Career
Barbaro had an active political career, though he resented these duties as a distraction from his studies. In 1483 he was elected to the Senate of the Republic of Venice. He was twenty when he gave the funeral oration for Doge Nicholas Marcello. In 1486, he was sent to the court of the Duchy of Burgundy in Bruges. In 1488 he held the important civil post of ‘’Savio di Terrafirma’’. In 1489 he was appointed ambassador to Milan and in 1490 he was appointed Ambassador to Rome. In 1491, Pope Innocent VIII, nominated him to the office of Patriarch of Aquileia.
It was illegal under Venetian law for ambassadors to accept gifts or positions of foreign heads of state. Barbaro was accused of treason and the Venetian Senate ordered him to refuse the position. Pope Innocent and his successor Alexander VI threatened to excommunicate Barbaro if he resigned as Patriarch of Aquileia.
The Venetian Senate revoked Barbaro’s appointment as ambassador and exiled him from Venice. They threatened the same for his father, Zaccaria, as well as confiscation of both men's property, but Zaccaria died shortly afterwards.
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.
Read more about this topic: Ermolao Barbaro
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