Chronology

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During the first 800 years of their history the Venetians established their independence, founded their commercial supremacy in the eastern Mediterranean, and evolved their own system of aristocratic Government at home.

421 Traditional foundation of Venice
697 Election of first Doge
809 Pepin’s attack on Venice
829 Seizure of St Mark’s body
960 Dalmatians raid Venice
976 Basilica burnt
997 War against Dalmatians
997 ‘Marriage of the Adriatic’
1001 Otto III in Venice
1177 Pope Alexander II meets Barbarossa
1202 Fourth Crusade
1297 Establishment of patrician autocracy

Throughout the 14th century after the division of the Byzantine Empire, Venice was involved in a ding-dong struggle with her rival Genoa, against a background of political instability at home. It ended triumphantly in the climax of Venetian success.

1310 Tiepolo conspiracy
1335 Council of Ten instituted
1355 Doge Faliero beheaded
1373 Jews arrive in Venice
1380 Genoese surrender at Chioggia

With Genoa defeated, the Venetians looked inland, and by the middle of the 15th century had established a mainland Empire reaching almost to Milan. The fall of Constantinople, however, marked the beginning of their enfeeble-ment.

1403-5 Acquisition of Bassano, Belluno, Padua, Verona
1406 Death of Carrara
1421 birth of Gentile Bellini
1426 birth of Giovanni Bellini
1431 death of Carmagnola
1435 birth of Verrochio
1450 birth of Carpaccio
1453 Turks take Constantinople
1454 Acquisition of Treviso, Friuli, Bergamo, Ravenna





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During the last four centuries of her history, despite periods of astonishing artistic fertility, Venice declined in power and virility, her power whittled away in constant defensive wars against the Turks and by the rise of new commercial rivals in the West. By the middle of the 18th century her Empire was almost gone, and she subsided in carnival and garish excess towards her end as a State.

1457 Doge Foscari deposed
1472 birth of Giorgione
1479 birth of Sansovino
1480 birth of Palma Vecchio
1498 Annexation of Cyprus
1498 da Gama’s voyage to India
1508 League of Cambrai
1512 birth of da Ponte
1512 birth of Tintoretto
1513 birth of Paris Bordone
1518 birth of Palladio
1528 birth of Veronese
1539 Council of Three instituted
1544 birth of Palma Giovane
1571 Death of Bragadino
1574 Visit of Henry III of France
1580 birth of Longhena
1606 The Great Interdict
1607 Attempt on Sarpi’s life
1693 birth of Tiepolo
1697 birth of Canaletto
1702 birth of Longhi
1712 birth of Guardi
1751 Murazzi completed
1757 birth of Canova
1784 Campaign against the Barbary pirates
1797 French take Venice
1798 Venice ceded to Austria
1800 Papal Conclave in Venice
1806 Return of French to Venice
1814 Return of Austrians to Venice
1846 Railway causeway built
1848 Venetian revolution against Austria