Navagiero, Andrea (1483–1529)

Italian scholar, historian, poet, and diplomat. A central figure in Venetian public life, he edited Latin texts for the Aldine press, worked as librarian to St Mark's Basilica, and was a member of the Neakademia. He was the Venetian ambassador to France and also Spain, where he met the poet Boscán.

Navagiero was born into an eminent Venetian family. He studied in Padua, where he learned Greek and particularly interested himself in the odes of the Greek poet Pindar. The first Greek edition of Pindar (1513) was dedicated to Navagiero by Aldus Manutius, for whose press Navagiero edited Latin authors, most notably Cicero. In 1506 Navagiero was appointed to succeed Sabellico as librarian of St Mark's.

Among his many friends was Fracastoro, who made Navagiero the mouthpiece for his views on poetry in the dialogue Naugerius (1555) – the garden setting for this dialogue recalls Navagiero's own interest in natural science and his renowned garden at Murano. He was also friendly with Bembo, with whom he visited Rome, and with Raphael, who painted his portrait.

In 1526, as Venetian ambassador, he went to Spain, where he met Boscán and introduced him to Italian poetic metres, which Boscán was the first to naturalize in Spanish. Navagiero brought back with him from Spain to Italy the then newly discovered potato and other exotics, including possibly a banana. He was next sent on an embassy to Francis I of France, but died while at Blois. His Orationes duae carminaque nonnulla was published posthumously in Venice in 1530.