Zeno

The Zeno, also spelled Zen, were one of the oldest patrician houses of Venice, recorded there since the tenth century and already numbering procurators of Saint Mark and sea generals before the closing of the Great Council in 1297; family tradition claimed descent from the Roman Gens Fannia. Reniero Zeno, who had commanded the Venetian fleet against Genoa, was elected doge and reigned from 1253 until his death in 1268. Pietro Zeno died in 1345 as bailo of Negroponte after fighting the Turks at Adramyttion and in the Smyrniote crusades, and a later Pietro ruled the island of Andros for the republic from about 1384 to 1497.

The most famous member was Carlo Zeno, born in 1333. Returning with eighteen galleys on 1 January 1380, he saved Venice at the Battle of Chioggia in June, which broke Genoese pressure on the Adriatic; as captain-general of the sea he won again at Modon in 1403 and overthrew the Carraresi of Padua in 1405, though the Council of Ten later stripped him of office over a treason charge. He died in 1418 and was given a public funeral. The merchants Nicolo and Antonio Zeno left a celebrated, much-disputed account of North Atlantic voyages, while Cardinal Giovanni Battista Zeno died in 1501 and the poet and librettist Apostolo Zeno in 1750.