ADRIAN, one of the most eminent geographers of modern times, was born at Venice in 1792. In 1820 he visited Portugal, and there collected materials for his well-known work entitled Essai Statistique sur le Royaume de Portugal et d'Algarve, &c., which was published at Paris in 1822; and this was followed by Variétés Politiques et Statistiques de la Monarchie Portugaise. This work contains some curious observations respecting that country under the Roman sway, and on the state of literature and the arts. In 1826 he published the first volume of his Atlas Ethnographique du Globe, &c., a work of great erudition, and embodying the researches of the most distinguished German philologists and geographers. In 1832 appeared the Abrégé de Géographie, which comprises the whole compass of that science, and procured for the author the highest reputation. This work, in an augmented form, was translated into the principal languages of Europe. Balbi afterwards retired to Padua, where he continued to pursue his favourite science with unaltered ardour. Besides those already mentioned, Balbi was the author of several other works in the same department of science. He died on the 14th of March 1848.