Andrea Dandolo was elected the 54th doge

Doge of Venice

The Doge of Venice , often mistranslated Duke was the chief magistrate and leader of the Most Serene Republic of Venice for over a thousand years. Doges of Venice were elected for life by the city-state's aristocracy. Commonly the person selected as Doge was the shrewdest elder in the city...

 of Venice

Venice

Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...

 in 1343, replacing Bartolomeo Gradenigo

Bartolomeo Gradenigo

Bartolomeo Gradenigo was the 53rd doge of Venice from November 7, 1339 until his death.-Biography:Born in Venice to an ancient noble family, he was a rich tradesman. Gradenigo devoted to politics very early in his life, acting as podestà of Ragusa and Capodistria, as well as procuratore in the...

 who died in late 1342.

Trained in historiography and law, Andrea Dandolo studied at the University of Padua

University of Padua

The University of Padua is a premier Italian university located in the city of Padua, Italy. The University of Padua was founded in 1222 as a school of law and was one of the most prominent universities in early modern Europe. It is among the earliest universities of the world and the second...

 where he became a law professor until he was elected as doge. He was descended from an old Venetian noble family that played an important role in Venetian politics from the twelfth to fifteenth centuries, and produced 4 Venetian doges, numerous admirals and several other prominent citizens.

Dandolo was known as a benefactor of the arts. He reformed the Venetian legal code, formally proclaiming a legal framework in 1346 that compiled all of the applicable laws in the Republic. He was a friend of Petrarch

Petrarch

Francesco Petrarca , known in English as Petrarch, was an Italian scholar, poet and one of the earliest humanists. Petrarch is often called the "Father of Humanism"...

’s, who wrote of Dandolo that he was “a just man, incorruptible, full of ardor and love for his country, erudite, eloquent, wise, affable and human”.

Dandolo's rise to prominence in Venetian public life was precocious. In 1331, at the age of only 25, he was named procurator of St. Mark's Basilica. He became doge in 1343 at the age of 37.

During his reign, Venice endured a disastrous war with the Hungarians following Zadar

Zadar

Zadar is a city in Croatia on the Adriatic Sea. It is the centre of Zadar county and the wider northern Dalmatian region. Population of the city is 75,082 citizens...

’s seventh revolt against the Most Serene Republic

Republic of Venice

The Republic of Venice or Venetian Republic was a state originating from the city of Venice in Northeastern Italy. It existed for over a millennium, from the late 7th century until 1797. It was formally known as the Most Serene Republic of Venice and is often referred to as La Serenissima, in...

. Allied with the Hungarians, Genoa

Republic of Genoa

The Most Serene Republic of Genoa |Ligurian]]: Repúbrica de Zêna) was an independent state from 1005 to 1797 in Liguria on the northwestern Italian coast, as well as Corsica from 1347 to 1768, and numerous other territories throughout the Mediterranean....

 deployed a powerful naval fleet to the Adriatic under the command of Paganino Doria that devastated the Venetian territories and threatened Venice herself. Venice was saved by the great naval victory of Lojera in 1353.

Venice was struck by a violent earthquake on 25 January 1348 that caused hundreds of casualties, destroyed numerous buildings and, it was assumed at the time, provoked the terrible outbreak of the Black Death

Black Death

The Black Death was one of the most devastating pandemics in human history, peaking in Europe between 1348 and 1350. Of several competing theories, the dominant explanation for the Black Death is the plague theory, which attributes the outbreak to the bacterium Yersinia pestis. Thought to have...

, which did not end until 1350. Between 1348 and 1350 a third of the population died.

Andrea Dandolo wrote two chronicles in Latin on the history of Venice which can be found in volume XII of Muratori

Muratori

Muratori is an Italian surname, and may refer to:* Ludovico Antonio Muratori - Italian historian .* Domenico Maria Muratori - Late Renaissance painter.* Saverio Muratori - Italian architect and urban theorist...

’s collection Rerum Italicarum Scriptores.

Dandolo was the last doge to be interred in St Mark’s Basilica.

The branch of the Dandolo family that currently lives in France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 descends directly from Andrea Dandolo. Settled in Picardy

Picardy

This article is about the historical French province. For other uses, see Picardy .Picardy is a historical province of France, in the north of France...

, the Dandolo family is part of the Italian aristocracy and carries the title of count.

He also wrote about history of Croatia

Croatia

Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...

 in Chronicle of Dalmatia:
" Svatopluk

Svatopluk

Svatopluk or Svätopluk is a Slavic given name. It may refer to:*Svatopluk I , King of Great Moravia from 870/871 to 894*Svätopluk II , prince of the Nitrian principality from 894 to c...

, king of Dalmatia

Dalmatia

Dalmatia is a historical region on the eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea. It stretches from the island of Rab in the northwest to the Bay of Kotor in the southeast. The hinterland, the Dalmatian Zagora, ranges from fifty kilometers in width in the north to just a few kilometers in the south....

.... on Duvno

Tomislavgrad

Tomislavgrad is a town and municipality in southwestern Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is in the Canton 10 of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Herzegovina region.- Name :...

 field was crowned and his kingdom of Dalmatia is spread out into 4 regions: From the field called Duvno (Tomislavgrad), to Istra

Istra

Istra is a town and the administrative center of Istrinsky District of Moscow Oblast, Russia, located on the Istra River, west of Moscow, on the Moscow–Riga railway...

 is called White Croatia

White Croatia

White Croatia is a vaguely defined area, said to lie somewhere in Central Europe, near Bavaria, beyond Hungary on south of Poland and west of Ukraine, and adjacent to the Frankish Empire from which the part of White Croats crossed the Carpathians and migrated in the 7th century into Dalmatia...

... and from that field to Drac Durrës

Durrës

Durrës is the second largest city of Albania located on the central Albanian coast, about west of the capital Tirana. It is one of the most ancient and economically important cities of Albania. Durres is situated at one of the narrower points of the Adriatic Sea, opposite the Italian ports of Bari...

 in Albania

Albania

Albania , officially known as the Republic of Albania , is a country in Southeastern Europe, in the Balkans region. It is bordered by Montenegro to the northwest, Kosovo to the northeast, the Republic of Macedonia to the east and Greece to the south and southeast. It has a coast on the Adriatic Sea...

) is called Red Croatia

Red Croatia

Red Croatia , is a historical term used for the southeastern parts of Roman Dalmatia and some other territories, in including part of present-day Montenegro, greater part of Albania, the Herzegovina part of Bosnia and Herzegovina and southeastern Croatia, stretching across the Adriatic Sea.Another...

; and the mountainous side from the river Drina

Drina

The Drina is a 346 kilometer long river, which forms most of the border between Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia. It is the longest tributary of the Sava River and the longest karst river in the Dinaric Alps which belongs to the Danube river watershed...

 to Macedonia

Republic of Macedonia

Macedonia , officially the Republic of Macedonia , is a country located in the central Balkan peninsula in Southeast Europe. It is one of the successor states of the former Yugoslavia, from which it declared independence in 1991...

 is called Rascia

Rascia

Rascia was a medieval region that served as the principal province of the Serbian realm. It was an administrative division under the direct rule of the monarch and sometimes as an appanage. The term has been used to refer to various Serbian states throughout the Middle Ages...

, and to that river to here is called Bosnia. The whole sea coast is called Dalmatia and its mountains are Croatia..."