The House of Cornaro or Corner were a Venetian patrician family in the Republic of Venice and included many Doges and other high officials. The name Corner, originally from the Venetian dialect, was adopted in the eighteenth century. The older standard Italian Cornaro is no longer common in Italian sources referring to earlier members of the family, but remains so in English.
The family and name Cornaro are said to descend from the gens Cornelia, a patrician family of Ancient Rome. The Cornari were among the twelve tribunal families of the Republic of Venice and provided founding members of the Great Council in 1172. In the 14th century, the family separated into two distinct branches, Cornaro of the Great House and Cornaro Piscopia.[1] The latter name derived from the 1363 grant of the fief of Piscopia in the Kingdom of Cyprus to Federico Cornaro.[2]
The Cornaro Piscopias ran a large sugar plantation in their fief near Episcopi in Venetian Cyprus, in which they exploited slaves of Syrian or Arab origin or local serfs. Sugar was transformed in-house with a large copper boiler made in Venice that the family paid hefty sums to maintain and operate. They exported sugarloaves and powdered sugar to Europe. The Cornaros were often in conflict with their neighbors over the use and handling of water.[4]
^Verlinden, Charles (1970). "The Transfer of Colonial Techniques from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic". The beginning of Modern Colonization. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. p. 19-21.
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