Bruni family was a Venetian-Albanian medieval family dating back to the 13th century in

Shkodër Shkodër ( , ; sq-definite, Shkodra) is the fifth-most-populous city of the Republic of Albania and the seat of Shkodër County and Shkodër Municipality. The city sprawls across the Plain of Mbishkodra between the southern part of Lake Shkod ...

The family fled when the city was occupied by the

Ottomans The Ottoman Turks ( tr, Osmanlı Türkleri), were the Turkic founding and sociopolitically the most dominant ethnic group of the Ottoman Empire ( 1299/1302–1922). Reliable information about the early history of Ottoman Turks remains scarce, ...

. Part of the family was located in modern day

Koper Koper (; it, Capodistria, hr, Kopar) is the fifth largest city in Slovenia. Located in the Istrian region in the southwestern part of the country, approximately five kilometres () south of the border with Italy and 20 kilometres () from Triest ...

in Slovenia. Giovanni Bruni is mentioned as the

archbishop In Christian denominations, an archbishop is a bishop of higher rank or office. In most cases, such as the Catholic Church, there are many archbishops who either have jurisdiction over an ecclesiastical province in addition to their own archdi ...

Ulcinj Ulcinj ( cyrl, Улцињ, ; ) is a town on the southern coast of Montenegro and the capital of Ulcinj Municipality. It has an urban population of 10,707 (2011), the majority being Albanians. As one of the oldest settlements in the Adriatic coast ...

in 1581. He became the archbishop in 1551 and participated in the council of Trent in 1563. He died from the Spanish who boarded his ship and killed him after the

Battle of Lepanto The Battle of Lepanto was a naval engagement that took place on 7 October 1571 when a fleet of the Holy League, a coalition of Catholic states (comprising Spain and its Italian territories, several independent Italian states, and the Soverei ...

despite yelling ”''I am a Christian, I am a bishop''”. In 1537, Antonio II of the Bruti-family married with Maria of the Bruni family in Ulcinj. Gasparo Bruni is mentioned as the first knight of Malta, servant of Sultan Murad III. The family was ”trans-imperial subjects” with members working as translators, merchants, and men of the church making them valuable to the Venetians and Ottomans.

References

{{Albania-stub Albanian noble families