[John Paul]. Ingenious writer of the seventeenth century, descended of a distinguished family, and born at Genoa, where he received an education suited to his birth, and made great progress in the study of the sciences and polite literature. Having been engaged in the conspiracy of Raffaelle della Terra, in order to deliver up Genoa to the Duke of Savoy, he was, in 1670, at the age of twenty-eight, imprisoned in the tower of that city, and remained there four years. Being at length set at liberty, he was requested to write the history of that conspiracy; but the work, when finished, was seized, and prevented from being published. When the republic of Genoa was at variance with the court of France, Marana, who had always an inclination for the latter, became afraid of being imprisoned a second time, and retired to Monaco, where he again wrote the history of the conspiracy in Italian, and, in 1682, got it printed at Lyons. He then proceeded to Paris, where his merit soon acquired him powerful protectors; and he spent the rest of his life in a happy and tranquil mediocrity, devoted to study and the society of men of learning. His history of the conspiracy contains many curious and interesting anecdotes. Besides this, he wrote several other works, the best known of which is the Turkish Spy, in six volumes 12mo, to which a seventh was afterwards added. Of this ingenious work there is a good English translation. Marana died in the year 1693.
