Angelo Emo (3 January 1731 – 1 March 1792) was a Venetian noble, administrator, and admiral. He is notable for his reforms of the Venetian navy and his naval campaigns, being regarded as the last great admiral of the Venetian Republic

The scion of a distinguished family, Emo received an excellent education, and began his naval career as a cadet in 1752. He was quickly recognized for his ability and given his first command of a ship of the line two years later. In 1758, he was sent to cover the return of a trade convoy from London at the head of a squadron of three ships. Adverse weather resulted in a near-shipwreck for his ships, which suffered heavy casualties. In this episode, Emo gave proof of his determination and seamanship, earning acclaim both abroad and at home. Returning to Venice in 1759, over the following years he alternated between naval commands and administrative appointments in Venice, in which he invariably pursued modernizing and reformist policies. As naval commander, he led the Venetian fleet in shows of force against the Barbary states, as well as shadowing the Russian fleet in the Russo-Turkish War of 1768–1774.

In 1775, he proposed naval reforms based on the practices of the British Royal Navy, but was not able to convert them into practice until 1782, when he was given control of the Arsenal of Venice: new techniques were introduced, training and pay were improved, and new warships were constructed. Among others, the floating cannon platform.In 1784–1785 Emo led the Venetian fleet in a series of raids on the harbours of the Beylik of Tunis in retaliation for corsair attacks on Venetian-flagged shipping, but his requests for a landing to capture Tunis were rejected. He spent the last years of his life in anti-piracy patrols, and died after a brief illness on 1 March 1792. His body was returned to Venice, where he received a hero's funeral, and a funerary monument by the sculptor Antonio Canova was commissioned in his honour.

Angelo Emo was born in Venice in January 1731; the exact date is usually given as 3 January, but this is uncertain, as some sources mention the 4th or 5th as his birthday, with one source claiming the 23rd. He was born at the Palazzo Emo, in the parish of San Simeone Piccolo, which formerly had belonged to the Diedo family. He hailed from a distinguished aristocratic family, which claimed to have been resident in Venice since the last years of the 10th century; but with few exceptions, its members had not played a major role in Venetian politics until the 18th century. Angelo Emo's father, Giovanni di Gabriele, had reached the position of Procurator of Saint Mark, the highest distinction for a Venetian citizen below that of Doge of Venice. His mother was Lucia Lombardo, his father's second wife. Angelo Emo was the third child of his father, having an older sister, Fiordaliso, and an older brother, Alvise or Luigi, from Giovanni's first marriage to Apollonia Bon; and a younger sister, Cecilia. His first cousin on his mother's side, Giacomo Nani, born in 1725, also became a notable admiral a few years ahead of Emo himself.

Emo was of mediocre stature, slight build and pale complexion, and stood out for his wide forehead, thick eyebrows, and large eyes. Historical accounts portray him in later life as a difficult, stubborn and haughty character. To prevent the dispersal of the family fortune, younger sons in the Emo family tended not to marry; accordingly, for Angelo Emo, an ecclesiastical career was envisaged. As a result, at the age of twelve he was educated at the Jesuit college in Brescia, before returning to Venice in 1748, where which his father chose as his tutors the scholars Giovanni Battista Bilesimo [it], Jacopo Stellini, and Carlo Lodoli. The beneficiary of an excellent humanistic education, the young Emo distinguished himself in philosophy, but not so much in other scholarly pursuits. During his studies, Emo was repeatedly urged to enter holy orders, but refused. He was an ardent student of Venetian history, whose military achievements he sought to emulate in later life, as well as the ancient Roman historian Tacitus, who became his favourite author.

By law, the traditional Venetian cursus honorum for a young nobleman began with a four-year service in the Venetian navy. Emo entered service around 1751, becoming a Nobile di Nave (gentleman cadet). In 1752, he went on his first sea voyage, escorting the Venetian trade convoy to Smyrna. The voyage proved adventurous: his ship, the large frigate San Vincenzo, went up in flames and sank at the anchorage at Govino Bay in Corfu, on 11 May. Emo proved a quick learner in naval matters, and his first commander remarked on his promise as a naval officer. His rise was rapid, and in January 1755 he was promoted to captain (Governatore di Nave) of a first-rate ship, the 74-gun ship of the line Sant'Ignazio.

During the 18th century, the Venetian maritime trade, that had once dominated the Mediterranean, was in decline. The wealthy patricians preferred reliable investments in their estates in the Terraferma to the hazards of the sea, the emergence of new commercial centres such as Livorno and Trieste siphoned traffic off from Venice, attacks by pirates were a constant threat, and the Genoese, Dutch and English merchants had come to dominate the westward routes into the Atlantic. Attacks by the Barbary pirates of the Ottoman-aligned principalities of Algiers and Tunis, as well as raids by the smaller Dalmatian pirate towns of Bar (Antivari) and Ulcinj (Dulcigno) were also a constant threat. The main task of the Venetian fleet, based at Corfu, was to safeguard Venetian shipping against such attacks. The interruption caused by the War of the Austrian Succession had allowed the Venetian government, which remained neutral, the opportunity to try and seize back a share of trade with the Atlantic ports of Western Europe, equipping new and better ships and providing subsidies to merchants. Venetian successes proved ephemeral, as the end of the war in 1748 had allowed the English and Dutch traders to resume their voyages, but for some time the Venetian government continued to attempt to revive its Atlantic trade. The Venetian navy had also declined during the same time; after the Treaty of Passarowitz in 1718 and especially after the reconfirmation of the treaty in 1733 and 1736, the danger of a new war with the Ottoman Empire receded, and despite occasional war scares the naval establishment was cut back as the Republic pursued an increasingly passive foreign policy centred on a strict neutrality.

Ships being constructed at the Arsenal of Venice were left in a semi-finished state for decades—the first-rate Forza was finished after 55 years—while at the same time, the Arsenal itself entered a period of neglect and increasing technical obsolescence, coupled with corruption and repeated, but fruitless, attempts at reform. This situation threatened even Venice's control over its maritime heartland, the Adriatic Sea (or 'Gulf of Venice', as the Republic liked to boast), which became exposed to pirate attacks and encroachment by the new Habsburg naval centres of Trieste and Fiume. By 1756, the Venetian sailing fleet at Corfu had been reduced to a historic low of seven vessels, but there were twenty further ships mothballed in a near-ready state in the Arsenal of Venice, and the rise in Barbary piratical attacks obliged the Venetian authorities to start putting them into service. During these years, Emo distinguished himself in escort duties of the trade convoys to Smyrna, repelling the attacks of pirates, especially the Dulcignoti, from whose hands he recaptured a Venetian merchant vessel. He then commanded the second-rate Speranza of 58 guns.