The Venetian Stories Podcast is a podcast of stories about Venice, and in particular the History of Venice.
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It is not a chronological narrative, but a series of freestanding episodes from the two millennia of Venetian history.
Chronology is, however, the mother of all History, and she cannot be ignored. Therefore, the first few episodes are a quick-paced chronological narrative of the most important events . Listen to those episodes first, for the background.
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Venetian Stories
Episode 15 — The game of Calcio
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The Venetians played a ball game (or maybe two different) which was called football, or kicking ball, but it was more rugby-ish, but also not really.
Venice produced and exported Theriac, an ancient wonder medicine for just about every ailment imaginable. It was a flourishing business for centuries, and an important part of the Venetian economy.
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Happy New Year, even if two months early.
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The well-known image of the plague doctor with the beaked mask doesn’t really have a lot of support in our sources. Did he even exist?
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The plague slowly diminished during the 1700s, even if it didn’t disappear, and Venice reorganised the Lazzaretti.
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During the 1400s, Venice had created defences against the recurring outbreaks of the plague, and they kept Venice mostly safe for the following centuries. Mostly safe.
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Without a cure for the plague, the only way forward was prevention, and during the 1400s, Venice figured out how to govern the plague.
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The plague arrived in Venice in 1348, but what is the plague, and how did our ancestors understand it?
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Proper ball games for decent people? Not all ball games are equal; some are more equal than others.
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The Venetians played a ball game (or maybe two different) which was called football, or kicking ball, but it was more rugby-ish, but also not really.
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How a fun game of knightly courtship turned into bloody war, and, last but not least, white chicken.
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Noble, citizen, commoner, forestier, Jew, and what not. All people were absolutely not equal in the Republic of Venice.
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The story of Bianca Cappello tells us something about the institutions of the Republic of Venice, the agility of its government, and of early modern diplomacy.
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