Andrea Dandolo (13067 September 1354) was elected the 54th

doge A doge ( , ; plural dogi or doges) was an elected lord and head of state in several Italian city-states, notably Venice and Genoa, during the medieval and renaissance periods. Such states are referred to as " crowned republics". Etymology The ...

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 ...

in 1343, replacing Bartolomeo Gradenigo who died in late 1342.

Early life

Trained in historiography and law, Andrea Dandolo studied at the

University of Padua The University of Padua ( it, Università degli Studi di Padova, UNIPD) is an Italian university located in the city of Padua, region of Veneto, northern Italy. The University of Padua was founded in 1222 by a group of students and teachers from B ...

, where he became a law professor until he was elected as doge. He was descended from an old Venetian noble family, the

Dandolo The House of Dandolo () was a patrician family of the Republic of Venice, which produced four Doges of Venice. The progenitor of the family was a merchant named Domenico. The family became more successful by the beginning of the 12th century. ...

, that played an important role in Venetian politics from the 12th to 15th centuries, and produced four Venetian doges, of whom he was the last, numerous admirals and several other prominent citizens. Dandolo's rise to prominence in Venetian public life was precocious. In 1331, at the age of only 25, he was named procurator of St. Mark's Basilica.

Doge

He became doge in 1343 at the age of 37. Dandolo was known as a benefactor of the arts. To St Mark's Basilica he added the Chapel of San Isidoro, oversaw changes to the Pala d'Oro and expanded and beautified the Baptistery. He reformed the Venetian legal code, formally proclaiming a legal framework in 1346 that compiled all of the applicable laws in the Republic. He was a friend of

Petrarch Francesco Petrarca (; 20 July 1304 – 18/19 July 1374), commonly anglicized as Petrarch (), was a scholar and poet of early Renaissance Italy, and one of the earliest humanists. Petrarch's rediscovery of Cicero's letters is often credited w ...

's, who wrote of Dandolo that he was "a just man, incorruptible, full of ardor and love for his country, erudite, eloquent, wise, affable and humane". His reign was beset by challenges as Venice was struck by a violent earthquake on 25 January 1348 that caused hundreds of casualties, destroyed numerous buildings and, it was assumed at the time, provoked the terrible outbreak of the

Black Death The Black Death (also known as the Pestilence, the Great Mortality or the Plague) was a bubonic plague pandemic occurring in Western Eurasia and North Africa from 1346 to 1353. It is the most fatal pandemic recorded in human history, causi ...

, which did not end until 1350. Between 1348 and 1350 a third of the population died. Also Venice endured a disastrous war with the Hungarians following

Zadar Zadar ( , ; historically known as Zara (from Venetian and Italian: ); see also other names), is the oldest continuously inhabited Croatian city. It is situated on the Adriatic Sea, at the northwestern part of Ravni Kotari region. Zadar serv ...

's seventh revolt against the

Most Serene Republic Most Serene Republic ( la, Serenissima Respublica) ( it, Serenissima Repubblica) is a title attached to a number of European states through history. By custom, the appellation "Most Serene" is an indicator of sovereignty (see also Serene Highnes ...

in 1345. Allied with the Hungarians,

Genoa Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of the Italian region of Liguria and the List of cities in Italy, sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city's administrative limits. As of the 2011 Italian ce ...

deployed a powerful naval fleet to the

Adriatic The Adriatic Sea () is a body of water separating the Italian Peninsula from the Balkans, Balkan Peninsula. The Adriatic is the northernmost arm of the Mediterranean Sea, extending from the Strait of Otranto (where it connects to the Ionian Sea) ...

under the command of

Paganino Doria Paganino Doria was an Italian admiral from the prominent Genoese Doria family. He was the victorious head of the Genoese naval forces in the conflict between the Republic of Genoa to Venice in the middle of the 14th century. Paganino Doria seize ...

that devastated the Venetian territories and threatened Venice herself. Venice was saved by the great naval victory of Lojera in 1353. Dandolo was the last doge to be interred in St Mark's Basilica.

Writings

Dandolo wrote two chronicles in Latin on the history of Venice, the ''Chronica per extensum descripta aa.''

d annum D, or d, is the fourth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''dee'' (pronounced ), plural ''dees''. History The ...

/nowiki> ''46–1280 d.C.'' opo Cristo/nowiki>, written between 1344 and 1351/52, and the ''Chronica brevis aa. 46–1342 d.C.'', written before 1342, which can both be found in volume XII of Muratori’s collection ''Rerum Italicarum Scriptores''.Originally published in Milan in 1728, a new edition, edited by Ester Pastorello, was published in Bologna in 1938.

References

Bibliography

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Dandolo, Andrea 1306 births 1354 deaths 14th-century Italian jurists 14th-century Doges of Venice Andrea, Doge University of Padua alumni University of Padua faculty Italian chroniclers Burials at St Mark's Basilica