96-474: Clifford Lea Bax (13 July 1886 – 18 November 1962) was a versatile English writer, known particularly as a playwright, a journalist, critic and editor, and a poet, lyricist and hymn writer. He also was a translator (for example, of Goldoni ). The composer Arnold Bax was his brother, and set some of his words to music. The youngest son of Alfred Ridley Bax (1844–1918) and his wife, Charlotte Ellen (1860–1940), daughter of Rev. William Knibb Lea, of Amoy, China, Bax
192-526: A libellous poem ( Il colosso ) in which he ridiculed the daughters of certain Pavian families. As a result of that incident (and/or of a visit with some schoolmates to a local brothel), he was expelled from the school and had to leave the city (1725). He studied law at Udine , and eventually took his degree at University of Modena . He was employed as a law clerk at Chioggia and Feltre , after which he returned to his native city and began practising. Educated as
288-485: A born comedian, careless, light-hearted and with a happy temperament, proof against all strokes of fate, yet thoroughly respectable and honourable. Goldoni was born in Venice in 1707, the son of Margherita Salvioni (or Saioni) and Giulio Goldoni. In his memoirs, Goldoni describes his father as a physician , and claims that he was introduced to theatre by his grandfather Carlo Alessandro Goldoni. In reality, it seems that Giulio
384-413: A certain form which I will explain to you." Goldoni thanked his critic, went back to his inn and ordered a fire, into which he threw the manuscript of his Amalasunta . His next play, Belisario , written in 1734, was more successful, though of its success he afterwards professed himself ashamed. During this period he also wrote librettos for opera seria and served for a time as literary director of
480-450: A company of strolling players and returned to Venice. In 1723 his father matriculated him into the stern Collegio Ghislieri in Pavia , which imposed the tonsure and monastic habits on its students. However, he relates in his Memoirs that a considerable part of his time was spent reading Greek and Latin comedies. He had already begun writing at this time and, in his third year, he composed
576-623: A factor in ending the Byzantine Empire as the loss of the Anatolian themes , after Manzikert . Although the Byzantines recovered control of the ravaged city a half-century later, the Byzantine Empire was terminally weakened, and existed as a ghost of its old self, until Sultan Mehmet The Conqueror took the city in 1453 . Situated on the Adriatic Sea , Venice had always traded extensively with
672-483: A foreign order without the government's consent. Venice remained a republic throughout its independent period, and politics and the military were kept separate, except when on occasion the Doge personally headed the military. War was regarded as a continuation of commerce by other means. Therefore, the city's early employment of large numbers of mercenaries for service elsewhere, and later its reliance on foreign mercenaries when
768-440: A lasting monument to the changes that he initiated: a dramatic revolution that had been attempted but not achieved before. Goldoni's importance lies in providing good examples rather than precepts. Goldoni says that he took for his models the plays of Molière and that whenever a piece of his own succeeded he whispered to himself: "Good, but not yet Molière". Goldoni's plays are gentler and more optimistic in tone than Molière's. It
864-399: A lawyer, and holding lucrative positions as secretary and counsellor, he seemed, indeed, at one time to have settled down to the practice of law, but following an unexpected summons to Venice, after an absence of several years, he changed his career, and thenceforth he devoted himself to writing plays and managing theatres. His father died in 1731. In 1732, to avoid an unwanted marriage, he left
960-454: A master. Goldoni's plays that were written while he was still in Italy ignore religious and ecclesiastical subjects. This may be surprising, considering his staunch Catholic upbringing. No thoughts are expressed about death or repentance in his memoirs or in his comedies. After his move to France, his position became clearer, as his plays took on a clear anti-clerical tone and often satirized
1056-474: A powerful maritime empire (an Italian thalassocracy known also as repubblica marinara ). In addition to Venice there were seven others: the most important ones were Genoa , Pisa , and Amalfi ; and the lesser known were Ragusa , Ancona , Gaeta and Noli . Its own strategic position at the head of the Adriatic made Venetian naval and commercial power almost invulnerable. With the elimination of pirates along
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#17329020755821152-557: A saddlebag. His Aldine Editions included translations of nearly all the known Greek manuscripts of the era. Venice's long decline started in the 15th century. Venice confronted the Ottoman Empire in the Siege of Thessalonica (1422–1430) and sent ships to help defend Constantinople against the besieging Turks in 1453. After the Fall of Constantinople , Sultan Mehmed II declared the first of
1248-483: A senator-like assembly of nobles, and the general citizenry with limited political power, who originally had the power to grant or withhold their approval of each newly elected doge. Church and various private property was tied to military service, although there was no knight tenure within the city itself. The Cavalieri di San Marco was the only order of chivalry ever instituted in Venice, and no citizen could accept or join
1344-522: A series of Ottoman-Venetian wars that cost Venice much of its eastern Mediterranean possessions. Vasco da Gama 's 1497–1499 voyage opened a sea route to India around the Cape of Good Hope and destroyed Venice's monopoly. Venice's oared vessels were at a disadvantage when it came to traversing oceans, therefore Venice was left behind in the race for colonies . The Black Death devastated Venice in 1348 and struck again between 1575 and 1577. In three years,
1440-492: A significant impact on the architecture and culture that can still be seen today. The Venetian Arsenal is considered by several historians to be the first factory in history, and was the base of Venice's naval power. The sovereignty of Venice came to an end in 1797, at the hands of Napoleon . Subsequently, in 1866, the city became part of the Kingdom of Italy . Venice has been known as "La Dominante", "La Serenissima", "Queen of
1536-763: A viceroy (the Exarch ) appointed by the Emperor in Constantinople . Ravenna and Venice were connected by just sea routes, and with the Venetians' isolation came increasing autonomy. New ports were built, including those at Malamocco and Torcello in the Venetian lagoon. The tribuni maiores formed the earliest central standing governing committee of the islands in the lagoon, dating from c. 568 . The traditional first doge of Venice , Paolo Lucio Anafesto (Anafestus Paulicius),
1632-577: A walled defense ( civitatis murus ) between Olivolo and Rialto, were subsequently built here. Charlemagne sought to subdue the city to his rule. He ordered the pope to expel the Venetians from the Pentapolis along the Adriatic coast; Charlemagne's own son Pepin of Italy , king of the Lombards, under the authority of his father, embarked on a siege of Venice itself. This, however, proved a costly failure. The siege lasted six months, with Pepin's army ravaged by
1728-430: Is 3.3 °C (37.9 °F), and for July this figure is 23.0 °C (73.4 °F). Precipitation is spread relatively evenly throughout the year, and averages 748 millimetres (29.4 in); snow isn't a rarity between late November and early March. During the most severe winters, the canals and parts of the lagoon can freeze, but with the warming trend of the past 30–40 years, the occurrence has become rarer. The city
1824-698: Is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto region . It is built on a group of 126 islands that are separated by expanses of open water and by canals; portions of the city are linked by 472 bridges. The islands are in the shallow Venetian Lagoon , an enclosed bay lying between the mouths of the Po and the Piave rivers (more exactly between the Brenta and the Sile ). In 2020, around 258,685 people resided in greater Venice or
1920-407: Is further supported by the documentation on the so-called "apostolic families", the twelve founding families of Venice who elected the first doge , who in most cases trace their lineage back to Roman families. Some late Roman sources reveal the existence of fishermen, on the islands in the original marshy lagoons, who were referred to as incolae lacunae ("lagoon dwellers"). The traditional founding
2016-609: Is identified with the dedication of the first church, that of San Giacomo on the islet of Rialto ( Rivoalto , "High Shore")—said to have taken place at the stroke of noon on 25 March 421 (the Feast of the Annunciation ). Beginning as early as AD 166–168, the Quadi and Marcomanni destroyed the main Roman town in the area, present-day Oderzo . This part of Roman Italy was again overrun in
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#17329020755822112-467: Is located in northeastern Italy, in the Veneto region. The city is situated on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by 438 bridges. The historic center of Venice is divided into six districts, or sestieri, which are named Cannaregio , Castello, Dorsoduro , San Marco, San Polo, and Santa Croce. Venice sits atop alluvial silt washed into the sea by the rivers flowing eastward from
2208-610: Is the comic play Servant of Two Masters , which has been translated and adapted internationally numerous times. In 1966 it was adapted into an opera buffa by the American composer Vittorio Giannini . In 2011, Richard Bean adapted the play for the National Theatre of Great Britain as One Man, Two Guvnors . Its popularity led to a transfer to the West End and in 2012 to Broadway . The film Carlo Goldoni – Venice, Grand Theatre of
2304-480: Is to fix a series of 78 hollow pontoons to the sea bed across the three entrances to the lagoon. When tides are predicted to rise above 110 centimetres (43 in), the pontoons will be filled with air, causing them to float on lagoon side while hinged at sea floor on seaside, thus blocking the incoming water from the Adriatic Sea. This engineering work was due to be completed by 2018. A Reuters report stated that
2400-539: The Comune di Venezia , of whom around 51,000 live in the historical island city of Venice ( centro storico ) and the rest on the mainland ( terraferma ). Together with the cities of Padua and Treviso , Venice is included in the Padua-Treviso-Venice Metropolitan Area (PATREVE), which is considered a statistical metropolitan area, with a total population of 2.6 million. The name is derived from
2496-525: The Incorporated Stage Society . He also edited, with Austin Osman Spare , Golden Hind , an artistic and literary magazine that appeared from October 1922 to July 1924. A cricket enthusiast, he was a friend of C. B. Fry and wrote a biography of W. G. Grace . He married actress and jewellery-maker Gwendolen Daphne Bishop, née Bernhard-Smith, on 21 September 1910. Their daughter, Undine,
2592-516: The Adriatic ", "City of Water", "City of Masks", "City of Bridges", "The Floating City", and "City of Canals". The lagoon and the historic parts of the city within the lagoon were inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987, covering an area of 70,176.4 hectares (173,410 acres). Parts of Venice are renowned for the beauty of their settings, their architecture , and artwork. Venice is known for several important artistic movements – especially during
2688-544: The Dalmatian coast , the city became a flourishing trade centre between Western Europe and the rest of the world, especially with the Byzantine Empire and Asia , where its navy protected sea routes against piracy. The Republic of Venice seized a number of places on the eastern shores of the Adriatic before 1200, mostly for commercial reasons, because pirates based there were a menace to trade. The doge already possessed
2784-592: The Great Council , which was made up of members of the noble families of Venice. The Great Council appointed all public officials, and elected a Senate of 200 to 300 individuals. Since this group was too large for efficient administration, a Council of Ten (also called the Ducal Council, or the Signoria), controlled much of the administration of the city. One member of the great council was elected " doge ", or duke, to be
2880-564: The Italian Renaissance – and has played an important role in the history of instrumental and operatic music; it is the birthplace of Baroque music composers Tomaso Albinoni and Antonio Vivaldi . In the 21st century, Venice remains a very popular tourist destination, a major cultural centre, and has often been ranked one of the most beautiful cities in the world. It has been described by The Times as one of Europe's most romantic cities and by The New York Times as "undoubtedly
2976-587: The Italian Wars , marginalising its political influence. However, Venice remained a major exporter of agricultural products and until the mid-18th century, a significant manufacturing centre. The Republic of Venice lost its independence when Napoleon Bonaparte conquered Venice on 12 May 1797 during the War of the First Coalition . Napoleon was seen as something of a liberator by the city's Jewish population. He removed
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3072-610: The San Giovanni Grisostomo , Venice's most distinguished opera house . He wrote other tragedies for a time, but he was not long in discovering that his bent was for comedy . He had come to realize that the Italian stage needed reforming; adopting Molière as his model, he went to work in earnest and in 1738 produced his first real comedy, L'uomo di mondo ("The Man of the World"). During his many wanderings and adventures in Italy, he
3168-618: The Suez Canal , which opened in 1869, between Asia and Central Europe, while Venice very quickly lost its competitive edge and commercial strength. During World War II , the historic city was largely free from attack, the only aggressive effort of note being Operation Bowler , a successful Royal Air Force precision strike on the German naval operations in the city in March 1945. The targets were destroyed with virtually no architectural damage inflicted on
3264-674: The Vendramin family, where he performed most of his plays to 1762. In 1757, he engaged in a bitter dispute with playwright Carlo Gozzi , which left him utterly disgusted with the tastes of his countrymen; so much so that in 1761 he moved to Paris, where he received a position at court and was put in charge of the Théâtre-Italien . He spent the rest of his life in France, composing most of his plays in French and writing his memoirs in that language. Among
3360-568: The Venetian dialectal equivalent of the Latin dux ("leader"); the corresponding word in English is duke , in standard Italian duca (see also " duce ".) Whatever his original views, Ursus supported Emperor Leo III's successful military expedition to recover Ravenna, sending both men and ships. In recognition of this, Venice was "granted numerous privileges and concessions" and Ursus, who had personally taken
3456-516: The Venetian language , regional vernacular, and colloquialisms. Goldoni also wrote under the pen name and title Polisseno Fegeio, Pastor Arcade , which he claimed in his memoirs the " Arcadians of Rome" bestowed on him. There is an abundance of autobiographical information on Goldoni, most of which comes from the introductions to his plays and from his Memoirs . However, these memoirs are known to contain many errors of fact, especially about his earlier years. In these memoirs, he paints himself as
3552-582: The plague killed some 50,000 people. In 1630, the Italian plague of 1629–31 killed a third of Venice's 150,000 citizens. Venice began to lose the position as a centre of international trade during the later part of the Renaissance as Portugal became Europe's principal intermediary in the trade with the East, striking at the very foundation of Venice's great wealth. France and Spain fought for hegemony over Italy in
3648-417: The 13th century to the end of the 17th. The city-state of Venice is considered to have been the first real international financial centre, emerging in the 9th century and reaching its greatest prominence in the 14th century. This made Venice a wealthy city throughout most of its history. For centuries Venice possessed numerous territories along the Adriatic Sea and within the Italian peninsula , leaving
3744-515: The Alps across the Veneto plain, with the silt being stretched into long banks, or lidi , by the action of the current flowing around the head of the Adriatic Sea from east to west. Subsidence , the gradual lowering of the surface of Venice, has contributed – along with other factors – to the seasonal Acqua alta ("high water") when the city's lowest lying surfaces may be covered at high tide. Those fleeing barbarian invasions who found refuge on
3840-663: The Austrian-held Kingdom of Lombardy–Venetia . In 1848 a revolt briefly re-established the Venetian republic under Daniele Manin , but this was crushed in 1849. In 1866, after the Third Italian War of Independence , Venice, along with the rest of the Veneto, became part of the newly created Kingdom of Italy . From the middle of the 18th century, Trieste and papal Ancona , both of which became free ports, competed with Venice more and more economically. Habsburg Trieste in particular boomed and increasingly served trade via
3936-462: The Byzantine Empire and the Middle East . By the late 13th century, Venice was the most prosperous city in all of Europe. At the peak of its power and wealth, it had 36,000 sailors operating 3,300 ships, dominating Mediterranean commerce. Venice's leading families vied with each other to build the grandest palaces and to support the work of the greatest and most talented artists. The city was governed by
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4032-524: The Commedia dell'arte with recognisable local and middle-class realities. His operatic works include two of the most successful musical comedies of the eighteenth century, Il filosofo di campagna ( The Country Philosopher ), set by Galuppi (1752) and La buona figliuola ( The Good Girl ), set by Niccolò Piccinni (1760). In 1753, following his return from Bologna, he defected to the Teatro San Luca of
4128-528: The King gave him a pension. He lost this pension after the French Revolution . The Convention eventually voted to restore his pension the day after his death. It was restored to his widow, at the pleading of the poet André Chénier ; "She is old", he urged, "she is seventy-six, and her husband has left her no heritage save his illustrious name, his virtues and his poverty." In his Memoirs Goldoni amply discusses
4224-529: The MOSE Project attributed the delay to "corruption scandals". The project is not guaranteed to be successful and the cost has been very high, with as much as approximately €2 billion of the cost lost to corruption. According to a spokesman for the National Trust of Italy ( Fondo Ambiente Italiano ): Mose is a pharaonic project that should have cost €800m [£675m] but will cost at least €7bn [£6bn]. If
4320-414: The World , directed by Alessandro Bettero, was released in 2007 and is available in English, Italian, French, and Japanese. The following is a small sampling of Goldoni's enormous output. Venice Venice ( / ˈ v ɛ n ɪ s / VEN -iss ; Italian : Venezia [veˈnɛttsja] ; Venetian : Venesia [veˈnɛsja] , formerly Venexia [veˈnɛzja] )
4416-486: The acquisition, from Alexandria , of relics claimed to be of St Mark the Evangelist ; these were placed in the new basilica. Winged lions – visible throughout Venice – are the emblem of St Mark . The patriarchal seat was also moved to Rialto. As the community continued to develop, and as Byzantine power waned, its own autonomy grew, leading to eventual independence. From the 9th to the 12th centuries, Venice developed into
4512-651: The ancient Veneti people who inhabited the region by the 10th century BC. The city was historically the capital of the Republic of Venice for almost a millennium, from 810 to 1797. It was a major financial and maritime power during the Middle Ages and Renaissance , and a staging area for the Crusades and the Battle of Lepanto , as well as an important centre of commerce—especially silk, grain, and spice , and of art from
4608-469: The apartment complex in Piccadilly, London. He was a friend of Gustav Holst , whom he introduced to astrology , the critic James Agate , and Arthur Ransome , among others. He met and played chess with Aleister Crowley in 1904, and kept up an acquaintance with him over the years, later in the 1930s introducing both the artist Frieda Harris and the writer John Symonds to him. An early venture (1908–1914)
4704-480: The arrogant nobility and the pauper who lacks dignity. As in other theatrical works of the time and place, the characters in Goldoni's Italian comedies spoke originally either the literary Tuscan variety (which became modern Italian) or the Venetian dialect , depending on their station in life. However, in some printed editions of his plays, he often turned the Venetian texts into Tuscan, too. One of his best-known works
4800-451: The barriers are closed at only 90 cm of high water, most of St Mark's will be flooded anyway; but if closed at very high levels only, then people will wonder at the logic of spending such sums on something that didn't solve the problem. And pressure will come from the cruise ships to keep the gates open. On 13 November 2019, Venice was flooded when waters peaked at 1.87 m (6 ft), the highest tide since 1966 (1.94 m). More than 80% of
4896-476: The cause. The sinking has slowed markedly since artesian wells were banned in the 1960s. However, the city is still threatened by more frequent low-level floods – the Acqua alta , that rise to a height of several centimetres over its quays – regularly following certain tides. In many old houses, staircases once used to unload goods are now flooded, rendering the former ground floor uninhabitable. Studies indicate that
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#17329020755824992-414: The chief executive; he would usually hold the title until his death, although several Doges were forced, by pressure from their oligarchical peers, to resign and retire into monastic seclusion, when they were felt to have been discredited by political failure. The Venetian governmental structure was similar in some ways to the republican system of ancient Rome, with an elected chief executive (the doge),
5088-460: The city continues sinking at a relatively slow rate of 1–2 mm per year; therefore, the state of alert has not been revoked. In May 2003, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi inaugurated the MOSE Project ( Italian : Modulo Sperimentale Elettromeccanico ), an experimental model for evaluating the performance of hollow floatable gates, expected to be completed in late 2023; the idea
5184-457: The city is often threatened by flood tides pushing in from the Adriatic . Six hundred years ago, Venetians protected themselves from land-based attacks by diverting all the major rivers flowing into the lagoon and thus preventing sediment from filling the area around the city. This created an ever-deeper lagoon environment. Additionally, the lowest part of Venice, St Mark's Basilica , is only 64 centimetres (25 in) above sea level, and one of
5280-593: The city itself. However, the industrial areas in Mestre and Marghera and the railway lines to Padua, Trieste, and Trento were repeatedly bombed . On 29 April 1945, a force of British and New Zealand troops of the British Eighth Army , under Lieutenant General Freyberg , liberated Venice, which had been a hotbed of anti-Mussolini Italian partisan activity. Venice was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987, inscribing it as "Venice and its Lagoon". Venice
5376-477: The city was covered by water, which damaged cultural heritage sites, including more than 50 churches, leading to tourists cancelling their visits. The planned flood barrier would have prevented this incident according to various sources, including Marco Piana, the head of conservation at St Mark's Basilica. The mayor promised that work on the flood barrier would continue, and the Prime Minister announced that
5472-498: The city. A Washington Post report provided a more thorough analysis: "The sea level has been rising even more rapidly in Venice than in other parts of the world. At the same time, the city is sinking, the result of tectonic plates shifting below the Italian coast. Those factors together, along with the more frequent extreme weather events associated with climate change, contribute to floods." Henk Ovink , an expert on flooding, told CNN that, while environmental factors are part of
5568-488: The diseases of the local swamps and eventually forced to withdraw in 810. A few months later, Pepin himself died, apparently as a result of a disease contracted there. In the aftermath, an agreement between Charlemagne and the Byzantine Emperor Nicephorus in 814 recognized Venice as Byzantine territory, and granted the city trading rights along the Adriatic coast. In 828 the new city's prestige increased with
5664-704: The early 5th century by the Visigoths and, some 50 years later, by the Huns led by Attila . The last and most enduring immigration into the north of the Italian peninsula, that of the Lombards in 568, left the Eastern Roman Empire only a small strip of coastline in the current Veneto, including Venice. The Roman/Byzantine territory was organized as the Exarchate of Ravenna , administered from that ancient port and overseen by
5760-622: The entrance to the cathedral of Venice, St Mark's Basilica (The originals have been replaced with replicas, and are now stored within the basilica.) After the fall of Constantinople, the former Eastern Roman Empire was partitioned among the Latin crusaders and the Venetians. Venice subsequently carved out a sphere of influence in the Mediterranean known as the Duchy of the Archipelago , and captured Crete. The seizure of Constantinople proved as decisive
5856-453: The fall of the Republic in 1797. Shortly after the introduction of the tax, Spain produced similar paper for general taxation purposes, and the practice spread to other countries. During the 20th century, when many artesian wells were sunk into the periphery of the lagoon to draw water for local industry, Venice began to subside . It was realized that extraction of water from the aquifer was
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#17329020755825952-522: The field, was confirmed by Leo as dux and given the added title of hypatus (from the Greek for " consul "). In 751, the Lombard King Aistulf conquered most of the Exarchate of Ravenna , leaving Venice a lonely and increasingly autonomous Byzantine outpost. During this period, the seat of the local Byzantine governor (the "duke/dux", later "doge"), was at Malamocco. Settlement on the islands in
6048-432: The founding or building of Venice, tradition and the available evidence have led several historians to agree that the original population of Venice consisted of refugees – from nearby Roman cities such as Patavium ( Padua ), Aquileia , Tarvisium ( Treviso ), Altinum , and Concordia (modern Portogruaro ), as well as from the undefended countryside – who were fleeing successive waves of Germanic and Hun invasions. This
6144-478: The gates of the Ghetto and ended the restrictions on when and where Jews could live and travel in the city. Venice became Austrian territory when Napoleon signed the Treaty of Campo Formio on 12 October 1797. The Austrians took control of the city on 18 January 1798. Venice was taken from Austria by the Treaty of Pressburg in 1805 and became part of Napoleon's Kingdom of Italy . It was returned to Austria following Napoleon's defeat in 1814, when it became part of
6240-411: The government would be accelerating the project. The city's mayor, Luigi Brugnaro , blamed the floods on climate change . The chambers of the Regional Council of Veneto began to be flooded around 10 pm, two minutes after the council rejected a plan to combat global warming. One of the effects of climate change is sea level rise which causes an increase in frequency and magnitude of floodings in
6336-408: The hypocrisy of monks and of the Church . Goldoni was inspired by his love of humanity and the admiration he had for his fellow men. He wrote, and was obsessed with, the relationships that humans establish with one another, their cities and homes, and the study of philosophy . The moral and civil values that Goldoni promotes in his plays are those of rationality, civility, humanism, the importance of
6432-455: The lagoon probably increased with the Lombard conquest of other Byzantine territories, as refugees sought asylum in the area. In 775/6, the episcopal seat of Olivolo ( San Pietro di Castello ) was created. During the reign of duke Agnello Particiaco (811–827) the ducal seat moved from Malamocco to the more protected Rialto, within present-day Venice. The monastery of St Zachary and the first ducal palace and basilica of St. Mark , as well as
6528-403: The lagoon). 47.8% of the population in 2021 were male and 52.2% were female; minors (ages 18 and younger) were 14.7% of the population compared to elderly people (ages 65 and older) who numbered 27.9%. This compared with the Italian average of 16.7% and 23.5%, respectively. The average age of Venice residents was 48.6 compared to the Italian average of 45.9. In the five years between 2016 and 2021,
6624-470: The model of Molière with the strengths of Commedia dell'arte and his own wit and sincerity). This style was typified in La Donna di garbo , the first Italian comedy of its kind. After 1748, Goldoni collaborated with the composer Baldassare Galuppi , making significant contributions to the new form of ' opera buffa '. Galuppi composed the score for more than twenty of Goldoni's librettos. As with his comedies, Goldoni's opera buffa integrates elements of
6720-438: The most beautiful city built by man". However, the city faces challenges including an excessive number of tourists, pollution, tide peaks and cruise ships sailing too close to buildings. In light of the fact that Venice and its lagoon are under constant threat in terms of their ecology and cultural heritage, Venice's UNESCO listing has been under constant examination. Although no surviving historical records deal directly with
6816-425: The most flood-prone parts of the city. In 1604, to defray the cost of flood relief, Venice introduced what could be considered the first example of a stamp tax. When the revenue fell short of expectations in 1608, Venice introduced paper , with the superscription "AQ" and imprinted instructions, which was to be used for "letters to officials". At first, this was to be a temporary tax, but it remained in effect until
6912-412: The opera, he was told that his piece "was composed with due regard for the rules of Aristotle and Horace , but not according to those laid down for the Italian drama." "In France", continued the count, "you can try to please the public, but here in Italy it is the actors and actresses whom you must consult, as well as the composer of the music and the stage decorators. Everything must be done according to
7008-401: The plays which he wrote in French, the most successful was Le bourru bienfaisant , dedicated to Marie Adélaïde , a daughter of Louis XV and aunt to the dauphin , the future Louis XVI of France. It premiered on 4 February 1771, almost nine months after the dauphin's marriage to Marie Antoinette . Goldoni enjoyed considerable popularity in France; in 1769, when he retired to Versailles ,
7104-455: The population of Venice declined by 2.7%, while Italy as a whole declined by 2.2%. The population in the historic old city declined much faster: from about 120,000 in 1980 to about 60,000 in 2009, and to 50,000 in 2021. As of 2021 , 84.2% of the population was Italian. The largest immigrant groups include: 7,814 (3.1%) Bangladeshis , 6,258 (2.5%) Romanians , 4,054 (1.6%) Moldovans , 4,014 (1.6%) Chinese , and 2,514 (1%) Ukrainians . Venice
7200-447: The problem, "historic floods in Venice are not only a result of the climate crisis but poor infrastructure and mismanagement". The government of Italy committed to providing 20 million euros in funding to help the city repair the most urgent aspects although Brugnaro's estimate of the total damage was "hundreds of millions" to at least 1 billion euros. On 3 October 2020, the MOSE
7296-599: The rise of Venice's power. Venice became an imperial power following the Fourth Crusade , which, having veered off course, culminated in 1204 by capturing and sacking Constantinople and establishing the Latin Empire . As a result of this conquest, considerable Byzantine plunder was brought back to Venice. This plunder included the gilt bronze horses from the Hippodrome of Constantinople , which were originally placed above
7392-488: The rising middle class, a progressive stance on state affairs, honour and honesty. Goldoni had a dislike for arrogance, intolerance and the abuse of power. Goldoni's main characters are no abstract examples of human virtue, nor monstrous examples of human vice. They occupy the middle ground of human temperament. Goldoni maintains an acute sensibility for the differences in social classes between his characters as well as environmental and generational changes. Goldoni pokes fun at
7488-583: The ruling class was preoccupied with commerce. Although the people of Venice generally remained orthodox Roman Catholics, the state of Venice was notable for its freedom from religious fanaticism, and executed nobody for religious heresy during the Counter-Reformation . This apparent lack of zeal contributed to Venice's frequent conflicts with the papacy . In this context, the writings of the Anglican divine William Bedell are particularly illuminating. Venice
7584-421: The sandy islands of Torcello, Iesolo, and Malamocco, in this coastal lagoon, learned to build by driving closely spaced piles consisting of the trunks of alder trees, a wood noted for its water resistance, into the mud and sand, until they reached a much harder layer of compressed clay . Building foundations rested on plates of Istrian limestone placed on top of the piles. Between autumn and early spring,
7680-543: The state of Italian comedy when he began writing. At that time, Italian comedy revolved around the conventionality of the Commedia dell'arte , or improvised comedy. Goldoni took to himself the task of superseding the comedy of masks and the comedy of intrigue with representations of actual life and manners through the characters and their behaviours. He maintained that Italian life and manners were susceptible of artistic treatment such as had not been given them before. His works are
7776-538: The titles of Duke of Dalmatia and Duke of Istria . Later mainland possessions, which extended across Lake Garda as far west as the Adda River , were known as the Terraferma ; they were acquired partly as a buffer against belligerent neighbours, partly to guarantee Alpine trade routes, and partly to ensure the supply of mainland wheat (on which the city depended). In building its maritime commercial empire, Venice dominated
7872-496: The town for Milan and then for Verona where the theatre manager Giuseppe Imer helped him on his way to becoming a comical poet as well as introducing him to his future wife, Nicoletta Conio. Goldoni returned with her to Venice, where he stayed until 1743. Goldoni entered the Italian theatre scene with a tragedy , Amalasunta , produced in Milan. The play was a critical and financial failure. Submitting it to Count Prata, director of
7968-511: The trade in salt, acquired control of most of the islands in the Aegean , including Crete , and Cyprus in the Mediterranean, and became a major power-broker in the Near East . By the standards of the time, Venice's stewardship of its mainland territories was relatively enlightened and the citizens of such towns as Bergamo , Brescia , and Verona rallied to the defence of Venetian sovereignty when it
8064-399: The urging of Pope Gregory II . The exarch, held responsible for the acts of his master, Byzantine Emperor Leo III , was murdered, and many officials were put to flight in the chaos. At about this time, the people of the lagoon elected their own independent leader for the first time, although the relationship of this to the uprisings is not clear. Ursus was the first of 117 "doges" ( doge is
8160-511: Was Orpheus , a theosophical magazine he edited. His interest in the esoteric extended to editing works of Jakob Boehme , and helping Allan Bennett , the Buddhist. His first play on the commercial stage was The Poetasters of Ispahan (1912), and he became a fixture of British drama for a generation. He was involved in the Phoenix Society (1919–1926), concerned with reviving older plays, and
8256-562: Was activated for the first time in response to a predicted high tide event, preventing some of the low-lying parts of the city (in particular the Piazza San Marco) from being flooded. According to the Köppen climate classification , Venice has a mid-latitude, four season humid subtropical climate ( Cfa ), with cool, damp winters and warm, humid summers. The 24-hour average temperature in January
8352-441: Was an Italian playwright and librettist from the Republic of Venice . His works include some of Italy's most famous and best-loved plays. Audiences have admired the plays of Goldoni for their ingenious mix of wit and honesty. His plays offered his contemporaries images of themselves, often dramatizing the lives, values, and conflicts of the emerging middle classes . Though he wrote in French and Italian, his plays make rich use of
8448-406: Was an apothecary ; as for the grandfather, he had died four years before Carlo's birth. In any case, Goldoni was deeply interested in theatre from his earliest years, and all attempts to direct his activity into other channels were of no avail; his toys were puppets, and his books were plays. His father placed him under the care of the philosopher Caldini at Rimini but the youth soon ran away with
8544-655: Was born 6 August 1911. In 1927, Bax married Vera, née Rawnsley, a painter and poet (1888–1974). Rawnsley was previously married to Stanley Kennedy North, an artist, and Alexander Bell Filson Young (1876–1938), a journalist with whom she had two sons: William David Loraine Filson-Young and Richard Filson-Young; they—Bax's stepsons—were both killed in World War II . Goldoni Carlo Osvaldo Goldoni ( / ɡ ɒ l ˈ d oʊ n i / , also US : / ɡ ɔː l ˈ -, ɡ oʊ l ˈ -/ , Italian: [ˈkarlo oˈzvaldo ɡolˈdoːni] ; 25 February 1707 – 6 February 1793)
8640-773: Was born in Upper Tooting , south London (not Knightsbridge , as sometimes stated). His father was a barrister of the Middle Temple , but having a private income he did not practise. In 1896 the family moved to a mansion in Hampstead . He was educated at the Slade and the Heatherley Art School . He gave up painting to concentrate on writing. Independent wealth gave Bax time to write, and social connections. He had an apartment in Albany ,
8736-463: Was constantly at work and when, at Livorno , he became acquainted with the manager Medebac, he determined to pursue the profession of playwriting in order to make a living. He was employed by Medebac to write plays for his theatre in Venice. He worked for other managers and produced during his stay in that city some of his most characteristic works. He also wrote Momolo Cortesan in 1738. By 1743, he had perfected his hybrid style of playwriting (combining
8832-475: Was elected in 697, as written in the oldest chronicle by John, deacon of Venice c. 1008 . Some modern historians claim Paolo Lucio Anafesto was actually the Exarch Paul , and Paul's successor, Marcello Tegalliano , was Paul's magister militum (or "general"), literally "master of soldiers". In 726 the soldiers and citizens of the exarchate rose in a rebellion over the iconoclastic controversy , at
8928-730: Was one of the largest in Europe in the High Middle Ages , with a population of 60,000 in AD 1000; 80,000 in 1200; and rising up to 110,000–180,000 in 1300. In the mid-1500s the city's population was 170,000, and by 1600 it approached 200,000. In 2021, there were 254,850 people residing in the Comune of Venice (the population figure includes 50,434 in the historic city of Venice (Centro storico), 177,621 in Terraferma (the mainland); and 26,795 on other islands in
9024-402: Was this very success that was the object of harsh critiques by Carlo Gozzi , who accused Goldoni of having deprived the Italian theatre of the charms of poetry and imagination. The great success of Gozzi's fairy dramas so irritated Goldoni that it led to his self-exile to France. Goldoni gave to his country a classical form, which, though it has since been cultivated, has yet to be cultivated by
9120-545: Was threatened by invaders. Venice remained closely associated with Constantinople, being twice granted trading privileges in the Eastern Roman Empire, through the so-called golden bulls or "chrysobulls", in return for aiding the Eastern Empire to resist Norman and Turkish incursions. In the first chrysobull, Venice acknowledged its homage to the empire; but not in the second, reflecting the decline of Byzantium and
9216-453: Was threatened with the interdict on a number of occasions and twice suffered its imposition. The second, most noted, occasion was in 1606, by order of Pope Paul V . The newly invented German printing press spread rapidly throughout Europe in the 15th century, and Venice was quick to adopt it. By 1482, Venice was the printing capital of the world; the leading printer was Aldus Manutius , who invented paperback books that could be carried in
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