A Republican Empire - The Venetian Mainland State, 1509-1797

The Republic of Venice is remembered chiefly as a maritime state, yet for most of the fifteenth century it exerted direct control over a substantial hinterland. Building upon recent research investigating the nature of relations between Venice and its territories, this study explores the policies employed by the Republic, and the extent to which these succeeded in endowing a heterogeneous territorial conglomeration with cohesion and unity.