Machine translation of the 1948–1954 Italian original. The original text is authoritative.
LEOPOLD II, emperor (as Grand Duke of Tuscany). — Born on 15 May 1747 in Vienna, died there on 2 March 1792. Third son of FRANCESCO STEFANO of Lorraine and Empress MARIA THERESA, he became Grand Duke of Tuscany in 1765. With the aid of capable advisors such as Pompeo Neri, Francesco Maria Gianni, and others, he embarked on an ambitious policy of reforms.
Tax collection was no longer farmed out but passed directly into the hands of the state; the customs system was greatly simplified by the elimination of almost all internal duties, and the economy of the country reaped no small advantage from this; the works of reclamation and
(from Fr. Wagner, Historia Leopold: Magus Cacsaria Augusti, Vienna IIB, third edition, J. t.) Leopold I, emperor — Portrait. Engraving by Cristoforo A. Wagner.
BIBL.: G. Baldasseroni, L. II granduca di Toscana e i suoi tempi, Florence 1871; M. Rosi, L. II, in Diz. Risorg., III, pp. 370-72; A. M. Bettanin, Il Concordato di Toscana, Milan 1933; R. Mori, Il Concordato del 1851 tra la Toscana e la S. Sede, in Archivio storico italiano, 98 (1940, 10), pp. 41-82; 99 (1941, 1), pp. 133-46. The text of the Concordat in Raccolta di concordati su materie ecclesiastiche tra la S. Sede e le autorità civili, edited by A. Mercati, Rome 1919, pp. 717-69.
