Information and Communication in Venice

A unique investigation of the political uses of different forms of communication - oral, manuscript, and printed - in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Venice. Today we take it for granted that communication and politics influence each other through spin-doctoring and media power. What, however, was the use of communication in an age when rulers recognized no political role for their subjects? And what access to political information did those excluded fromgovernment have?In answering these questions, Filippo de Vivo uses an extremely rich and diverse range of sources - from council debates to leaks and spies' reports, from printedpamphlets to graffiti and rumours. In the process, he demonstrates just how closely political communication was intertwined with the wider social and economic life of the city. Challenging the social and cultural boundaries of more traditional accounts, he shows how politics in early modern Venice extended far beyond the patrician elite to involve the entire population, from humble clerks and foreign spies, to notaries, artisans, barbers, and prostitutes.

Winner of Declared proxime accessit for the Royal Historical Society Gladstone Prize 2007 Philip Leverhulme Prize Winner 2008.

“Review from previous edition: "DeVivo focuses on lines of transmission, patterns of exchange, pathways, regulations, and markets" --Thomas Cohen, London Review of Books 05/06/2008”

Review from previous edition DeVivo focuses on lines of transmission, patterns of exchange, pathways, regulations, and markets'Thomas Cohen, London Review of BooksA very original and significant contribution, both for its methodology and for its uses of sources. Information and Communication in Venice is an example of first class scholarship, based on an impressive series of arguments, written in a vivid, compelling style. I would strongly recommend this book to anybody interested in political history; in cultural and intellectual history; in the history of communication; in early modern European history as wellas, of course, in the history of Venice.'Professor Carlo Ginzburg, UCLAAn impressive first book, based on a formidable range of sources. De Vivo's perceptive comments on the management of communication should be read by all historians of early modern Europe and by scholars in media studies as well.'Professor Peter Burke, University of Cambridge...de Vivo's monograph [is] a tour de force. No study better lays bare how the Venetian government really worked...'Liz Horodowich, Reviews in History`...a major contribution to the history of early modern Venice and also to the history of information and propaganda. Besides being original in its ideas and firmly based on the sources, the book is remarkable for something much rarer in historical monographs: its penetrating political insights. Indeed, the claim made in the book's subtitle is truly justified.'Board of the Leverhulme Prize 2008

Filippo de Vivo is the author of numerous scholarly articles on the history and historiography of the Republic of Venice. He was educated at the University of Cambridge and at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales in Paris. He was a Research Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, and since 2003 has been a Lecturer in the School of History, Classics, and Archaeology at Birkbeck College, London.

A unique investigation of the political uses of different forms of communication - oral, manuscript, and printed - in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Venice. Today we take it for granted that communication and politics influence each other through spin-doctoring and media power. What, however, was the use of communication in an age when rulers recognized no political role for their subjects? And what access to political information did those excluded from government have?In answering these questions, Filippo de Vivo uses an extremely rich and diverse range of sources - from council debates to leaks and spies' reports, from printed pamphlets to graffiti and rumours. In the process, he demonstrates just how closely political communication was intertwined with the wider social and economic life of the city. Challenging the social and cultural boundaries of more traditional accounts, he shows how politics in early modern Venice extended far beyond the patrician elite to involve the entire population, from humble clerks and foreign spies, to notaries, artisans, barbers, and prostitutes.

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