Andrea Dandolo (13067 September 1354) was the 54th

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Venice Venice ( ; ; , formerly ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 islands that are separated by expanses of open water and by canals; portions of the city are li ...

from 1343 to 1354. He was elected to replace Bartolomeo Gradenigo who died in 1342.

Early life

Trained in historiography and law, Dandolo studied at the

University of Padua The University of Padua (, UNIPD) is an Italian public research university in Padua, Italy. It was founded in 1222 by a group of students and teachers from the University of Bologna, who previously settled in Vicenza; thus, it is the second-oldest ...

, where he became a law professor until he was elected as doge. He was descended from an old Venetian noble family, the Dandolo, that played an important role in Venetian politics from the 12th to 15th centuries, and produced four Venetian doges, of whom he was the last, numerous admirals and several other prominent citizens. Dandolo's rise to prominence in Venetian public life was precocious. In 1331, at the age of only 25, he was named procurator of

St Mark's Basilica The Patriarchal Cathedral Basilica of Saint Mark (), commonly known as St Mark's Basilica (; ), is the cathedral church of the Patriarchate of Venice; it became the episcopal seat of the Patriarch of Venice in 1807, replacing the earlier cath ...

Doge

Dandolo became doge in 1343 at the age of 37. He was known as a benefactor of the arts. To St Mark's Basilica he added the Chapel of San Isidoro, oversaw changes to the Pala d'Oro and expanded and beautified the Baptistery. He reformed the Venetian legal code, formally proclaiming a legal framework in 1346 that compiled all of the applicable laws in the Republic. He was a friend of

Petrarch Francis Petrarch (; 20 July 1304 – 19 July 1374; ; modern ), born Francesco di Petracco, was a scholar from Arezzo and poet of the early Italian Renaissance, as well as one of the earliest Renaissance humanism, humanists. Petrarch's redis ...

's, who wrote of Dandolo that he was "a just man, incorruptible, full of ardor and love for his country, erudite, eloquent, wise, affable and humane". His reign was beset by challenges as Venice was struck by a violent earthquake on 25 January 1348 that caused hundreds of casualties, destroyed numerous buildings and, it was assumed at the time, provoked the terrible outbreak of the

Black Death The Black Death was a bubonic plague pandemic that occurred in Europe from 1346 to 1353. It was one of the list of epidemics, most fatal pandemics in human history; as many as people perished, perhaps 50% of Europe's 14th century population. ...

, which did not end until 1350. Between 1348 and 1350, one-third of the population died. Also Venice endured a disastrous war with the Hungarians following

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's seventh revolt against the Most Serene Republic in 1345. Allied with the Hungarians,

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deployed a powerful naval fleet to the

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under the command of

Paganino Doria Pagano or Paganino Doria was an Italian admiral from the prominent Genoese Doria family. He was the most significant commander of the Genoese naval forces in the 1350–1355 War of the Straits between the Republic of Genoa and its old rival, t ...

that devastated the Venetian territories and threatened Venice herself. Venice was saved by the great naval victory of Lojera in 1353. Dandolo was the last doge to be interred in St Mark's Basilica.

Writings

Dandolo wrote two chronicles in Latin on the history of Venice, the ''Chronica per extensum descripta aa.'' d annum/nowiki> ''46–1280 d.C.'' opo Cristo/nowiki>, written between 1344 and 1351/52, and the ''Chronica brevis aa. 46–1342 d.C.'', written before 1342, which can both be found in volume XII of Muratori’s collection ''Rerum Italicarum Scriptores''.

Notes

References

Bibliography

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Dandolo, Andrea 1306 births 1354 deaths 14th-century Italian jurists 14th-century Doges of Venice Andrea, Doge University of Padua alumni Academic staff of the University of Padua Italian chroniclers Burials at St Mark's Basilica People of the War of the Straits