important was the palace of the Lateran, a large square pile of two stories, surmounted with a rich cornicione; the Quirinal palace on Monte Cavallo; the Vatican library; the vast structure on the side next the piazza of St. Peter's, and the additions to the Lateran church, he also, in conjunction with Giacomo della Porta, completed the dome of St. Peter's, left unfinished by Michelangelo and Vignola. After the death of Sixtus V., Fontana fell into disfavour with the pontifical court, and in 1592 accepted an invitation to Naples, where he constructed a great number of works. Chief of these was the royal palace, a vast and imposing structure in the then popular microstylar manner; that is, with different small orders (in this instance, Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian) arranged in separate stories of the same façade. Fontana ended his long and prosperous career in that city in 1607, and was buried with great pomp in the church of Santa Anna. Hardly taking rank as an artist in the first class of modern architects, Fontana was perhaps the first man of his age in the constructive part of his profession. His designs all exhibit largeness of idea, and are imposing in general effect; but he was deficient in imagination, and hence his works display little of the richness or brilliancy which men of less ability have sometimes succeeded in imparting to theirs. The works left unfinished by him at Naples were completed by his son, Giulio Cesare Fontana.—J. T—e.
FONTANA, Felice, a celebrated anatomist and physicist, was born April 15th, 1730, at Pomaralo, not far from Roveredo in the Austrian Tyrol. He received the early part of his education at Verona and Parma, and afterwards studied at Padua, Bologna, Rome, and Florence. He was then appointed professor of mathematics and physics at the university of Pisa, by the Grand-duke Francis of Tuscany, afterwards the Emperor Francis I. He was subsequently invited to Florence by Duke Leopold, afterwards Emperor Leopold II., as director of the physical and anatomical museum, where a number of wax anatomical models were executed under his direction, and added to the collection which had already been commenced under the Medicis. At the desire and expense of the duke, he undertook a scientific journey, and visited France and England, accompanied by the young Giovanni Fabroni. He also executed a beautiful collection of wax models for the surgical academy of Vienna, at the command of the Emperor Joseph II. He commenced a colossal anatomical figure of man, constructed of wood; but the undertaking failed. Fontana took part in the church reforms of Leopold and Bishop Ricci in Tuscany. At the time of the French invasion in 1799, he was suspected of favouring the enemy, and, after the return of the Austrians, was thrown into prison, where he remained for some time. He died at Florence on 11th January, 1805, or according to other authorities, on the 9th March, from a fall in the street, and was buried in the church of Santa Croce, near Viviani and Galileo. He investigated the canalis fontanæ, which had previously been observed, a vessel found in the eye of mammalia and birds. His first researches were on irritability; he afterwards investigated the poison of vipers, Lucca, 1767. He invented an eudiometer, in which he employed Priestley's recently discovered nitric oxide, and also published "Descrizioni ed usi di alcuni stromenti per misurare la salubrità dell'aria," "Recherches Physiques sur la nature de l'air," and researches on various gases, especially carbonic acid. He introduced the employment of the threads of spiders' webs for telescopes, and ether for filling levels.—C. E. L.
FONTANA, Giovanni, the elder brother of Domenico, born in 1540; died in 1614; was an architect of great ability, though overshadowed by the fame of his younger brother. His chief building is the Palazzo Giustiniani at Rome, where all his life was spent. In his later years he devoted himself mainly to hydraulic engineering. He repaired the aqueduct of Augustus, constructed the Pauline and Sistine fountains, cleared out the embouchure of the Tiber, improved the course of the Velino, executed several other useful and important works, and supplied Civita Vecchia and Velletri with water, &c.—J. T—e.
FONTANA, Gregorio, a priest, and well-known mathematician, was a brother of Felice. He was born December 7, 1735, at Nogarola, near Roveredo. He studied at Rome, and taught in the monasteries of his order there, and at Sinigaglia and Bologna. He became professor of mathematics and philosophy at the university of Pavia in the place of Boscovich, and afterwards at Mailand. In 1796 he was appointed by Napoleon member of the council of the Cisalpine republic. Died August 24, 1803, at Mailand. Among his numerous works are—"Analyseos sublimioris opuscula," Venice, 1763; "Memorie matematiche," Pavia, 1796; "Discorso sopra un problema ottico astronomico relativo alia forza amplificata dai telescopii di Herschel."—C. E. L.
FONTANA, Luigi Francesco, born at Casalmaggiore, near Milan, in 1750; a Barnabite monk of great learning in Greek and Latin. Pius VII. called him to Rome, where he shared in the adversities of the papal court under Napoleon. He followed the pope into exile, and was kept prisoner in the castle of Vincennes from 1810 to 1814. After the Restoration he returned to Rome, and was made cardinal in 1816. Besides some oratorical works in very elegant Latin, and various poems and inscriptions in Greek, he wrote several biographies of Italian literary men, which were inserted by Fabroni in his Vitæ Italorum doctrina præstantium. Cardinal Fontana died at Rome in 1822.—A. S., O.
FONTANA, Prospero, was born at Bologna in 1512, and studied painting under Innocenzio da Imola. He belongs to the school of the Machinists as a fresco painter, but executed many good portraits, and was in this respect one of the best masters of the decline of the art at Bologna. He was ostentatious of the rapidity of his execution in fresco, but his facility was equalled by his inaccuracy. Notwithstanding this, Fontana was one of the most prosperous painters of his time; he attracted the notice of Michelangelo, and through his influence painted Pope Julius III., and obtained from him a pension of three hundred crowns a year. It was about this time that he married, and in 1552 his celebrated daughter, Lavinia Fontana, was born. She married Giovanni Paolo Zappi of Imola, and rivalled her father in popularity, more especially as a portrait-painter, and particularly with the Roman ladies. She was appointed painter to Pope Gregory XIII.; and she painted Paul V. Her portraits are something in the style of Guido's. She died at Rome in 1614, aged sixty-two. Prospero Fontana died also at Rome in 1597, having altogether outlived his popularity at Bologna. He was the master of Lodovico Carracci, and it was the school established by this painter that dissipated the reputation of Fontana. His principal work is the altar-piece in oil of the "Adoration of the Magi," now in the church of San Salvatore in Bologna. In the Casa Zappi at Imola are portraits of the two Fontanas—the father by the daughter, and the daughter by the father. They are badly engraved in the new edition of Malvasia, Felsina Pittrice.—R. N. W.
FONTANELLA, Francesco, born at Venice on the 28th of June, 1768. Having received an elementary education at home, he entered the seminary of Murano, where he distinguished himself as a classic scholar. His first work was on the orthography of the word Johannes, but his literary fame depends on the publication of his "Ortografia Enciclopedica Universale della lingua Italiana." Fontanella published also some very useful notes and observations on the second edition of Homer's Iliad, edited by Vincenzo Monti. After many vicissitudes brought on him by the various political changes at the beginning of this century, Fontanella was elected by Milesi, the patriarch of Venice, professor of Greek and Hebrew, and died a few years after his appointment on the 22d of March, 1827.—A. C. M.
FONTANELLE, Jean Gaspard Dubois, a French dramatist, born at Grenoble on the 29th October, 1737, died there in 1812. He came to Paris at an early age, brimful with the vanity of a successful student, and, as the shortest way to fame and fortune, wrote comedies. For a while he had no success, but the censorship of the government did for him what the literary critics would not have done—drew him out of obscurity. His drama, "Ericie ou la Vestale," was condemned by authority, and in consequence was eagerly read by multitudes. Upon the celebrity which it attained, its author traded, not unsuccessfully, for a long period—R. M., A.
FONTANES, Louis, Marquis de, born at Niort, Poitou, in 1757; died in 1821. His father was inspector of manufactures, and had no other means than his official salary. Being a man of intelligence, several of his reports on agricultural and commercial subjects had attracted the notice of Turgot, who, on the father's death in 1774, gave a pension to the son, which, however, was withdrawn by Neckar. Fontanes now appeared in the field of literature. He was praised by De Lille and Marmontel, and seems to have derived his support from contributions to the current journals. At the commencement of the Revolution he conducted
