Barbaro family

The Barbaro family is a patrician Venetian family. Famous members include the brothers Daniele Barbaro and Marcantonio Barbaro, who were patrons of the architect Andrea Palladio and the painter Paolo Veronese. [Hobson, Anthony, "Villa Barbaro", in "Great Houses of Europe", ed. Sacheverell Sitwell (London: Weidenfeld, 1961), pp. 89–97. ISBN 0-600-33843-6] . This branch built a country home at Maser - the famous Villa Barbaro designed by Palladio. By the end of the 18th century, this branch's male line died out: the family's two other branches survive today. [Hobson, p. 93.]

The Barbaro family is documented as holding high office in the Republic of Venice as early as the ninth century, [Hobson, p. 91.] although no member was ever Doge. Barbaro family members acted as deans and professors of the University of Padua and as Patriarchs of Aquileia. [cite web | url=http://www.gcatholic.com/dioceses/diocese/aqui0.htm | title="The Patriarchate of Aquileia" | accessdate=2007-10-07]

A Vincenzo Barbaro inherited the Palazzo Dario in 1494.

In the 17th century, the family expanded upon their large Palazzo Barbaro of Gothic design on Venice's Grand Canal by also building a second Baroque palace right next to it for the purpose of housing their ballroom. [cite web | url=http://politicheambientali.provincia.venezia.it/educazione/turismo/cd_1/itinerari/Guggenheim/cabarbaro.html | title="Ca' Barbaro" (Italian) | accessdate=2007-07-10]

The church of San Francesco della Vigna houses a chapel of the Barbaro family containing the Barbaro ancestral device, a red circle on a white field, granted in the 12th century after Admiral Marco Barbaro cut off the hand of a moor and placed it on the man's turban which he then flew from his masthead ["The Rough Guide to Venice & the Veneto", Jonathan Buckley, Rough Guides, 2004, pg.165 ] . The family is also honoured on the facade of another Venetian church, Santa Maria Zobenigo, which was rebuilt by them to provide a family crypt. [Tafuri, Manfredo, "Venice and the Renaissance", trans. Jessica Levine (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1989). ISBN 0262700549]

Notable members

*Donato Barbaro (fl. c. 1259), Venetian admiral
*Francesco Barbaro (1390–1454), humanist
*Ermolao Barbaro (1410–1471/1474), bishop of Treviso and Verona
*Giosafat Barbaro (1413–1494), ambassador
*Ermolao Barbaro (1454–1493/1495), philosopher
*Marco Barbaro (1511–1570), genealogist
*Daniele Barbaro (1513–70), scholar, cardinal and co-owner of Villa Barbaro
*Marcantonio Barbaro (1518–1595), ambassador and co-owner of Villa Barbaro
*Antonio Barbaro (d. 1679), Venetian soldier and colonial official

Notes