577 



OROAG1TA. 



173 



under the superintendence of bis father, and who aow began to 

 devote himself to poetry. Accordingly he composed his poem on 

 fishing, and presented it either to the Emperor Severus (Sozomen, 

 'Prsefat. ad Hist. Eccles.'), or more probably (Suidas ; Oppian, 

 ' Halieut.,' i. 3, iv. 5) to his son Caracalla, who was so much pleased 

 with it, that he not only repealed the sentence of his father's banish- 

 ment, but also presented him with a piece of gold for each verse that 

 it contained. He died of the plague shortly after his return to his 

 native country, at the early age of thirty, leaving behind him three 

 poems, on Hawking ('IJeuri/to), Hunting (KvinryfriKa), and Fishing 



' 



The ' Ixeutica ' consisted of two books, according to Suidas, or rather 

 of five, according to the anonymous Greek author of Oppian's life, and 

 are no longer extant; but a (jreek Paraphrase in prose, by Eutecnius, 

 of three books, was published, 8vo, Havnise, 1702, Or. and Lat., ed. 

 E. \\ indingius, which is also inserted in Schneider's edition of Oppian, 

 8vo, Argent, 1776. 



The 'Cynegetics' are written in hexameter verse, consist of about 

 2100 lines, and are divided into four books : they display a very fair 

 knowledge of natural history, with which however a good many absurd 

 fables are mixed up. He says expressly that the tusks of the elephant 

 are not teeth but horns (lib. ii, v. 491, sq.), and mentions a report 

 that these animals are able to speak (v. 40, sq.) : he states that there 

 is no such thing as a female rhinoceros, but that all these animals are 

 of the male sex (v. 63); that the lioness when pregnant for the first 

 time brings fi.rth five whelps at a birth, the second time four, the 

 next three, then two, and lastly only one (lib. iii, v. 58, sq.) ; that 

 the bear brings forth her cubs half formed, and licks them into shape 

 (v. 159, sq.) ; that so great is the enmity between the wolf and the 

 lamb, that even after death, if two drums be made of their hides, the 

 wolfs hide will put to silence the lamb's (v. 282, sq.) ; that the hyenas 

 annually change their sex (v. 2S8, sq.) ; that the boar's teeth contain 

 fire inside them (v. 379, sq.) : that the ichneumon leaps down the 

 throat of the crocodile while lying asleep with its mouth wide open, 

 and devours its viscera (v. 407, si].). He thiuks it necessary to state 

 expressly that it is not true that there are no male tigers (v. 357, sq.). 

 He gives a very spirited description of the giraffe, " the exactness of 

 which," says Mr. Holme (' Earlier Notices of the Giraffe,' in ' Trans. 

 of the Ashmol. Soc.,' vol. ii), " is in some points remarkable; particu- 

 larly in the observation that the so-called horns do not consist of 

 horny substance (oCrt nipas xip6fv) ; and in the allusion to the pencils 

 of hair (o/3Ai)xpal mptucu) with which they are tipped." Ho adds, 

 " That the animal must have been seen alive by Oppian is evident 

 from his remark on the brilliancy of the eyes, and the halting motion 

 of the hinder limbs." 



The ' Halieutica ' are also written in hexameter verse, and consist 

 of five books, of which the two first contain the natural history of 

 fishes, and the three last the art of fishing. In this poem, as in the 

 ' Cynegetiei-,' the author displays considerable zoological knowledge, 

 though il contains several fables and absurdities more perhaps than 

 we meet with in Ari&totle, but certainly not so many as in Pliny and 

 x-Kliau. He mentions (lib. L, v. 217, sq.) the story of the Reinora, or 

 Sucker, being able to stop a ship when tinker full sail by sticking to 

 the keel, and reprove* the incredulity of those who doubt its truth 

 ('I'lut Sjujjios.,' lib. ii., Quacat. 7); he was aware of the peculiarity 

 of the Canceling, or Hermit-Crab, which is provided with no shell of 

 its own, but seizes upon the first empty one it can find (v. 320, sq.); 

 he gives a beautiful and correct description of the Nautilus (v. 338, 

 sq.) ; he fays that the Mununa, or Lauiprey, copulates with land- 

 serpents, which for the time lay aside their venom (v. 554, sq.) ; he 

 notices the numbness caused by the touch of the Torpedo (lib. ii., 

 v. 56, sq. ; and lib. iii., v. 149, sq.) ; and the black fluid emitted by 

 the Sepia, or Cuttle-Fish, by means of which it escapes its pursuers 

 (lib. iii., v. 156, sq.); he says that a fish called Sargus copulates with 

 goats, and that it is caught by the fisherman's dressing himself up in a 

 goat's skin, and so enticing it on shore (lib. iv., v. 308, sq.) ; he several 

 time* mentions the dolphin, calls it, for its swiftness and beauty, the 

 king among fishes (as the eagle among birds, the lion among beasts, 

 and the serptnt among reptiles) (lib. ii., v. 533, sq.), and relates an 

 anecdote, somewhat similar to those mentioned by Pliny (' Hist. Nat.,' 

 lib. ix., cap. 8), and which he says happened about his own time, of a 

 dolphin that was so fond of a little boy that it used to come whenever 

 he called it by its name, and suffered him to ride upon its back, and 

 at la.-t was supposed to have pined away with grief on account of his 

 death (lib. v., v. 4-18, sq.). 



The ' Halieutics ' are much superior to the ' Cynegetics ' in point of 

 style and poetical embellishment, and it is partly on account of this 

 great disparity that it has been supposed that the two poems were 

 not composed by the same pel-son ; but there arc other and stronger 

 reasons in support of this opinion (which was first put forth by 

 Schneider in the preface to his first edition of Oppiau's works), ren- 

 dering it almost certain that, though by the universal consent of 

 antiquity Oppian wrote a poem on hunting, yet it cannot be that which 

 now goes under his name. Oppian was (as we have seen) a Ciliciau ; 

 but tlie author of the 'Cynegotics ' tells us distinctly, in two different 

 punges, that his native place was a city on the Orontes in Syria 

 (probably Apauiea), (lib. ii., v. 125-127, and ibid., v. 156, 157). This 

 has been denied by Belin de Ballu, who published an edition of the 



BIOO. Div. VOL. iv. 



' Cynegetics,' 4to, Argentor., 1786, and 8vo, Gr. and Lat.; but it is 

 only by altering the text in both passages (and that too not very 

 skilfully) that he has been able to reconcile them with the commonly- 

 received opinion that the poem is the work of Oppiau. Schneider, in 

 his second edition, replies to the objections of Belin de Ballu. It 

 appears, from an allusion to fishing and the sea-deities in the first book 

 of the ' Cynegetics ' (v. 77-80), that this poem was composed after the 

 ' Halieutics,' and as a sort of supplement or companion to it ; and this 

 has tended to confirm the common opinion that both poems were 

 written by the same author. 



With regard to the poetical merits of Oppian, he seems to be one 

 of those poets whose works have been more praised than read. Julius 

 Czesar Scaliger pronounces him " to be a sublime and incomparable 

 poet, the most perfect writer among the Greeks, aud the only one of 

 them that ever came up to Virgil." ('Poet.,' lib. v., cap. 9.) Sir 

 Thomas Browne calls him " one of the best epic poets," and " wonders 

 that his elegant lines should be so much neglected " (' Vulgar Errors,' 

 book i., chap. viii.). His style is florid and copious, the language 

 upon the whole very good, though (as was noticed by Dan. Heinsius, 

 'Ad Nonni Diouysiaca," p. 197), it is now and then deformed by 

 Latinisins. 



The first edition of the 'Halieutics' was published Florent., 1515, 

 Svo, Gr., ap. Ph. Juntam. A Latin translation in hexameter verse, 

 by Laurentius Lippius, was published 1478, 4to. They were trans- 

 lated into English verse by Diaper and Jones, Oxford, Svo, 1722; 

 into French by Limes, Paris, Svo, 1817; and into Italian by Salvini, 

 Firenae, Svo, 1728. The ' Cynegetics ' were first published (together 

 with the 'Halieutics') Venet, in ^Edib. Aldi, Svo, 1517. They were 

 translated into Latin verse by Bodin, Paris, 4to, 1555 ; into English 

 by Mawer, Lond., Svo, 1736 (containing the first book only); into 

 French by Florent Chrestien, Paris, 4to, 1575, and by Beliu de Ballu, 

 Strasb., 8vo, 1787; into German by Lieberkiihu, Leipz., 8vO, 1755; 

 and into Italian, with the 'Halieutics' noticed above, by Salvini. 

 Fabricius states (' Biblioth. Gr.'), on the authority of Lambecius, that 

 a paraphrase both of the 'Cynegetica' and of the 'Halieutica,' in 

 Greek prose by Eutecnius, still exists in manuscript in the library at 

 Vienna. Schneider's second edition of Oppian's two poems unhappily 

 is unfinished, Svo, Lips., 1S13, Graecd ; it is far superior to his first, 

 and contains a Latin verse translation of the ' Cynegetics,' by 1'feifer, 

 published for the first time though executed in 1555. His first and 

 complete edition was published at Argentor., 1776, Gr. and Lat., Svo, 

 containing also the paraphrase of the ' Ixeutics,' by Eutecniua, men- 

 tioned above. Schneider published some addenda to this edition in 

 bis 'Analecta Ciitica," Svo, Francof. t 1777; Fascic. i., p. 31, sq. The 

 latest edition is that published by Didot (edited by F. S. Lehrs), large 

 Svo, Paris, 1846. 



ORCA'GNA, or L'ARCA'GNUOLO, is the name by which ANDREA. 

 Di CIONE, a celebrated old Florentine artist, is generally known ; he 

 is by Rumohr first called L'Archagnuolo, which appears to be his 

 proper name. Vasari calls him Orgagna. He was painter, sculptor, 

 and architect; was born at Florence in 1329, according to Vasari, or 

 according to other accounts about 1315 or 1320, and was probably 

 first instructed in art by his father Cione, who was a celebrated golds- 

 mith; from him he passed into the school of Andrea Pisano. 



He painted several works, together with his brother Bernardo, in 

 the churches of Florence, and also in the Campo Santo at Pisa, where 

 the ' Triumph of Death" and the 'Last Judgment' were by Andrea, 

 and the ' Hell ' by Bernardo ; the ' Last Judgment ' and the ' Hell ' 

 are engraved by Lasinio on a .-single plate in his ' Pitture del Caiupo 

 Santo di Pisa : ' Orcagua repeated them in Santa Croce at Florence : 

 he had painted previously in the Strozzi chapel in Santa Maria 

 Novella, a picture of Hell from Dante's ' Inferno,' in which he iutro- j 

 duced the portraits of several of his enemies. As an architect he 

 built the elegant Loggia de' Lanzi in the Piazza Grauduca at Florence, 

 which is still in perfect condition it and its sculptures are engraved 

 by Lasiuio in Miaserini's ' Piazza del Grauduca di Fiienze, con i suoi 

 Monument!,' Florence, 1830. He built also the church of the monas- 

 tery of Or' San Michele, and designed the celebrated tabernacle of the 

 Virgin of that monastery. It is a high Gothic pyramidal altar to the 

 Virgin, free on all sides, is built of white marble, and is richly orna- 

 mented with figures and other sculptures. The following words are 

 inscribed on the base : ' Andreas Ciouis pictor Florentinua oratorii 

 archimagister extitit hujus, MCCCL1X." It is engraved in Richa's 

 ' Notizie delle Cbiese di Firenze,' after a drawing by Andrea himself. 

 Orcagua generally signed himself painter upon his sculptures, and 

 sculptor upon his pictures; on his pictures he wrote "Fece Andrea 

 di Cione, Scultore; " on his sculptures, "Fece Andrea di Cioue, 

 Pittore." He was also a poet. Vasari mentions some sonnets which 

 he addressed to Burchiello; and in the works of Burehiello, pub- 

 lished in London in 1767, there is a sonnet addressed to Orcagna. 

 He died at Florence according to Vasari in 1389, but according to 

 Manni in 1375. 



He was a man of great taste in architecture, and has the credit of 

 having been the first in those ages to adopt the semicircular arch in 

 preference to the pointed ; but to thin merit, if one, be is not entitled, 

 though his elegant 'Loggia de' Lanzi' may have contributed greatly 

 towards the subsequent popularity of that form of the arch in Italy : 

 Arnolfo di Lapo however, and other earlier architects, used the serui- 



2 C 



