For his services to promoting Italian culture in the UK, he was recently honoured with the prestigious Ordine della Stella d'Italia. He is the author of a number of acclaimed biographies, including works on Handel, Purcell and Stendhal, as well as several travel books about Italy.

Author Biography Jonathan Keates is a historian and writer, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, a former Trustee of the London Library, and was Chairman of the Venice in Peril Fund. Masters of the sea, the Venetians raised an empire through an ethos of service and loyalty to a republic that lasted a thousand years.In this new study of key moments in Venice's history, from its half-legendary founding amid the collapse of the Roman empire to its modern survival as a fragile city of the arts menaced by saturation tourism and rising sea levels, Jonathan Keates shows us just how much this remarkable place has contributed to world culture and explains how it endures as an object of desire and inspiration for so many. 'Everything about Venice,' observed Lord Byron, 'is, or was, extraordinary - her aspect is like a dream, and her history is like a romance.' Dream and romance have conditioned myriad encounters with Venice across the centuries, but the city's story embodies another kind of experience altogether - the hard reality of an independent state built on conquest, profit and entitlement and on the toughness and resilience of a free people.

Publisher Description A stunningly illustrated history of Venice, from its beginnings as 'La Serenissima' - 'the Most Serene Republic' - to the Italian city that continues to enchant visitors today. La Serenissima by Jonathan Keates Estimated delivery 4-14 business days Format Hardcover Condition Brand New Description An illustrated history of Venice, from its beginnings as 'La Serenissima' - 'the Most Serene Republic' - to the Italian city that continues to enchant visitors today. Item: 364198369505 La Serenissima: The Story of Venice by Jonathan Keates Hardcover Book.

La serenissima keates