House of Cornaro

Ca' Cornaro, one of eight palaces along Venice's Grand Canal commissioned by the Cornaro family.

Bernini's Ecstasy of Saint Theresa from the Cornaro family chapel in the church of Santa Maria della Vittoria in Rome.

The Cornaro, also known as Corner, are an illustrious patrician family in Venice, from which for centuries senior office-holders and Doges sprung. Notable members are

• Marco Cornaro (c1286-1368), Doge 1365-68
• Luigi Cornaro (1464?-1566), wrote treatises on dieting
• Giorgio Cornaro (1452–1527),
• Caterina Cornaro (1454–1510), Queen of Cyprus 1474-89
• Francesco Cornaro (1476–1543), Cardinal 1527-43
• Cardinal Federico Cornaro (1579–1653), Patriarch of Venice 1631-44
• Giovanni I Cornaro (1551–1629), Doge 1624-29
• Francesco Corner (1585–1656), Doge 1656
• Giovanni II Cornaro(1647–1722), Doge 1709-1722

They had 8 palaces on the Grand Canal, Venice at different times & commissioned many famous monuments and works of art, most famously Bernini's Ecstasy of St Theresa in the Cornaro Chapel of Santa Maria della Vittoria in Rome (1652). In Greece the island of Scarpanto was their fief from the early 14th century until the Ottoman conquest.

Other Cornaros (possibly related) include:

• Alvise Cornaro (1484–1566), writer
• Vitsentzos Kornaros (1553–1614), Cretan poet
• Elena Cornaro Piscopia (1646–1684), first woman to get a Doctor of Philosophy degree (from the University of Padua in 1678)

External links

• Cornaro family