FUGGER, a German family, originally of Augsburg, that amassed great wealth in the 15th and 16th centuries by commerce, and espe cially by the monopoly of the apices, which they draw from Venice, and with which they supplied Germany and other parts of the con tinent. The Fuggers were created counts by Charles V. in 1530, to whom they had lent large awns of money ; and a story is told of their lighting a fire of cinnamon-wood with hia bond or bonds for the amount, iu the presence of Charlea, who happened to be a visitor at their houaa in passing through Augsburg. They also supplied Philip II. with money, and two of their family contracted with the Spanish government for the mines of Almaden. The family became divided into several branches, one of which obtained the rank of princes of the German empire, under the title of Fugger Babenhausen, near Ulm. The family conduits to this day, and their domains are partly in Bavaria and partly in Wiirtemberg. The Fugger family, in the 16th century, made a liberal use of their wealth, in fouuding charitable institutions, such as the one still called Fuggerei ; in promoting learn ing, collecting manuscripts, and forming valuable libraries. Several members of the family were themselves men of learning ; among others Ulrich Fugger, born about 1520, was for a time a confidential attendant of Pope Paul !IL, but afterwards returned to Germany, and printed at his own expense several valuable manuscripts of classic authors which he had collected. He engaged as his printer Henri Es
tienne, with a handsome salary. His family being dissatisfied with his expenditure, obtained an order from the civil courts taking away from Ulrich the administration of his property under the pretence of inca pacity; but the order was ultimately rescinded, and he was restored to his rights. He died in 1584 at Heidelberg, leaving his fine library to the Elector Palatine and several legacies to poor students. Another Fugger wrote a history of Austria, published at Nurnberg in 1668. Philip Edward Fugger, born in 1546, added greatly to the library and cabinet of antiquities begun by hia ancestors at Augsburg, and dis tinguished himaelf by hia munificence. Othe Henry Fugger, count of Kirchberg and 1Veissenhern, born in 1592, served with the Spanish army in Italy, and afterwarda raised troops in Germany for the emperor Ferdinand II. during the Thirty Years' Wan (Imhoff, Notitia IMperii; Moreri, Dictionary, A/manach de Gotha.)