Who wrote the article that Ada Lovelace translated?

Luigi Menabrea wrote the article that Ada Lovelace translated into English.

Menabrea was an Italian engineer and mathematician who attended Charles Babbage’s 1840 lecture on the Analytical Engine in Turin. He wrote a French account of the lecture, titled “Notions sur la machine analytique de M. Charles Babbage,” which was published in 1842.

In 1842, Charles Wheatstone asked Lovelace to translate Menabrea’s article. Babbage then encouraged her to add explanatory material, resulting in the seven extensive notes labelled A through G. Her translation and notes were published in 1843 in Taylor’s Scientific Memoirs.

Menabrea later became a prominent political and military figure, serving as Prime Minister of Italy from 1867 to 1869. A common mix-up is to credit Babbage because the article discussed his machine; Babbage designed the Analytical Engine, but Menabrea wrote the article Lovelace translated.