Acknowledgements

In the years that have passed since I first started my research on Renaissance descriptions of Venice, the list of people that supported me along my way has become longer and longer. It is with great pleasure that I take the opportunity of thanking them on these pages.

This book started its life as a PhD thesis, defended at the European University Institute in Florence. My gratitude goes to my supervisor, Luca Molà, for his advice, suggestions, and continuous support and encouragement, and to my second reader, Antonella Romano, for always being available to give me helpful feedback. I owe special thanks to Filippo de Vivo and Deborah Howard, who not only kindly accepted to be part of my jury, but who have continued to provide me with invaluable suggestions, help, and support in the years that have followed.

Since my PhD, my research has benefitted from the stimulating environment of the University of St Andrews, the Centre d’Études Supérieures de la Renaissance in Tours, and the Royal Netherlands Instititute in Rome. The countless conversations that I have had the pleasure of sharing with my colleagues in these institutions have been instrumental in further shaping my research, and I am grateful to all of them. Klazina Botke, Maria Clotilde Camboni, Marco Capponi, John Condren, Nora Epstein, Panagiotis Georgakakis, Shanti Graheli, Bridget Heal, Jan Hillgärtner, Marc Jaffré, Hanna de Lange, Erin Maglaque, Emily Michelson, Andrew Pettegree, Matteo Salonia, Massimo Scandola, Philippe Schmid, Drew Thomas, Wouter Wagemakers, and Arthur der Weduwen even read parts of the book, and offered me invaluable feedback and advice.

I am also indebted to the various audiences at seminars, workshops, and conferences in Europe and America, who provided me with insightful remarks and questions. Three anonymous reviewers at Brill read the book and gave me important comments and suggestions, for which I am most grateful.

In the years following my PhD it has been a pleasure and a privilege to work with David Fiala, Chiara Lastraioli, Serge Noiret, and Andrew Pettegree. Being a part of their projects has been an extremely valuable experience, and I am grateful for their advice, support, and encouragement over the years.

Denise Ardesi, Jozefien de Bock, Estela Bonnaffoux, Maria Chiara Campisi, Thomas Cauvin, Benedetta Cotta, Ferdinand Nicolas Göhde, Yvone Greis, Dario Miccoli, Faustine Migeon, Laura Puccio, Janine Kisba Silga, Jennifer Taylorson, and Giulia Ventrella helped improve my research by supporting me with their advice and suggestions, and made the process of writing the book so much more enjoyable. Great thanks also to Marco Capponi, Raffaele Godoli, and Elisa Godoli for their hospitality in Venice and Florence.

The research for this book has been financially supported by several institutions: my doctoral research was supported by the Dutch government and the European University Institute, while the University of St Andrews and the Royal Netherlands Institute in Rome have allowed me to do research in important libraries in the years since. I am very grateful for this opportunity.

I have had the privilege of working in beautiful libraries across Europe. Their staff members have always been very helpful, but I would like to thank in particular the staff of the Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana, the Ateneo Veneto, the Biblioteca del Museo Correr (Venice), the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Firenze, the Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Villa I Tatti, the Kunsthistorisches Institut Florenz, the Istituto Nazionale di Studi sul Rinascimento, the Università degli Studi di Firenze, the European University Institute (Florence), the Royal Netherlands Institute in Rome, the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana (Rome), the Centre d’Études Supérieures de la Renaissance (Tours), and the library of the University of St Andrews.

Earlier versions of some parts of this book have appeared elsewhere: parts of chapter 5 were published in ‘Constructing a mainland state in literature: Perceptions of Venice and its Terraferma in Marin Sanudo’s geographical descriptions’ in Renaissance and Reformation / Renaissance et Réforme (2014), an earlier version of chapter 6 was published as ‘Cities dominated by lions: The fifteenth-century Venetian mainland state depicted by inhabitants of the subject cities’ in Viator: Medieval and Renaissance Studies (2015), and parts of chapter 2 are included in ‘Pellegrini stranieri e il commercio veneziano nel Rinascimento’ in Rinascimento fra il Veneto e l’Europa: Questioni, metodi, percorsi, edited by Elisa Gregori (Padova: Cleup, 2018). I thank the editors for granting permission to reproduce these texts.

My greatest debt of gratitude is to my friends and family. I would never have been able to finish this book without the continuous support of my friends, spread all over the world. Most of all, I wish to thank my family. No part of the journey that led me to where I am now would have been possible without them. This book is dedicated to the memory of my grandparents.