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Adrian Balbi

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

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ADRIAN BALBI (1782-1848), Italian geographer, was born at Venice on the 25th of April 1782. The publication of his Prospetto politico-geografico dello stato attuale del globo (Venice, 1808) obtained his election to the chair of professor of geography at the college of San Michele at Omrano; in 1811-1813 he was professor of physics at the Lyceum of Farino, and afterwards became attached to the customs office at his native city. In 1820 he visited Portugal, and there collected materials for his Essai statistique sur le royaume de Portugal et d'Algarve, published in 1822 at Paris, where the author resided from 1821 until 1832. This was followed by Varietes politiques et statistiques de la monarchic portugaise, which contains some curious observations respecting that country under the Roman sway. In 1826 he published the first volume of his Atlas ethnographique du globe, ou classification des peuples anciens et modernes d'apres leurs langues, a work of great erudition. In 1832 appeared the Abrege de Geographic, which, in an enlarged form; was translated into the principal languages of Europe. Balbi retired to Padua and there died on the 14th of March 1848. His son, Eugenio Balbi (1812-1884), followed a similar career, being professor of geography at Pavia, and publishing his father's Scritti Geografici (Turin, 1841), and original works in Gea, ossia la terra (Trieste, 1854-1867) and Saggio di geografia (Milan, 1868).