Scorci veneziani sulla regione del Mar Nero (secoli XV-XIX)

The article exposes some ‘visions’ of the Black Sea region recorded in Venice from the mid-fifteenth to the late eighteenth century. The ‘Mongolian Pax’ no longer existed and with the ar- rival of the Ottomans the Armenian, Genoese and Venetian colonies were suppressed. However, the memories and above all the Venetian geopolitical relocations relating to those regions, which were at that time at the intersection of Moscovia, Ottoman Empire and Iran, remained tangible. These Venetian documents attest the commercial traffic that in this new phase returned to head towards the eastern Mediterranean and also the hopes still cultivated by the Serenissima Repubblica, at that time on the decline. The Description of the shores of the Black Sea (1819), still produced in Venice on the island of San Lazzaro but ideally directed to the Russian emperor, instead of to the Doges, is emblematic.