Lorenzo de Monacis

Lorenzo de Monacis was a diplomat serving the Republic of Venice. He was also an influential historian whose chronicles were relied upon by Flavio Biondo and Marcantonio Sabellico.

Diplomatic career In 1386 Lorenzo de Monacis accompanied Venetian diplomat Pantaleone Barbo to Hungary representing Venice's interests during a crisis involving the succession to the Hungarian throne. The diplomatic mission was successful as described in a report by de Monacis to the Venetian government. During the mission, de Monacis wrote a poem defending Mary, Queen of Hungary and Elizabeth of Bosnia, who were accused of the murder of Charles III of Naples. During that time he supervised the agreement between Venice and Mary of Enghien, inheritor of Argos-Nafplion, which saw the sale of the two cities to Venice for 500 ducats. In 1395, he was sent to France along with Giovanni Alberto, a fellow diplomat, to settle a trade dispute through diplomacy.

In the chronicle Chronicon de rebus Venetis ab U.C. ad annum 1354 de Monacis described the stench that the urban area of Venice emitted before a plague epidemic took hold of the city. The plague reached Venice in January 1348. At the same time Venice was hit by a series of earthquakes. The city of Venice was densely populated and by March the epidemic had reached epic proportions. According to de Monacis, "squares, tombs, and all the holy places were crammed with corpses... it became necessary to take the bodies away at public expense on special ships, called pontoons, which rowed through the city, dragging the corpses from the abandoned houses." De Monacis conceded that "the plague cut down women and men, old and young in equal measures. Once it struck a house, none left alive."

In 1421 de Monacis commemorated the thousand-year anniversary of founding of Venice with the treatise Oratio, dedicating it to Doge Tommaso Mocenigo.

Between 1421 and 1428 de Monacis authored a laudatory account of Venice's early history under the title De gestis, moribus et nobilitate civitatis Venetiarum. The complete text of De Monaci's chronicle exists only in the very rare edition of Venice, 1758.

In 1425 de Monacis published an oration, to defend the war Doge Francesco Foscari waged against the Visconti of Milan. De Monacis cast Venice as defender of Christian territories against the Turks.