Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 10.djvu/588

570  1em 1em  {{ti|1em|{{larger|GIAMBELLI}}, or {{sc|Gianibelli}}, {{sc|Federigo}}, a military engineer, was born at Mantua about the {{9link|1550|middle of the 16th century}}. Having had some experience as a military entrineer in Italy, he went to Spain to offer his services to Philip II. Iiis proposals were, however, somewhat lukewarmly received, and as he could obtain front the king no immediate employment, he took up his residence at Antwerp, where he soon gained Considerable reputation for his knowledge in various departments of science. He is said to ltave vowed to be revenged for his rebuff at the Spanish court; and when Antwerp was besieged by the duke of Parma in {{9link|1581}}, he put himself in communication with Queen Elizabeth, who having satisﬁed herself of his abilities, engaged him to aid by his counsels in its defence. His plans for provisioning the town were rejected by the senate, but they agreed to a modification of his scheme for destroying the famous bridge which closed the entrance to the town front the side of the sea, by the conversion of two ships of 60 and 70 tons into infernal machines. One of these exploded, and, besides destroying more than 1000 soldiers, effected a breach in the structure of more than 200 feet in width, by which, but for the hesitation of Admiral Jacobzoon, the town might at once have been relieved. After the surrender of Antwerp Giambelli went to England, where he was engaged for some time in fortifying the river Thames; and when the Spanish Armada was attacked by ﬁre-ships in the Calais roads, the panic which ensued was due t) the conviction among the Spaniards that the fire-ships were infernal machines constructed by Giambelli. lie is said to have died in London, but the year of his death is unknown. See Motley’s 11 {story of the Failed Netherlands, vols. i. and ii., and the authorities therein referred to.}}  GIANNONE, (1676—1748), the most distinguished historian of whom Naples can boast, and amongst all Italian historians second alone to Fra Paulo Sarpi tor the strong and clear light thrown in his works on the growth of the papal power, was born at Iscltitella, in the province of Capitanata, on the 7th of May 1676. Arriving in Xaph-s at the age of eighteen, he devoted himself to the study of law, bttt his legal pursuits were much surpassed in import— ance by his literary labours. He devoted twenty years to the composition of his great work, The Civil History If A'aplcs, which was ultimately published in 17:23. Here, in his account of the rise and progress of the Neapolitan laws and government, he warmly espoused the side of the civil power in its conﬂicts with the Romish hierarchy. The position thus taken 11p by him, and the manner in which that position was assumed, gave rise to a life-long COllillcl' between Giannone and the church; and we must know much more accurately than we at present do all the facts concerning his alleged retractation in prison at Turin, before we can withheld from him the palm—as he certainly endured the sufferings—of a confessor and martyr in the cattse of what he deemed historical truth. Ifooted by the mob of Naples, and excommunicated by the archbishup‘s court, he was forecd to leave Naples and repair to Vienna. Meanwhile the Inquisition had attested after its own fashh n the value of his history by putting it on the Index. .‘tt Vienna the favour of the etnperor Charles VI. and of many leading personages at the Austrian court obtained for him a pension and other facilities for the prosecution of his historical studies. Of these the most important result was I l Triregno, ossia clel ref/no del cielo, (lei/a. arm, 6 (It! pupa. On the transfer of the Neapolitan crown to Charles ot Bourbon, Giannone lost his Austrian pension, and was com- pelled to remove to Venice. There he was at first most favourably received. The post of consulting lawyer to the republic, in which he might have continued the special work of F ra Paulo Sarpi, was offered to hitn, as well as that of professor of public law in Padua ; but he declined both offers. Unhappily there arose a suspicion that his views on maritime law were not favourable to the pretensions of Venice, and, notwithstanding all his efforts to dissipate that suspicion, it was resolved to expel him from the state. f )n the 23d of September 1735 he was seized and conveyed to