NIGRA, COSTANTINO, COUNT (1828-1907)

This article appears in Volume V19, Page 686 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

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NIGRA, COSTANTINO, COUNT (1828-1907) , Italian diplomatist, was born'at Villa Castelnuovo, in the province of Turin, on the 11th of June 1828. During the war of 1848 he interrupted his studies to serve as a volunteer against Austria, and was wounded at the battle of Rivoli. On the conclusion of peace he entered the Piedmontese foreign office; he accompanied

Victor

Emmanuel

EMMANUEL, or IMMANUEL

and Cavour to Paris and London in 1855, and in the following year he took part in the conference of Paris by which the Crimean War was brought to an end. After the meeting at Plombieres between Cavour and

Napoleon

NAPOLEON

III. Nigra was sent to Paris again to popularize a Franco-Piedmontese alliance, Nigra being, as Cavour said, " the only person perhaps who knows all my thoughts, even the most

secret

SECRET (Lat. secretum, hidden, concealed)

." He was instrumental in negotiating the

marriage

MARRIAGE

between

Victor

Emmanuel

EMMANUEL, or IMMANUEL

's daughter Clothilde and

Napoleon

NAPOLEON

's nephew, and during the war of 1859 he was always with the emperor. He was recalled from Paris when the occupation of the

Marche

MARCHE
MARCHE, or LA MARCHE

and Umbria by the Piedmontese caused a breach in Franco-Italian relations, and was appointed secretary of state to the prince of Carignano, viceroy of the Neapolitan provinces. When Napoleon recognized the kingdom of Italy in 1861, Nigra returned to France as minister-

resident

RESIDENT

, and for many years played a most important part in political affairs. In 1876 he was transferred to St

Petersburg

PETERSBURG

with the rank of

ambassador

AMBASSADOR (also EMBASSADOR, the form sometimes still used in America; from the Fr. ambassadeur, with which compare Ital. ambasciatore and Span. embajador, all variants of the Med. Lat. ambassiator, ambassiator, ambasator, &c., derived from Med. Lat. amba

, in 1882 to London, and in 1885 to Vienna. In 1899 he represented Italy at the first Hague Peace Conference. In 1904 he retired, and he died at Rapallo on the 1st of July 1907. He was created count in 1882 and senator in 189o. Nigra was a sound classical scholar, and published translations of many Greek and Latin poems with valuable comments; he was also a poet and the author of several works of folk-

lore

LORE
LORE, AMBROISE DE (1396-1446)

and popular poetry, of which the most important is his Canti popolari del Piemonte.

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