conoscente

plural conoscenti

1. rareRare form of cognoscente.

   Upon asking how he had been taught the art of a conoscente so very suddenly, he assured me that nothing was more easy.

   1814 [1766], Oliv[er] Goldsmith, “From the Vicar of Wakefield”, in Friedrich Theodor Kuͤhne, Englisches Lesebuch zur Erlernung der Umgangssprache mit Hinweisung auf meine englische Sprachlehre, Hannover: bei den Bruͤdern Hahn, page 98

   5 more examples

   I passed two Mornings in looking at the pictures of Sasso Ferrato and Andrea Mantegna, Names which I used to know only in Books: the Works of Guido Reni as the Italians always call him however, give one the real, & true, & unaffected Delight which that Art can afford—and as Goldsmith used to say the way to set up for a Conoscente was to talk a great deal about Pietro Perugino, I assure you that in that Merit I have already made many advances.

   1786–7, James L[owry] Clifford, quoting Hester Thrale, “Travel on the Continent”, in Hester Lynch Piozzi (Mrs. Thrale), Oxford, Oxon: At the Clarendon Press, published 1941, page 277

   The conoscenti of the island have been greatly perplexed respecting a ruin recently discovered a few feet under ground: […]

   1824, William Henry Smyth, Memoir Descriptive of the Resources, Inhabitants, and Hydrography, of Sicily and Its Islands, Interspersed with Antiquarian and Other Notices, London: John Murray, […], page 262

   The first representation of the long-expected ballet of M. Blache, “Les Filets de Vulcain,” has been again put off. It seems to be looked forward to with as much anxiety by the conoscenti of Paris, as the splendid ballet of “La Naissance de Venus” was by those of London.

   1826, The Star Chamber, volume I, part I, London: William Marsh, […], page 66

   You affect to be a conoscente in friendship; what an amazing difference it makes, do you not think so, in one man’s feelings towards another, when, other things being equal, he can like his faults, and looks on some degree of them, or at least the dispositions from which they spring, as necessary to make up the simple object of his love?

   1831 July 31, Arthur Henry Hallam, “To Richard Monckton Milnes”, in Jack Kolb, editor, The Letters of Arthur Henry Hallam, Columbus, Oh.: Ohio State University Press, published 1981, →ISBN, page 453

   We have no hesitation in saying that the equals of these superb views and compositions have never been displayed to the conoscenti of our new hemisphere; […]

   1834 July 1, “Miscellaneous Notices of the Fine Arts, Literature, Science, the Drama, &c.”, in H[enry] W[illiam] Herbert, editor, The American Monthly Magazine, volume III, number V, New York, N.Y.: […] Monson Bancroft, […], page 354, column 1