Celebrated Swiss historian, born at Geneva; son of a Protestant clergyman of Italian descent; the family fortune was lost in the troublous days of the French Revolution, and exile in England and Italy followed, but in 1800 Sismondi returned to Geneva, and having received a municipal appointment gave himself to literary pursuits; the works which have established his reputation are his great histories of "The Italian Republics in the Middle Ages," "European Literature," and "A. History of the French"; wrote also on political economy (1773-1842).