The Republic of Venice, traditionally known as La Serenissima, was a sovereign state and maritime republic with its capital in Venice. Founded, according to tradition, in 697 by Paolo Lucio Anafesto, over the course of its 1,100 years of history it established itself as one of the major European commercial and naval powers. Initially extended in the Dogado area, during its history it annexed a large part of Northeast Italy, Istria, Dalmatia, the coasts of present-day Montenegro and Albania as well as numerous islands in the Adriatic and eastern Ionian seas. At the height of its expansion, between the 13th and 16th centuries, it also governed the Peloponnese, Crete and Cyprus, most of the Greek islands, as well as several cities and ports in the eastern Mediterranean.
Andrea Gritti was the Doge of the Venetian Republic from 1523 to 1538, following a distinguished diplomatic and military career. He started out as a successful merchant in Constantinople and transitioned into the position of Bailo, a diplomatic role. He was arrested for espionage but was spared execution thanks to his good relationship with the Ottoman vizier. After being freed from imprisonment, he returned to Venice and began his political career. When the War of the League of Cambrai broke out, despite his lack of experience, he was given a leadership role in the Venetian military, where he excelled. After the war, he was elected doge, and he held that post until his death.
The Contarini is one of the founding families of Venice and one of the oldest families of the Italian Nobility. In total eight Doges to the Republic of Venice emerged from this family, as well as 44 Procurators of San Marco, numerous ambassadors, diplomats and other notables. Among the ruling families of the republic, they held the most seats in the Great Council of Venice from the period before the Serrata del Maggior Consiglio when Councillors were elected annually to the end of the republic in 1797. The Contarini claimed to be of Roman origin through their patrilineal descendance of the Aurelii Cottae, a branch of the Roman family Aurelia, and traditionally trace their lineage back to Gaius Aurelius Cotta, consul of the Roman Republic in 252 BC and 248 BC.
The Barbaro family was a patrician family of Venice. They were wealthy and influential and owned large estates in the Veneto above Treviso. Various members were noted as church leaders, diplomats, patrons of the arts, military commanders, philosophers, scholars, and scientists.
Domenico Selvo was the 31st Doge of Venice, serving from 1071 to 1084. During his reign as Doge, his domestic policies, the alliances that he forged, and the battles that the Venetian military won and lost laid the foundations for much of the subsequent foreign and domestic policy of the Republic of Venice. He avoided confrontations with the Byzantine Empire, the Holy Roman Empire, and the Roman Catholic Church at a time in European history when conflict threatened to upset the balance of power. At the same time, he forged new agreements with the major nations that would set up a long period of prosperity for the Republic of Venice. Through his military alliance with the Byzantine Empire, Emperor Alexios I Komnenos awarded Venice economic favors with the declaration of a golden bull that would allow for the development of the republic's international trade over the next few centuries.
Vitale Faliero Dodoni and usually known in English as Vitale Falier was the 32nd Doge of Venice from 1084 until his death in 1095.
Ludovico Balbi was a Venetian singer and composer, and conductor. He was a pupil of Costanzo Porta and a choirmaster at Padua. Among his compositions are masses, motets, canzoni, madrigals, and others. Surviving compositions date as early as 1570.
Lodovico Giovanni Manin was a Venetian politician, patrician, and the 120th and last Doge of Venice. He governed the Venetian Republic from 9 March 1789 until its fall in 1797, when he was forced to abdicate by Napoleon Bonaparte.
The House of Loredan is a Venetian noble family of supposed ancient Roman origin, which has played a significant role in shaping the history of the Mediterranean world. A political dynasty, the family has throughout the centuries produced a number of famous personalities: doges, statesmen, magnates, financiers, diplomats, procurators, military commanders, naval captains, church dignitaries, and writers.
The Revolt of Saint Titus was a fourteenth-century rebellion against the Republic of Venice in the Venetian colony of Crete. The rebels overthrew the official Venetian authorities and attempted to create an independent state, declaring Crete a republic under the protection of Saint Titus : the "Republic of Saint Titus".
The Ionian Islands were an overseas possession of the Republic of Venice from the mid-14th century until the late 18th century. The conquest of the islands took place gradually. The first to be acquired was Cythera and the neighboring islet of Anticythera, indirectly in 1238 and directly after 1363. In 1386 the Council of Corfu, which was the governing body of the island, voted to make Corfu a vassal of Venice. During the Venetian period the Council remained the most powerful institution on the island. A century later, Venice captured Zante in 1485, Cephalonia in 1500 and Ithaca in 1503. These three islands modelled their administration on Corfu's model and formed their own councils. The conquest was completed in 1718 with the capture of Lefkada. Each of the islands remained part of the Venetian Stato da Màr until Napoleon Bonaparte dissolved the Republic of Venice in 1797. The Ionian Islands are situated in the Ionian Sea, off the west coast of Greece. Cythera, the southernmost, is just off the southern tip of the Peloponnese and Corfu, the northernmost, is located at the entrance of the Adriatic Sea. It is believed that the Venetian period on the Ionian Islands was generally prosperous, especially compared with the coinciding Tourkokratia — Turkish rule over the remainder of present-day Greece.
Venetian Renaissance architecture began rather later than in Florence, not really before the 1480s, and throughout the period mostly relied on architects imported from elsewhere in Italy. The city was very rich during the period, and prone to fires, so there was a large amount of building going on most of the time, and at least the facades of Venetian buildings were often particularly luxuriantly ornamented.
The Zeno family, also known as Zen, was a patrician family that belonged to the small circle of Venetian noble families, whose members played important role in the history of the Republic of Venice.
The Bailo of Corfu was the leader of the Venetian delegation to the island of Corfu who oversaw the affairs of the island while under Venetian rule and protected the commercial and military interests of the Republic of Venice. The first mention of a bailo in Corfu is in 1386 and is found in a Greek chronicle. The bailo of Corfu is also mentioned in a document by historian Marco Guazzo from 1544.
In 1268, the Byzantine Empire and the Republic of Venice agreed to temporarily end hostilities which had erupted after the Byzantine recovery of Constantinople by Emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos in 1261.
Armenis, in Italian and older English literature Armeni, is a Greek family from Corfu. The Armeni family is an ancient Byzantine-, and later Greco-Venetian gens that produced many important individuals in the history of Europe. With origins in Byzantium, the family achieved levels of wealth and prominence over the centuries in branches found across the territories of modern Greece and Italy. The Armeni are listed in numerous registers of nobility, including Teatro della Nobiltà dell'Europa, ovvero notizia delle famiglie nobili, che in Europa vivono di presente, e che in lei vissero prima (1725), Origine de' cognomi gentilizi nel Regno di Napoli (1756), Dictionnaire Historique et Généalogique des Grandes Familles de Grèce, d'Albanie et de Constantinople (1983), Livre d'Or de la Noblesse Ionienne (1925), and La Dalmazia Giornale Letterario Economico Inteso Agli Interessi Della Provincia, Volume 2 (1846), among others.
The Moro family was a patrician family of the Republic of Venice.
This is an alphabetical index of people, places, things, and concepts related to or originating from the Republic of Venice. Feel free to add more, and create missing pages.
Loredan is a Venetian surname. The House of Loredan is an aristocratic Venetian family that included various doges of the Republic of Venice, and the surname is almost exclusively associated with the family. The surname most likely originated from the toponym Loreo, which itself originated from its Latin name Lauretum, meaning laurel. Another theory of the origin of the surname, though most likely legendary, is that it comes from the Latin epithet Laureati, given to ancestors of the Loredan family due to their historical glory in ancient Rome and the many victories they achieved in battles. The surname is spelled Loredano or Loredan in Italian, Lauredano or Lauredanus in Latin, and Lorentano (Λορεντάνο) in Greek, though it is also historically found as Lordas (Λορδᾶς) and Lordano (Λορδάνο). The feminine name Loredana, common in Italy and Romania, was likely inspired by the surname.
Lomellini is an Italian surname of Genoese origin.
