Carlo Contarini (5 July 1580 – 1 May 1656) was the 100th

Doge of Venice The Doge of Venice ( ; vec, Doxe de Venexia ; it, Doge di Venezia ; all derived from Latin ', "military leader"), sometimes translated as Duke (compare the Italian '), was the chief magistrate and leader of the Republic of Venice between 726 a ...

, reigning from his election on 27 March 1655 until his death a little over a year later.

Background 1580–1655

Carlo Contarini was born in

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 ...

, the son of Elisabetta Morosini and Andrea Contarini; his father died ten days after his birth. He was thus the heir of a large fortune, as well as the

Contarini The House of Contarini is one of the founding families of Venicehttps://archive.org/details/teatroaraldicose02tett, Leone Tettoni. ''Teatro araldico ovvero raccolta generale delle armi ed insegne gentilizie delle piu illustri e nobili casate ...

name, so renowned in the history of the

Republic of Venice The Republic of Venice ( vec, Repùblega de Venèsia) or Venetian Republic ( vec, Repùblega Vèneta, links=no), traditionally known as La Serenissima ( en, Most Serene Republic of Venice, italics=yes; vec, Serenìsima Repùblega de Venèsia, ...

. He was married to Paolina Loredano. In the course of a long and distinguished career, Contarini traversed the ''

cursus honorum The ''cursus honorum'' (; , or more colloquially 'ladder of offices') was the sequential order of public offices held by aspiring politicians in the Roman Republic and the early Roman Empire. It was designed for men of senatorial rank. The '' ...

'' of the Venetian Republic, serving as ''

provveditore The Italian title ''prov ditore'' (plural ''provveditori''; also known in gr, προνοητής, προβλεπτής; sh, providur), "he who sees to things" (overseer), was the style of various (but not all) local district governors in the exten ...

'', '' savio'',

rector Rector (Latin for the member of a vessel's crew who steers) may refer to: Style or title *Rector (ecclesiastical), a cleric who functions as an administrative leader in some Christian denominations *Rector (academia), a senior official in an edu ...

, and member of the

Senate of Venice The Senate ( vec, Senato), formally the ''Consiglio dei Pregadi'' or ''Rogati'' (, la, Consilium Rogatorum), was the main deliberative and legislative body of the Republic of Venice. Establishment The Venetian Senate was founded in 1229, or le ...

. In the years immediately prior to his election as Doge, he had almost entirely withdrawn from public life, and he appears to not even have considered becoming a

Procurator of San Marco The office of Procurator of Saint Mark ( Venetian: Procurador de San Marco) was one of the few lifetime appointments in the government of the Venetian Republic and was considered second only to that of the doge in prestige. Da Mosto, ''L'Archivio d ...

Election and Reign as Doge, 1655–1656

Following the death of Doge Francesco Molin on 27 February 1655, electors met to elect his successor in March 1655, but were divided and could not agree on a candidate. They eventually settled on Carlo Contarini as a compromise candidate because he was allied with all factions, and old enough that he was not expected to have a long reign. He was consequently elected on the 68th ballot on 27 March 1655. Contarini's thirteen-month reign did not see any notable events. As Doge, he sought to reconcile the various factions that divided Venice. Venice's prolonged war with the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...

for possession of

Crete Crete ( el, Κρήτη, translit=, Modern: , Ancient: ) is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the 88th largest island in the world and the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, Sardinia, Cyprus, and ...

continued throughout his entire reign. Perhaps because of the heavy workload of being Doge, Contarini fell ill in early 1656, and, after a series of failed medical treatments, died in Venice on 1 May 1656.

References

This article was based on this article on

Italian Wikipedia The Italian Wikipedia ( it, Wikipedia in italiano) is the Italian-language edition of Wikipedia. This edition was created on May 11, 2001 and first edited on June 11, 2001. As of , , it has articles and more than registered accounts. It is th ...

. {{DEFAULTSORT:Contarini, Carlo 1580 births 1656 deaths Carlo Republic of Venice people of the Ottoman–Venetian Wars 16th-century Italian nobility 17th-century Italian nobility 17th-century Doges of Venice