RAFFAELE, a celebrated Italian antiquary, was born in 1619, at Urbino, in the States of the Church. At an early age he was sent on important political affairs into Spain; and, on his return, was appointed in rapid succession secretary of the memorials, canon of the Vatican, and keeper of the archives in the Castle of St Angelo, by the Popes Alexander VIII. and Innocent XII. Much of his spare time he devoted to the study of antiquities, and in this pursuit he examined with minute care the numerous monuments and inscriptions of the Campagna. He always undertook his antiquarian expeditions alone, on a horse which his friends nicknamed Marco Polo, and which became so habituated to its master's ways, that it used to stop of its own accord before the objects of which he was in quest, and indeed often rendered him good service by halting in this way before interesting remains which escaped his own eye. In 1680 he published his treatise De Aquis et Aqueductibus Veteris Romae; in which his interpretations of certain passages in Livy and other classics involved him in a dispute with Gronovius, which in its general conduct bore a strong resemblance to that waged between Milton and Salmagius. His other works—De Columna Trajani, 1683; and Inscriptionum Antiquarum Explicatio, 1699—throw much light on Roman antiquity, especially with the aid of the principle which he himself employed, of making one monument interpret another. Fabretti died at Rome early in the year 1700.