BARBO, MARCO. - Cardinal, b. in Venice around 1420, d. in Rome on 2 March 1491. Related by kinship to Paul II, whose surname he bore, he held under him, as cardinal, the office of majordomo and through his influence was provided with ecclesiastical benefices, among them in 1453 that of the abbey of Rosazzo, in Friuli. In Sept. 1455 he was granted, by Callixtus III, the bishopric of Treviso, from which on 17 Sept. 1464 he was transferred, by Paul II, to that of Vicenza. On 18 Sept. he was created cardinal of the title of St. Mark and on 18 March 1471 he became patriarch of Aquileia, but, detained in the Curia, he was never able to reside there. In 1472 he was entrusted by Sixtus IV with a legation for Germany, Hungary and Poland and later also for Denmark, Sweden and Norway. Having returned to Rome in Oct. 1474, he was appointed, on 24 July 1476, commendatory abbot of S. Croce di Sassovivo near Foligno. When all his attempts to bring the Benedictines of this abbey back to the observance of the rule proved vain, he replaced them with the Olivetans. On 6 Nov. 1478 he became bishop of Palestrina, a city that he adorned with buildings and restorations. On the death of Sixtus IV he was a candidate for the tiara, and afterwards proved a valuable help to Innocent VIII. In Febr. 1485 the B. held in commendam the priory of Pontida in the territory of Bergamo and then, on 3 Dec., that of S. Balbina in Rome, for the preservation and increase of which he provided with important restorations. He was esteemed for his integrity of life and nobility of feeling, and, as a patron, he protected men of letters and particularly the art of printing, then newly introduced in Rome. There he continued the works of the palace of St. Mark, now the Palazzo Venezia, begun by Paul II, and erected the chapel of the Sacrament in the church of St. Mark, where he was afterwards buried.
Letters exchanged by him with Matteo Valleresco, archbishop of Zara, are preserved in Cod. Barb. lat. 1809. Cf. P. Paschini, Il carteggio fra M.B. e Giovanni Lorenzi, Città del Vaticano 1948.