Loredana Marcello Mocenigo (d 1572) Developed Medical Formulas using Plants at the Biological Garden in Padua.

1573 Jacopo Robusti Tintoretto, Doge Alvise Mocenigo & Family Before the Madonna This combination of devotional painting & family portrait may have been intended originally for the ancestral hall of the Mocenigo family in Venice. The Doge's wife had just died in 1572, so it may have been commissioned to honor her memory. Flowers are scattered at the feet of the Madonna & on the floor between the Doge & his recently deceased wife. The Doge, who ruled Venice from 1570 to 1577, is shown kneeling on the left, wearing the traditional cape and horned cap of the office. Two young angels play music between the Doge & his recently deceased wife.

Loredana Marcello (d 1572) was a Dogaressa of Venice by her marriage to the Doge Alvise I Mocenigo (1570-1577). She was an author of letters & poetry, & was regarded as an educated & cultivated renaissance woman in contemporary Venice.  She was the daughter of Giovanni Alvise Marcello & married Mocenigo in 1533.

Loredana Marcello (c1516-1572)  Dogaressa of Venice  Portrait from The Dogaressas of Venice : The Wives of the Doges (1912)  Edgcumbe Staley, T.W. Laurie, London.

She was a student of a professor of the Biological Garden in Padua, Melchiorre Giuliandino. She was known for the medical formulas & for recipes she developed for use against plagues. The world's first university botanical garden was created in Padua in 1545, which makes the Botanical Garden (Orto Botanico), Padua the oldest surviving example of this type of cultural property. Botanical gardens have played a vital role throughout history in the communication & exchange not only of ideas & concepts but also of plants & knowledge. The Botanical Garden of Padua is the original of botanical gardens in Europe, & represents the birth of botanical science, of scientific exchanges, & an understanding of the relationship between plants & medical cures.  Her work is lost, but her botanical research it is noted to have been consulted & put to good use during the epidemic which appeared in Venice few years after her death (1575).  She became dogaressa upon the election of her spouse as doge in 1570, but died 2 years later.

Her husband Alvise I Mocenigo, doge of Venice from 1570 to 1577, was an admirer of antiquities.  Mocenigo was a diplomat of the Republic of Venice at the court of emperor Charles V, to pope Paul IV & again at the imperial court. He was elected as doge of Venice in 1570. At the time of his accession, the Ottoman Empire was preparing to wage war against Venice, the conflict broke out in 1570, & Venice lost the fortresses of Nicosia & Famagusta in Cyprus. Despite the victory of the Christian coalition in the Battle of Lepanto, Venice was forced to sign a treaty of peace with the Turks. During his reign Venice was visited by the new King of France, Henry III.  Alvise I Mocenigo died on November 27,1577 of suicide by hanging, although he was a religious man, many had thought he was severely depressed. The Doge was interred in the Basilica di San Giovanni e Paolo, a traditional burial place of the doges.