took the lives of his pregnant wife, two sons and a daughter and destroyed his books and many other possessions. He resigned his Cretan appointment, but was again appointed secretary to the doge, in which capacity he visited Methoni. He also undertook diplomatic missions to Constantinople and the Empire of Trebizond in 1460. Sagundino died at Venice in March 1464, the exact day being uncertain. It is variously reported as 22 or 23 March, with a surviving notice of his death bearing a date of either 22 or 24 March. His son Giovanni having predeceased him, his heir was his son Ludovico and grandson Niccolò. Works Most of Sagundino's writings are in Latin. Few have been published. He left behind 66 letters to his family and other Italian humanists, one of them describing the shipwreck to Cardinal Bessarion, a fellow Greek Catholic. Among his notable correspondents were Ulisse degli Aleotti, Bishop Ermolao Barbaro, Antonio Beccadelli Panormita, Andrea Contrario, George of Trebizond and Zaccaria Trevisan. He wrote a consolatio on the death of Valerio Marcello, the young son of Jacopo Antonio Marcello. Sagundino made Latin translations of the ancient Greek writers Arrian, Demosthenes, Onesander and Plutarch. He also wrote treatises on philosophy, theology and rhetoric. He dedicated a work on the doctrine of the Trinity, De deo, de unitate essentiae eius et de trinitate personarum, to Febo Capella, and another on philosophy, De origine et sectis pbilosophorum, to Fantino Coppo. In 1456, he was commissioned by Enea Silvio Piccolomini (the future Pope Pius II) to write a history of the Ottoman Empire, which resulted in his De familia otumanorum. Notes References Bibliography 1402 births 1464 deaths People from Chalcis 15th-century Greek people 15th-century Latin writers 15th-century Venetian writers Diplomats of the Holy See Ambassadors of the Republic of Venice to the Ottoman Empire Venetian Renaissance humanists Scholars of Ottoman history 15th-century Greek writers 15th-century Greek politicians