☙ Histoire Universelle — XXXIII - Histoire de la République de Venise

1771 - Une Société de Gens de Lettres

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☙ Histoire Universelle — XXXIII - Histoire de la République de Venise

✑ Une Société de Gens de Lettres

HISTOIRE UNIVERSELLE, DEPUIS LE COMMENCEMENT DU MONDE JUSQU'A PRESENT. TRADUITE DE L'ANGLOIS. TOME TRENTE-TROISIEME. CONTENANT L'HISTOIRE DE LA REPUBLIQUE DE VENISE. A AMSTERDAM ET A LEIPZIG, ARKSTEE & MERKUS.

The Thirty-Third Volume of the Histoire Universelle, depuis le Commencement du Monde jusqu'à présent holds a singular place within this ambitious encyclopedic collection published by Arkstee & Merkus in Amsterdam and Leipzig. Entirely devoted to the history of the Republic of Venice, it responds to the deep and enduring fascination that 18th-century Europe harbored for the Serenissima — a city both mythical and real, a model of political stability, commercial power, and cultural refinement. In the eyes of Enlightenment philosophers and men of letters, Venice represented a unique political experiment: an aristocratic republic that had managed to endure for more than a millennium without succumbing to tyranny or anarchy. Montesquieu had cited it as an example, and European scholars constantly sought to understand the secret of its exceptional longevity. Published in 1771, this volume appears in a particularly fertile intellectual context, as debates on forms of government and political freedoms were reaching their peak on the eve of the great Atlantic revolutions.

Why add it to your collection?

A volume exclusively devoted to the Republic of Venice, one of the most fascinating and enduring states in European history, an object of great fascination during the Enlightenment.

Original 1771 Arkstee & Merkus edition, a leading Dutch publishing house, guaranteeing careful printing and prestigious European distribution.

A unique encyclopedic synthesis on Venice: its legendary origins, its oligarchic constitution admired by Montesquieu, its maritime conquests, and its Mediterranean commercial empire.

A rare find on the antiquarian market, as individual volumes from this monumental collection are increasingly difficult to find in good condition.

A primary historical and intellectual document, reflecting how Enlightenment Europe perceived and idealized the Venetian political and commercial model.

Description

Editorial Context and Place in the Collection Published in 1771 by the house of Arkstee & Merkus, this thirty-third volume of the Histoire Universelle forms part of the French translation of An Universal History from the Earliest Account of Time, a monument of 18th-century British scholarship. The collection, covering the entirety of human history from its origins to modern times, here devotes a full volume to the Republic of Venice, testifying to the importance that contemporary scholars attached to this extraordinary city-state.

Detailed Contents of the Volume The volume traces the complete history of the Republic of Venice from its legendary origins — the flight of populations from the Po plain before the barbarian invasions and the founding of the first lagoon communities in the 5th century — to the most recent developments known to the authors in the mid-18th century. The opening chapters describe the gradual formation of the island city, the organization of the first doges, and the progressive constitution of a merchant aristocracy that would govern the Republic for centuries.

A large portion of the volume is devoted to Venice's maritime and commercial expansion: the conquest of Dalmatia, participation in the Crusades, and the extraordinary coup of 1204 that allowed the Venetians to divert the Fourth Crusade toward Constantinople, seizing a large share of the Byzantine Empire. The authors analyze with precision the constitution of Venice's colonial empire in the eastern Mediterranean — Crete, Cyprus, the Ionian Islands — and the formidable commercial network that made Venice the hub of trade between East and West for several centuries.

Subsequent chapters address the wars against Genoa, Venice's fierce rival for dominance over Mediterranean trade routes; the conflicts with the Ottoman Empire that would gradually mark the decline of Venetian power in the Aegean and eastern Mediterranean; and the Wars of the League of Cambrai, which nearly destroyed the Republic in the early 16th century. The volume also examines Venice's internal constitution — the Great Council, the Senate, the Council of Ten, and the feared Tribunal of the State Inquisitors — with the admiration tinged with unease that characterizes the Enlightenment gaze on republican institutions.