- When Venice was both a center of Renaissance culture and a gathering place for news from around the world, Marin Sanudo tried to write everything down. He was the finest diarist of his time, with a keen eye for the everyday and the monumental alike. Venice, Cita Excelentissima offers a broad and engaging introduction to Sanudo's detailed observations of life in his beloved city and the world it knew. This expertly translated volume glimpses into Renaissance life at a spectacular time when Venice was at the top of its game. Organized thematically, the selections offer a Venetian's viewpoint of the glories of high culture, the gritty reality and sparkling drama of daily life, the perils of diplomacy and war, and the high-risk ventures of voyages and commerce. Here, the work of the Renaissance's most assiduous historian is finally given the accessibility it warrants and the merit it is due. Marin Sanudo, italianised as Marino Sanuto or Sanuto the Younger (1466-1536), was a Venetian historian and diarist. His most significant work is his Diarii, which he had intended to write up into a history of Venice. This is a selection from 'Diarii', his most important work, which covers the period from 1 January 1496 to June 1533, and fills 58 volumes. The publication of these records was begun by Rinaldo Fulin in 1879, in collaboration with Federigo Stefani, Guglielmo Berchet, and Niccold Barozzi; the last volume was published in Venice in 1903. Owing to the relations of the Venetian republic with the whole of Europe and the East it is practically a universal chronicle. It is considered an invaluable source of information on that period.[