FOSCARI'NI, MARCO, was born in 1698, of an old patrician family of Venice, which has produced many distinguished men. He studied at Bologna, after which he was employed in various official situations in the service of his country. In 1733 he was sent ambassador to the Emperor Charles VI. He remained at Vienna for several years, and he had the arduous task of maintaining the neutrality of Venice during the war of 1733-35 between the French and the Austrians, on the occasion of the Polish succession. He there wrote an interesting account of tho court of Vienna, its politics, and its administration, especially of its Italian dominioue, in which he pointed out the latent causes of the sudden reverses which the Austrians experienced in that campaign, and by which they lost the kingdoms of Naples and Sicily. This work remained inedited until 1843, when it was published by J. P. Vieusseux at Florence, Storia Arcane ed altri Scritti inediti di Marco Foscarini,' 1 vol. 8vo, forming part of a aeries of inedited or rare Italian historical works, entitled Archivio Storico Itallano,' published under the superintendence of a society of learned men in Tuscany. One of the merits of Foscarini as an historian is his conscientiousness and love of truth.
After his return from Vienna, Foscarini was sent ambassador to Rome, and afterwards to Turin, where he supported the principle of neutrality adopted by the Venetian senate during the war of the Austrian succession. In his various embassies he compiled, according to the custom of the Venetian diplomatiate, well-digested relazioni,' or reports, not only of his personal transactions with foreign statesmen, but also what he had observed and learnt concerning the political principles and views of the various courts of Europe. And whilst he adhered, according to his instructions, to the system of strict neutrality cherished by the Venetian senate, he warned his employers of the necessity of being prepared for all contingencies amidst the change that was takiog place in the relative position of the great powers of Europe—a warning which, had it been attended to, might have saved Venice half a century later.
Ou his return from his Turin embassy he was appointed Riformatore dello Studio di Padova, or superintendent of that university, in which he effected useful reforms and improvements. About this time ho delivered in the Great Council of Venice an oration, in recommendation of the revival of an ancient custom of sending from time to time extra ordinary inspectors into the province of Dalmatia for the purpose of discovering and correcting the abuses that had crept into the adminis tration of that important but long-neglected country : and this motion was carried. His oration was published long after his death at Venice
in 1831, with illustrations by Cicogna, 'Della Necessity di spedire Inquisitori di State in Dalmazia, Orazione inedita di Marco Foscarini.' In 1752 he published the first volume of his history of Venetian literature, 'Della Litteratura Veneziana libri otto, di Marco Foscarini, Cavaliere e Procuratore, volume primo,' fol., Padova, 1752. This work, which was considered to be a model of literary history, established the reputation of Foscarini as an author. The style of the work is concise and dignified, and the authorities aro carefully quoted and discussed in copious notes. /sloschini published a sort of continuation of the work in his Della Litteratura Veneziana del Secolo XVIII.' In May 1762 Foscarini was elected doge, but his tenure of that dignity was short, for he died in the following March, 1763, generally regretted. He was one of the last distinguished statesmen of Venice. He left a rich and very select library of books and manuscripts, which was sold after the fall of Venice in 1799. The Emperor of Austria purchased the collection of manuscripts for 10,800 livrea, and they are now in the imperial library at Vienna. A catalogue of the historical part of the collection, consisting of nearly 400 manuscripts, which were among the materials by the aid of which Foscarini compiled his history of Venetian literature, is given at the end of the Storia Arcane' noticed above, together with two letters of Foscarini, On the Manner of Writing History.' Besides the works mentioned in the course of this article, several minor productions of Foscarini have been printed, such as an oration delivered in the Great Council in support of the institution of the Council of Ten ; his report of his Turin embassy, which gives much valuable information concerning the Sardinian monarchy, and which was published in the first volume of the 'Mercurio Italico' in London, and was republished with comments by Cibrario in 1830; a Discorso sulla Neceseith della Storia e della Facolth del ben Dire per gli Uomini di Republica,' published at Venice in 1819 ; and another, 'Intorno ai mete& e alla forma della Veneta Republica.' A number of Fosesrini's writings remain inedited in the library Del Seminario at Venice, in the library of St. Mark, and in his own collection now at Vienna. Ludovico Arnaldi and others wrote biographical notices of Foscarini at the time of his death ; and Professor Sibiliato, of Padua, wrote an oration, Intorno all' Eloquenza del Foacarini.' (Tipaldo, Biografla degli Italiani Illustri del Secolo XVIII.; Preface to the Stork Arcane of Foacarini.)