Maffeo Vallaresso

Maffeo Vallaresso or Valaresso (1415–1494) was a Venetian patrician, Renaissance humanist and prelate who served as the archbishop of Zadar (Zara) from 1450 until his death.

Through the influence of his uncle, Fantino Vallaresso [it], archbishop of Crete, he received a canonry in the cathedral of Treviso with a prebend worth 40 florins and the right of administration in absentia when he was only ten years old in 1425.

[2] Vallaresso received a humanistic education, initially at the Scuola di Rialto under Paolo della Pergola.

From Rome he sent an anonymous letter to the Council of Ten accusing Cristoforo Cocco of sharing state secrets with Alfonso V of Aragon.

[2] On 26 June 1468, he was present as a witness in the house of Cardinal Bessarion when the latter donated his library of Greek and Latin manuscripts—the future Biblioteca Marciana—to the Republic of Venice.

[2] His executor, Krešo Nassis, signed a contract for his tomb monument with the sculptors Petar Meštričević and Nikola Španić on 4 January 1499.

[2] According to the first scholar to study it extensively, Luka Jelić [hu], it is "a mirror of public and private life in Dalmatia during the second half of the 15th century".

[3][6] In addition, letters addressed to him survive from Francesco Barbaro, Marco Barbo, Ludovico Foscarini, Barbone Morosini, Lauro Quirini, Lorenzo Zane and Niccolò Sagundino.

[3] Vallaresso's letters, especially to Pietro Barbo, Lauro Quirini and Lorenzo Zane, demonstrate his keen humanist and antiquarian interests.

Vallaresso depicted in the initial of a manuscript of his Regulae . [ 1 ]
First page of Vallaresso's deluxe copy of the 1469 Roman edition of Strabo 's Geographica by Konrad Sweynheim and Arnold Pannartz . The initial contains a depiction of Strabo, while Vallaresso's coat of arms and monogram (MV) appear in the bottom margin. [ 4 ]