Girolamo Donato
Girolamo Donato, also spelled Donati, Donado or Donà (c. 1456 – 20 October 1511), was a Venetian diplomat and humanist.
[1][2] He married Maria di Ludovico Gradenigo and passed his entire career in public service, for which reason he seems to have died poor.
[2] He studied philosophy and theology under Nicoletto Vernia at the University of Padua, receiving his degree of doctor of arts on 16 June 1478.
[3] His speech on the subject of the unmoved mover in the academic year 1480–81 inspired Elia del Medigo to compose his Quaestio de primo motore.
He was selected for the embassy of congratulation to newly elected Pope Julius II that, for political reasons related to the downfall of Cesare Borgia, did not set out until March 1505.
According to Agostini, a Frenchman hearing of his death remarked, "He was a man of letters before he was a statesman; and he distinguished himself equally in both professions.
He wrote two theological treatises defending the primacy of the Holy See and the dual procession of the Holy Spirit against Greek Orthodoxy: Apologeticus ad Graecos de principatu Romanae sedis and De processione Spiritus Sancti contra Graecum schisma.
[1] The speech which Donato gave before the emperor during his embassy of 1501 was printed at Venice in June of that year in both Latin and vernacular Italian.
The speech which he gave before King Louis XII of France after his arrival as ambassador in October 1501 was printed at Rome by Aldo Manuzio in December.
He maintained a correspondence with Ermolao Barbaro, Pietro Bembo, Marco Dandolo, Pietro Dolfin, Marsilio Ficino, Domenico Grimani, Giovanni Lorenzi, Aldo Manuzio, Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, Angelo Poliziano and Marcantonio Sabellico.
[2] Numerous contemporaries praised his learning: Jacopo Boldù, Egnazio, Desiderius Erasmus, and Francesco Pisani.
Others dedicated works to him: Gasparino Borro's Commentum super tractatum spherae mundi, Aldo Manuzio's editions of Dioscorides and Nicander, Marcantonio Sabellico's De situ venetae urbis, Pierio Valeriano's Lusus.
