MURATORI, LEWIS ANTHONY, a learned and celebrated Italian writer, born at Vignoles, in the territory of Bologna, in 1672. He early discovered an extreme fondness for the learned languages and sciences; and this was seconded by an excellent education. After having completed his first studies, he embraced the state of an ecclesiastic; and applied himself to polite literature, philosophy, theology, civil law, antiquities, and other sciences; by which means he became in a manner universally learned. He was scarcely 22 years of age when he was made librarian of the Ambrosian library at Milan. In 1700 the duke of Modena, his sovereign, recalled him, and made him his librarian, and keeper of the archives of his duchy. Muratori discharged this double employment during the rest of his life, and had no other benefit than the provostship of Santa Maria del Pomposa. The principal of his works are,—1. Aneccdotæ, or a collection of pieces taken from the Ambrosian library, 2 vols. 4to, with learned notes and dissertations. 2. A treatise on the perfection of the Italian poetry, 2 vols. 4to. 3. Aneccdotæ Græcæ, 3 vols. 4to. 4. A genealogical history of the house of Modena, 2 vols. folio. 5. An excellent collection of the writers of the Italian history, 27 vols. folio, with learned notes. 6. Another collection, under the title of Antiquitates Italice. 7. A collection of ancient inscriptions, under the title of Novus Theſaurus, 6 vols. folio. 8. The annals of Italy, 12 vols. 4to, in Italian, &c. 9. Letters, dissertations, Italian poems, &c.