Veranzio, Antonio

VERANZIO, ANTONIO. - Archbishop of Esztergom, diplomat, humanist, Hungarian historian, b. at Šibenik on 29 May 1504, d. on 16 June 1573 at Esztergom.

His mother, Margherita Statileo of Trogir, was the sister of Giovanni Statileo, bishop of Transylvania, with whom A. V. was educated from the age of ten. He studied at the University of Padua, was appointed provost of Buda and secretary to the king of Hungary John Szapolyai. He carried out embassies in France, in England and in 1531, then in 1548 in Rome. In 1549 he entered the service of the king of Hungary Ferdinand of Habsburg, who appointed him canon lector of Esztergom and entrusted him with diplomatic missions to Constantinople. Bishop of Pécs on 3 Aug. 1554 and of Eger on 17 July 1560, he had fortresses built by Italian architects. In 1568 he concluded with the Sultan Selim the Peace of Adrianople. Archbishop of Esztergom on 25 Sept. 1570 and then also lieutenant of the King, V. was in correspondence with many illustrious figures of his time. Author of historical essays, memorials, observations on the historical work of Paolo Giovio, and accounts of his own missions to the Ottoman Porte, his writings, drafted in Latin, in Hungarian and partly in Italian, constitute precious material for the reconstruction of his era. He also left poems in Latin.

FAUSTO, nephew of Antonio, b. at Šibenik in 1540 and d. at Venice in 1617, also studied at Padua; bishop of Csanád in Hungary on 20 Dec. 1600, he resigned in 1607; he is the author of a biography of his uncle and of a Dictionarium quisque nobilissimarum Europae linguarum: latinae, italicae, germanicae, dalmaticae et ungaricae, published in 1595 at Venice.

Stefano Markus