Nicolò Contarini

Nicolò Contarini (born September 26, 1552 in Venice ; † April 2, 1631 there ) was the 97th Doge of Venice from 1630 to 1631 .

family

The Contarini family provided the first doge in 1042, which was followed by seven more. Nicolò Contarini was the fourth in the line of Contarini doges.

Life

Nicolò was born as the first of six sons of Giangabriele Contarini and Giovanna Morosini . After completing a degree in philosophy at the University of Padua , he entered the Venetian civil service. He was successively avogadore , provveditore general of the Terraferma , savio and riformatore dello studio of the University of Padua. The result of his work in Padua was the writing De rerum perfectione libri VI (Venice 1576).

At the instigation of the Council of Ten , he succeeded Andrea Morosini as the author of the Venetian chronicle Degl'istorici delle cose veneziane for the period from 1567 to 1604.

Nicolò Contarini was not married and left no descendants.

The Doge's Office

Guardi: The Church of Santa Mara della Salute, around 1780

Nicolò was elected Doge on January 18, 1630 at the advanced age of 77 and died after only 15 months in office. During his tenure, Venice was ravaged by a severe wave of plague that killed a third of its population by 1630. The description of this plague by Alessandro Manzoni in his book I promessi sposi is one of the most impressive descriptions of this epidemic in world literature. On October 22nd, 1630, the Doge of the Virgin Mary vowed to build a church if the plague, which had raged in Venice for a year, would end . When the epidemic ended after a few months, his promise was kept and the church of Santa Maria della Salute was built.

Nicolò Contarini died on April 2, 1631, probably of the plague. He was buried in a hurry and without the usual festivities in the church of Santa Maria Nova . This church, which was used as a warehouse during Austria's rule over the city, was demolished in 1852 and the Doge's tomb has been lost since then.

Fonts

• De rerum perfectione libri VI . Venice 1576.
• Modo della elezione del serenissimo principe di Venezia . Rome 1630.

literature

• Andrea da Mosto: I dogi di Venezia. Florence 2003, ISBN 88-09-02881-3
• Gaetano Cozzi: Il doge Nicolò Contarini, ricerche sul patriziato veneziano agli inizi del Seicento . Istituto per la collaborazione culturale (Venezia) 1958.

predecessor	Office	successor
Giovanni I. Cornaro	Doge of Venice 1630 - 1631	Francesco Erizzo