He became however famous for his several striking mistakes which brought popular journalist Gianni Brera to nickname him "sciagurato Egidio" (Egidio the wretched), after a minor character from Alessandro Manzoni's novel The Betrothed.
Federico Borromeo appears as a character in Alessandro Manzoni’s novel The Betrothed (I promessi sposi), in which he is characterized as an intelligent humanist and saintly servant of Christ, serving the people of Milan unselfishly during the 1630 plague.
These works were important sources from which Alessandro Manzoni derived the historical background of his novel The Betrothed.
Italian author Alessandro Manzoni made Resegone (which he called Monte Serrada) the backdrop for some of the scenes in his novel The Betrothed (in Italian I Promessi sposi).
Although she was made immortal by Manzoni's The Betrothed, she was described by the contemporary writer Ripamonti with words such as "modest", "respectful", and "obedient".
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Her popularity is mostly credited to the novel The Betrothed (orig. Italian: I Promessi Sposi, 1827), generally ranked among the masterpieces of world literature.
The collection consists of sumerian tablets, Egyptian papyri (Papyrus 88), an original diploma of Matilde di Canossa (9 January 1106), a group of 30 manuscripts, an incunabulum, 60 books printed in the 16th-century and a collection of 18th and 19th-century editions of literature and historiography, the first edition of "The Betrothed".
His translations of “The Nun of Monza” by Gioachino Rossini and “The Betrothed” by Alessandro Manzoni were major contributions to the introduction of modern Italian literature to Germany.