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VISCONTI. 



Uernabd, and Galea::o IT. Matteo died within a 

 year; and his two brothers, though eminent for 

 their warlike talents, rendered themselves ob- 

 noxious by their cruelty and other vices. Galeazzo, 

 however, deserves praise for his encouragement of 

 letters. He continued to treat Petrarch with the 

 same respect that his predecessors had shown him, 

 and employed him in several negotiations. The 

 poet always mentioned him with esteem and grati- 

 tude, and is said to have induced him to found the 

 university of Pavia. He was succeeded, in 1378, 

 by his son Gian Galeazzo, who imprisoned his uncle 

 Bernabd in the castle of Trezzo, and took upon 

 himself the sole government. In him the Visconti 

 family reached the summit of its grandeur and 

 splendour. In 1395, he received, from the em- 

 peror Wenceslaus, the ducal dignity ; and his ter- 

 ritories were more extensive than those of any of 

 his predecessors. Pisa, Sienna, Perugia, Padua 

 and Bologna were subject to his sceptre; and he 

 had already shown a disposition to assume the title 

 of king of Italy, when his ambitious projects were 

 rut short by his death, of the plague (in 1402). 

 With elevated views, he fostered science and art, 

 collected the most distinguished scholars at bis 

 court, restored the university of Piacenza, con- 

 nected that of Pavia with it, and founded a large 

 library. During his reign, also, some great archi- 

 tectural works were executed ; among them, the 

 celebrated bridge over the Tessino, at Pavia, and 

 the magnificent cathedral at Milan (1386 97). 

 Gian Galeazzo left three sons, Giammaria, filippo 

 Maria, and an illegitimate child, Gabriel, among 

 whom his dominions were divided. Their mutual 

 dissensions and youthful indiscretions soon under- 

 mined their power. In most of the Lombard cities, 

 single powerful citizens raised themselves to the 

 head of their respective towns, and the neighbour- 

 ing states took advantage of the favourable oppor- 

 tunity to extend their limits at the expense of the 

 Visconti. The Florentines took Pisa, and the 

 Venetians gradually obtained possession of Padua, 

 Vicenza, Verona, Brescia, and other towns. Giam- 

 maria was hated for his cruelty, and in 1412, fell a 

 victim to a conspiracy. Filippo Maria now reigned 

 alone, and, during the remaining thirty-five years of 

 his life, was alternately at the summit of happiness 

 and in the depths of misery. As often as he had 

 the fortune to recover any of the lost cities, so often 

 had he the grief to witness their renewed loss ; and 

 his last years were embittered by the hostilities of 

 the Venetians, who repeatedly advanced to the 

 walls of Milan, and devastated the surrounding ter- 

 ritory. He died in 1447, leaving no male heirs. 

 His natural daughter, Bianco, had been married to 

 Francesco Sforza, one of the most distinguished 

 generals of the time. The Milanese were desirous 

 to regain their ancient freedom; but they were un- 

 able to defend themselves against the attacks of the 

 rival princes, who were eager to gain possession of 

 so rich and beautiful a country; and they found 

 themselves obliged to put themselves under the 

 government of Sforza, who was named duke of 

 Milan in 1430. See Sforza, and Milan. 



VISCONTI, JOHN BAPTIST ANTHONY ; an Ita- 

 lian antiquary, born at Vernazza in Genoa, in 1722, 

 and educated at Rome by an uncle, who was a 

 painte.r, and who designed his nephew for the same 

 profession. But the latter preferred the study of 

 antiquities, and that he might be at liberty to fol- 

 low his inclination, purchased the office of apostolic 

 notary. He became connected with the celebrated 



Winckelmann, whom he succeeded, in 1708, in tl.e 

 station of prefect or commissary of antiquities ut 

 Rome; and Clement XIV. on his eievation to the 

 pontifical throne, the following year, having formed 

 the design of founding a new museum in the Vati- 

 can, the execution of the plan was intrusted to 

 Visconti, who superintended the researches for 

 ancient monuments carried on at Rome under popi* 

 Clement XIV. and Pius VI. Among the relics of 

 former ages brought to light, was the tomb of the 

 Scipios, relative to which Visconti published Let- 

 ters and Notices in the Roman Anthology ; and lie- 

 was the author of some other archaeological me- 

 moirs. His death took place Sept. 2, 1784. He 

 was appointed editor of the Museum Pio-Clemen- 

 tinum; but the text accompanying the engravings 

 of that work was written by his son. 



VISCONTI. ENNIUS QUIRINUS, son of the pre- 

 ceding, and one of the most celebrated archa-olo- 

 gists and antiquaries, was born at Rome, in 1731. 

 While a child, he knew how to distinguish the 

 heads of the emperors upon medals, at an age when 

 he could hardly pronounce their names. In the 

 tenth year of his age, he underwent a public ex- 

 amination in Roman and biblical history, numis- 

 matics, chronology, geography, geometry; and, in 

 his twelfth year, he was able to solve the most 

 difficult problems of trigonometry and analytical 

 geometry. The next year, he published a metrical 

 version of the Hecuba of Euripides, with an account 

 of his method of studying languages, and soon after 

 undertook a metrical translation of Pindar. His 

 father had performed the plan for a description of 

 the Pio-Clementinum museum, and executed some 

 articles of it; and the first volume, which appeared 

 in 1782, bears his name; but the son had written 

 the chief part of it, and he continued this great 

 work, which appeared under the title // Museo 

 Pio-Clementino descritto, in the following order: 

 two volumes, 1784; third, 1788; fourth, 1790; 

 fifth, 1792; sixth, 1796; and seventh, 1807. An 

 eighth volume, entitled 77 Museo Chiaramonti, is 

 by Philip Aurelius Visconti and Guattani. This 

 labour alone would be sufficient to immortalize him ; 

 and he likewise published numerous archaeological 

 treatises in different Italian journals. When the 

 treasures of ancient art were removed from the 

 cities of Italy to Paris, Visconti followed them to 

 that place, and arranged and wrote a descriptive 

 catalogue of the antiques in the museum. The 

 last edition of this catalogue, which abounds in 

 ingenious and learned remarks, appeared in 1815, 

 under the title Notices des Statues, Busies et Bas- 

 reliefs de la Galerie des Antiques du Musi-e Napol- 

 eon. In 1817, he published Description des An- 

 tiques du Musee royal; and his description of the 

 rich coHection known by the name of the Musee 

 Francois is still more complete. Visconti had been 

 chosen a member of the institute in 1800 ; and he 

 continued, after his arrival in France, to contribute 

 learned and valuable papers to different journals 

 and other literary publications. Nothing at that 

 time, was in a more confused state than icono- 

 graphy : there were innumerable portraits of the 

 great men of antiquity in existence, but archaeolo- 

 gists were at a loss in determining the respective 

 individuals. Visconti undertook the task of form- 

 ing a complete Grecian and Roman iconography. 

 The former was. published in three volumes, folio 

 (Iconographie Grecque}, Paris, 1811, and the two 

 first parts of the latter, containing the celebrated 

 Romans, in 1818, leaving only the iconography of 



