Francesco Barbaro

Francesco Barbaro (b. 1390–d. 1454) was the preeminent Venetian humanist of the early 15th century. He was a senator and a scholar, a politician and an intellectual, an aristocrat and a humanist. He received a first-rate education from humanist tutors before attending the university at Padua, and he was guided by prominent mentors. Barbaro is best remembered today for De re uxoria (“On Marriage”), a treatise he wrote when only twenty-five to his friend Lorenzo de’ Medici the Elder as a wedding gift. This work is still studied on its own merits, and as a lens revealing 15th-century Italian attitudes toward marriage and family life. Nearly as significant, Barbaro corresponded with dozens of the leading intellectual and political figures of his day, and his collected epistles are a treasure trove of information for 15th-century society and culture. Considering his literary significance, it is remarkable that Barbaro also had a successful and fulfilling political career. Barbaro was elected by the Senate or the Maggior Consilio to posts including ambassador, military governor, member of the Council of Ten, and ducal councilor, before being made one of the nine procurators of St. Mark—the second-highest positions in the Republic, after Doge. Later in his life, he also became a significant patron of humanist learning, particularly emphasizing the revival of Greek scholarship that was to become a trademark of Venetian humanism. Many of the Greek scholars who flourished in quattrocento Venice owed their standing to Barbaro’s largesse. Barbaro was certainly a Renaissance man, in that he was equally at ease—and successful—in the political and intellectual arenas.