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 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

BUONARROTI.

author of this work, Phillippo Buonarroti, was born in Florence in 1760. He was of noble extraction, and descended, it is said, in a right line from the celebrated Michael Angelo; but, as Michael Angelo was never married, it is more probable that he belonged to a collateral branch of that family. Certain it is, at all events, that his immediate connexions were amongst the highest Order at Florence; a fact not only attested by the high favour in which he was held in early life at the court of the Grand Duke Leopold, but also by the powerful influences he was enabled to interest in his behalf, at several critical periods of his subsequent life.

He received his education at the University of Pisa, where he discovered great energy of mind, and an indefatigable zeal for study. He addicted himself in particular to the cultivation of philosophy, politics, and history. He also exhibited favourable specimens of his talents by several dissertations and essays on a variety of subjects.

These promising dispositions, united with the great name he bore, won him the esteem of the Grand Duke Leopold, who made it a point to favour all the descendants of the illustrious men of Florence, and especially the families of Buonarroti, Vespucci, and Galilei, whose ancestors had shed so much honour upon that nursery of Italian genius.

As soon as Buonarroti quitted the University, the Grand Duke created him a Knight of the Order of St. Stephen, and offered him a distinguished place in his Court, with a large pension. The Order of Knighthood he accepted; but, whether from a desire to be more free