FOSSE (or Foss) WAY, the Early English name of a Roman road or series of roads in Britain, used later by the English, running from Lincoln by Leicester and Bath to Exeter. Almost all the Roman line is still in use as modern road or lane. It passes from Lincoln through Newark and Leicester (the Roman Ratae) to High Cross (Venonae), where it intersects Watling Street at a point often called “the centre of England.” Hence it runs to Moreton-in-the-Marsh, Cirencester, Bath and Ilchester, crosses the hills near Chard, Axminster and Honiton, and enters Exeter. Antiquaries have taken it farther, usually to Totnes, but without warrant. (See further under [Ermine Street].)
(F. J. H.)
FOSSICK (probably an English dialectical expression, meaning fussy or troublesome), a term applied by the gold diggers of Australia to the search for gold by solitary individuals, in untried localities or in abandoned diggings. A “fossicker,” or pocket miner, is one who buys up the right to search old claims, in the hope of finding gold overlooked by previous diggers.
FOSSOMBRONE (anc. Forum Sempronii), a town and episcopal see of the Marches, Italy, in the province of Pesaro and Urbino, 11 m. E.S.E. of the latter by road, 394 ft. above sea-level. Pop. (1901) town, 7531, commune, 10,847. The town is situated in the valley of the Metauro, in the centre of fine scenery, at the meeting-point of roads to Fano, to the Furlo pass and Fossato di Vico (the ancient Via Flaminia), to Urbino and to Sinigaglia, the last crossing the river by a fine bridge. The cathedral, rebuilt in 1772-1784, contains the chief work of the sculptor Domenico Rosselli of Rovezzano, a richly sculptured ancona of 1480. S. Francesco has a lunette by him over the portal. The library, founded by a nephew of Cardinal Passionei, contains some antiquities. Above the town is a medieval castle. There is a considerable trade in silk.
The ancient Forum Sempronii lay about 2 m. to the N.E. at S. Martino al Piano, where remains still exist. It was a station on the Via Flaminia and a municipium. The date of its foundation is not known. Excavations in 1879-1880 led to the discovery of a house and of other buildings on the ancient road (A. Vernarecci in Notizie degli scavi, 1880, 458). It already had a bishop in the years 499-502. In 1295 the Malatesta obtained possession of it, and kept it until 1444, when it was sold, with Pesaro, to Federico di Montefeltro of Urbino, and with the latter it passed to the papacy under Urban VIII. in 1631.
FOSSOMBRONI, VITTORIO, Count (1754-1844), Tuscan statesman and mathematician, was born at Arezzo. He was educated at the university of Pisa, where he devoted himself particularly to mathematics. He obtained an official appointment in Tuscany in 1782, and twelve years later was entrusted by the grand duke with the direction of the works for the drainage of the Val di Chiana, on which subject he had published a treatise in 1789. In 1796 he was made minister for foreign affairs, but on the French occupation of Tuscany in 1799 he fled to Sicily. On the erection of the grand duchy into the ephemeral kingdom of Etruria, under the queen-regent Maria Louisa, he was appointed president of the commission of finance. In 1809 he went to Paris as one of the senators for Tuscany to pay homage to Napoleon. He was made president of the legislative commission on the restoration of the grand duke Ferdinand III. in 1814, and subsequently prime minister, which position he retained under the grand duke Leopold II. His administration, which was only terminated by his death, greatly contributed to promote the well-being of the country. He was the real master of Tuscany, and the bases of his rule were equality of all subjects before the law, honesty in the administration of justice and toleration of opinion, but he totally neglected the moral improvement of the people. At the age of seventy-eight he married, and twelve years afterwards died, in 1844.
Bibliography.—Gino Capponi, Il Conte V. Fossombroni, A. von Reumont, Geschichte Toscanas unter dem Hause Lothringen-Habsburg (Gotha, 1877); Zobi, Storia civile delta Toscana (Florence, 1850-1853); Galeotti, Delle Leggi e dell’ amministrazione della Toscana (Florence, 1847); Baldasseroni, Leopoldo II. (Florence, 1871); see also under [Capponi, Gino]; [Ferdinand III.], of Tuscany, and [Leopold II.], of Tuscany.