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4 - The Origins of Venice

Between Italy, Byzantium and the Adriatic

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 March 2021

By
Stefano Gasparri
Edited by
Magdalena Skoblar
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Summary

In recent years research on the early medieval north-eastern Italy has made important advances in the study of archaeological finds from the entire Adriatic area but also in the field of critical analysis of the early Venetian duchy’s relations with the Lombard (and later Italian) kingdom and Byzantine Italy. This study focuses on the second subject, starting from the arrival of the Lombards in 569, which established the conditions for the birth of Venice. From the sixth to the ninth century, Venice was a Byzantine duchy embedded in a dense network of political, social and economic relations which extended across the whole northern Adriatic. The formation of Venetian society and the city itself, its institutions and political identity were profoundly influenced by social and institutional developments on the Italian mainland. Simultaneously Byzantine, Adriatic and Italian in character, Venice developed in delicate equilibrium with all these different social components.

Keywords

ByzantiumCarolingiansComacchioDalmatiaduchyexarchateIstriaLombardsRialtoVenice
Type
Chapter
Information
Byzantium, Venice and the Medieval Adriatic
Spheres of Maritime Power and Influence, c. 700-1453
 , pp. 98 - 110
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

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