Barbaro, Ermolao (Senior)

BARBARO, ERMOLAO (SENIORE). - Son of Zaccaria, brother of Francesco, the celebrated humanist and statesman, b. in Venice around 1410, d. there on 12 March 1471. He was an apostolic protonotary, and a manuscript Lectura by him on canon law is extant. He unsuccessfully aspired to the see of Bergamo in 1437; instead, he obtained that of Treviso on 16 Oct. 1443; from there he was transferred to that of Verona on 16 Nov. 1453; in both he proved an able organizer and administrator. In 1459 he took part in the congress of Mantua presided over by Pio II, and on 2 Dec. he consecrated there the church of S. Francesco. The following year the same Pontiff sent him as legate to Carlo VII of France, and then to Perugia, where he remained for two years. Having died in Venice, he was taken for burial in his cathedral of Verona, which he had restored together with the episcopal palace.

No printed works by him are known; there are in manuscript an Oratio contra poetas addressed to Cardinal Pietro Barbo in 1453, a life and a homily of s. Atanasio;