Gaetano Milanesi (1813-1895) was an Italian scholar and writer on the

history of art The history of art focuses on objects made by humans for any number of spiritual, narrative, philosophical, symbolic, conceptual, documentary, decorative, and even functional and other purposes, but with a primary emphasis on its aesthetic vis ...

Biography

Milanesi was born at

Siena Siena ( , ; lat, Sena Iulia) is a city in Tuscany, Italy. It is the capital of the province of Siena. The city is historically linked to commercial and banking activities, having been a major banking center until the 13th and 14th centuri ...

, where he studied law, and in 1838 he obtained an appointment in the public library. In 1856 he was elected member of the

Accademia della Crusca The Accademia della Crusca (; "Academy of the Bran"), generally abbreviated as La Crusca, is a Florence-based society of scholars of Italian linguistics and philology. It is one of the most important research institutions of the Italian language ...

, in which capacity he took part in the compilation of its famous but still unfinished dictionary, and two years later was appointed assistant keeper of the Tuscan archives, in

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico an ...

; then he took charge of the famous

Medici The House of Medici ( , ) was an Italian banking family and political dynasty that first began to gather prominence under Cosimo de' Medici, in the Republic of Florence during the first half of the 15th century. The family originated in the Muge ...

archives, whence he collected a vast body of material on the history of Italian art, not all of which is yet published. In 1889 he became director of the archives, but retired in 1892, and died three years later. His most important publication is his edition of

Vasari Giorgio Vasari (, also , ; 30 July 1511 – 27 June 1574) was an Italian Renaissance Master, who worked as a painter, architect, engineer, writer, and historian, who is best known for his work ''The Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculpt ...

's works in nine volumes, with copious and valuable notes (Florence, 1878 1885). Of his other writings the following may be mentioned: *''Il diario inedito di Alessandro Sozzini'' (in the Archivio storico Italiano, 1842) *''Documenti per la storia dell' arte senese'', 3 vols. (Siena, 1854-1856) *''Discorsi sulla storia civile et artistica di Siena'' (Siena, 1862) He also edited a number of Italian classics.

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Milanesi 1813 births 1895 deaths People from Siena 19th-century Italian historians Italian art historians Italian male non-fiction writers 19th-century Italian male writers