449 



AVIANUS, FLAVIUS. 



AYALA, PEDRO LOPEZ DE. 



460 



cause of everything, is also the author of all human actions ; but that, 

 nevertheless, men being free, either acquire merit or incur guilt 

 according as they obey or disobey the precepts of religion. Averroes 

 nt first succeeded his father as mufti of Andalusia, and at the same 

 time delivered lectures at Cordova. He was afterwards appointed 

 chief judge of Mauritania; but being charged with having expressed 

 heretical opinions, Averroes lost his office. He was compelled to 

 make a pxiblic recantation ; but was ultimately reinstated iu his former 

 office, which he continued to fill till his death. Two of his sons are 

 said to have visited the court of the German emperor Frederic II. 



Averroes entertained the highest respect for Aristotle, though in 

 studying and translating his works he seems to have placed too much 

 reliance on his commentators, Ammonius, Themistius, and others. 

 The works of Averroes were very numerous. A list of them among 

 the oriental manuscripts of the library in the Escurial, specifies not 

 less than feventy-eii;ht distinct treatises. Many of them were early 

 translated into Latin, and studied by the schoolmen. An edition of 

 Averroes in Latin was published at Venice, 1562, in eleven volumes, 

 folio. His commentaries on Aristotle and on the ' Republic ' of Plato 

 'seem to be the most generally known ; but he composed likewise 

 original treati-es on philosophical subjects, and on Mohammedan 

 theology and jurisprudence. Araonz his medical works, tlie ' Kulliyat ' 

 (that i*, ' The Total,' or Comprehensive System) is the most important, 

 i translation of which, commonly called the 'Colliget Averrois," 

 has been repeatedly printed along with the ' Taisir ' of Avenzoar, for 

 the fir-it time (it seems) at Venice, by Joannes de Forlivio and Orego- 

 riu?, in 1490. 



(Nic. Antonii, BMiotheca Hitpana Vetus, t. ii. pp. 240-248; Hot- 

 tinger, Bibliothecarius quadripartite, Figuri, 1C64, 4to, p. 271-279; 

 Sprengel, Histoire de la Mtdecine, trad, par Jourdan, vol. ii. p. 337- 

 340; Wustenfeld, Geachichte der Arabitchen Aertze nnd Naturforachcr, 

 191.) 



AVIANUS, FLAVIUS, the author of a collection of forty-two 

 ^Esopian fables in Latin elegiac verse, probably lived in the 5th cen- 

 tury after Christ. Flavins Avianus has b<)en frequently confounded 

 with Rufus Festus Avienus [AVIENUS, RUFCS FBSTCS]; but besides 

 the great difference of their subjects, the whole mental character 

 of the men and the style of their writings are wholly dis-iinilar. 

 The only resemblance in fact is in their names. The fables are dull 

 and feeble, and far from pure in style. The first separate edition of 

 the ' Fable* of Avianus ' was printed by J. de Breda at Daventur, in 

 Holland, in 1494 ; but they had been previously printed with the 

 ' Fables of jEsop ' about 1480. Caxton printed ' the Fables of Avian 

 translated into Englyshe,' at the end of his translation of ^Eaop, 

 in 1483. 



AVICENNA, named ABEN SINA by Hebrew writers, but pro- 

 perly IBX-SINA, or, with his complete name, ABU ALT AL- 

 HOSSEIN IBN ABDALLAH IBN SINA, called also by Arabian 

 u.hers AL-SHEIKH ('the Doctor'), and AL-RAYIS ('the 

 Chief), was a celebrated Arabian philosopher and physician, whose 

 name has ruled iu the realm of science during a longer period than 

 that of any other writer, with the exception of Aristotle and Galen. 

 He wa?, according to the biographical dictionary of Ibn-Khallican, 

 born at Kharmatain, a village near Bukhara, in the year A.H. 370 

 (A.D. 980). He received the elements of his education at Bokhara. 

 He states iu his autobiography, that when he had reached his 10th 

 year he was thoroughly veraed in the study of the Koran, knew some- 

 thing of the elements of Mussulman theology, of Hindoo arithmetic, 

 and algebra. About this time Abu-Abdallah-Al-Natheli, a scholar of 

 some note among his contemporaries, came to Bokhara, and Avicenna 

 was placed under his tuition. He studied under him logic, Euclid, 

 nnd the Almagest. When Al-Natheli left Bokhara, Avicenna, then 

 about 16 years old, began to turn his attention to the study of 

 medicine, but soon interrupted his medical pursuits to give another 

 year and a half to a course of philosophical study. In his auto- 

 biography he informs us, that so great was the ztal with which he 

 devoted himeelf to his studii-s, that during two years he never slept 

 an entire night ; if he was unable to find the solution of an intricate 

 problem he went to the mosque to pray, and then seldom failed to 

 ovi roome the difficulty. Before he had reached his 18th year, he had 

 mastered his various studies ; and about the same time he cured 

 the Samanide Suit-in of Bokhara, Nuh-beu-Mansur (who reigned 

 A.D. 975-997), of a dangerous disease. In his 21st year he wrote a 

 work, which Casiri f-tyles an Encyclopaedia (the Arabic title is 'Kitab 

 al-Majmu," that is, literally, ' The book of the sum total '). He subse- 

 quently compiled a commentary to it, which extended to about 20 

 volumes. When he was 22 years old, Avicenna lost his father, whom 

 he succeeded for a short time in the office of minister to the Sultan of 

 Bokhara; but after the downfal of the Samauide dynasty, which 

 happened about the beginning of the llth century, he quitted 

 Bokhara. He was for a time attached aa physician to the court of 

 the Dilemite sovereign, Shams ul-Maali Kabus ben Washtnglr. When 

 this prince was dethroned, which happened about 1012, Avicenna 

 retired vo Jorjan, where he began to write his celebrated treatise on 

 medicine known under the title of the Canon (' Kitab al-Kauun 

 fi'1-Tibb,' that is, ' I'ook of tho Canon in medicine '). Ho subsequently 

 lived for a time at Rai, Kazwin, and Hama Ian. In the last place ho 

 WM appointed vizir to Shams eddaulah, the reigning sovereign of that 



Bioa. uiv. VOL. r. 



town. On the death of that prince Avicenna took up his abode at 

 Ispahan, where he compiled several of his works. He was physician 

 to Ala-eddaulah, then the sovereign of Ispahan, and accompanied him 

 on a journey which that prince undertook to Hamailan. Avicenna, 

 whose health had been previously weakened, had an attack of tholio 

 on the road, of which he died shortly after his arrival at Hamadan, 

 A.H. 428 (A.D. 1037). Casiri (vol. i. p. 299) notices a list of the works 

 of Avicenna, in which 60 are enumerated; Ibu-Khallican states the 

 total number of his great and short treatises at nearly 100, and men- 

 tions particularly the 'Shefa fi'1-hikrnat,' the 'NVjat,' the 'Isbarat,' 

 and the 'Kanun :' the titles of many others may be seen in Casiri 

 (vol. i. p. 270). Among them, the 'Kanun' acquired the greatest 

 celebrity, and became, even in Europe, for many centuries the stan- 

 dard authority in medical science, chiefly on account of its judicious 

 arrangement, and the comprehensive view which it afforded of the 

 doctrines of the ancient Greek physicians, at an age when the know- 

 ledge of the Greek language was v;ry scanty. It was translated into 

 Latin by Geravdus Cremouen?i*, at Toledo. This translation, revised 

 and accompanied with a commentary, by Jacobus de Partibus, was 

 edited for the first time in 1498, at Lyons, in four large volumes in 

 folio, by two Germans, Johannes Trechsel and Johannes Klein; several 

 other editions have since appeared. An edition of the Arabic text of 

 the Canon was published at Rome, 1593, folio. Avicenua atao wrote 

 extensively on philosophy and logic ; his largest and most important 

 philosophical work, 'Ash-Shefa,' or the 'Remedy,' has never been 

 printed, either in Arabic or in a translation ; but a nearly complete, 

 manuscript copy of it ia in the Bodleian Library at Oxford. 



(Ibn-Khallican, art. Al-Hossein-ben-Sina; Albufaraj, Historia Dynas- 

 tiarum, ed. Pocock. pp. 229-233 ; Bar Hebrsei, Cknnicon Dynastiarum, 

 i. i. pp. 231-233; Casiri, BMiotheca, Arabico-Hispana, t. i. p. 268, 

 &c. ; Hottinger, Bibliothecarinu Quadripartitus, Tiguri, 1664, 4to, 

 pp. 256-261 ; Sprengel, Histnire de la Medecine, trad, par Jourdan, 

 t. ii. p. 305, &c. ; Freind, History of Physic; Wustenfeld, Qeschichte 

 der Arabitchen Aertze.) 



Fardella's translation of an account of Avicenua's life by Ibn Joljol 

 Jorjani, Venice, 1595, is cited by Sprengel. 



AVIE'NUS, RUFUS FESTUS, sometimes written ANIANUS, a 

 Latin poet who probably lived in the latter half of the 4th century of 

 the Christian era. To him are ascribed translations of the ' Phfeno- 

 mena" and ' Prognostica ' of Aiatus into hexameters ; a free translation 

 of the 'Periegesis' of Dionysius, entitled, ' Descriptio Orbis Terra;' 

 and a poem in iambic verse, entitled ' Ora Maritima,' of which only 

 the first book remains, containing a description of the Mediterranean 

 from the Straits of Gibraltar to Marseilles ; and three or four short 

 fugitive pieces. The translations from Aratus will be found in many 

 of the editions of that author, and especially in that of Buhle, Lips., 

 1804. The ' Descriptio ' was edited by Friesemann, Amst. 1786 ; and, 

 together with the ' Ora Maritima,' is contained in the Oxford edition 

 of the ' Minor Greek Geographers." 



AVISON, CHARLES, a musician of considerable eminence both as 

 a critic and a composer, was born about the year 1710. When young 

 he visited Italy for the purpose of study, and after his return to 

 England bi-came a pupil of Geminiani, under whom he acquired his 

 knowledge of score-writing. He settled at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 

 having accepted in 1736 the place of organist of St. John's church in 

 that town, where he continued till his death. In 1752 he published 

 his ' Essay on Musical Expression,' a well-written work, which displays 

 much acuteness, and no small share of that taste which arises out of 

 good sense and deep reflection. Sir John Hawkins has given a very in- 

 accurate account of this work, and his statement has unfortunately been 

 copied in most biographical collections. His essay was answered by Dr. 

 William Hayes of Oxford, who exposed some errors which Avison had 

 fallen into respecting the established rules of musical composition ; 

 but tht learned professor made his attack with too much asperity, and 

 his own views were singularly tinctured with pedantry. Avison in the 

 following year replied to Hayes in a short pamphlet written in a strain 

 of bitter sarcasm. Mr. Avison was the projector of the adaptation of 

 Marcello's 'Psalms' to the English version, which Garth of Durham 

 undertook and published, much assisted by the former : the work met 

 however with little success. His own compositions consist chiefly of 

 five sets of ' Concertos for a Full Band,' forty-five in number, which 

 exhibit more elegance thau originality, his stylo being avowedly founded 

 on that of Geminiani : they were nevertheless very favourably received. 



AYA'LA, PEDRO LOPEZ DE, the most popular of Spanish chro- 

 niclers, was the sou of Fernando Perez do Ayala, adelantado of the 

 kingdom of Murcia, and was born in 1332. He was early a favourite 

 of Pedro, or Peter the Cruel, king of Castile, but passed over to the 

 party of Don Henry of Trastamarre, the illegitimate brother of Peter, 

 who revolted against that prince, and drove him from Castile. When 

 Peter returned, accompanied by an English army under the command 

 of Edward the Black Prince, and defeated Don Henry at the battle of 

 Najera, April 3, 1367, Ayala was present on Henry's side. He tells us 

 in his own chronicle that he fought on foot in the vanguard, and bore 

 the banner of the Vanda, a brotherhood of knights, and iu the list of 

 the names of the captives he gives his own. He was carried to England, 

 where ho was kept in chains in a dark dungeon, the horrors of which 

 he describes in his poems. At length he was released by the payment 

 of a large ransom, and on his return to Castile, became one of the 



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