Marsigli, Louis Ferdinand Count de, an Italian geographer and naturalist, was descended of an ancient and noble family, and born at Bologna on the 10th of July 1658. He acquired a great knowledge in the art of war and of fortification; and he served under the Emperor Leopold II, against the Turks, by whom he was taken prisoner in 1683, but ransomed after a year's captivity. In the war of the Spanish succession, Marsigli, then advanced to the rank of marshal, being in the fortress of Brisack, which surrendered to the Duke of Burgundy in 1703, when the place was deemed capable of holding out much longer, was stripped of all his commissions, and had his sword broken over him; and the Count d'Arco, who had the chief command, was beheaded. Marsigli now sought for consolation in the sciences, having, amidst all the hurry and fatigue of war, made as great progress in philosophy as if he had travelled purely in quest of knowledge. He had a rich collection of every thing proper for the advancement of natural knowledge; instruments astronomical and chemical, plans of fortifications, models of machines, and the like; all which he presented to the senate of Bologna by an authentic act in 1712, forming at the same time out of them what he called the Institute of the Arts and Sciences of Bologna. He also founded a printing-house, furnished it with the best types for Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and Arabic, and in 1728 presented it to the Dominicans at Bologna, upon condition of their printing all the writings of the Institute at prime cost. This was called the printing-house of St Thomas Aquinas. His writings on philosophical subjects are numerous and valuable. The most remarkable are, 1. Osservazioni intorno al Bosforo Tracio overo Canale di Constantinopoli, Rome, 1681, in folio; 2. Dissertatio de Generatione Fungorum, ibid. 1714, in folio, rare and curious; 3. Brève Ristretto del Saggio fisico intorno alla Storia del Mare, Venice, 1711, in folio, translated into French by Leclerc under the title of Histoire Physique de la Mer, Amsterdam, 1725, in folio; 4. Danubii Panonico-Mysticus Observationibus Geographicis, Astronomicis, Hydrographicis, Historiciis, Physicis, perillustra- Marsyas, Hague, 1726, in six vols. large folio; 5. Etat Militaire de l'Empire Ottoman, de son Progres, et de sa Decadence, in French and Italian, Amsterdam and Hague, 1732, in folio, with forty-four plates, and a map of the Ottoman empire by Abubekir Effendi, with the names in the Turkish language. Marsigli died at Bologna, on the 1st of November 1730, regretted by all his fellow-citizens.