Life and times of william shakespeare 4

4. The (historical and cultural) Setting of Venice

* What was Venice like during the 15th and 16th century? Comment especially on its demographics and culture.

* Why was Venice important during the 15th and 16th century?

* What was the dominant religion in Venice? How were Jews treated and regarded?

* How is Venice a choice setting for the plot of this play?

4) In the 15^th century, Venice was fighting and conquering various islands around it, and various territories up to the Middle East. Venice also allied with various different countries to enable it to conquer various islands. At the end of the 15^th century, there were roughly around 180,000 inhabitants. However in the 16^th century, Venice’s power declined as it broke out with war with various countries at around the same point of time. In the 16^th century, Venice also played an important role in the development of the Music Of Italy as it became one of the most important musical centers. Venice also became the one of the early music printing center. The paintings there were also developed through influences from the Paduan School and Antonello de Messina.

Ottaviano Petrucci began publishing music almost as soon as this technology was available, and his publishing enterprise helped to attract composers from all over Europe, especially from France and Flanders. By the end of the century, Venice was famous for the splendor of its music, as exemplified in the "colossal style" of Andrea and Giovanni Gabrieli, which used multiple choruses and instrumental groups. Venice was also the home of many famous composers during the baroque period, such as Antonio Vivaldi, Ippolito Ciera, Giovanni Picchi, and Girolamo Dalla Casa, to name but a few.~Wikipedia

The dominant relationship then was the Roman Catholic religion. Jews were treated badly at various other countries and evicted, however they were allowed at Venice. However, there were some restrictions for the Jews at Venice such as that they could not work in certain jobs such as lawyers, doctors and bankers, but they could only be moneylenders.

This is because the story revolves around Antonio and the Jewish moneylender, Shylock. Since in most places Jews were banished, and most of them were at Venice and worked as moneylenders, this would then be appropriate as Antonio was only able to loan money from a Jew there.