Federico Cornaro

Born into the noble Venetian family which originated from the famous Cornelli family of classical Rome, Federico take advantage of political and commercial situation and emerged as the first sugar magnate in the history of the Venetian Republic.

Sugar is regarded as one of the most desired luxury commodity in the late medieval Europe. Recognizing its great potential, Federico entered the sugar trade along with his two brothers, and soon established commercial contacts with the Kingdom of Cyprus, the leading producer of sugar in the Mediterranean. An opportunity to strengthen his business came with the Ottoman threat. King Peter I of Cyprus came in 1361 to Venice (where he resided at Cornaro Palace) to seek aid against this enemy. In return for the Piscopia peninsula on the island of Cyprus as a tax-free fiefdom, Cornaro gave him the large sum of 60,000 gold ducats for defense. He was also knighted with the Cyprus Order of the Sword, and allowed to include the Cypriot royal lion in his coat of arms.

The brothers reorganized sugar industry by importing a skilled workforce, building new sugar mills, irrigating the sugarcane fields and improving industrial techniques for processing the sugarcane with sixteen-hundred-pound copper kettle boilers. The result was the manufacture of a superior and less expensive sugar highly in demand in Europe. In later period, he also obtained monopolies in salt and cotton as partial repayment of his loan, and was allowed to dictate prices for all three products.

Cornaro became the wealthiest citizen of Venice, and perhaps the wealthiest merchant of the 14th century Europe. By matrimonial policy the Cornaro family became connected with the Cypriot royalty.

In 1381 he donated a portion of his wealth to Republic which was in exhausting war against Genova. He died the following year leaving the management of his business empire to his wife and sons. Among his famous descendants was Elena Cornaro Piscopia (1646- 1684), the first woman in history to be awarded a doctorate of philosophy degree.