Jan Wladyslaw Wos

Francesco Foucault, Count of Daugnon (1836-1920), author of the book “Italians in Poland from the IXth to the XVIIth century”, came from a French family settled in Naples after the revolution of 1789, and followed a career as an officer in the Royal Italian navy, until his marriage. He married Cloe Zanchi, a blind lady from a wealthy Lombard family and moved to Crema, where he lived until his wife’s death (1916), after which he returned to Naples and spent the last years of his life there. Foucault’s main interests were history, heraldry and genealogy. In 1877 he founded the “Archivio Storico Gentilizio” (“Historical Archive of the Gentry”) in Milan, specialized in genealogical studies. In this field he also published a number of articles and studies in specialized journals and took part in numerous congresses in Italy and other European countries. The book on Italians in Poland, which is in two volumes, although devoid of any real scientific value, testifies how much Italy in the XIXth century sympathized with the Polish cause and remains Foucault’s main work.