Angelo Emo

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Angelo Emo as captain general

Angelo Emo (born January 3, 1731 in Venice , † March 1, 1792 in Malta ) was the last Venetian Grand Admiral ( capitano general da mar ).

Life

Angelo Emo was born in 1731 as the son of Giovanni di Gabriele, out of the line (ramo) S. Simeon Piccolo and Lucia Lombardo. After visiting the Jesuit College of Brescia , then of that of Venice, where he studied with Giovanni Billesimo, Jacopo Stellini and Father Carlo Lodoli, stepped Emo 1752 in the Venetian Navy as nobile di nature one. In 1755, as governatore di nave , as skipper, he was responsible for protecting ship convoys from piracy. In 1756 he escorted the Venetian merchant ships near Gibraltar and negotiated a trade agreement with Portugal . In August 1759 he returned to Venice. From 1761 to 1762 he worked as Savio and Esecutore alle Acque , where he was responsible for the creation of a new map of the Venice Lagoon . In 1763 he was again a skipper ( patrono ) and was responsible for the upper Adriatic. In 1765 he rose to the rank of admiral , that is, the leader of a fleet. In 1768, by means of a show of force, he forced the Bey of Algiers to confirm the trade agreement with Venice that had existed until then.

On June 12th, 1768 Emo became Capitano delle navi , admiral of the Venetian fleet. From 1770 to 1771 he fought pirates from Dulcigno and drove them from the islands of Zante , Corfu and Cerigo , but his fleet got caught in a severe storm. After these heavy losses, he became a censor and then focused on promoting glass production on Murano . Again working for the magistrate, which was responsible for the lagoon, he worked from 1776 to 1778 as Savio alle Acque . In this function, however, he was not only active in the lagoon, but also on the Brenta , the Terraglio and the Canale della Cava .

Venice responded to attacks on Venetian ships by the Beys of Tripoli by declaring war in 1778. On July 18, 1778, Emo became Capitano delle Navi again and led his fleet off Tripoli. The local Bey was forced to sign a new contract.

1779 was Emo Savio alla Mercanzia , where he enforced a lowering of the taxes on silk . In addition, he encouraged the settlement of trading houses in Sebenico and he relocated the Venetian consulate in Egypt from Cairo to Alexandria . In the following year, Emo became Provveditore ai Beni inculti , i.e. was responsible for the fallow land and for unused goods. He wanted to tackle the drainage of the Valli Veronesi , but the means were lacking. From 1782 to 1784 Emo worked as an inquisitor in the arsenal, where the ships of Venice were built and maintained. It should improve order and efficiency. He had new models of warships come from France and England . He introduced the use of carenatures made of copper, which increased maneuvering speed. The methods of making the cordage were also improved under his direction . He also increased the material resources of the non-noble employees.

On March 6, 1784, he was appointed Capitano straordinario of the fleet that was to sail to Tunis, which had declared war on Venice. A ship with goods from North Africa was burned down because it had the plague on board. Emo was commissioned to free the Venetians imprisoned by Bey Ibn Ali Hamuda in Tunis and to protect the interests of the Republic of Venice and shipping in the region against attacks by North African pirates. In October he attacked Susa , in April 1785 he repeated the attack for three nights. He shelled Sfax from August 15 to 17, and then La Goletta on October 1, 3, 5 and 9 . On March 6, 18 and 22, then again on April 30 and May 4, 1786, his ships fired again at Sfax and caused severe damage there. They attacked Biserat from May 30th to August 10th, and then, for the third time, from September 26th to October 6th, Susa. With his flagship Fama , about 20 other warships and a landing force of about 1,500 men, Emo blocked the port of Tunis. In difficult coastal waters he used self-developed raft-like vehicles. Despite his energetic efforts, the Venetian leadership subsequently preferred a negotiated solution. The tariff on Venetian goods fell from 7% to 4% and Venice agreed to give a "gift" worth 40,000 zechinen .

Emo sailed with his fleet to Corfu, but was elected procurator of San Marco on May 28, 1786 . Emo came to Zante's aid against a pirate fleet. In Tunisia, however, there were renewed clashes and Emo sailed to Malta , where he awaited the rest of the fleet. Until 1786 Angelo Emo operated with his 14 warships from the Sicilian port of Trapani and from Malta. Securing the sea routes in the Mediterranean remained his greatest achievement. In 1790 a last attack by the pirates from Sfax against the Venetian fleet failed.

Emo died after a short illness on March 1st, 1792. His body was ceremonially brought to Venice on the Fama and laid out on April 17th in St. Mark's Basilica . The Senate honored him with a marble bust in the Doge's Palace and with a sculpture by Antonio Canova in the Sala d'armi of the Arsenal.

reception

For Girolamo Dandolo , the Emos expeditions in 1855 were the “last roar of the lion of San Marco on the sea”, while Samuele Romanin considered him to be one of those heroes who could have stopped the decline of Venice, and with him it could be said that it rose Republic to the grave, the greatness (grandezza) of Venice had perished on the sea, as it had already preceded it on the land. Alvise Zorzi countered G. Dandolo's suspicion that the ambitious Vice Admiral Tommaso Condulmer had gotten him out of the way .

Angelo Emo's tomb is in the church of San Biagio ai Forni in Venice, also known as San Biagio dei Marinai . A monument dedicated to him and models of his pontoon-like gunboats are now in the Arsenal's Naval Museum .

literature

Remarks

  1. "L'ultimo ruggito mandato dal Lion di S. Marco sul mare" (Girolamo Dandolo: La caduta della repubblica di Venezia ed i suoi ultimi Cinquant'anni , Venice 1855, p 38).
  2. ^ Samuele Romanin: Storia documentata di Venezia , Vol. VIII, Venice 1859, p. 288 f.
  3. Alvise Zorzi: Testimonianze su Angelo Emo , in: Ateneo Veneto 146 (1962) 57-67, here: p. 59.