The House of Contarini is one of the twelve founding families of the Venetian Republic,[1] the apostolic families, and were and remain through extended family consanguinity present in the Veneto's population, represented in over twenty auxiliary and cadet noble branches [citation needed]that include ranks currently among European sovereign, royal and aristocratic descendants.[citation needed]
853 AD marks the first officially verified documentation of the Contarini in the Republic of Venice, with Andrea Contarini named in the testament of Orso Partecipazio, son of Giovanni I Participazio.[7] According to manuscripts[6][3] in the Biblioteca Marciana and the family archives[6] the Contarini claim direct descent of the Roman gens Aurelii Cottae through Publius Aurelius Cotta, son of Marcus Aurelius Cotta (consul in 74 BC and maternal uncle of Julius Caesar), who transferred his family to Padua. His grandson, Lucius Aurelius Cotta was elected prefect of the Reno; the area around the Reno near Bologna. His first and second son and his male grandchildren continued in this position and added the cognomen Reno, becoming Cotta Reno or Cottareno. The last person to register Cottareno was Marcus Aurelius Cottareno in Padua in 290 AD and subsequently the family name was written as Contareno, or Contarini in Venetian (both the Latin and Venetian denomination of the family name have been used interchangeably since).[6][3][4][2]
In 338 AD Marcus Aurelius Contareno (or Marco Aurelio Contarini in Venetian), prefect of Concordia under Constantine I, was the first Contarini to permanently move his residence to the Venetian area.[2] In 425 another Marcus Aurelius Contarini took part in the third Consular Triumvirate[8][9] of Rialto, following the invasions of the Goths under Alaric I, who from 402 pillaged the rich provinces of Istria and Venetia and sacked Rome in 410. From the outset the affairs of the early exiles in the islands of the Venetian lagoon were managed by RomanConsuls elected at Padua, including the Contarini.[9] Following the invasion by the Huns of Attila in 452 and the destruction of the large Roman cities of Padua and Aquileia, the islands became a more permanent refuge for the swelling number of exiles.[9][10] In 466 the exiles decided upon a form of self-government through the annual election of Tribunes, who ultimately in 539 came under Byzantine rule through the Exarch of Ravenna, forming a loose association of islands with its capital in Eraclea. According to tradition, in 697 under the guidance of the Patriarch of Grado, twelve Tribunes ruling the Byzantine district of Venice elected the first Doge in Eraclea, forming the independent Republic of Venice.[11] One of these Tribunes was Marcus Aurelius Contarini.[3] Twentieth century studies, however, cast doubt on the historicity of the first Doge Paolo Luccio Anafesto and his successor Doge Marcello Tegalliano,[12] suggesting that only following the murder of the Byzantine viceroyPaul Exarch of Ravenna, did the inhabitants of the islands chose their first Doge, Orso Ipato from Eraclea.[10] Whoever was historically the first, the Contarini family has since the earliest Venetian chronicles been associated with the birth of the Republic and election of the first Doge. They formed part of the 'duodecim nobiliorum proles Venetiarum' (or the 'twelve noblest families of Venice') and the 12 apostolic families, the oldest of the 247 patrician families in the Great Council following the Serrata of 1297.[13] As the first inhabitants in the lagoon came from what were provinces of Rome in the 5th century, the Rialto initially being governed by a Consular Triumvirate elected at Padua and subsequently by Tribunes who were elected from among the most prominent members in their former Roman communes, it is not uncommon among the oldest Venetian patrician families to find Roman ancestry (e.g. Quirini [it] descended from gens Sulpicii Quirini, Marcello descended from gens Claudii Marcelli),[3][4][14] families who often kept their praenomina traditions and preserved their genealogy. The older branch Aurelli Cottae of the gens Aurelia came to prominence with the election of Gaius Aurelius Cotta as consul in 252 BC and again in 248 BC during the First Punic War and by the time Publius Aurelius Cotta moved to Padua four of his patrilineal ancestors, including his father, had achieved consulship in the Roman Republic.
In the Republic of Venice in 1043 Domenico I was elected and became the first Doge in the family Contarini. By 1797, when the last Doge was forced to abdicate, the family had produced eight Doges of their own - the greatest number of Doges in one family. The Contarini count as well 44 Procurators of San Marco, the second most prestigious life appointment after that of the Doge, plus various important ambassadors, diplomats, cardinals and navy commanders among them (in the famous Battle of Lepanto no less than 6 ships were commanded by Contarini). T
Surviving branch in Sicily
A branch remains in Sicily today.[15] With the arrival of Alvise Contarini in Syracuse at the invitation of Martin I of Sicily this branch of the family was established in Sicily in 1394, the year in which Alvise married Cesarea Modica of Baron Pietro di Modica.[15] Alvise Contarini was given the fiefdoms of San Giacomo Belmineo and Solarino as part of the dowry. In 1406 he was elected mayor of Syracuse,[16] followed by numerous other communal, ministerial and military official positions for his descendants[15][16] in the Kingdom of Sicily and the Kingdom of Italy after the Risorgimento.[17] In Sicily the family carries the title Dukeof Castrofilippo [it].[15]
Notable members
Marco Aurelio Contarini, Roman consul elected at Padua, took part in the third Consular Triumvirate[8] of Rialto, from 425 to 426[3]
Luigi (Lodovico) Contarini, senator of the Kingdom of Sicily from 1414
Andrea Contarini, executed in 1430 by hanging between the two red pillars of the Palazzo Ducale following his failed assassination attempt on Doge Francesco Foscari[3][9]
Marino Contarini (d. 1455), Bishop of Kotor in 1430, Bishop of Treviso in 1453[3]
Stefano Contarini, diplomat and Procurator of San Marco in 1441[3]
Federico Contarini, diplomat and Procurator of San Marco in 1445[3]
Nadalino Contarini, Procurator of San Marco in 1459[3]
Leonardo Contarini, Procurator of San Marco in 1449[3]
Tomaso Contarini (d. 1617), Governor of Vicenza in 1589, later Ambassador to the Dutch Republic, Ambassador to Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II, Ambassador to Pope Paul V
^ abcdefhttps://archive.org/details/teatroaraldicose02tett, Leone Tettoni. Teatro araldico ovvero raccolta generale delle armi ed insegne gentilizie delle piu illustri e nobili casate che esisterono un tempo e che tutora fioriscono in tutta l'italia, 1841. pagina 578 - 591
^Chojnacki, Stanley, La formazione della nobiltà dopo la Serrata, in Arnaldi, Girolamo; Cracco, Giorgio; Tenenti, Alberto (a cura di), Storia di Venezia dalle origini alla caduta della Serenissima, 3. La formazione dello stato patrizio, Roma, Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, 1997, pp. 641-725.
^ abcdefCoronelli, Vincenzo (1706). Blasone Veneto, o gentlizie insegne delle famiglie patrizie.
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