GIANIBE'LLI, or GIAMEELLI, FEDERIGO, a famous military engineer, was born at Mantua about the. year 1530. After Serving for some time iu Italy; he proceeded to Spain and offered his services to Philip IL; but having failed to obtain an audience of that monarch, and conceiving, moreover, that he had been personally slighted, he abruptly quitted Madrid, swearing, as the story goes, that the Spaniards would yet hear of him; and after a residence for some time at Antwerp, where lie acquired a high reputation as a mechanist, passed over to England and entered the service of queen Elizabeth, who granted him a pension. During the war of independence in the Nether lands, Alexander, duke of Parma, generalissimo of the Spanish forces, besieged' esieged Antwerp in 1585, whereupon Elizabeth commissioned Gianibelli to proceed to the assistance •of the inhabitants. On his arrival, he found that the Spaniards had built a vast bridge across the Scheldt, interrupting all communication with the sea, by which alone the city could get provisions or help. Setting his wits to work, Gianibelli invented an
infernal machine, which he launched against the bridge one stormy night. The effect was frightful. The whole Spanish army was roused by the noise, and the Scheldt was found to be quivering to its lowest depths. The obstructing bridge was blown into the air, and no less theft 800 men—among whom were some of the best Spanish officers— were killed. Many Spanish ships also were either burned or sunk. The want of unity, however, among the citizens, ultimately rendered Gianibelli's aid unavailing, and lie was obliged to return to England. Here he was employed at the time of the threatened Spanish invasion in fortifying the coast-line, which he did in a very skillful manner. When the armada appeared in the channel, it was Gianibelli who proposed and carried out the plan of sending fire-ships into the midst of the enemy, and in this way greatly contributed to their defeat. After this he disappears from history, and all we know of him is that he died in London.