Between the eleventh and thirteenth centuries, Venice transformed itself from a struggling merchant commune to a powerful maritime empire that would shape events in the Mediterranean for the next four hundred years. In this magisterial new book on medieval Venice, Thomas F. Madden traces the city-state´s extraordinary rise through the life of Enrico Dandolo (c. 1107-1205), who ruled Venice as doge from 1192 until his death. This first full-length study devoted to Dandolo´s life and times corrects the many misconceptions about him that have accumulated over the centuries, offering an accurate and incisive assessment of Dandolo´s motives, abilities, and achievements as doge, as well as his role - and Venice´s - in the Fourth Crusade.