AMnnosms, AUBELIAITOS. 



!'.ACH, JOHANN. 



188 



_ is connected with the earliest improve- 

 The writing* of UM early fathers concur in 



. ,_. _MM of rnu*io a* a part of public worship, 



TM regular ritual was in eiisteoce to determine its precise 



I*TB and u*. ThU appnir* to have been In* (applied by Ambrosia*, 

 who instituted that method of muring known by the name of the 

 cantu* Ambroekura*,' which i* *aid to have bad a reference to the 

 odea of the ancient*, especially to that of Itolenueu*. This U 

 rather matter 

 or*, of 

 UM *upp 



dearribed in glowing terms by thoM who beard it in the cathedral of 

 Milan. "The vote*.," say* Augustine, "flowed in at my ears, truth 

 wa* distilled into my heart, and the affection of piety overflowed in 

 IB nt tear* of joy." Whether any genuine relic* of the music thus 

 iletiiliri nut at the present time i* exceedingly doubtful ; the style 

 of *infi*w it may however have been preserved ; and thi* i* (till said 

 to be applied at Milan to compositions of a date comparatively recent 

 ' tumary of ike Society for Ou Zfc/anoit of Uttftd 



iDCMUt*. especially to mat 01 jtoieiuani*. inis i 

 of conjecture than certainty, although the eastern 

 lianity and UM practice of the Greek father, render 

 , probable. The effect of the Ambrosian chant i* 



Metiamary 



XutrnMat) 



AMBKUSirS, ArilELIANUS, a Britiah chieftain at the time of 

 UM Saxon invasion in the 5th century. It U difficult amid the 

 obscurity of the Kistory of that pvriod, to obtain a satisfactory account 

 of him. It U probable however that he was a descendant of Con- 

 stantme, or a branch of his family. 



The account given by the author of the ' Floras ' and by Geoffrey, 

 is, that AmbrosTut, on the usurpation of the sovereignty of Britain by 

 Vortigern, took refuge in Armorica, whence be returned with a strong 

 fore*; that after being elected king in a general assembly of the 

 Britons (A.D. 465) be tx-tisged Vortigern, who had taken refuge in a 

 caatle built by him in Wales, and destroyed him by fire (466) ; 

 that he then fought against the Saxon Uengist with dubious success 

 at Wipnedeflete (473), against another band of Saxons under 

 Klla, with better but yet not with decisive success (485) at 

 Meareredes-burn, and finally, with complete success (487), at Mais- 

 bely, and on the banks of the Don (489), both in the north of 

 England, against Hengist, who was in the last battle taken and put to 

 death ; that after this he besieged Octa, eon of Hengist in Eboracum 

 (York), and having obliged him to surrender, grauteil to him and his 

 followers a settlement on the Scottish border; that he defeated a body 

 of Saxons, whom Pascentius, the son of Vortigern, had brought over ; 

 and that be died (497) of poison administered by a Saxon, an 

 emissary of the same Pascentius, who had landed with a fresh body 

 of auxiliaries from Ireland, to dispute with him the crown of Britain. 

 ThU narrative appears to be so corrupted by fabulous intermixture as 

 to make it very difficult to extract from it the historical truth. 



That be was a competitor with Vortigern for the supremacy of 

 Sooth Britain U probable from an expression of Nennius, who enu- 

 merating UM embarrassments which led Vortigern to call in the aid 

 of the Saxons, say*, * he was press el by the attacks of the Romans, 

 awl also by the fear of Ambrosius." 



It is tolerably certain that Ambrosius succeeded Vortigern in the 

 uprenucy of the Britiah chieftains, and that he was engaged in the 

 warfare directed against the Saxon settlers in the south part of 

 Britain. The battles of Wippedefiete and Mearcredes-burn are recorded 

 in the 'Saxon Chronicle,' which assigns them to the years 465 and 

 484 respectively ; and from the same authority it appears that in the 

 Bret, Hengist and his Jutes, and in the second, Ella and his South 

 Saxons, were opposed to the liritons ; it is also probable that Ambro- 

 sias commanded the Utter on these occasions, as Bede records that he 

 was the leader of the native* in their struggle against the invaders, 

 though be notices only one particular battle, that of Mons Badouicus, 

 supposed to be near Bath, which is reckoned by Nennius and others 

 among the victories of the semi-fabulous Arthur. That Ambrosius 

 was supported by Vortimer and Catigern, the sons of Vortigern, as 

 allies, if also probable from the account* of Nennius and Huntingdon. 

 Toe ' Saxon chronicle ' makes Vortigern the leader of the British 

 koate against Hengist ; but this is in all probability an error, arising 

 from the similarity of the names Vortigern and Vortimer. 



UM story of the Yorkshire victories of Ambrosius, the capture 

 and death of Heugist, and the surrender of the Saxons in York, ia 

 utterly irrrconcileable with the imccrUined circumstances of the time. 

 Of the drath of Aml.ro.ius nothing certain is known. Amidst the 

 uncertainty which prevails a* to the life, actions, and death of Anibro- 

 etas, all historian, who notice him appear to agree in praUing him. 

 OUdas (la |eg however of somewhat doubtful genuineness) 

 describe* htm e -cornea, fldelis. fortis, veraxque," "afiable, faithful. 

 brave, and true." In an undoubtedly genuine peerage he spraks of 

 him ae "vlr modeetua," H a man of well-regulated desires; " and Dede 

 repeat* the eoenminm. 



( A0nrp*irf /Haimary ef tk, Hoeiity for l*< fHftiion of 



AMJtlLHON, II rr.K.HT PASCAL, wa* born In Paris Augn.tr,, 1730. 

 Md dted UMT* Dtomber 28, 1811. II.. ,.,i K mlly intended to enter 

 tolo the clerical prufeaiuii, bat aiurwsrdu relinquished that intention. 

 II" |.tiMi*li*. while yet young, lli.tory of the Commerce and 

 Navigation of the Kgyptbaa under the Ptolemf**,' a work which wa* 

 UM occasion of hi* intfodoc'ion, in 17W, into the Academy of Inscrip- 



tions and Literature. In 1793 he wa* nominated a member of the 

 Commiaaion of Monuments. He warmly espoused the revolutionary 



He had the merit of saving from destruction inon- th.m 

 800,000 volume* out of private libraries and religious corporations, 

 confiscated during the revolution. 



He was charged to collect in central depots the libraries of all the 

 suppressed religions house*. He was allowed only three hours for 

 carrying off the library of St Victor; at the end of that period the 

 books were to be tossed out of the window*. Ameilhon by his repre- 

 sentations obtained with difficulty three days ; he immediately placed 

 all kinds of vehicles in requisition, and transported the books to n 

 neighbouring hospital He transformed several churches into book 

 magazine*, and deposited all the confiscated libraries in them. Mi- 

 had thus the satisfaction of saving the libraries of Malesherbes and 

 Lavoisier, and several oth> n>, which, when tranquillity was re-estab- 

 lished, were restored to their rightful owners. Six or seven years of 

 his life were devoted to the assorting and classification of the books 

 intrusted to his care. He saved the triumphal arch of the Porte St. 

 Denis, Paris, from destruction ; ami he had the courage to oppose the 

 mob when it sought to enter the church of the Jesuits, win i 

 books were deposited, under pretext of destroying the fleurs-de-lya, 



When the Institute WAS organised in 1797, the city of Paris 

 presented its library to that body. Ameilhon was immedint ly 

 elected librarian to the Arsenal, an appointment which he held till 

 his death. 



The ' History of the Navigation and Commerce of Egypt under the 

 Ptolemies,' and tho last five volumes of the ' History of the Lower 

 Empire,' begun by Le Beau, are the only books published by Ameilhon. 

 But his contributions to the periodical literature and the academical 

 memoirs of his country were numerous and valuable. 



(Biographical Dictionary of the Society for the Difiuion of 

 Knowledge.) 



AMELOT DE LA HOUSSAYE, ABRAHAM NICOLAS, apoliti- 

 cal writer, was born at Orleans in 1634. He accompanied the 

 President of St. Andrd, appointed ambassador of France at Venice in 

 1669, as secretary. A stay of several years in that city having 

 enabled him to become acquainted with it* history and politics, 

 probably induced him to translate Velferus's ' History of the Govern- 

 ment of Venice,' and to add historical and political notes, which, at 

 the some time that they threw a great light on the Venetian govern- 

 ment, gave such offence, that, it U said, a formal complaint was made 

 to Louis XIV., who sent Amelot to the Bastille. No other particulars 

 of Amelot's life arc recorded ; all that is known is that he waa 

 extremelv poor, and subsisted on the bounties of an Abbe. He died 

 at Paris in 1706. 



He left the following works : Sarpi's ' History of the Council of 

 Trent," translated from Newton's Latin version. ' The Courtier,' 

 translated from the Spanish. ' The Prince,' translated from M.ichiavelli. 

 He endeavoured also to vindicate the author, by maintaining that ho 

 had only described what princes do, and not what they ought to do. 

 A translation of Tacitus, with historical and political notes. He did 

 not complete this work ; the FIX lost volumes are by Francois Bruys. 

 ' Memoirs, Historical, Political, Critical, and Literary.' This work is 

 also incomplete ; it is arranged alphabetically, but does not go beyoml 

 half the letters. There are also some other works of no great interest, 

 of which a list is given in ' Mdmoires de Micron,' vol. xxxv. 



AMERBACH, JOHANN, an early printer, in great repute for tho 

 typographical correctness of his editions. He waa born at lleutliiigeu 

 in Swabia, studied at Paris under Jean de Lapierre, or Lapidmiu, tho 

 prior of the Sorbonne, who had the honour of first inviting j 

 to that city, and took the degree of master of arts. Amerbach < 

 on the trade, or rather in his case the profession, of printing, nt Ilasle, 

 from 1481 till 1515, in which year ho died. Hi* chief puWi 

 were the works of St. Ambrose, issued in 1492, and those of St. 

 Augustine in 1506, the latter the first edition of the collected works 

 of that author, and a conspicuous undertaking. " The magnitude of 

 the expence deterred the printers," says Erasmus, in a prefatory epistle 

 to an edition of Augustine of the date of 1529. " The first who ven- 

 tured on this great undertaking was John Amerbach, a man of singular 

 piety, amply endowed with wealth, but still more with the stores of 

 intellect, whom neither the immense expence of the work.thcdinirulty 

 of procuring copies from all quarters, the fatigue of collating them, 

 the necessary attention to other affairs, nor any other motive, could 

 deter from tho endeavour of making all Augustine common to all. 

 This man was not led by the love of gain, but by a sincere piety, the 

 i-pirit of which breathe* in all his prefaces, and a desire to revive the 

 original fathers of the church, whom he grieved to see become almost 

 obsolete." Unfortunately Amerbach was unable to procure good 

 manuscripts for bin edition, and its critical value is therefore, after 

 all his exertions, very small. The type in which it wax print- 

 novel, and is still known among foreign printers by the name of the 

 St Augustine. 



ihach was desirous of publishing a collect i. in of the works of 

 me, and had his three sons, Bruno, Basil, nn<l I 

 youths of great abilities, carefully instructed in the Latin, Greek, mid 

 Hebrew languages, in order that they might befit tooorraotthi 

 a circumstance which calls forth from Maittairo a burst of mlmir.ition, 

 and an indignant exclamation at the degeneracy of the printers of bis 



