[5] In this name, conte is the Italian form of "count", don is an honorific derived from the Latin dominus ("lord, master"), "Gian" is the most common Italian diminutive for Giovanni, and his surname has been hyphenated with his wife's.

[8] In 1744,[10] at the age of 24, he was appointed by the Venetian Senate to the University of Padua's newly established professorship of astronomy and navigation.

[8] His principal historical work was his Italian Antiquities, in which the literature and arts of his country are ably discussed.

Other works of note were his The Free Man, a rebuttal of Rousseau's Social Contract; an attack upon Abbe Tartarotti's assertion of the existence of magicians; his Observations on Ancient and Modern Music; and several poems.

[11] A collected edition of his works was published in 18 volumes at Milan from 1784 to '94; it does not include his American Letters.