NAVAGERO, BERNARDO. - Diplomat and cardinal, b. in Venezia in 1507 to Gian Luigi and Lucrezia Agostini, d. in Verona on 13 Apr. 1565; he completed his legal studies at Padova and in 1534 began his career in the offices of the Venetian Republic as syndic inquisitor in Dalmatia. In 1543 he was sent as ambassador to Carlo V and followed him in the wars in Fiandra and Francia; in July 1546 he delivered his report on the matter to the senate. In Sept. 1549 he was sent as bailo to Costantinopoli and subsequently delivered his report in the senate in Feb. 1553. In 1555, sent to congratulate Paolo IV on his election, he remained in Roma as ordinary ambassador and delivered his report in 1558.
The highly interesting dispatches of this legation also remain (cod. Marciano 9443). He likewise undertook several extraordinary legations, until, upon the death of his wife Istriana Lando in 1560, he entered the ecclesiastical state. On 26 Feb. 1561 Pio IV created him cardinal; he then granted him in commendam the bishopric of Verona on 15 Sept. 1562, and on 7 March 1563 appointed him legate to the Council of Trento together with Card. Morone. Once the Council had closed, N. moved to Verona, where he died suddenly, leaving a reputation as a man of «magnae auctoritatis tum Romae tum Venetiis».
The three reports to the Senate are found in E. Alberi, Relazioni degli ambasciatori veneti, I (Firenze 1839), pp. 239-368; III (ibid. 1840), pp. 33-110; VII (ibid. 1846), pp. 366-416.