Giacomo Foscarini
[2] On 26 November 1556, Foscarini married Elena Giustinian, whose dowry was 5,000 ducats and whose family had close connections with the church.
As it damaged Venice's seaborne trade, Foscarini turned to property speculation in the Domini di Terraferma, jointly with his son Giambattista and daughter Foscarina.
[1] With extraordinary temporal and spiritual powers, he was, as his funerary inscription indicates, the "dictator" of Crete.
He maintained the feudal system, but improved the lot of the peasantry by putting more land under wheat cultivation at the expense of vineyards.
[8] The whole project of translating and illustrating the Oracles was a work of propaganda that altered the meaning of the text to prophesy Christian victory against the Ottomans.
[9] Foscarini's Cretan policies earned him many enemies among the local elite and he returned to Venice early in 1578.
To Johann Wilhelm Zinkeisen [de] he was man of "deep insight, a strong sense of justice and a spirit of clemency and reconciliation" who led the "last futile attempt to relieve the basic evils of Venetian rule ... and save the power of the Republic.
"[10] To Joshua Starr he was "an intolerant fanatic" whose rule "was a dark period for Jews and Greeks alike.
"[11] In the 1580s and 1590s, Foscarini was one of the most prestigious Venetian statesmen, alongside the future doges Leonardo Donà and Marino Grimani.
[1] In 1596, he supported the construction of the Procuratie Nuove designed by Vincenzo Scamozzi, probably on account of its triumphalism.
[15] He led embassies to congratulate the newly elected popes Sixtus V (1585), Urban VII (1590), Gregory XIV (1590) and Innocent IX (1591).
He was one of the riformatori (reformers) of the University of Padua in 1588 and 1600, in which capacity he fought for the restoration of the Jesuit schools.
[1] He is usually seen as a conservative in the context of Venetian politics at the time, favouring alliance with the Papacy and Spain.
[1][15] Nevertheless, he supported the reform of the savi all'Eresia in 1595 to give the laity a greater role and asked Pope Clement VIII to postpone the enforcement of the Index of Prohibited Books in Venice.
Likewise, in 1600 he supported the election of Matteo Zane as patriarch of Venice over Clement's objections.
[16] Although he was a recognized expert in economic matters, a letter he wrote concerning the Bank of Venice on 28 August 1602 sparked a controversy that marred his last months.
[17] Giovanni Antonio Ridolfi Sforza wrote a biography of Foscarini in Latin, Iacobi Foscareni equitis et D. Marci procuratoris vita, printed at Venice in 1623.
