Weaving together cultural history and critical imperial studies, this book shows how war and colonial expansion shaped seventeenth-century Venetian culture and society. Anastasia Stouraiti tests conventional assumptions about republicanism, commercial peace and cross-cultural exchange and offers a novel approach to the study of the Republic of Venice. Her extensive research brings the history of communication in dialogue with conquest and empire-building in the Mediterranean to provide an original interpretation of the politics of knowledge in wartime Venice. The book argues that the Venetian-Ottoman War of the Morea (1684-1699) was mediated through a diverse range of cultural mechanisms of patrician elite domination that orchestrated the production of popular consent. It sheds new light on the militarisation of the Venetian public sphere and exposes the connections between bellicose foreign policies and domestic power politics in a state celebrated as the most serene republic of merchants.

‘… Stouraiti’s superbly well-researched book … is a model of interdisciplinary work in the humanities.’

Edward Muir Source: Journal of Interdisciplinary History

‘… a well structured, often elegantly written book. … It is cogently argued and makes an important contribution not only to Venetian historiography but also to the rich fields of early modern communication and information history, the history of the book, military history, the history of science, art history, and cartographic history. It makes a compelling argument for the significance of the War of the Morea in understanding the history of the last century of the Venetian Republic, and it vividly recreates the media ecology of the day to show the ways in which culture, military expansion, and domestic politics intersected in this final paroxysm of Venetian imperial ambition.’

Eric Dursteler Source: Journal of Modern Greek Studies