the US as Jan Morris's
The World of Venice
, Harcourt, Brace). To
some people this is
the most brilliant
book ever written
about Venice; to
others it's
revoltingly fey and
self-regarding. But if
you can't stomach the
style, Morris's
knowledge of Venice's
folklore provides some
compensation.
Tim Parks , Italian
Neighbours
(Vintage; Fawcett).
One of the more
worthwhile additions
to the genre defined
by AYear in
Provence , Parks's
book is a sharp and
engaging account of
ex-pat life in a
village near Verona.
John Pemble
, Venice
Rediscovered
(Oxford University
Press). This is one of
the most engrossing
academic studies of
the city to have
appeared in recent
years, concentrating
on the ever-changing
perceptions of Venice
as a cultural icon
since it ceased to
exist as a political
power. An eloquent
writer, totally
uninfected by the
preciousness that
overcomes so many
writers on Venice,
Pemble unearths
stories missing from
all other histories.
Dorothea Ritter
, Venice in Old
Photographs 1841-1920
(Laurence King, o/p;
Little, Brown, o/p). A
well-researched and
beautifully presented
book, packed with rare
images of Venice
spanning the years
from the birth of
photography to the
birth of mass tourism.
The cityscapes have
barely altered, but
the scenes of everyday
Venetian life come
from another world.
A.J.A. Symons
, The Quest for
Corvo (Quartet;
Ecco, o/p).
Misanthropic, devious
and solitary,
Frederick Rolfe was a
tricky subject for a
biographer to tackle,
and Symons' book,
subtitled An
Experiment in
Biography , makes
the difficult process
of writing Rolfe's
life the focus of its
narrative. An
engrossing piece of
literary detective
work, and a perfect
introduction to
Rolfe's Venetian
novel, The Desire
and Pursuit of the
Whole .
Stefan Zweig
, Casanova: A Study
in Self-Portraiture
(Pushkin Press; Turtle
Point Press). A
fascinating study of
Casanova's life and
autobiography,
offering a persuasive
analysis that differs
strikingly from the
clichéd image of
Casanova as a
real-life Don Juan -
in fact, Zweig
presents him as the
very antithesis of Don
Juan the misogynistic
seducer. Though brief,
this is the best book
on its subject.
