Nicolò Molin (1562-1608) was a Venetian noble and ambassador to England. The main residence of the Molin family in Venice was the Palazzo Molin del Cuoridoro. He commissioned the architect

Vincenzo Scamozzi Vincenzo Scamozzi (2 September 1548 – 7 August 1616) was an Italian architect and a writer on architecture, active mainly in Vicenza and Republic of Venice area in the second half of the 16th century. He was perhaps the most important figure th ...

to build the Villa Molin near Padua for him in 1597. He was ambassador in England from November 1603 to January 1606. In November 1603 he travelled with Piero Duodo to

Wilton House Wilton House is an English country house at Wilton near Salisbury in Wiltshire, which has been the country seat of the Earls of Pembroke for over 400 years. It was built on the site of the medieval Wilton Abbey. Following the dissolution o ...

for an audience with King James,

Anne of Denmark Anne of Denmark (; 12 December 1574 – 2 March 1619) was the wife of King James VI and I; as such, she was Queen of Scotland The monarchy of the United Kingdom, commonly referred to as the British monarchy, is the constitutional fo ...

, and

Prince Henry Prince Henry (or Prince Harry) may refer to: People *Henry the Young King (1155–1183), son of Henry II of England, who was crowned king but predeceased his father *Prince Henry the Navigator of Portugal (1394–1460) *Henry, Duke of Cornwall (Ja ...

. Molin wrote to the

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 ...

Marino Grimani Marino Grimani (c.1489–1546) was an Italian Cardinal and papal legate. He was from an aristocratic Venetian family. He was elected bishop of Ceneda in 1508, when he was under age. He was patriarch of Aquileia in 1517. He was created Cardin ...

that James was dressed in cloak of

marten A marten is a weasel-like mammal in the genus ''Martes'' within the subfamily Guloninae, in the family Mustelidae. They have bushy tails and large paws with partially retractile claws. The fur varies from yellowish to dark brown, depending on t ...

fur, and his costume was otherwise the same as that in a portrait of the king at Venice. The Venetian ambassadors stayed at Salisbury and had further audiences at Wilton. They spoke to Anne of Denmark who was seated under a canopy embroidered with jewels and strings of pearls.

came to dinner at their lodging in Salisbury which Molin considered a great honour. Molin described the royal Entry to London in March 1604, which had been delayed because of plague, but he did not attend because of quarrels in the diplomatic community about precedence. At the Accession day tilt or tournament, three equivalent spectators' boxes were built for the ambassadors of Spain, France, and Venice, but the diplomats contended over which seat was the place of honour. Molin and the queen's brother, the

Duke of Holstein The Duchy of Holstein (german: Herzogtum Holstein, da, Hertugdømmet Holsten) was the northernmost state of the Holy Roman Empire, located in the present German state of Schleswig-Holstein. It originated when King Christian I of Denmark had his ...

had a disagreement over precedence at the wedding of the

Earl of Montgomery The title Earl of Montgomery (pronounced "Mun-''gum''-ery") was created in the Peerage of England in 1605 for Sir Philip Herbert, younger son of the 2nd Earl of Pembroke. The first Earl inherited the Earldom of Pembroke in 1630 from his brothe ...

and Susan Vere on 27 December 1604. The Duke sat in Molin's place of honour opposite

. Molin felt the Duke still held a grudge against him when he left England without paying him a courtesy visit. In June 1605, after his two brothers had died, Molin began the process of resigning as ambassador, and

Zorzi Giustinian Zorzi Giustinian was an ambassador of the Republic of Venice serving in London from 1606 to 1608 and Vienna in 1618. London Giustinian arrived in London on 5 January 1606, met by the outgoing ambassador Nicolò Molin and Lewes Lewknor, the master ...

was named as his successor. Anne of Denmark, who seemed to be interested in learning the language, enjoyed hearing Molin speaking Italian. King James knighted Molin and in January 1606 allowed him to augment his coat of arms with a "canton". The news letter writer

John Pory John Pory (1572–1636) was an English politician, administrator, traveller and author of the Jacobean and Caroline eras; the skilled linguist may have been the first news correspondent in English-language journalism. As the first Speaker of ...

, after describing the performance of the court masque ''

Hymenaei ''Hymenaei,'' or ''The Masque of Hymen,'' was a masque written by Ben Jonson for the marriage of Robert Devereux, 3rd Earl of Essex, and Lady Frances Howard, daughter of the Earl of Suffolk, and performed on their wedding day, 5 January 1606 ...

'', mentioned that Molin introduced the new ambassador Zorzi Giustinian; "the old Venetian lieger, Molino, presented to the king and Prince a new lieger, Justiniano. I say 'to the prince' because they delivered a letter from the Signory to him as well as to the King. They came to court in thirteen coaches, they were apparalled in black gowns, lined with the richest fur of all others, black fox". King James gave him a gift of gilt plate, made by his goldsmith

John Williams John Towner Williams (born February 8, 1932)Nylund, Rob (15 November 2022)Classic Connection review ''WBOI'' ("For the second time this year, the Fort Wayne Philharmonic honored American composer, conductor, and arranger John Williams, who wa ...

. Molin was granted an English coat of arms featuring the wheel of a watermill, punning on his name. He gave Anne of Denmark a gold ring with an aquamarine with the motto "Una gota de aqui de molyne", meaning a drop of water from the mill. Molin wrote a relation or discourse on the politics and the court of King James in 1607, giving frank opinions on several courtiers. In the '' relazione'' Molin said King James criticised Prince Henry for not being as diligent as the

Duke of York Duke of York is a title of nobility in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. Since the 15th century, it has, when granted, usually been given to the second son of English (later British) monarchs. The equivalent title in the Scottish peerage was Du ...

in his studies. Molin thought James was jealous of the Prince's popularity. In 1607 he married Maria Grimani, a daughter of the Doge, Marino Grimani and his wife

Morosina Morosini Morosina Morosini-Grimani (1545 - January 21, 1614) was a Venetian patrician. She was the Dogaressa of Venice from 1595 to 1606. Life Morosina Morosini-Grimani was the daughter of Andrea Morosini, a wealthy Venetian patrician. She married in 1 ...

, and widow of Alvise Grimani. He died on 9 May 1608. His widow married Lorenzo Giustinian. A posthumous portrait of the ambassador was painted by

Daniël Mijtens Daniël Mijtens ( 1590 – 1647/48), known in England as Daniel Mytens the Elder, was a Dutch Golden Age portrait painter belonging to a family of Flemish painters who spent the central years of his career working in England. Biography ...

, and is now at

Knole Knole () is a country house and former archbishop's palace owned by the National Trust. It is situated within Knole Park, a park located immediately to the south-east of Sevenoaks in west Kent. The house ranks in the top five of England's large ...

, where a bedroom is supposed to have been used by Molin.

Inigo Jones Inigo Jones (; 15 July 1573 – 21 June 1652) was the first significant architect in England and Wales in the early modern period, and the first to employ Vitruvian rules of proportion and symmetry in his buildings. As the most notable archit ...

and the

Earl of Arundel Earl of Arundel is a title of nobility in England, and one of the oldest extant in the English peerage. It is currently held by the Duke of Norfolk, and is used (along with the Earl of Surrey) by his heir apparent as a courtesy title. The e ...

visited the Villa Molin in 1614 and its design influenced the

Queen's House Queen's House is a former royal residence built between 1616 and 1635 near Greenwich Palace, a few miles down-river from the City of London and now in the London Borough of Greenwich. It presently forms a central focus of what is now the Old Ro ...

Greenwich Greenwich ( , ,) is a town in south-east London, England, within the ceremonial county of Greater London. It is situated east-southeast of Charing Cross. Greenwich is notable for its maritime history and for giving its name to the Greenwich ...

and Jones' designs for the Prince's Lodging at Newmarket.Edward Chaney & Timothy Wilks, ''The Jacobean Grand Tour: Early Stuart Travellers in Europe'' (London, 2014), pp. 42-3.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Molin, Nicolò 1562 births 1608 deaths 16th-century Venetian people 17th-century Venetian people Ambassadors of the Republic of Venice to England Court of James VI and I