Description: Ioanna Iordanou traces the remarkable development of Venetian intelligence in the city-state system of Northern Italy, contesting that early-modern Venice was home of the world's first centrally-organized state intelligence service, setting a framework that has been instrumental in the creation of modern intelligence.
Review Quotes: "This book includes many of the kinds of stories one hopes to find in a history of espionage: state-ordered poisonings; letter interceptions and invisible ink ... This is an intriguing twist on recent works." -- Rosa Salzberg, Jahrbuch für Kommunikationsgeschichte
"I found much to admire in this work, and I expect I will find myself returning to it repeatedly. Iordanou has done a great service to the field in parsing the complexity of the Venetian intelligence system." -- Eric R. Dursteler, Journal of Modern History"This is a book that will fascinate anyone interested in intelligence services, the history of information management, the development of cryptography, or the history of Venice." -- Professor Tom Wilson, Information Research