Education and work as a scribe Fausto was born in 1490 to a modest family of
Greek origin. They probably immigrated to Venice from
Cephalonia. Fausto was a
Venetian citizen by birth and a native of the city. His original name, in
Latin, was Lucius Victor Falchonius. By 1511, he had adopted a different surname, going by Victor Faustus in Latin and Niketas Phaustos in
Greek. According to
Paolo Ramusio, he was a child prodigy, although nothing is known of his early education. Besides Latin and Greek, he learned some
Hebrew and
Aramaic. In 1508–1509, he studied under, worked for and lived with the professor Gerolamo Maserio at the
Scuola di San Marco. He was made to copy out Greek texts, such as
John Tzetzes and some commentaries on
Aeschylus. Fausto published his first Greek epigram in 1509 in edition of
Noctes Atticae by
Aulus Gellius. In 1510, he was offered a teaching job in
Lucca by
Aulo Giano Parrasio. According to a letter he wrote to
Jacopo Sannazaro in early 1511, Parrasio absconded with 90 of his books, abandoning him at
Chioggia. The letter is valuable for the light it sheds on Fausto's reading up to that point. The majority of his books were in Greek: Aeschylus,
Plutarch,
Theocritus,
Athenaeus,
Lucian,
Nikephoros Blemmydes and
Cyril of Alexandria. In 1511, Fausto joined
Marco Musuro as a pupil and copyist. His adoption of the name Fausto around this time may have been related to his entering the
Aldine Academy. In 1511, he published an edition of
Terence's comedies with his own treatise,
De comoedia libellus, and editions of three works by
Cicero. All of these were printed by . He published a second Greek epigram in his edition of Terence. In 1512, he published a third Greek epigram in
Urbano Bolzanio's
Grammaticae Institutiones. The completion of his education is uncertain, but
Marino Sanudo calls him a doctor.
Spain, the army and France In 1512, Fausto went to Spain. He probably brought with him Tacuino's Greek
type for use in the fifth volume of the
Complutensian Polyglot Bible, published in 1514. Although his overall role with the bible was minor, he did contribute one of the introductory Greek epigrams praising the project's founded,
Francisco Jiménez de Cisneros. Cisneros offered him a professorship of Greek at the
University of Alcalá, but he declined. He left Spain in 1513. During his time in Spain, he befriended the Venetian ambassador,
Giovanni Badoer. From 1513 to 1515, during the
War of the League of Cambrai, Fausto served in the
Venetian army in the
Terraferma under
Bartolomeo d'Alviano. His immediate superior was the
condottiero Baldassare Scipione. In 1516, Badoer was named ambassador to France and brought Fausto with him. In Paris, Fausto joined the literary circle around
Guillaume Budé. In 1517, he published a Latin translation of the
Aristotelis Mechanica dedicated to Badoer. This was a
critical edition based on over twenty manuscripts. It was published at Paris by
Josse Bade. According to Lilia Campana: At some point, Fausto visited
Germany, but the chronology of his travels between 1512 and 1518 is not completely certain.
Professor and naval architect In 1518, Fausto returned to Venice. He was offered a chair teaching Greek by the
Republic of Ragusa, but declined. He competed for and won the chair of Greek at the Scuola di San Marco, although his rival,
Egnazio, complained of "machinations". Sanudo praised Fausto's winning lectures on Lucian and the
Argonautica Orphica. Fausto held the chair from 16 October 1518 until at least 1529. In 1524, he was lecturing on
Hesiod and
Pindar. During this period, Fausto wrote his
Orationes quinque (Five Orations). He also began theoretical work on the
quinquereme, which he first proposed to the
Arsenal in 1525. In 1526, he was authorized by the
Venetian Senate to build one. It was, he claimed, based on an ancient Greek design. Fausto's version had "five rowers on a single bench, each pulling a separate oar." Years later,
Galileo Galilei referred to it was the "great galleass". It underwent sea trials in 1529. Although faster than lighter
galleys at short distances, it was inefficient over longer ranges. Only one was ever built.
Disillusionment In 1530, Fausto succeeded
Andrea Navagero as librarian of what would become the
Biblioteca Marciana, including the collection granted to Venice by Cardinal
Bessarion. In 1530, he was approached by the French ambassador,
Lazare de Baïf, to work in France. He refused, but became disillusioned with his work in Venice in the years that followed. Accused of treason by agents of
Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, he was arrested and tortured in 1539. He was accused of planning to go to France to help construct ships. At the time, France was allied with the
Ottoman Empire against Charles V and Venice. There were rumours that Fausto was murdered, but he was eventually declared innocent and released. In July 1546, Fausto contacted the
Florentine ambassador to negotiate a move to Florence, but nothing came of it. This is the last record of Fausto alive. He probably died towards the end of the year. He never married, had no children and did not make a will. His sister, Apollonia, claimed his few belongings in January 1547. His
Orationes quinque were published posthumously by the
Aldine Press in 1551, dedicated to
Pier Francesco Contarini with a brief introductory biography of Fausto by Paolo Ramusio. ==Writings==