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daniele-barbaro

Daniele Barbaro

Daniele Matteo Alvise Barbaro (Venice, 8 February 1513 – 13 April 1570) was a cardinal, Catholic patriarch and Italian humanist who studied philosophy, mathematics, and optics.

He is best known as the translator and commentator of the treatise De Architectura (Ten Books on Architecture) by Marcus Vitruvius Pollio and for La Pratica della Perspettiva (Practice of Perspective) treatise. His studies on perspective and the applications of the dark-room, where he used a diaphragm to improve the rendering of the image, were very important. A cultured man with many interests, he was friends with Andrea Palladio, Torquato Tasso and Pietro Bembo. He commissioned Villa Barbaro in Maser from Palladio and many works, including two portraits of himself, from Paolo Veronese.

Daniele Matteo Alvise Barbaro or Barbarus was the son of Daniele Barbaro and Elena Pisani, daughter of banker Alvise Pisani and Cecilia Giustinian. His younger brother was Ambassador Marcantonio Barbaro. Barbaro studied philosophy, mathematics and optics at the University of Padua. He was the ambassador of the Republic of Venice at the court of Edward VI in London from August 1549 until February 1551 and represented Venice at the Council of Trent.

Nephew of Giovanni Grimani, Patriarch of Aquileia, he was his coadjutor at the Patriarchate seat of Aquileia. On 17 December 1550, in the consistory, he was Patriarch elected in Aquileia (coadjutor) with the right to future succession, but he never took over the patriarchate because he died before his uncle. At the time, this position was practically a family matter for the Barbaros. In fact, four Barbaros served as patriarchs of Aquileia between 1491 and 1622:

  • Ermolao Barbaro, il Giovane, patriarch of Aquileia from 1491 to 1493;
  • Daniele Barbaro, patriarch of Aquileia from 1550 al 1570;
  • Francesco Barbaro, patriarch of Aquileia from 1593 al 1616;
  • Ermolao Barbaro II (d. 1622), patriarch of Aquileia from 1616.

His appointment as Cardinal, by Pope Pius IV in the consistory of 26 February 1561, may have been secret (in pectore) and was never published. Only the Grimanis, who were his relatives, repeatedly held the patriarchate – as many as six times. He participated in several assemblies of the Council of Trent, starting 14 January 1562, until it closed in 1563.

Source: wikipedia.it (https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniele_Barbaro)