CARDINAL ANDREA CORNARO, son of Proc. Giacomo Cornaro (B-62/F-1) was a member of the family's Cornaro della Regina branch in the S. Maurizio line. He began his career in the Church at the improbable age of 12 when he was invested with the abbey of S. Zeno. The timing presumably resulted from the death of his uncle Cardinal Patriarch Marco Cornaro (B-61), who previously held the abbey.

He subsequently succeeded another Cardinal uncle, Cardinal Cav. Proc. Francesco Cornaro (B-60), as Bishop of Brescia, 1532. Andrea was elevated to Cardinal by Pope Paul III, 1544, shortly after the death of Cardinal Cav. Proc. Francesco. In the tradition of the Cornaro Cardinals, Cardinal Andrea was an adviser in Papal relations with Venice and the Holy Roman Empire.

Cardinal Andrea was the author of two pastoral works, De statu praelatorium and De residentia episcoporum, and nine collections of his letters were published (two in dialect and seven in latin). Petrarch dedicated to him a Commentary (Venice, 1541). Cardinal Andrea also assisted his brother Giorgio Cornaro (F-4) in construction of the family's palace on the Grand Canal known as Ca' Cornaro della Ca' Granda, a masterwork of the architect Jacopo Sansovino.

In the period from 1500 to 1789 nine members of the Cornaro family served as Cardinal, for a combined total of 150 years of service.