ORSATO (Sertorio), a celebrated antiquarian, historian, and poet, was born at Padua in 1617, and early discovered a taste for literature and the sciences. He applied himself to searching out antiquities and ancient inscriptions; for which purpose he travelled through all the different parts of Italy, and in the mean time poetry was his amusement. When advanced in age, he taught natural philosophy in the university of Padua. He was also a member of the academy of the Ricovrati. Having presented to the doge and senate of Venice the history of Padua, which he had dedicated to them, he made a long speech, during which he struggled with a natural want, and died of suppression of urine, on the 3d of July 1678. He wrote a great number of books which are esteemed, some in Latin, and others in Italian.
He ought not to be confounded with John Baptist ORSATO, an able physician and antiquary, who was born at Padua in 1673, and wrote, 1. Dissertatio epistolaris de Lucebus antiquis. 2. A dissertation De potera antiquorum. 3. A small treatise De sternis veterum; and some other works.