Ludovico Trevisan - Bishopric

Bishopric

Trevisan was elected bishop of Traù on October 24, 1435, was consecrated soon after his election, and remained bishop until August 6, 1437, governing it through his vicar, Niccolò, abbot of the monastery of S. Giovanni Battista in Traù. On August 6, 1437, Trevisan was promoted to metropolitan bishop of Florence, which he occupied until December 18, 1439. There is record of Trevisan being in Ferrara with Eugene IV on January 23, 1438, and his subscription is found on the bull of union with the Greeks issued by Eugenius IV on July 4, 1439.

Trevisan became Patriarch of Aquileia on December 18, 1439, and occupied that see until his death. On April 3, 1440, Trevisan was commissioned as papal legate in Romagna "with the army, with the aim of recovering the lands of the Church." As a result, he undertook military operations starting on July 30 aimed at capturing Bologna but had to pause the campaign from November 23 to the following Spring, at which time he received a sizable sum from the Apostolic Camera.

He succeeded Vitelleschi as the pope's special deputy, possibly having engineered Vitelleschi's downfall through his henchman, Antonio Rido, and began pacifying the forces still loyal to Vitelleschi and reducing the regions of Viterbo and Civitavecchia to papal obedience. As the pope's special deputy he was the paymaster of the sizable papal army and controlled its large budget, and commanded it in the field.

On June 4, 1440 he received a special military standard and proceeded to Tuscany with a force of 3000 horsemen and 500 foot soldiers to support Francesco I Sforza and other papal and Florentine condottieri against Niccolò Piccinino. Trevisan commanded the right flank of the combined papal-Florentine forces that defeated Piccinino in the Battle of Anghiari on June 29.

An account of his victory is also available in an important contemporary war poem, Trophaeum Anglaricum by Florentine humanist Leonardo Dati, which praises Trevisan's caution as much as his impetuosity, comparing him to captains of antiquity such as Alexander the Great and Hannibal.