Ermolao Barbaro

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Ermolao Barbaro depicted in the painting Pilgrims Meet the Pope by Vittore Carpaccio (c. 1492)

Ermolao Barbaro, in Latin Hermolaus Barbarus (21 May 1454<ref>Erasmus and Fisher: Their Correspondence 1511-1524, Vrin, 1968, p. 90. The Cambridge History of Italian Literature (Cambridge University Press, 1999, p. 148) gives 1453/4.</ref>Template:Snd14 June 1493), was a Venetian Renaissance humanist, diplomat and churchman. From 1491, he was the patriarch of Aquileia. He is often called "the Younger" to distinguish him from his cousin, Ermolao Barbaro the Elder.

Education

Ermolao Barbaro was born in Venice, the son of Zaccaria Barbaro, and the grandson of Francesco Barbaro.<ref name=valer/><ref name=biet/><ref name=mich/> He was also the uncle of Daniele Barbaro and Marcantonio Barbaro<ref name=rose/>

Much of his early education was outside of Venice, accompanying his father who was an active politician and diplomat.<ref name=biet/> He received further education in Verona with an uncle, also named Ermolao.<ref name=biet/> In 1462 he was sent to Rome, where he studied under Pomponius Laetus<ref name=valer/><ref name=rose/> and Theodorus Gaza.<ref name=biet/> By 1468 he had returned to Verona, where Frederick III awarded him a laurel crown for his poetry.<ref name=biet/>

He completed his education at the University of Padua, where he was appointed professor of philosophy there in 1477.<ref name=valer/><ref name=biet/><ref name=rose/> Two years later he revisited Venice, but returned to Padua when the plague broke out in his native city.<ref name=valer/><ref name=rose/>

Career

Barbaro had an active political career, though he resented these duties as a distraction from his studies.<ref name=valer/> In 1483 he was elected to the Senate of the Republic of Venice.<ref name=biet/> He was twenty when he gave the funeral oration for Doge Nicholas Marcello in 1474.<ref name=mich/>

In 1486, he was sent to the court of the Duchy of Burgundy in Bruges.<ref name=biet/><ref name=rose/> In 1488 he held the important civil post of Savio di Terrafirma.<ref name=biet/> In 1489 he was appointed ambassador to the Duchy of Milan<ref name=valer/><ref name=biet/><ref name=rose/> and in 1490 he was appointed Ambassador to the Holy See.<ref name=valer/><ref name=biet/><ref name=mich/> In 1491, Pope Innocent VIII, nominated him to the office of Patriarch of Aquileia.<ref name=valer/><ref name=biet/><ref name=mich/><ref name=rose/>

File:Accademia - Incontro dei pellegrini con papa Ciriaco - Vittore Carpaccio.jpg

Carpaccio's Pilgrims Meet the Pope. Barbaro in red in centre.

It was illegal under Venetian law for ambassadors to accept gifts or positions of foreign heads of state. There was also a dispute between Venice and the Papacy as to who should nominate Patriarchs of Aquileia.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Barbaro was accused of treason and the Venetian Senate ordered him to refuse the position.<ref name=valer/><ref name=biet/><ref name=mich/><ref name=rose/> Pope Innocent and his successor Alexander VI threatened to excommunicate Barbaro if he resigned as Patriarch of Aquileia.<ref name=valer/><ref name=biet/>

The Venetian Senate revoked Barbaro's appointment as ambassador and exiled him from Venice.<ref name=valer/><ref name=biet/> They threatened the same for his father, Zaccaria, as well as confiscation of both men's property, but Zaccaria died shortly afterwards.<ref name=mich/><ref name=rose/>

Barbaro then lived in a Roman villa on the Pincian Hill belonging to his brothers Daniele and Ludovico. He died there of the plague in 1493 and was buried at the church of Santa Maria del Popolo. Ferdinando Ughelli mentions an inscription to Barbaro there, but it was lost by 1758. Valeriano wrote a tribute to Barbaro.<ref name=valer/>

Scholarly works

Barbaro edited and translated a number of classical works: Aristotle's Ethics and Politics (1474);<ref name="biet"/> Aristotle's Rhetorica (1479);<ref name="valer"/><ref name="biet"/>Themistius's Paraphrases of certain works of Aristotle (1481);<ref name="valer"/><ref name="biet"/>Castigationes in Pomponium Melam (1493).<ref name="valer"/>

His own work, De Coelibatu was less influential, but Barbaro's Castigationes Plinianae, published in Rome in 1492 by Eucharius Silber, was perhaps his most influential work.<ref name="biet"/> In this discussion of Pliny's Natural History Barbaro made 5000 corrections to the text.<ref name="valer"/> The work was written in only twenty months and dedicated to the newly elected Pope Alexander VI.<ref name="mich"/> Castigationes Plinianae was considered by Barbaro's contemporaries to be the most authoritative work on Pliny. Even before his death, he was considered a leading authority on the Greek and Latin works of antiquity. Erasmus frequently cited Barbaro's works, often with respect.<ref name="biet"/>

His letters to Giovanni Pico were also widely circulated.<ref name="biet"/> Much of his work was published after his death: In Dioscuridem Corollarii libri quinque, a work on Dioscorides, in 1516, his translations of Aristotle in 1544, and Compendium Scientiae Naturalis in 1545.<ref name="biet"/>

Barbaro's work De Officio Legati was representative of a revolution in the conduct of diplomacy which took place during the Renaissance.<ref>Garrett Mattingly 'Changing Attitudes Towards the State' in Facets of the Renaissance 1963), 33</ref>