The bibliography of Venice covers every conceivable aspect of the city and is vast. Consider that the first guidebooks date back to the 1500s, when it was already an attraction for the "illuminated foreigner." Few cities in the world have been studied in depth for so many centuries and with such passion.
So here we offer you a place to begin your exploration. The following list will provide you with a fine introduction to Venice, and be useful, both to those who are about to visit la ‚Serenissima’, and also to those those simply interested in discovering it, without moving from home.
GUIDEBOOKS
Lorenzetti, Giulio. Venice & its Lagoon.
Trieste: Edizioni Lint,1926; 1975.
Macadam, Alta. Venice, Blue Guide.
London: A & C Black publishers, 2001.
Honour, Hugh. The Companion Guide to Venice.
London: Collins, 1965; 1983.
HISTORY
Norwich, John Julius. A History of Venice.
New York: Knopf, 1982.
Lane, Frederic C. Venice, a Maritime Republic.
Baltimore: John Hopkins, 1973.
Morris, Jan. The Venetian Empire.
New York: Harcourt,1980.
Georgopoulou, Maria. Venice's Mediterranean colonies.
Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 2001
PAINTING & OTHER ARTS
Aikema, Bernard and Brown Beverly Louise. Renaissance Venice and the North: Crosscurrents in the Time of Durer, Bellini, and Titian.
London: Thames & Hudson, 1999
Fortini Brown, Patricia. Venetian Narrative Painting in the Age of Carpaccio.
New Haven & London: Yale University Press, 1988.
Hills, Paul. Venetian Colour: Marble, Mosaic, Painting and Glass, 1250-1550.
New Haven & London; 1999.
Levy, Michael. Painting in 18th Century Venice.
New Haven: Yale University Press, 1959
Rosand, David. Painting in Cinquecento Venice: Titian, Veronese, Tintoretto.
New Haven: Yale University Press, 1982.
Steer, Jan. Venetian Painting. A Concise History.
London: Thames & Hudson, 1970.
ARCHITECTURE & INTERIORS
Fortini Brown, Patricia: Private Lives in Renaissance Venice; Art, Architecture & the Family.
New Haven & London: Yale University Press, 2004.
Howard, Deborah. The Architectural History of Venice.
New Haven & London: Yale University Press, 2002
Jacopo Sansovino: Architecture and Patronage in Renaissance Venice.
New Haven & London: Yale University Press, 1987.
Venice & the East.
New Haven & London: Yale University Press, 2000
Goy, Richard J. : Venetian Vernacular Architecture.
Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1989
Mazzariol, Giuseppe; Dorigato, A. Venetian Palazzi.
Padova: Evergreen, 1998.
Schulz, Jürgen. The New Palaces of Medieval Venice.
University Park, Pa.: Pennsylvania State Univ. Press, 2004.
Salvadori, Antonio. 101 Buildings to See in Venice.
Venezia: Canal Books, 1969.
SPECIFIC THEMES
Albrizzi, A. and Pool, M.J.. Gardens of Venice.
New York: Rizzoli, 1989
Calimani, Riccardo. The Ghetto of Venice.
Milano: Rusconi Libri, 1988.
Curiel, Roberta; Cooperman, Bernard. The Venetian Ghetto.
New York: Rizzoli, 1990.
Demus, Otto: Mosaic Decoration of San Marco, Venice.
Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1983.
Fortini Brown, Patricia: Venice & Antiquity: the Venetian Sense of the Past.
New Haven & London: Yale University Press, 1996.
Gregorin, Cristina; Norbert Heyl. Venice Master Artisans.
Treviso: Vianello, 2003.
Heyl, Norbert; Barovier Mentasti, Rosa. Murano. The Glass-making Island.
Treviso, Vianello: 2006.
Landon, H.C.R.; Norwich, J.J. Five Centuries of Music in Venice.
London: Hudson, 1991.
Lane, Frederic C. Venetian Ships and Shipbuilders of the Renaissance.
Baltimore & London: John Hopkins UP, 1934. Reprinted 1992.
Martin, Damiano. Osteria da Fiore Cookbook.
Milano: PRO.GRA.MS, 2008.
Norwich, John Julius. Paradise of Cities; Venice in the 19th Century.
New York: Doubleday, 2003.
Redford, Bruce. Venice & the Grand Tour.
New Haven and London: Yale Univ. Press, 1996.
Rosand, David. Myths of Venice: the Figuration of a State.
Chapel Hill & London: University of North Carolina Press, 2001.
Rosenthal, Margaret F. The Honest Courtesan. Veronica Franco, citizen and writer in the XVIth c. Venice.
Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1992.
