M A R S I G L I. 
his fer.yic.es to the emperor Leopold. They were accept¬ 
ed ; and his (kill in fortification was employed by the 
prince of Baden in drawing lines and conftrufting works 
for the defence of the river and ifland of Raab. He was 
rewarded with a company of infantry, at whofe head he 
repulfed a body of the enemy ; bur, when the whole 
Turkifh army had forced the pafiage of the Raab, deferted 
by his men and wounded, he fell into the hands of the 
Tartars, who fold him for a trifling futn to the governor 
of Temefwar. By him he was carried as a Have to the 
fiege of Vienna, where he was bought by two brothers of 
Bofnia. On the retreat of the Turkifh army after their 
defeat by Sobiefki, he was obliged to travel for eighteen 
fucceifive hours dragged at his mailer’s ftirrup, till he 
was almoft dead with fatigue, and narrowly efcaped being 
tnaflacred with the other captives. Arriving at length in 
Bofnia, he fufifered extreme hardfhips, till his friends 
found means to redeem him. 
After a fhort viflt to liis native city, he returned to the 
emperor, by whom he was fent to the army befieging Buda. 
Ill-health obliged him to retire to Vienna, where he was 
employed to fuperintend the cannon-foundery. On this 
occafion he made many experiments on the ftrength and 
aftion of gunpowder, which he communicated to the cele¬ 
brated Viviani. In 1685, the care of fortifying the cita¬ 
dels of Gran and Vicegrade was committed to him. He 
then attended the duke of Lorraine at the fiege ofNeufol, 
where he received a fevere wound, and fell ill of a fever. 
He was greatly inftrumental to the capture of Buda in the 
fubfequent year, from the plunder of which he fecured for 
his (hare l'ome oriental manufcripts. He was railed to 
the rank of colonel in 1688, and was deputed by the em¬ 
peror to the pope for fome political negociations, which 
he conduced with great dexterity. During the remainder 
of the war he ferved in Hungary, where he employed his 
fkill as an engineer in throwing bridges at different times 
over the Danube and Moraw, and in proteffing the en¬ 
campments from the inundations of the great rivers. 
Taking advantage of fome overtures for peace made at 
Conftantinople by the Englilh and Dutch ambalfadors, he 
refided feveral months in that city in the alfumed charac¬ 
ter of lecretary to the former, and made obfervations which 
he communicated to the imperial court, whilfl at the fame 
time he added to the flock of his remarks in natural hif¬ 
tory. From the variety of his talents, civil and military, 
he was in great efteein with the imperial commanders, and 
was frequently confulted on important occafions. Dur¬ 
ing the long negotiations which preceded the final treaty 
of peace, he made many journeys between Carlowitz and 
Vienna; and after its conclufion in 1699, he was appoint¬ 
ed the imperial cominiflioner for fixing the boundaries 
between the two empires in Hungary and Dalmatia, 
for which his geographical knowledge admirably qualified 
him. 
When the fucceflion-war between the emperor and his 
allies, and France, broke out in 1701, he accompanied the 
king of the Romans to the liege of Landau. He after¬ 
wards was fent with his regiment to garril'on the impor¬ 
tant fortrefs of Brifac, and afted as fecond in command 
under count Arco, the governor. Great dilfenfions pre¬ 
vailed between them ; and the advice of Marfigli to 
Itrengthen the fortifications and procure fuccours was dif- 
regarded. When the place, therefore, was attacked by the 
duke of Burgundy in 1703, it furrendered after a (hort 
refiftance. The court of Vienna, highly irritated at this 
misfortune, appointed commiflioners to enquire into the 
affair ; in conlequence of whofe fentence, Arco was be¬ 
headed, and Marfigli had his fword broken, and was de¬ 
prived of all his honours and employments. Having in 
vain attempted to procure a revifion of his fentence from 
the emperor, he retired to Swifferland, where he publilhed 
a juftification, which was generally confidered as fatisfac- 
tory. The other allied powers are laid to have taken his 
part, and the French generals, and Vauban among the 
VOL. XIV. No. 985. 
hs 
refl, exculpated him. His principal confolation, however, 
was in thofe fcientific purfuits which he had never ne¬ 
glected in the nvidft of the tumult of arms, and which he 
now followed with redoubled ardour. After being occu¬ 
pied for fome time with the wondersof nature in Swifl'er- 
land, he vifited France, and took up his refidence chiefly 
at Calfis, a fmall town of Provence near Marfeilles, where 
he cultivated his garden, and particularly examined all the 
productions of the fea and lhore. 
In 1709 count Marfigli was called from his retreat by 
pope Clement XI. to be placed nt the head of his troops; 
a fufficient proof that in the general opinion his reputa¬ 
tion flood uninjured. Laurels, however, were not to be 
gained in the papal fervice ; and it was not long before 
he finally withdrew from military life. He was now to 
appear as a benefactor to his native city, by a foundation 
which has acquired a name in the fcientific world by the 
title of the Inflitute of Bologna. The count’s objeft was 
to promote improvement in the five following branches; 
aftronomy, chemiltry, natural hiftory, phyfics, and mili¬ 
tary architecture. For this purpofe he collected in his 
different journeys a great number of inflruments, fpeci- 
mens, preparations, &c. to which he added a copious li¬ 
brary and various remains of antiquity ; and, difpofing 
them properly in his houfe, he opened it for the refort of 
men of learning and enquiry. Some difputes with his fa¬ 
mily caufed him to remove them to another houfe ; and at 
length he determined to make a donation of them to the 
public. After obtaining the pope’s confent to a new 
foundation, and fixing its laws and regulations, lie fo- 
lemnly confirmed the gift in 1712. The fenate of Bologna 
purchafed the principal palace in the city for its accom¬ 
modation ; an obfervatory was erefted in it, profeffors were 
appointed, and the Inflitute took its proper form. Mar¬ 
figli effected the junction of two exifting academies to it, 
one of a literary kind, termed the Inquieti ; the other for 
the arts of painting, ftatuary, and architecture. The gra¬ 
titude of his fellow-citizens for the benefit he had con¬ 
ferred upon them was expreffed in a decree for placing 
his lfatue in fome confpicuous fituation ; but he fteadily 
refufed this honour. 
It was to be lamented that the litigious difpofition of 
his brother and relations would not permit him to enjoy 
in peace the eftimation in which he was held. They went 
to law with him for his whole property ; and reduced him 
to difficulties, which caufed him to accept the employ¬ 
ment offered by the pope, of furveying the fea-coaft of 
the territory of the church, in order to fortify it againft 
the incurfions of the African corfairs. Fie made ufe of 
this opportunity to colled new materials for his natural 
hiltory, which objed he further purfued in a tour through 
the whole mountainous trad of the Bolognefe and Mode- 
nefe diftrids. A thirft for knowledge induced him to 
extend his travels ; and he paid a vifit to Holland and 
England. Here he formed an acquaintance with fuch 
men asNewton and Halley, Boerhaave and Mufchenbroek; 
he was aggregated to the Royal Society of London, and 
brought back a number of books and fpecimens of natu¬ 
ral hiftory for the Inflitute. He had already been chofen 
a foreign affociate of the Royal Academy of Sciences at 
Paris, and of that of Montpellier. At Amfterdam he 
found bookfellers who undertook to print the great w'ork 
which he had been preparing for a number of years, his 
“ Hiftoire Phyfique de la Mer,” 1725, folio. In the fol¬ 
lowing year he printed, alfo in Holland, another great 
work, elteemed the molt valuable of his performances. 
This was his “ Danubius Pannonico-Myficus,” 6 vols. 
folio, with numerous plates. In this defcription of the 
Danube in its Hungarian and Turkifh courfe, the writer 
begins with geographical and hydrographical obferva¬ 
tions ; thence he proceeds to the hiftory and antiquities of 
all the places wafhed by its flream ; to the mineralogy, 
zoology, and botany, of its borders ; and concludes with 
meteorological and phyfical remarks, and difculfions con- 
5 Q cerning 
