Luigi Federico Menabrea

Luigi Federico Menabrea was an Italian statesman, general, diplomat and mathematician who served as the seventh prime minister of Italy from 1867 to 1869. Born at Chambéry in 1809, he qualified as an engineer and became a doctor of mathematics at the University of Turin, and was professor of mechanics and construction at the military academy and the university. For the history of computing he is remembered for his Sketch of the Analytical Engine Invented by Charles Babbage, Esq., published with notes by the translator Ada Lovelace in 1842, which described many aspects of computer architecture and is considered the first modern example of programming. He was later made 1st Count Menabrea and 1st Marquess of Valdora, and he died in 1896.