Leonardo Loredan (Italian: [leoˈnardo loreˈdan]; Venetian: Lunardo Loredan [luˈnaɾdo loɾeˈdaŋ]; 16 November 1436 – 22 June 1521) was a Venetian nobleman and statesman who reigned as the 75th Doge of Venice from 1501 until his death in 1521. As a wartime ruler, he was one of the most important doges in the history of Venice. In the dramatic events of the early 16th century, Loredan's Machiavellian plots and cunning political manoeuvres against the League of Cambrai, the Ottomans, the Mamluks, the Pope, the Republic of Genoa, the Holy Roman Empire, the French, the Egyptians and the Portuguese saved Venice from downfall.
Born into the noble Loredan family in 1436, Leonardo dedicated his youth to classical education, after which he focused on trade in Africa and the Levant, in line with family tradition. Legend has it that in Africa a fortune-teller predicted for him the future of a prince in his homeland. In 1461 he married Morosina Giustiniani, whose influential family, according to some historians, played a significant role in his election as Doge later on.
He began his political ascent as a lawyer in a legal magistracy concerned mainly with financial scandals and bankruptcies, which he followed with an illustrious career that included positions such as Sage of the College, Sage of the Terraferma, Camerlengo di Comùn, Podestà of Padua, ducal councillor for Cannaregio, and finally Procurator of Saint Mark, one of the highest and most distinguished offices in the Venetian Republic, which allowed him to rise to the political top of the state. In October 1501, he was elected the 75th Doge of Venice.
Loredan's reign began during the disastrous Second Ottoman–Venetian War, which he settled with a peace treaty in 1503 at the cost of considerable loss of territory. Later that year a dispute arose between Loredan and Pope Julius II, after Venice occupied territory in the northern Papal States. This escalated into the 1509 War of the League of Cambrai, in which Venice was fighting an alliance of the Pope and France. Venice was defeated, but in 1513 Loredan formed a new alliance with the French King Louis XII against Pope Julius. This resulted in a decisive victory.
It was under his rule, in 1516, that a decree was enacted to formally isolate the Jews of Venice. Thus was created the first “Ghetto” in the world, from which all others derive their name.
Despite his last years being laden with financial and political scandals, some artfully mounted by rival families, Loredan died with great fame in June 1521 and was interred in the Basilica of Saints John and Paul, in a simple grave which no longer exists. In 1572, a monumental tomb was erected for him in the Basilica, adorned with Corinthian columns made of Carrara marble, which included work by architects and sculptors Girolamo Grappiglia, Girolamo Campagna and Danese Cattaneo.
Loredan was portrayed in numerous portraits and paintings, the most famous of which being the Portrait of Doge Leonardo Loredan, painted by Giovanni Bellini in 1501 and now on display in the National Gallery in London. In 1507, Bellini painted Loredan with his four sons in the Portrait of the Loredan family, now on display at the Gemäldegalerie in Berlin. Loredan was also notably portrayed by Vittore Carpaccio, and posthumously by Pompeo Batoni in a work known as The Triumph of Venice (1737), where he is depicted in front of the Doge's Palace surrounded by mythological figures symbolising his victory over the League of Cambrai. In 1503, the Panegyricus Leonardo Lauredano was created in his honour.
Leonardo Loredan was born in Venice on 16 November 1436 as the eldest son of Gerolamo Loredan di S. Vitale, known as dal Barbaro, and of Donata Donà di Natale, niece of the archbishop of Candia Pietro. From childhood Leonardo demonstrated "exceptional maturity, combined with goodness and with the most noble talent of genius", as the historian Andrea Navagero testified. After a good classical education, he devoted himself with some success to trade in North Africa and the Levant, to increase the family's finances. Legend has it that while in Africa a fortune-teller predicted for him the future of a prince in his homeland.
He had a brother, Pietro (1466–1510), of poor health and unstable character, dedicated to studying alchemy in Padua, where he had moved, and disinterested in political life. In the will drawn up in February 1474 in Padua where he was podestà, the father designated Leonardo as the executor of the will and the sole heir of the estate and granted Pietro an annuity of 250 ducats.
In 1461 Leonardo married Giustina Giustiniani di Pancrazio di Marco, of the wealthy branch of San Moisè, who died in 1500, one year before Leonardo became Doge, and with whom he had nine children: the procurator Lorenzo (1462–1534), Girolamo (1468–1532), the only one to continue the branch, Alvise (1472–1521), Vincenzo (died in Tripoli in 1499), Bernardo (1481–1519), Donata, wife of Giacomo Gussoni da S. Vitale, Maria, wife of Giovanni Venier, of the branch that gave birth to Doge Francesco Venier (1554–56), Paola, wife of Giovanni Alvise Venier, descendant of Doge Antonio Venier (1382–1400), and Elisabetta, wife of Zaccaria Priuli.
Some historians claim that his election as Doge in October 1501 was not entirely due to his talent as a politician but also because his wife came from the very influential Giustiniani family.
Loredan began his political ascent on 13 December 1455, at the age of nineteen, when he became a lawyer in the Giudici di Petizion, a magistracy concerned mainly with financial scandals and bankruptcies, for which he had Filippo Loredan as guarantor. A few years later, Leonardo sat on the Savi del Consiglio where he was responsible for assessing and evaluating foreign policy matters prior to their examination in the Senate. On 13 November 1468 he became consul of the Merchants and on 15 November 1473 he was elected Camerlengo di Comun. In 1480, along with Marco and Agostino Soranzo, Andrea Erizzo, Paolo Contarini and Nicolò Donà, he was chosen to administer approximately 30,000 ducats, collected through free donations from devotees of the miraculous image of the Virgin, to be used for the construction of the church dedicated to S. Maria dei Miracoli, in the district of S. Leone (Cannaregio), designed by Pietro Lombardo and his sons. In 1481 he was elected as a Savio di Terraferma and in November 1483 he was among the electors of Doge Marco Barbarigo.
Between 1485 and 1486 he was still appointed Savio del Consiglio, and on 29 April 1487 he was elected mayor of Padua, taking over from Antonio Venier. He held this position until 1489, when he was elected to the prestigious position of ducal councillor. In 1490 he was called again as a Savio del Consiglio. On 1 August 1491 he was re-elected ducal councillor for the Cannaregio district and in 1492 he returned as Savio del Consiglio. In July 1492, Loredan secured the election to one of the most distinguished offices of the Republic, that of Procurator of Saint Mark, which allowed him to rise to the political pinnacle of the state. On 3 May 1493 he was among the Governatori alle Entrate and from 1495 to 1501 he was continuously re-elected Savio del Consigli. In his capacity as procurator and also as Savio del Consigli, he was among the three designated by Doge Agostino Barbarigo, on 31 March 1495, to negotiate the alliance between Venice, Pope Alexander VI, Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I of Habsburg, the Spanish rulers Ferdinand V and Isabella I and the Duke of Milan Ludovico Maria Sforza (Henry VII of England also joined), with the aim of countering the military operations of the King of France Charles VIII who had, almost without encountering resistance, entered Naples in February. The army of the League, led by the Marquis of Mantua Francesco II Gonzaga, in the Battle of Fornovo on 6 July forced the French army to withdraw from Italian territory. In October of the same year, Loredan signed the agreement for the conduct of Nicolò Orsini, count of Pitigliano, to the services of the Republic of Venice as captain-general of the land forces for a period of three to four years. In January 1497, Loredan, with the Savio di Terraferma Lodovico Venier, ratified the surrender of Taranto on behalf of the doge.