Domenico II Contarini

Domenico II. Contarini, engraving 1919

Domenico II Contarini (born January 28, 1585 in Venice ; † January 26, 1675 there ) was the 104th Doge of Venice . He ruled from 1659 to 1675. The final phase of the war with the Ottoman Empire , which had been ongoing since 1645, for supremacy in the Aegean and for possession of Crete fell during his reign .

family

The Contarini family provided the first doge in 1042, which was followed by seven more. Domenico Contarini was the penultimate of the Contarini doges.

Life

Domenico came from the Ronzinetti family and was born to Giulio Contarini and Lucrezia Corner . From his marriage to Paula Tron, the future Procurator of San Marco Giulio Contarini emerged as the only son. Through his wife he was the brother-in-law of his predecessor Giovanni Pesaro . Domenico received a good and extensive education at the University of Padua . During his professional career, he has held various influential offices within the administration of the republic, among others he was savio , member of the Signoria and the Council of Ten and head of the Venetian mint, the Zecca . He was married to Paolina Tron.

The election to the Doge came as a surprise to him: he was already 78 years old and had withdrawn from political business on his country estate in the Terraferma . The first years of his tenure were marked by the clashes with the Turks that ended with the loss of Kandia , while the remainder of his term in office was a time of peace for the republic. He died in old age, marked by his old age. He was buried in the Contarini family grave in the church of San Benedetto. The grave in the ground is in front of the church altar, which was donated by the family.

literature

• Gino Benzoni:  Contarini, Domenico. In: Alberto M. Ghisalberti (Ed.): Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (DBI). Volume 28:  Conforto-Cordero. Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, Rome 1983, pp. 142-146.
• Andrea da Mosto: I dogi di Venezia . Milano 2003, ISBN 88-09-02881-3

Web links

Commons : Domenico II. Contarini  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

predecessor	Office	successor
Giovanni Pesaro	Doge of Venice 1659 - 1674	Niccolò Sagredo