The American Cyclopædia (1879)/Bonomi, Giuseppe

BONOMI. I. Giuseppe, an Italian architect, born in Rome in 1739, died in London, March 9, 1808. He went in 1767 to London, where he was employed as a draftsman. In 1775 he married Rosa Florini, the cousin of his friend Angelica Kauffmann, and, excepting one year spent with the latter in Italy (1783-'4), he remained for the rest of his life in London, and in 1789 he was elected associate member of the royal academy. He was the architect of the chapel of the Spanish embassy, of Eastwell house, Kent, of the pyramidal mausoleum in Blickling park, Norfolk, and of other famous structures; but his masterpiece was the duke of Argyll's country seat, Roseneath, Dumbartonshire, which he did not live to finish. II. Joseph, an English archæologist and author, son of the preceding, born in London in 1796. He studied under Sir Charles Bell, at the royal academy, and in Rome, and spent many years in Egypt and Syria. He was the first to point out the monument erected by Sesostris on the coast of Syria, as mentioned by Herodotus, and has written on Egyptian archæology for various publications of learned societies. His works include “Nineveh and its Palaces: the Discoveries of Botta and Layard applied to the Elucidation of Holy Writ,” with contributions by Lepsius and other Egyptologists (illustrated, London, 1852; 3d ed., 1857), and “The Sarcophagus of Oimenepthah I. described by Samuel Sharpe” (1864). Mr. Bonomi is curator of Sir John Soane's museum, London.