Morosini family

Biography

The Morosini family name comes from their origins in Morea. They already were members of the patrician class at the founding of Venice in 697, thus taking part in the election of the first doge appointed by the twelve nobles of that city. Among those bearing the Morosini name were three doges of Venice, a queen of the Servians (Constanza), a queen of Hungary (Tommazina), the first patriarch of Constantinople (Tomazzo), Antonio the Chronicler, the famed warrior and orator Vincenzo, and Andrea, the historian of Venice. The most illustrious of the Morosinis was perhaps Francesco the Peloponesiarch, greatest of the Venetian warriors; the last representative of his branch of the family was the countess Loredana Gatterburg-Morosini. The family resided in a large palace bearing their name in the Campo Francesco Morosini near San Stefano in Venice. A helmet now in the NGA is said to have once belonged to Vincenzo Morosini "one of the most celebrated Venetian patricians of the eleventh century" (Bapst, see Bibliography). The helmet descended in the family until it was sold at the auction of Countess Loredana's estate in May 1894.

Bibliography

n.d.

Bapst, Germain. Le casque des Morosini (also published as The Helmet of the Morosinis). Paris(?), n.d. [before 1913].

1914

Dean, Bashford. "The Casque of the Morosoni." Art in America 2 (April 1914): 250-254, repro. 251.

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