Guagnini, Alexander

, a native of Verona, where he was born in 1538, was naturalized in Poland, and made himself famous both by his sword and pen. He had considerable employments in the Polish armies; and having displayed his valour in the wars of Livonia and Moldavia, as well as those of Muscovy, was not only honoured with the indiginate, by which he ranked as a nobleman, in the reign of Sigismund Augustus, but also made governor of the fortress of Witehsk, where he commanded fourteen years. He at last devoted himself to literature, and drew up a history of Poland, under the title “Rerum Polonicarum Tomi Tres,” Francfort, 1584, 8vo. He died at Cracow in 1614. He wrote also “Sarmatiae European Descriptio,” Spires, 1581. ²