"Venice. To visit is to be strongly jostled between fantasy and very real architectural splendor. One opens one's eyes and sees grandeur and intimacy, unique colors reflecting in the watery canals, medieval and Renaissance masterpieces in every church and civic building. Any book devoted to Venice is cause for celebration." -Peter Marino, American Architect
With Venice: La Serenissima, Assouline presents one of the most historically ambitious volumes in the brand's Ultimate Collection. Conceived on a grand visual scale, the title approaches Venice as a complete ecosystem of power-political, artistic, architectural, and spiritual. Written by Venetian historian Alberto Toso Fei, a descendant of Venetian master glassmakers, and introduced by famed architect Peter Marino, the book unveils across a thousand-plus years of Venetian history and culture. It follows the Republic from its marsh-born origins through its maritime supremacy and artistic ascendancy to its gradual political decline and a city pressured by mass tourism yet sustained by restoration, cinema, and contemporary art. While encompassing the city's prominent monuments and figures, Venice: La Serenissima digs deeper, looking beyond to reveal the city's historical impact on modern culture and its influence in shaping the culture, politics, and architecture of Italy and Europe, from the quarantine islands that originated from the Venetian word quarantena, to the Scuole who founded philanthropic and devotional institutions designed to support social welfare, to the Biennale, which profoundly influences global art trends to this day. The visual scope is equally expansive: Iconic photographs by Helmut Newton and Cecil Beaton appear alongside museum-quality reproductions drawn from rare books, ecclesiastical archives, major institutions, and private collections. Yet beyond scholarship and spectacle, the volume offers something rarer: the sensation of arrival. Venice: La Serenissima is a passage into the city itself-into its shifting light, echoing campi, and salt-laced air. Through the convergence of history, imagery, and atmosphere, the title preserves Venice's rich artistic and historical legacies, available in a standard Ultimate Edition and two limited Special Editions, each featuring a bespoke, handmade clamshell created in partnership with Venetian textile brand Fortuny.
The Culture Bookstand (presented in Camel, Ultimate Size), embodies the art of simplicity with elegance. Crafted from luxurious walnut wood and finished with pebbled leather, it commands attention with its bold angles and textured surfaces, gently tilting forward to showcase your book at the ideal angle.
