Venetians and Alchemy

In the middle ages and high renaissance, Venice was the wealthiest city in europe. Under a beneficent republican government, venetians enjoyed liberties that few other italians had ever known. The opening of the new world transferred power to the atlantic side of europe,. Venice could not compete economically, and its empire gradually dwindled. Now noble families went broke in venice, and banks began to fold. A kind of gloom and desperation settled over the citizens.