Rebel States
Tim Parks: Surrender by Gondola, 1 December 2005
The Siege of Venice
by Jonathan Keates.
Chatto, 495 pp., £20, September 2005,0 7011 6637 1 Show More
by Jonathan Keates.
Chatto, 495 pp., £20, September 2005,
“... In the 13th century, Florence banned its noble families from holding public office and instituted a republic. The names of a few hundred select citizens were placed in leather bags and every two months a new government was drawn by lot. In more conservative Venice, a group of nobles simply elected one of their number doge for life. There was no question of hereditary succession ... ”