Luigi Lanzi was born in the year 1732, at Monte dell' Olmo, in the diocese of Fermo, of an ancient family, which is said to have enjoyed some of the chief honours of the municipality to which it belonged. His father was a physician, and also a man of letters: his mother, a truly excellent and pious woman, was allied to the family of the Firmani. How deeply sensible the subject of this memoir was of the advantages he derived, in common with many illustrious characters, from early maternal precepts and direction, he has shewn in a beautiful Latin elegy to her memory, which appeared in his work, entitled _Inscriptionum et Carminum_. Possessed of a naturally lively and penetrating turn of mind, he began early to investigate the merits of the great writers of his own country; alike in poetry, in history, and in art. His poetical taste was formed on the models of Petrarch and of Dante, and he was accustomed, while yet a child, to repeat their finest passages to his father, an enthusiastic admirer of Italy's old poets, who took pride in cultivating the same fervour in the mind of his son, a fervour of which in more northern climates, we can form little idea. His imitations of these early poets, whose spirit he first imbibed at the fountain head, before he grew familiar with the corrupt and tasteless compositions of succeeding eras, are said to have frequently been so bold and striking, as to deceive the paternal eye. To these, too, he was perhaps mainly indebted for that energy of feeling, and solidity of judgment, as well as that richness of illustration and allusion, which confer attractions upon his most serious and elaborate works. He was no less intimate with the best political and literary historians at an early age; with Machiavelli, Davila, and Guicciardini; with Muratori and Tiraboschi; whose respective compositions he was destined to rival in the world of art.