She has studied 16th-century Venice all her career and is particularly interested in the Renaissance. In her book “A Brief History of Venice,” Horodowich tells how Venice grew out of the swamps of Italy and became one of the great mercantile and cultural centers of the world. Horodowich tells the whole story, showing that Venice, alongside Florence and Rome, was one of the great Renaissance capitals. The book also investigates the history of Venice as a multicultural trading city where Christians, Jews and Muslims lived together at the crossroads between East and West. The narrative runs all the way to the present, to the current problems with the sinking island.