“Both by Sea and Land”: Venetian Trade and Retail in the View

Writing some hundred years after the publication of Jacopo de’ Barbari and Anton Kolb’s celebrated View of Venice, Thomas Coryat stated of the Venetian empire: “All these territories both by sea and land do yield them . . . exceeding great revenue.” Chapter 21 explores how the View illuminates a variety of aspects of the lucrative mercantile activity for which Venice was so famous. This stunning print maps the vessels, buildings, and waterways essential for Venetian mercantile activity: it shows a variety of types of ships and boats, many of which would have been used in the movement of goods into, out of, and around Venice; it reveals the ways in which Venetian waterways aided not only in the movement of goods but also in trade and networks; and it lays out the built fabric of the city and how that built fabric fostered interconnections between merchants, goods, and families.