cover image Francesco's Venice: The Dramatic History of the World's Most Beautiful City

Francesco's Venice: The Dramatic History of the World's Most Beautiful City

Francesco Da Mosto. BBC Books, $40 (216pp) ISBN 978-0-563-52137-2

Shakespeare may not have known it, but Othello, the ""Moor of Venice,"" may have been a dark-skinned Sicilian named Francesco da Sessa nicknamed ""il capitano Moro"" (the Moorish captain). This is just one of the old tales and legends that da Mosto, a historian and lifelong resident of Venice, intertwines with historical facts in this beautifully illustrated volume. Historical details abound: here are listed, for example, the exact measurements of a Venice gondola, still built to dynastically determined precision. Da Mosto, who hosted the BBC program on which the book is based and is descended from a patrician Venetian family, is the reader's tour guide, highlighting Venice's rich aesthetic, from its origins as a fishing and farming community to its present-day incarnation as a cultural center and tourist mecca. Glorious photos, including those of St. Mark's Cathedral and the Sala del Maggior Consiglio, complement the engaging writing that includes diary entries and letters from da Mosto's family. But it's the fascinating stories of famous courtesans and Renaissance painters who rebelled against the Church that help da Mosto draw the complete picture of the extraordinary city he calls home.