Giovanni da Valente

Giovanni da Valente (Genoa, c. 1280–1360) was a banker's son from the merchants and bankers who stood against the Genoese nobility. When Giovanni da Murta died of plague, electors proclaimed him the third doge on 9 January 1350.

The war he inherited was a hard one: Aragon and Venice allied against Genoa in January 1351, and a Bosphorus battle in February 1352 left both fleets bloodied. He answered with an alliance with Louis I of Hungary. Then in August 1353 Antonio Grimaldi's fleet was shattered off Alghero, and Genoa lost its hold on the Tyrrhenian Sea.

On 8 October Giovanni resigned. Squeezed between sea and mountains, the Republic submitted to the Visconti of Milan, and he lived out his days in private.