... In this chapter, Boucher argues that Slavoj Žižek’s theory of the traumatic kernel of the Real at the center of social antagonism provides the key to understanding what is for contemporary critics Shakespeare’s most problematic play, The Merchant of Venice . Homing in on the disturbing affect...

... Chapter 3 demonstrates how the work of contemporary artists can prompt imaginative engagements with past materials that had equally complex lives abroad. Horton overturns a truism that Native American artists have never exhibited in the U.S. Pavilion of the Venice Biennale, revealing...

... Chapter 1 evaluates Jacopo de’ Barbari’s View of Venice in terms of earlier city views and a near-contemporary innovation in cartography—the Venetian state’s decision to systematically collect quantitative and qualitative geospatial data about its territorial holdings and visualize them...

... Jacopo de’ Barbari’s View of Venice , also known as Venetie MD , established a turning point in the history of urban mapping, attesting to the great skill achieved by artists and printers of the lagoon at the beginning of the sixteenth century. Scholars have long deliberated about the nature...

... Studies of the View of Venice have often focused on its depiction of the islands of Venice proper —its careful rendering of specific sites and its evocative delphinic shape. Chapter 5 concentrates instead on the work’s margins, including the mountainous border that runs across its top three...

... A heroic figure of Neptune appears astride a sea creature in the foreground of Jacopo de’ Barbari’s ambitious woodcut of Venice. The body of the Roman god directs us vertically, toward the commercial hub of the city, and to his collaborator, the mythological messenger god Mercury. With his...

...The <italic>View</italic> as a Reflection of Venice and Venetian Life De’ Barbari’s legendary View represents the culmination of well over a century of urban development and refinement. During this period, Venice’s population grew, its fabric became ever denser, its palazzi ever more...

... Domenico di Piero (1406–97) was a jeweler, an antiquarian, and a collector active in Venice during most of the fifteenth century. By the end of his life, he had amassed a huge fortune consisting of a collection of precious objects, cash, and real estate holdings. Chapter 19 establishes...

... Jacopo de Barbari’s View of Venice is rightfully celebrated as one of the most comprehensive representations of an early modern European city, and perhaps the most comprehensive. Yet the View offers more than a record of Venice’s urban environment. Rather, it serves as both a key record...

... who resided in the city, and osterie (hostelries) for those who came temporarily to Venice for business transactions. In conjunction with its political agenda, the state relocated foreign communities to specific areas within the city; the Jews obtained a permanent, unified, and clearly demarcated...

... This brief epilogue looks at the ways the View of Venice has been instrumentalized in historical practice and some of the consequences stemming from its pervasive meta-identity as a cartographic surrogate for the city in 1500. Contributors to the volume are discussed for new perspectives...

... The appendixes feature two archival documents of value to the View of Venice , including the previously unpublished will of Anton Kolb, the German merchant who oversaw the woodcut’s production. One appendix presents entries on the sites and buildings still most tvisited by tourists today...

... This short interstitial chapter examines histories of Venice that focus on threats to the city's built environment from recurring wave action in the Adriatic and from sea level rise. It revisits an essay written by the Scripps oceanographer Walter Munk and his wife, the designer Judith Munk...

... Considering that the author of the View of Venice was Venetian, the printed representation of the city can be understood as a reflection of its form in relation to its urban function, especially as experienced from within its confines. As a built-in citizen, the author is somewhat embodied...