DURANDO, GIACOMO (1807-1894), Italian general and statesman, was born at Mondovi in Piedmont. He was implicated in the revolutionary movements of 1831 and 1832. In 1848 he was one of those who asked King Charles Albert for the constitution. On the outbreak of the war with Austria he commanded the Lom bard volunteers, and in the campaign of 1849 he was aide-de-camp to the king. He was elected member of the first Piedmontese par liament and was a strenuous supporter of Cavour; during the Crimean campaign he took General La Marmora's place as war minister. In 1855 he was nominated senator, lieutenant-general in 1856, ambassador at Constantinople in 1859, and minister for foreign affairs in the Rattazzi cabinet two years later. He was president of the senate from 1884 to 1887, after which year he retired from the army.
His brother, GIOVANNI DURANDO (1804-1869), also spent his early life abroad. Returning to Italy on the outbreak of the revolution of 1848, he was appointed commander of a division of the pontifical forces, and fought against the Austrians in Ve netia until the fall of Vicenza, when he returned to Piedmont as major-general. In the campaign of 1849 he commanded the first Piedmontese division ; he subsequently served in the Crimea, in the war of 1859, and in that of 1866 as commander of the I. Army Corps.