Venice: The Anthology Guide

This is the ebook version, specially revised and completely updated in 2013, of Venice: The Anthology Guide, Milton Grundy’s perennially fresh classic travel guide to the city. It is based on the sixth edition, which had itself been updated, revised and reset in 2007. It is unlike any other guide, since it conducts visitors round Venice using the observations and opinions of famous writers and art historians to enlighten them. Among the people it quotes are Vasari, Ruskin, Berenson, Wittkower, Dickens, Henry James, A.J.C. Hare, Otto Demus, Ernst Gombrich, Michael Levey, Cecil Gould, Hugh Honour, James Morris and Alan Bennett. It includes thirty colour illustrations, twenty of them by Sarah Quill, the renowned photographer of Venice. The book divides Venice up into seven walks and four excursions, with eight clear maps, so that people can see the maximum number of sights they wish to in a limited time. Its coverage of Venice’s rich store of paintings and sculpture is as full as that of its unique architecture. Most of the illustrations - Sarah Quill’s photographs apart - are taken from old engravings and paintings, and, like the text, provide a fascinating historical perspective on the present-day versions of the scenes and buildings they represent. London Review of Books, on 6th edition, 2007: ‘Milton Grundy’s brilliant guide to the sights of Venice, newly published in an expanded sixth edition, is an anthology of some of the best and most illuminating writings about the city and its treasures, arranged around seven walks and three excursions. From Vasari to Alan Bennett, the chorus of voices from past and present provides a supremely cultured accompaniment for strolling around the monuments.’ Geographical Magazine: ‘...[it] provides an opportunity to see the city as it was and is today. Using this guide, you can scour the waterways and be enlightened by well-known writers and art-historians on practically every aspect surrounding this architecturally and culturally rich city...a brilliant anthological guide to Venice, which informs the user of the best walks through [it].’ Scotsman: ‘Seeking out the gems of Venice’s art history in its churches and scuole will require the services of a good guide-book...Venice is a good travelling companion, giving art-historical background and descriptions from a variety of learned visitors down the centuries.’ Rivista, Journal of the British-Italian Society: ‘...[it deserves] the warmest of welcomes. Above all, if there is a member of the British-Italian Society who does not know Milton Grundy’s book, he or she should immediately go out and buy a copy.’