Count Leopoldo Cicognara (17 November 1767, in Ferrara – 5 March 1834, in Venice) was an Italian artist, art collector, art historian and bibliophile.
Early life, education, and political career
Cicognara attended the Collegio dei Nobili in Modena from 1776 to 1785. From 1788 to 1790, He later he visited Naples and Sicily, and published one of his first works of poetry in Palermo. Cicognara studied archeology during travels to Florence, Milan, Bologna and Venice.
Academic career and scholarship
Cicognara left politics in 1805 to devote himself to art history. He settled in Venice and in 1808 was made president of the Accademia di Belle Arti di Venezia, a position he held until 1826. He was influential in opening the Galleria dell’Accademia to the public in 1817,
Philipp Fehl and Raina Fehl were the directors of The Leopoldo Cicognara Program at the University of Illinois Library, dedicated to the study and promulgation of literary sources in the history of art, 1987–2007. They cataloged the collection of work found in the Fondo Cicognara at the Vatican Library.
The Digital Cicognara Library is a collaborative project aiming to create an online version of the Fondo Cicognara by digitizing each title in the collection.