Marino Sanuto the Younger

[1] He was born into a patrician family of Venice, of important wealth, the son of the senator Leonardo Sanuto, descendant of the Counts of Candiana originating from Pietro I Candiano.

[2] In 1483 he accompanied his cousin Mario, who was one of the three sindici inquisitori deputed to hear appeals from the decisions of the rettori, on a tour through Istria and the mainland provinces, and he wrote a minute account of his experiences in his diary.

The result of this journey was the publication of his Itinerario per la terraferma veneziana and a collection of Latin inscriptions.

Sanuto was elected a member of the Maggior Consiglio when only twenty years old (the legal age was twenty-five) and he became a senator in 1498; he noted down everything that was said and done in those assemblies and obtained permission to examine the secret archives of the state.

It was a great grief to Sanuto when Andrea Navagero was appointed the official historian to continue the history of the republic from the point where Marco Antonio Sabellico left off, and a still greater mortification when, Navagero having died in 1529 without executing his task, Pietro Bembo was appointed to succeed him.