Bartolomeo Minio Bartolomeo Minio was , among other things , a Venetian captain and commander ( " provveditor ] e capitanio " ) of Napoli di Romagna ( modern Nafplion , Greece ) , a Venetian outpost on the Morea ( Peloponnese ) from 1479 to 1483 AD . His reports ( " dispacci " ) to Venice provide a unique historical source for southern Greece in the later 15th century , during the first decades of the Ottoman occupation . Family . The Minio family records date back to 904 when a Paolo Minio moved to Rialto . In the 14th century , Bartolomeo ' s family held myriad office positions and were also counted in the " estimo " of 1379 . Nine members of his family were listed in Hopf ' s catalogues of governors for Greece and the Aegean islands . Bartolomeo was born in Venice in around 1428 to Marco Minio and Cristina Storlado , the youngest of five sons . Cristina died when Bartolomeo was only two years old and Marco remarried in 1431 . In 1455 , Bartolomeo married Elena Trevisan . Three sons were known to have reached adulthood ( Marco , the first son , who was born around 1460 , Alvise , born in 1461 , and Francesco ) . The family house can be identified in the San Tomà parish of the San Polo " sestiere " of Venice . Military and political career . In 1462 , Bartolomeo was a " consiliere " to the " rettor " of Corfu during his early career in the " Stato da Màr " , Venice ' s overseas colonies . Minio spent over forty - two months in Nauplion beginning in November 1479 . His term is notable for the fortifications he built for Nauplion , for his settlement of the territorial boundaries with the Ottomans , and for his judicious settlement of the Kladas revolt . In 1499 and 1500 , he was stationed in Cyprus where he made notable contributions to the fortifications of Famagusta . Between 1500 and 1502 , he was " vice - doge " ( briefly ) and captain in Venetian Crete . A collection of 60 reports which he made during that time has survived . These reports , combined with the 90 from Nauplion , form an incomparable collection of letters by a single person . An edition of these letters by Diana G . Wright and John R . Melville - Jones , accompanied by a translation and commentary , has been published ( 2008 ) by UniPress , Padova , Italy . His career in Venice and the mainland followed the normal course for Venetian patricians : in 1497 , he was a councillor for water issues in the " Terraferma " ( Venice ' s possessions on the Italian mainland ) ; in 1503 , " consiliere " and " capo " of the Dieci ; " podestà " at Cremona from 1504 to 1505 ; in 1506 and 1507 , and again in 1510 and 1514 , " podestà " in Padua . In 1509 , at the age of 80 , he was sent to Julius II in order to discuss matters pertaining to the papal interdict placed on Venice for the capture of Ravenna and Faenza . He was appointed " proveditore " of the stratioti for the Ferrara War in 1484 . In 1485 , he was elected captain of the annual Venetian trading convoy from Venice to Flanders and England . In the Bay of Biscay , the convoy of four galleys was attacked by pirates , one of whom was Christopher Columbus , the merchandise was taken , and Minio and the survivors left on the coast of Portugal . Bartolomeo had periods of illness prior to his death . After missing vespers on April 25 , 1512 , he sent a message a week later to the Collegio rejecting his position as " vice - doge " due to his illness . He was ill again and missed two major ceremonial events in May and June 1513 . Despite all this , he became " consiliere " of Padua in October 1515 after a meeting of the Dieci that lasted until the eleventh hour of the day . In August or September 1518 , Bartolomeo Minio died at the age of ninety . _ _ _ _ _ _ 1989 reprint . " Le Vite dei Dogi ( 1474 – 1494 ) . " Angela Caracciolo Aricò , ed . Padua .