Agostino Barbarigo (Admiral)
Agostino Barbarigo (born January 22, 1516 in Venice , † October 9, 1571 in the Gulf of Patras ) was a Venetian provveditore and captain general who was mortally wounded in the Battle of Lepanto .
Life
He was born in 1516 to Giovanni Barbarigo and Elisabetta Dandolo. On June 5, 1543 he married Elena Pasqualigo and on April 30, 1554 in second marriage Lucia Pesaro. In the autumn of 1554 he was sent to the ambassador to France in the usual positions of the nobles in the administration, where he remained until 1557. Accompanied by his predecessor Giovanni Capello, he presented the credentials of Venice in Paris on November 11, 1554, in which he assured the king of France the neutrality of the republic for the preparations for the French intervention in Italy.
Together with Andrea Biagio Badoer, Barbarigo then went to Madrid as an extraordinary ambassador in the autumn of 1560 to demonstrate the benevolence of the Serenissima to Philip II . Philip II responded by pointing out that he wanted to correspond with Venice not only with loving kindness, but also with something other than the occasion, saying that the Serenisima deserved ". Barbarigo was then appointed captain in Friuli , an office which he took up on February 15, 1561 and held until April 15, 1562. On August 27, 1564 he was elected captain of Padua and held this position together with the Podestà Giovanni Battista Contarini from January 28, 1565. From 1565 to April In 1566 it was characterized by some vigorous measures aimed at eliminating the serious administrative disturbances in this city and in the area of Padua as well as restoring the fortifications and the training of soldiers.On October 12, 1567 he was made lieutenant general of Venice-controlled island of Cyprus was chosen, but could not take office because he was appointed border official in December of the same year and together with Andrea Biagio Badoer and Sebastiano Venier had to wait until the bitter dispute over the border on the Veneto-Friulian Terraferma was over. He then had the opportunity to prove his skills as a commanding officer in his family's traditional seafaring when the Venetian Senate wanted to remedy the inefficiency of the fleet in late 1570.
The first months of 1571 also involved reorganizing the Venetian army, weakened under the command of Girolamo Zane, and restoring discipline. Barbarigo came to Corfu , the newly elected Captain General of Mar, Sebastiano Venier, he sent the banner of the fleet while he himself received the position of Administrator General with the same authority as the Captain General. Barbarigo did much to offset Venier's boisterous policies: after advising against Durazzo's unsuccessful venture , he resisted the premature intention of confronting the Turkish army before Candia . His presence alongside Sebastiano Venier was particularly important during the concentration of the Allied forces. The Venetian fleet arrived in Messina on July 23, 1571. After the riot among the Spanish sailors, Venier did not hesitate to hang three of them, which caused such an outrage among Don Juan d'Austria that Barbarigo and Marcantonio Colonna could hardly avoid a quarrel between the same allies. It was decided to replace Venier in the councils of war with Barbarigo.
In the battle of Lepanto, Barbarigo commanded the left wing of the Christian fleet as a "Prirno fighter", which leaned against the island of Oxia . He was even given the nickname " Epaminondas of the Modern Age". The Venetians were able to thwart the first and most serious attack by Mehemet Scirocco (Shóràq), who threatened the enclosure with 15 galleys that were sent between the fleet. Barbarigo immediately closed the passage and threw himself into battle with his own galleys. He then had to repel the simultaneous attack by six Turkish galleys: the opponents were repulsed twice in a row, but Barbarigo was fatally wounded and died two days later at sea on October 9, 1571.
literature
- Colin Thubron: Die Venetianer , TIME-LIFE series Die Seefahrer, Amsterdam 1983, p. 141 f.
- Aldo Stella: BARBARIGO, Agostino. In: Alberto M. Ghisalberti (Ed.): Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (DBI). Volume 6: Baratteri – Bartolozzi. Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, Rome 1964.
- Heinrich Kretschmayr: History of Venice Volume III, Stuttgart 1934, pp. 58, 60, 63-68.
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Barbarigo, Agostino |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Venetian Provvedor and Captain General |
| DATE OF BIRTH | January 22, 1516 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Venice |
| DATE OF DEATH | October 9, 1571 |
| Place of death | Gulf of Patras |