Vitale Dandolo

Vitale Dandolo was a Venetian jurist and a powerful member of the ducal court, head of the Dandolo of San Luca when his family rose to the front rank of Venetian politics.

After Doge Vitale II Michiel was murdered in front of San Zaccaria in 1172, Vitale was among the electors who chose Sebastiano Ziani as doge. Ziani sent him to Constantinople to negotiate peace with Emperor Manuel I Komnenos after the mass arrest of Venetians.

He died in 1174, in his nineties; only then did his son Enrico Dandolo, already about sixty-seven, become head of the family and begin his own public career.