Fossombroni was born at
Arezzo. He was educated at the
University of Pisa, where he devoted himself particularly to
mathematics and
hydraulics. He obtained an official appointment in
Tuscany in 1782, and twelve years later was entrusted by the
grand duke with the direction of the works for the drainage of the marshy
Valdichiana, one of the four valleys around
Arezzo, on which subject he had published a treatise in 1789. In 1796 he was made minister for foreign affairs, but on the
French occupation of Tuscany in 1799 he fled to
Sicily. On the erection of the grand duchy into the ephemeral
Kingdom of Etruria, under the queen-regent
Maria Louise, he was, appointed president of the commission of finance. In 1809 he went to
Paris as one of the
senators for Tuscany to pay homage to
Napoleon. He was an important representative of the Italian School of virtual work laws. When he was prime minister, he pursued a policy of laissez-faire and international free trade. According to Luigi Villaris, writing in the
Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition: "His administration, which was only terminated by his death, greatly contributed to promote the well-being of the country. He was the real master of Tuscany, and the bases of his rule were equality of all subjects before the law, honesty in the administration of justice and toleration of opinion, but he totally neglected the moral improvement of the people." Fossombroni married at the age of seventy-eight. His son
Enrico Vittorio Fossombroni was a Senator in the
Kingdom of Italy. Vittorio Fossombroni died at
Florence in 1844. ==Works==