Adriano Balbi (April 25, 1782 – March 14, 1848) was an Italian geographer.
Biography
Adriano Balbi was born in Venice on 25 April 1782. The publication of his Prospetto politico-geografico dello stato attuale del globo (Venice, 1808) obtained his election to the chair of professor of geography at the college of San Michele at Murano; in 1811–1813 he was professor of physics at the Lyceum of Fermo, and afterwards became attached to the customs office at his native city.
In 1820 he visited Portugal, and there collected materials for his Essai statistique sur le royaume de Portugal et d’Algarve, published in 1822 at Paris, where the author resided from 1821 until 1832. This was followed by Variétés politiques et statistiques de la monarchie portugaise, which contains some observations respecting that country under the Roman sway. In 1826 he published the first volume of his Atlas ethnographique du globe, ou classification des peuples anciens et modernes d’après leurs langues, a work of great erudition.