Barbaro family
The Barbaro family of the noble Venetian House of Barbaro is an old patrician family. The House of Barbaro has produced many distinguished members of arts, letters, and politics. Two of the most famous are the brothers Daniele Barbaro and Marcantonio Barbaro who were the patrons of the architect Andrea Palladio and the painter Paolo Veronese.[1]. These brothers of the S. Vidal branch owned Palazzi Barbaro and built a country estate at Maser - the famous Villa Barbaro designed by Palladio and with frescoes by Veronese. By the end of the 18th century, the S. Vidal branch's male line died out. Only the family's two other branches survive today: The Venetian branch of S. Vio, of whom owned Palazzo Barbaro and Palazzo Dario at S. Vio, structured their business interests into an Albergo attached to their baronial estate at Catanzaro, and received princely rank from the Austrian imperial House of Habsburg-Lorraine. The other branch is S. Giorgio, who resided exclusively in Malta and held the titles of Marquis di San Giorgio and Count von Zimmermann. [2]
The Barbaro family is documented as holding high office in the Republic of Venice as early as the ninth century,[3] Though no member ever officially took the post of Doge, one Barbaro member was elected to hold it and chose, instead, to pass on Venice's greatest honor.[4]
Barbaro family members also acted as deans and professors of the University of Padua and as Patriarchs of Aquileia, serving as cultural leaders and champions of civic rights for women, those who were enslaved, and Jewish peoples working and residing within the Republic of Venice .[5]
In 1494, Vincenzo Barbaro inherited the Palazzo Dario, and the in the 17th century, the S. Vidal branch expanded upon their large Palazzo Barbaro of Gothic design on Venice's Grand Canal by also building a second Baroque palace right next to it for the purpose of housing their ballroom.[6]
The church of San Francesco della Vigna is also connected to the House of Barbaro, within the church there is a Barbaro chapel containing the family's ancestral device, a red circle on a white field, granted in the 12th century after Admiral Marco Barbaro was victorious in Jaffa as Admiral of the Venetian Armada [7]. The family is also honoured on the facade of another Venetian church, Santa Maria Zobenigo, which was rebuilt by them to provide a family crypt.[8]
Notable early members
- Donato Barbaro (fl. c. 1259), Venetian admiral
- Francesco Barbaro (1390–1454), humanist
- Ermolao Barbaro (1410–1471/1474), bishop of Treviso and Verona
- Giosafat Barbaro (1413–1494), ambassador
- Ermolao Barbaro (1454–1493/1495), philosopher
- Marco Barbaro (1511–1570), genealogist
- Daniele Barbaro (1513–70), scholar, cardinal and co-owner of Villa Barbaro
- Marcantonio Barbaro (1518–1595), ambassador and co-owner of Villa Barbaro
- Antonio Barbaro (d. 1679), Venetian soldier and colonial official
Acting Heads
- Vitus Barbaro (b. 1973-) (S. Vio): 5th Princely Count, Baron dell'Albergo (as of October 2004)[9]
- Anthony Cremona Barbaro (b.1955-) (S. Giorgio): 9th Marquis San Giorgio (as of February 2001)[10]
Notes
- ^ Hobson, Anthony, "Villa Barbaro", in Great Houses of Europe, ed. Sacheverell Sitwell (London: Weidenfeld, 1961), pp. 89–97. ISBN 0-600-33843-6
- ^ Hobson, p. 93.
- ^ Hobson, p. 91.
- ^ Hobson, p.91
- ^ ""The Patriarchate of Aquileia"". Retrieved 2007-10-07.
{{cite web}}: Check|url=value (help) - ^ ""Ca' Barbaro" (Italian)". Retrieved 2007-07-10.
{{cite web}}: Check|url=value (help) - ^ The Rough Guide to Venice & the Veneto, Jonathan Buckley, Rough Guides, 2004, pg.165
- ^ Tafuri, Manfredo, Venice and the Renaissance, trans. Jessica Levine (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1989). ISBN 0262700549
- ^ House of Barbaro, Golden Books of Venice and Malta, 2006
- ^ House of Barbaro, Golden Books of Venice and Malta, 2006
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