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 ...
, 11 November 1551 – Venice, 23 December 1629) was the 96th Doge of Venice, reigning from 24 January 1625 until his death.
Early years, 1551–1625
He was the son of Marcantonio
Cornaro
The House of Cornaro or Corner are a family in Venice who were patricians in the Republic of Venice and included many Doges and other high officials. The name ''Corner'', originally from the Venetian dialect, was adopted in the eighteenth centu ...
and Cecilia Giustinian. He married Chiara Delfin on 10 February 1578 and the couple had twelve children.
He served as ''
capitano
Il Capitano (, Italian for "The Captain") is one of the four stock characters of '' Commedia dell'arte.'' He most likely was never a "Captain" but rather appropriated the name for himself.
He is often a braggart and a swaggerer who can maint ...
'' of Verona, before winning a spot on the Council of Ten in 1597. In 1600, he was made '' podestà'' of Padua, and in 1603, ''podestà'' of Brescia. In May 1609, he was named
Procurator of St Mark's
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 ...
.
Reign as Doge, 1625–1629
Doge
Francesco Contarini
Francesco Contarini (Venice, 28 November 1556 – Venice, 6 December 1624) was the 95th Doge of Venice, reigning from 8 September 1623 until his death fourteen months later.
Background, 1556–1623
Francesco Contarini was the son of Bertucc ...
died on 6 December 1624. Following a long conclave held on 4 January 1625, the Dogal voters converged on Giovanni Cornaro as their preferred candidate. Cornaro's children were strongly opposed to Cornaro's selection as Doge because of Venice's prohibition on the children of Doges being appointed to high office in government or in the Church.
Cornaro now attempted to turn the Dogal position to his family's advantage. In 1626,
Pope Urban VIII
Pope Urban VIII ( la, Urbanus VIII; it, Urbano VIII; baptised 5 April 1568 – 29 July 1644), born Maffeo Vincenzo Barberini, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 6 August 1623 to his death in July 1644. As po ...
appointed Cornaro's son
Federico Baldissera Bartolomeo Cornaro
Painting of Cardinal Cornaro by Bernardo Strozzi (c. 1640)
Coat of arms of Cardinal Federico Baldissera Bartolomeo Corner
Federico Baldissera Bartolomeo Cornaro (16 November 1579 – 5 June 1653) was an Italian Catholic Cardinal and Patriarch of ...
as a
cardinal
Cardinal or The Cardinal may refer to:
Animals
* Cardinal (bird) or Cardinalidae, a family of North and South American birds
**''Cardinalis'', genus of cardinal in the family Cardinalidae
**''Cardinalis cardinalis'', or northern cardinal, the ...
. This move was ultimately ratified by 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 ...
, but a latter attempt to make Federico Cornaro Bishop of Vicenza, and later,
Bishop of Padua
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Padua ( it, Diocesi di Padova; la, Dioecesis Patavina) is an episcopal see of the Catholic Church in Veneto, northern Italy. It was erected in the 3rd century.Council of Ten, emerged as a vocal critic of Cornaro, accusing him of running Venice for his own family's benefit by, among other things, turning a blind eye to his son Giorgio's trafficking in
contraband
Contraband (from Medieval French ''contrebande'' "smuggling") refers to any item that, relating to its nature, is illegal to be possessed or sold. It is used for goods that by their nature are considered too dangerous or offensive in the eyes o ...
goods. On 27 October, Zen caused an uproar at a meeting of the Great Council by accusing the Cornaro family of corruption; although the elections were annulled, he was unable to obtain any further sanctions. On December 30, Renier Zen was attacked by masked
assassins
An assassin is a person who commits targeted murder.
Assassin may also refer to:
Origin of term
* Someone belonging to the medieval Persian Ismaili order of Assassins
Animals and insects
* Assassin bugs, a genus in the family ''Reduviida ...
, who were later found to include Giorgio Cornaro, the son of the Doge.
Zen grew even more outspoken in his criticism of Cornaro in the wake of Giorgio Cornaro's failed assassination attempt. Venice now became divided into two factions, a pro-Conaro faction that was pro-
papal
The pope ( la, papa, from el, πάππας, translit=pappas, 'father'), also known as supreme pontiff ( or ), Roman pontiff () or sovereign pontiff, is the bishop of Rome (or historically the patriarch of Rome), head of the worldwide Cathol ...
and backed by the Venetian oligarchs, and a pro-Zen faction that was
anti-papal
Anti-clericalism is opposition to religious authority, typically in social or political matters. Historical anti-clericalism has mainly been opposed to the influence of Roman Catholicism. Anti-clericalism is related to secularism, which seeks to ...
and backed by the poorer nobility (although Zen was probably not the standard bearer for liberty he was sometimes portrayed as in nineteenth-century tragedies). Rioting broke out between the two factions on 23 July 1628, and for the rest of Cornaro's life, Venice was locked in a civil war. The Venetian government had basically broken down by late 1628. Cornaro died on 23 December 1629, with a new war in Montferrat looming. He and his wife are buried in the
Tolentini
The Chiesa di San Nicolò da Tolentino, commonly known as the Tolentini, is a church in the sestiere of Santa Croce in Venice, northern Italy. It lies in a Campo of the same name and along the Rio dei Tolentini, near the Giardino Papadopoli.
H ...