MAZZUCHELLI, GIAMMARIA. - Brescian patrician, scholar, and bibliophile, b. 28 Oct. 1707, d. 19 Nov. 1765 (not 1768, as is sometimes written).
Author of acclaimed monographs on Archimede (1737) and Pietro Aretino (1741), his name is chiefly associated with the great bio-bibliographical dictionary Gli scrittori d'Italia, which remained unfinished. Of this work, marked by extensive and conscientious scholarship, the letters A and B were published in 6 vols. (Brescia 1753-63). The letter C and all M.'s other manuscripts are preserved in the Biblioteca Vaticana, to which they were donated (1866) by the author's great-nephew.
In his ancestral palace Count M. founded an academy in 1738, which held well-attended and regular meetings of scholars. The dissertations, on literary, scientific, historical, theological, and philosophical subjects, were published in 1765.