I want to make sure /u/AlviseFalier and /u/EnricoDandalo see this, first of all. (I'm more of a social/cultural historian.)

Steven Epstein's Genoa and the Genoese, 958-1528 is probably the best single-shot on that city. I thought it was an enjoyable read although a little bit jumbled--definitely worth it; you'll learn a lot!

Eric Dursteler, Renegade Women: Gender, Identity, and Boundaries in the Early Modern Mediterranean sounds pretty academic from the title, but it's mostly a series of stories about Christian and Muslim women who crossed religious boundaries/converted (or refused to convert, against their parents wishes). It's set primarily in Venice and Venetian colonies.

I think Georg Christ's Trading Conflicts: Venetian Merchants and Mamluk Officials in Late Medieval Alexandria is cost-prohibitive and is more about Venetian than Venice, but if you have access to an academic library check it out. It's one of the most interesting little bits of medieval history I've read--Venetian merchant companies with bases and agents in Egypt, dealing with trade back home, politics in Alexandria--and playing both sides for their own gain.

Madden's is the best general intro to Venice, recommended it to non-historians who have all loved it.

Epstein's Genoa and the Genoese is still solid but it's beginning to show signs of its age. Brill put out a Guide to Medieval Genoa, but it's incredibly technical and assumes you have a fair bit of background knowledge to make these technicalities make sense. In the end, the best books on Genoa are written in Italian or French. Great work in those languages on Venice as well, but anglophone historians have paid more attention to Venice.

This summer I read "The City of Fortune: How Venice Ruled the Seas" by Roger Crowley and I think it is exactly what you are looking for. It's main focus is Venice but there is plenty about Genoa as well since the cities were constantly locked in a power struggle to control the Mediterranean. It begins around the year 1000 and finishes with the ascension of the Ottoman Empire. Also explains the economics and institutions that made Venice so successful.

I really like John Julius Norwich's History of Venice as a broad introduction to Venetian history. I don't know that there's been a comparable comprehensive venetian history between this book's publication in the 1970s and the more recent publication of Thomas F. Madden's Venice: A New History in 2005 (and of the two, I prefer Norwich's because he's much more meticulous and detailed).

However, Norwich tends to look much more at political history that he does at social or economic history. He revels in describing the wily schemes of Venice's diplomats in minute detail, but only mentions the organization of the great trade convoys in passing. So for an approachable and accessible examination of Venetian commercial history I'd suggest the 2012 book City of Fortune: How Venice Ruled the Seas by Roger Crowley, which also has a particular emphasis on late medieval Venice. Frederick C. Lane's latest revisitation of Venetian ships and shipbuilders of the Renaissance could also interest you.

I know that this isn't really a helpful comment, but unfortunately most of the reading I do on Venice is in Italian. Ugo Tucci at the Ca'Foscari University in Venice has meticulously examined the ledgers of Francesco Contarini, a Venetian Magistrate in the 16th century (and ancestor to a homonymous Doge). From these ledgers he extrapolates an analysis on Venetian trade, economics, and society in Mercanti, navi, monete nel cinquecento veneziano (Il Mulino, Bologna. 1981). There is also Luzzato's older Storia economica di Venezia dall'XI al XVI secolo which covers your exact time period of interest.

/u/AlviseFalier & /u/EnricoDandalo

Let's say I was to make a reading list, organized in order from the most general & accessible to the most scholarly & detailed. Is this the best reading order?

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Crowley, Roger - City of Fortune

Madden, Thomas R. - Venice: A New History

Norwich, John Julius - A History of Venice

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