A political dynasty, the family has throughout the centuries produced a number of famous personalities: doges, statesmen, magnates, financiers, diplomats, procurators, military commanders, naval captains, church dignitaries, and writers.

The family was present in virtually every home and overseas territory of the Republic of Venice, and at various points in history, its members have held titles in what are now modern countries of Italy, Austria, Slovenia, Croatia, Montenegro, Albania, France, Greece and Cyprus, and conducted trade operations as far as Egypt, Persia, India and China.

The family has also played an important role in the creation of modern opera with the Accademia degli Incogniti, also called the Loredanian Academy, and has commissioned many works of art by artists of the Venetian School, including Giovanni and Gentile Bellini, Giorgione, Vittore Carpaccio, Vincenzo Catena, Sebastiano del Piombo, Titian, Paris Bordone, Jacopo and Domenico Tintoretto, Paolo Veronese, Palma il Giovane, Canaletto, Pietro Longhi and Francesco Guardi, among others.

The wealth of the Loredan family in Venice was legendary, likely reaching its height in the 18th century, when they owned numerous palaces, as well as hundreds of estates and vast land holdings across the territories of the Republic, primarily in the Veneto, Friuli, Istria and Dalmatia.

In cases of corruption, assault, murder and other scandals, when members of their own family were involved, the Loredans usually pursued a policy of lenience and outright tolerance, and aimed to resolve relating accusations by means of threats or bribery.

Today, the Loredan coat of arms, which features six laurel (or rose) flowers on a shield of yellow and blue, is displayed on numerous buildings and palaces across the territories previously held by the Republic of Venice; from the Veneto and Friuli, Istria and Dalmatia, and in the more distant possessions such as the Ionian Islands and Crete.

[1] According to what the 16th-century Italian philosopher Jacopo Zabarella wrote in his work Trasea Peto, the Loredans were already lords of Bertinoro in Emilia-Romagna, and were of illustrious ancient lineage derived from Rome, where they earned great fame for the many victories they achieved in battles.

[24] Therefore, Giovanni, along with five other nobles who had joined in the venture, including his brother Paolo, pooled funds together in order to bring with them gifts, mechanical wonders such as a clock and a fountain, which they hoped would please the Indian prince.

[34] Loredan's letter following the Battle of Gallipoli and addressed to the Doge of Venice has been preserved: "I, as commander, vigorously attacked the first galley, which put up a stout defence, being excellently manned by courageous Turks who fought like dragons.

So we drew away, to allow the men to refresh themselves and dress their wounds... And aboard the captured vessels we found Genoese, Catalans, Sicilians, Provencals, and Cretans, of whom those who had not perished in the battle I myself ordered to be cut to pieces and hanged... together with all the pilots and navigators, so the Turks have no more of those at present.

Alvise Loredan shared this view, as can be seen from a proposal he brought before the Great Council in February 1442, ordering the governors of Bergamo to demolish its fortifications as a sign of goodwill and trust towards Visconti, following the conclusion of peace with Milan at the Treaty of Cremona.

[11] He also served in a number of high government positions, as provincial governor, Savio del Consiglio, and Procuratore de Supra of Saint Mark's Basilica, and was Count of Bergamo and Belluno.

"[39] He also served as the Captain General of the Sea and is notable for commissioning the Legend of Saint Ursula (1497/98), a series of large wall-paintings by Vittore Carpaccio originally created for Scuola di Sant'Orsola which was under the patronage of the Loredan family.

[43] He fought at sea against famous admirals such as Kemāl Reis, stealing from him multiple boats and destroying many by fire, and Pedro Navarro, whom he managed to wound after six hours of fierce battle in Roccella Ionica near Crotone in 1497.

[46] Leonardo's political ascent began at the age of nineteen, when he became a lawyer in the "Giudici di Petizion", a magistracy concerned mainly with financial scandals and bankruptcies, for which he had Filippo Loredan as guarantor.

Emperor Maximilian refused to surrender any Imperial territory, which in his eyes included most of the Veneto, to the Republic; to this end, he signed an agreement with the Pope to exclude Venice entirely from the final partition.

[74] On its right was the statue of Venice with sword in hand and on the left that of the League of Cambrai, with the shield adorned with the heraldic coats of arms of the opposing powers (these, and the others in the monument were done by Danese Cattaneo, a pupil of Sansovino).

[75][76] In the dramatic events of the early 16th century, Loredan's Machiavellian plots and struggles against the League of Cambrai, the Ottomans, the Mamluks, the Pope, the Republic of Genoa, the Holy Roman Empire, the French, the Egyptians and the Portuguese saved Venice from downfall.

Admiral Pietro Loredan (1372–1438), a famous member of the family, achieved two great victories, against the two rivals for power in the Mediterranean: over the Ottoman Turks at the Battle of Gallipoli in June 1416, and over the Republic of Genoa near Rapallo in 1431.

The Loredan terminations also deal with the prohibition of deforestation, management of municipal property, maintenance of cleanliness, burial of the dead, running of the fair, teaching of religion, civil law provisions, etc.

Administrators such as these considered their short-term official appointments across the State of the Sea as opportunities to accumulate as much personal wealth as possible through various ventures, including smuggling prohibited items, robbing the locals and cheating the Venetian government.

Such practices were strongly forbidden and constantly punished by the state, which, despite continuous efforts to direct all overseas trade profits to its coffers, seemed at times unable to control and eradicate the rampant corruption of its own officials.

Besides the now established trading activities, some sources point to instances of piracy and notorious organised usury by family members in the 13th and 14th centuries, of which they were accused multiple times but managed to avoid charges by means of threats or bribery.

In the War of the League of Cambrai, after making an alliance with the King of France Louis XII, Leonardo led Venice to a victory against the Papal States, after which the Pope was forced to repay many outstanding debts to the Loredan family totalling approximately 500,000 ducats, an obscene amount of money.

[171] By this decision, the first Jewish ghetto in the world was created in the Cannaregio district of Venice, thus starting centuries of segregation which would spread across Europe, and the Venetian word ghèto soon became a popular term to describe isolated urban communities of ethnic minorities.

[172] Despite playing a part in the creation of the first Jewish ghetto, the decision to do so was not only made by Leonardo Loredan, but by other senators who advocated for segregation believing that the presence of Jews in the city and their money lending practices would degrade the Christian morals and values of Venetian citizens.

Leonardo Loredan was also featured in paintings by Gentile Bellini, Palma the Younger, Vincenzo Catena, Domenico Tintoretto, Carlo and Gabriele Caliari, Pompeo Batoni, Francesco Maggiotto, as well as various other painters, and in sculptures created by the likes of Girolamo Campagna, Danese Cattaneo, and Pietro Lombardo.

The second Loredan doge, Pietro, was likewise portrayed by a number of artists; the most famous depiction of him is the Portrait by Tintoretto, painted in 1567 and now on display at the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas.

It is certain, however, that Loredan patronage, which included both the public and the private, the official, religious, and dynastic, was a massive, intricately connected undertaking that adorned numerous sites throughout Venice and involved nearly every significant artist active in the city during this period.Among the most famous works of art commissioned by the family is the Legend of Saint Ursula, a series of large wall-paintings on canvas by the Venetian Renaissance master Vittore Carpaccio.

^ g: By the reign of Pope Zachary (741–752), Venice had established a thriving slave trade, buying in Italy, among other places, and selling to the Moors in Northern Africa (Zacharias himself reportedly forbade such traffic out of Rome).