Luigi Villari, 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica, Volume 10… (1911)
“ He was educated at the university of Pisa, where he devoted himself particularly to mathematics. He obtained an official appointment in Tuscany in 1782, and twelve years later was entrusted by the grand duke with the direction of the works for the drainage of the Val di Chiana, on which subject he had published a treatise in 1789. In 1796 he was made minister for foreign affairs, but on the French occupation of Tuscany in 1799 he fled to Sicily. ”
