The author Thomas Okey (1852–1935) was a translator from Italian as well as an expeort on art and the topography of architecture and art worksin both Italy and France. He was also very accomplished in basket weaving.

In 1919 he was appointed as the first professor in Cambridge University under the Serena Professor of Italian title.

Venice is a world of canals, streets and bridges. Set in its marshy lagoon it developed over centuries to become the foremost of the Maritime Republics of Italy (Geona, Oisa nad Amalfi were the others).

This history of Venice, its conquests, its great trading routes which gained it an empire, is told by Okey togetherwith a fascinating description of much of the City’s beauty and architecture.