Arnigio, Bartholomew

, an Italian physician and poet, was born at Brescia, in Lombardy, in 1523. His father was a poor blacksmith, with whom he worked until his eighteenth year. He then began to read such books as came in his way, or were lent him by the kindness of his friends, and, with some difficulty, was enabled to enter himself of the university of Padua. Here he studied medicine, and was indebted for his progress, until he took the degree of doctor, to the same friends who had discovered and wished to encourage his talents. On his return to | Brescia, he was patronised by the physician Consorto, who introduced him to good practice; but some bold experiments which he chose to try upon his patients, and which ended fatally, rendered him so unpopular, that he was obliged to fly for his life. After this he gave up medicine, and cultivated poetry principally, during his residence at Venice and some other places, where he had many admirers. He died at last, in his own country, in 1577. His principal works are, 1. “Le Rime,” Venice, 1555, 8vo. 2. “Lettera, Rime, et Orazione,” 1558, 4to, without place or printer’s name. 3. " Lettura letta publicamente soprq, il sonetto del Petrarca,

Liete, pensose, accompagnate, e sole,"

Brescia, 1565, 8vo. 4. “Meteoria, owero discorso intorno alle impression! imperfette umide e secche, &c.” Brescia, 1568, 4to. In this work he appears to have studied meteorology, with a view to the preservation of health and the improvement of agriculture. 5. “Dieci Veglie degli ammendati costumi dell' umana vita,” Brescia, 1577, 4to, a moral work much esteemed in Italy, but unnoticed by Fontanini in his “Italian Library.” 6. “La Medicina d’Amore;” mentioned by Mazzuchelli and other bibliographers, but it is doubted whether it was ever printed. Haym, however, gives it, with the title of “Dialogo della Medicina d’Amore di Bartolomeo Arnigio,” Brescia, 1566, 12mo. ¹