Tommaso Condulmer was born in
Venice on 20 AUgust 1759 to the
patrician Condulmer family. His father was Domenico Condulmer, and his mother Elisabetta Soranzo. He enrolled in the
Venetian navy at a very young age, and rose rapidly through the ranks to become commander of his own ship () by 1784, when he participated in
Angelo Emo's
expeditionary fleet against the
Beylik of Tunis. In late 1786, Condulmer was elected (rear admiral) and replaced Emo on station off the Tunisian coast with a small squadron, while the main fleet returned to
Corfu. Raising his flag on the great frigate
Sirena, Condulmer patrolled the Tunisian waters for the next few years until the death of Emo and the conclusion of peace in 1792. When Emo died at Malta in 1792, Condulmer, now (vice admiral) took over command of the Venetian sailing fleet, being awarded a Knight of the
Order of the Golden Stole (or
Order of Saint Mark but for
patricians) as well. In 1796, as Venice was facing a French invasion led by
Napoleon, Condulmer was appointed second-in-command to the , charged with defending the
Venetian Lagoon; the latter post was initially held by the former admiral
Giacomo Nani, who energetically organized the naval defences. But when he died, his successor, the senator
Giovanni Zusto, was far less decisive, and Condulmer was outright defeatist, disparaging any attempt to defend against the French as pointless, thus decisively contributing to the
Fall of the Republic of Venice. Faced with accusations of treason, Condulmer was forced to compose an exculpatory work in his defence (
Il cittadino Tommaso Condulmer agli amatori della verita) but otherwise remained aloof from politics, living retired at
Treviso. In 1805, Napoleon, now
King of Italy, appointed him a gentleman-attendant to
Princess Augusta of Bavaria, and created him a count,
senator, and a knight in the
Order of the Iron Crown. He died in Venice on 7 January 1823. ==References==