Ludovico Baille (

Cagliari Cagliari (, also , , ; sc, Casteddu ; lat, Caralis) is an Italian municipality and the capital of the island of Sardinia, an autonomous region of Italy. Cagliari's Sardinian name ''Casteddu'' means ''castle''. It has about 155,000 inhabitant ...

February 3, 1764 – Cagliari March 14, 1839) Having graduated in law from the Reale Università di Cagliari he was appointed in 1786 to the Ministry of the Spanish government at

Turin Turin ( , Piedmontese language, Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital ...

, but his chief interest was in tracking down in

archives An archive is an accumulation of historical records or materials – in any medium – or the physical facility in which they are located. Archives contain primary source documents that have accumulated over the course of an individual or ...

and libraries the materials that would serve him for a planned history of his native

Sardinia Sardinia ( ; it, Sardegna, label=Italian, Corsican and Tabarchino ; sc, Sardigna , sdc, Sardhigna; french: Sardaigne; sdn, Saldigna; ca, Sardenya, label=Algherese and Catalan) is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after ...

, which remains in manuscript. In 1800, he returned to Sardinia and continued his research. He was an active member of the Royal Society of Agriculture and Economics and president of the University library, while he held official posts as censor and assistant to the reform magistracy. A member of various academies, he maintained correspondence with many of the Italian scholars of his day: Mattei, Marini, Vernazza, and Angius. In the last decade of the 18th century, Baille was the guiding spirit behind the institution at Cagliari of a museum of antiquities and of natural history. His papers, both edited and unedited, constitute one of the important sources for the study of Sardinian history. In his spare time he composed

sonnet A sonnet is a poetic form that originated in the poetry composed at the Court of the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II in the Sicilian city of Palermo. The 13th-century poet and notary Giacomo da Lentini is credited with the sonnet's invention, ...

s. The Baille archives are at the Biblioteca Universitaria di Cagliari. They include a parchment codex containing the acts of the Sardinian

synod A synod () is a council of a Christian denomination, usually convened to decide an issue of doctrine, administration or application. The word ''wikt:synod, synod'' comes from the meaning "assembly" or "meeting" and is analogous with the Latin ...

held at

Santa Giusta Santa Giusta (; sc, Santa Justa) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Oristano in the Italy, Italian region of Sardinia, located about northwest of Cagliari and about southeast of Oristano in the Campidano area. History The site o ...

, November 3, 1226 and the 16th-century manuscript of Giovanni Proto Arca's seven books of the natural and moral history of Sardinia (''Naturalis et moralis historiae de rebus Sardiniae, libri septem''), among other documents. His published works include: *''Il sigillo dei bassi tempi'', Torino, 1797. *''Il sigillo secondo dei bassi tempi'', Torino, 1800. *''Iscrizioni latine'', Cagliari, 1821, 1831, 1832, 1830. *''Sonetti,'' Cagliari, 1784-89-93. 1803-7-12-16-22-23-24-26-27-31. Also in manuscript are his notes on economics, a dissertation on Sardinia, records of his voyages in 1788–89, and notes on antiquities.

External links

"Scrittori Sardi del Settecento"
{{DEFAULTSORT:Baille 1764 births 1839 deaths 19th-century Italian historians Historians of Europe People from the Province of Cagliari