author
Lorenzo Venier
1510–1550
A lively Venetian writer from the sixteenth century, he is remembered for sharp, often earthy poems and prose that stood out in the literary circles around his family. Though less famous than some of his contemporaries, his work offers a vivid glimpse of Renaissance Venice.
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About the author
Born in Venice in 1510, Lorenzo Venier was an Italian poet and man of letters from the prominent Venier family. Sources consistently describe him as a writer of the Cinquecento, and note that he was the brother of Domenico Venier, an important figure in Venetian literary life.
Reference works describe his writing as poems and prose with a scurrilous or biting edge, but also with real expressive force. He has also been linked with the literary culture that gathered around his brother in Venice, which places him within one of the city's notable Renaissance circles.
There is some variation in source material about the year of his death, with some brief summaries giving 1550 and Treccani giving 1556. Because of that conflict, it is safest to say that he lived in the first half of the sixteenth century and is remembered today as a lesser-known but distinctive Venetian voice.