Nicolò Barbaro
1427/28–c. 1521 · Venetian nobleman whose day-by-day diary is one of the most important eyewitness accounts of the fall of Constantinople in 1453.
Nicolò Barbaro was a young Venetian nobleman who lived through the fall of Constantinople and wrote one of the best eyewitness records of it. Born in 1427 or 1428, the third of five sons of Marco Barbaro and Cristina Trevisan, he sailed in the summer of 1452 with the Venetian merchant galleys bound for Constantinople. The convoy, commanded by his relative Alvise Diedo, stayed through the winter and spring to help defend the Byzantine capital against the Ottoman Turks. Barbaro was not yet twenty-five. He kept a diary of the siege in the Venetian dialect, recording events day by day until the city fell in 1453. In it he calls himself the doctor of the galleys, but recent research suggests he served as a crossbowman, and no one knows why he described himself as a physician. The historian Steven Runciman called him the most useful of the Western sources. Back in Venice, Barbaro held a long series of government offices, married Fantina Venier in 1484, and lived to about 1521.
Nicolò Barbaro is also an author in the library: author page and works.
Faith: Faith not well documented. Source: Wikipedia
Key dates
- 1427/28 Born into a Venetian noble family
- 1452 Sails with the Venetian galleys to Constantinople
- 1453 Lives through the Ottoman siege and fall of Constantinople and records it in his diary
- 1453 Joins the Great Council of Venice
- 1466 Serves as podestà (governor) of Cittadella, near Padua
- 1470 Elected to the Council of Forty
- 1484 Marries Fantina Venier
- c. 1521 Dies
- 1856 First complete edition of his diary published, by Enrico Cornet
Fun facts
- His grandson, Marco Barbaro, became a well-known Venetian genealogist. (Source: Nicolò Barbaro (Wikipedia))
- Barbaro was not yet 25 years old when he helped defend Constantinople. (Source: Nicolò Barbaro (Wikipedia))
Read about them
Grades 9–12
- The Fall of Constantinople, 1453: Eyewitness Accounts · In the library
More lives
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Notes: Wikidata gives 1420-1494, but the Wikipedia article, based on recent archival research, gives 1427/28-c. 1521; this page follows Wikipedia. Whether he served as the galleys' physician, a crossbowman, or both is uncertain.