583 



SEETZEN, ULRICH JASPAR. 



SEGUIER, PIERRE. 



381 



2, ' Collatio Valeria et Novi Testament!.' This poem is written in 

 elegiac verse, and in Buch a manner that the first words of every hexa- 

 meter form the second half of the pentameter which follows. It con- 

 tains narratives from the Bible, so arranged that those taken from the 

 Old Testament always appear in juxta-positiou with those taken from 

 the New Testament. 3, A ' Hymnus,' written in Iambic dimeters, in 

 which the verses of each stanza begin with tlio letters of the alphabet in 

 their usual succession (Acrosticha). It is a panegyric upon Jesus, and 

 one of the best productions of the Christian poetry of the age. 4, 

 ' De Verbi Incarnatione ' is composed of verses taken from Virgil, 

 which by slight alterations are combined into a Christian poem. 



The editio princeps of Sediilius is the ' Ascensiana,' 4to, Paris, with- 

 out date. The latest editions are by Cellariue, Halae, 8vo, 1704 and 

 1739; by J. Arntzen, Leuwarden, 8vo, 1761 ; and by Faustino Arevalo, 

 Rome, 4to, 1794. 



Comp. Bahr, 'Die Christlichen Dichter und Geschichtschreiber 

 Roma," p. 54, &c. 



SEETZEN, ULRICH JASPAR, was born on the 30th of January, 

 1767, at Sophiengroden near Jever. His father was in good circum- 

 stances, and gave his son an excellent education, which was com- 

 menced at Jever, and completed in the university of Gottingen, where 

 Seet/en from 1785-88 studied medicine, the natural sciences, and 

 especially agriculture and political economy. Hero he became 

 acquainted with Alex, von Humboldt and Link, with whom he 

 conceived the plan of travelling into distant countries which were 

 then little known. Seetzen chose Asia and Africa as the fields of his 

 enterprise, and was encouraged in his design by Heyue, Gatterer, 

 Eichhorn, and Blumenbach. After the completion of his studies, he 

 returned to Jever, and made several journeys through Germany and 

 Holland. He however never lost sight of the great object of his life, 

 and studied with great care what had then been written upon Asia 

 and Africa. After he had made all the preparations which private 

 study enabled him to make, he applied to Blumenbach for his advice 

 and support. This great naturalist recommended Seetzen to Baron 

 von Zach, who, though at first not favourably disposed towards the 

 extensive plans of Seetzen, soon altered his opinion, and not only 

 instructed the young man in astronomy, but induced the Duke 

 of Gotha to provide Seetzen with the necessary instruments for 

 making astronomical observations, and afterwards also to grant him 

 an annual sum for the prosecution of his objects. It was also resolved 

 that a museum should be formed at Gotha, and the duke intrusted 

 Seetzen with considerable sums to purchase any interesting objects 

 connected with the arts, religion, and literature of the countries 

 through which he was about to travel. 



On the 13th of June, 1802, Seetzen set out from Jever, accompanied 

 by a surgeon who had been educated at Gottingen at the expense of 

 Seetzen himself. The proposed subjects of his inquiry in Asia and 

 Africa were natural history, statistics, agriculture, commerce, the arts, 

 mathematical, physical, and ancient geography, and archaeology ; in 

 fact, everything that might contribute to an accurate knowledge of 

 the countries. Seetzen stopped for a short time at Vienna, to learn 

 the art of drawing plans and maps ; and thence he went, by way of 

 Bucharest and across the Balkan to Constantinople, where he arrived 

 on the 12th of December. After a stay of six months, which were 

 spent in various preparations, he crossed over into Asia Minor, and 

 travelled by land to Smyrna. Here his companion was taken ill, and 

 he was obliged to leave him behind. Seetzen continued his journey 

 to Haleb with a caravan, and arrived there towards the end of 1803, 

 and stayed for nearly fifteen months, which he devoted to the study 

 of Arabic. From Haleb he proceeded to Damascus, through Syria and 

 Palestine, as far as the deserts of Arabia, and got much new informa- 

 tion, and made valuable collections. In 1805, he returned to Damas- 

 cus ; and, dressed in the costume of a Turk, lie made excursions into 

 Libanus and Antilibanus. The year after he began his travels in the 

 country east of Hermon, the Jordan, and the Dead Sea. His journeys 

 in these districts were made under the greatest privations and 

 dangers; but they were amply rewarded by the discovery of the 

 ruins of several ancient towns, the site of which had till then been 

 unknown to Europeans. He also penetrated farther south along the 

 eastern shore of the Dead Sea, and he proceeded around the southern 

 shore to Jerusalem. From this place he travelled to Joppa, and 

 thence by sea to Acre, where he remained till the end of the year 

 1806. We now lose sight of him for some mouths, as the documents 

 belonging to this period are missing ; but in March, 1807, we find 

 him again at Jerusalem, from which place he travelled to Hebron, 

 Horeb, Sinai, then back towards the north, and across the isthmus of 

 Suez to Cairo, where he remained for two years. Here he purchased 

 for the museum of Gotha a collection of 1574 MSS., 3536 archajo- 

 logical subjects, and collected a great many specimens in mineralogy, 

 botany, and zoology. In 1808 he visited the province of Faioum, and 

 examined the pyramids, the catacombs near Saccara, and the great 

 lake of Birkct-el-Karun. About this time he adopted externally the 

 Mohammedan religion, in order to gain the confidence of the Egyptians 

 and the Arabs, and to be able to visit those places in Arabia to which 

 Mussulmen alone have access. He then attempted to proceed to 

 Acaba, but was obliged to return to Suez. Soon afterwards however 

 he travelled by sea to Yambo and Jidda, and thence to Mecca and 

 Medina, In the two last places he made a great many drawings and 



plans. In March 1810 he sent out for Mocha. A letter, dated 

 Nov. 17, 1810, and addressed to Mr. Lindenau of Gotha, was the last 

 account that he himself sent to Europe. In 1815, Von Hammer of 

 Vienna was informed by Mr. Buckingham, in a letter written at 

 Mocha, that Seetzen had suddenly died in 1811, in the neighbourhood 

 of Taes, while he was on his way to the Imam of Sana to recover his 

 luggage, &c., which had been seized at Mocha, and that it was 

 generally believed that the unfortunate traveller was poisoned by the 

 command of the Imam. A report which was afterwards brought over 

 to this country from Bombay, agreed in the main points with that of 

 Mr. Buckingham. The diary of Seetzen's journeys, and his maps, 

 plans, and drawings, were for some time supposed to be lost, but 

 nearly the whole have been recovered, and were placed in the hands 

 of Professor Kruse of Dorpat. 



SE'GNERI, PA'OLO, was born in 1624, at Nettuno in the Campagna 

 of Rome. He studied at Rome under the Jesuits, and afterwards 

 entered that order. He applied himself more particularly to sacred 

 oratory, and became a distinguished preacher. He formed a style of 

 his own, avoiding both the dryness of his predecessors and the turgidity 

 of his contemporaries, and he is one of the few really eloquent preachers 

 that Italy has produced. (Maury, ' Essai sur 1'Eloquence de la Chaire.') 

 Segneri's ' Quaresimale,' or series of sermons for Lent, is still read 

 with pleasure and profit. The author is rather too fond of figures 

 and antithesis ; at times he indulges too much in profane and even 

 mythological erudition, in doing which he conformed to the vitiated 

 taste of his age, which is known as that of the Seicentisti, but he is 

 one of the purest writers of that age, and his language has been 

 approved by the Crusca Academy. Segneri was an earnest and truly 

 Christian preacher. In that vocation he visited almost every corner 

 of Italy, and he always won the attention and affection of his audience. 

 He composed also ' Laudi,' or prayers in verse, of an easy and popular 

 style, to be sung before and after his sermons. 



Pope Innocent XII. chose Segneri for his own preacher, as well as 

 of the College of Cardinals, in which office he continued three years, 

 until 1694, when he died at Rome. He was succeeded by father 

 Casini, who nearly equalled him in eloquence, and surpassed him in 

 the boldness and freedom with which he spoke truth, however unwel- 

 come it might be to men in power, which however did not prevent 

 Pope Clement XI. from making him a cardinal. Segneri composed, 

 besides his sermons, several pious tracts, such as 'II Cristiano Istruito,' 

 which contains many excellent precepts for living a Christian life. 



(Corniani, Secoli della Litteratura Italiana; Maffei, Vita del 

 Segneri.) 



SEGNI, BERNARDO, was born at Florence about the end of the 

 15th century. He studied the law at Padua, but afterwards proceeded 

 to Aquila in the kingdom of Naples, where he followed the profession 

 of a merchant. On his return to Florence after the fall of the republic, 

 he courted the new sovereigns of the house of Medici, and found favour 

 with Duke Cosmo I., who employed him in several missions and other 

 affairs of state. Cosmo employed him also in translating the works of 

 Aristotle from the Greek into Italian. His translations of the Rhetoric, 

 Ethic, Politic, and the Treatise on the Soul, are the only parts that 

 have been published. Segni also busied himself in writing a history 

 of his own times and country: 'Storie Florentine dall' anuo 1527 all' 

 anno 1555,' which he kept secret in his lifetime. In this history he 

 speaks with the freedom of a conscientious historian, and as such he 

 is placed among the best writers of Italy. The first part of Segni's 

 history refers to the same period as the latter part of that of Guic- 

 ciardini, both embracing the important event of the fall of the Floren- 

 tine republic, with this difference, that Guicciardiui's is a general 

 history of Italy, and Segni's a particular history of his native Florence. 

 No less than three other Florentine contemporary historians have 

 treated the same period, namely, Varchi, who wrote, in a prolix style, 

 ' Storia Fiorentina,' from the year 1527 to 1538 ; Nardi, who wrote 

 'Istorie della Citta di Firenze,' from 1494 to 1531; and Nerli, in his 

 general history, or rather chronicle, of Florence, ' Commentary de' 

 Fatti Civili occorsi in Firenze dall' anno 1215 all' anno 1537.' Segni 

 however went farther than any of them, by continuing his narrative 

 till the year 1555, thus embracing not only the period of the profligate 

 sway of Alessandro de' Medici, included in the histories of Varchi and 

 Nerli, but the subsequent and more important reign of his successor, 

 Duke Cosmo I., who was the real founder of the Tuscan dynasty, and 

 who, by the subjugation of Siena, the last of the three great Tuscan 

 republics, united the whole of Tuscany into one principality. Segni 

 died in 1559. 



There have been two other writers of the same family : Pietro Segni, 

 who translated and commented on the work of Demetrius Phalereus 

 'On Elocution;' and Agnolo Segui, who wrote a valuable treatise, 

 'Delia Imitazione Poetica.' 



SEGUI KR, PIERRE, was one of an ancient and distinguished 

 French family which, in the space of three centuries (1460 to 1789), is 

 recorded to have had no less than sixty-eight of its members raised to 

 the highest legal dignities of France. Pierre Seguier, one of the most 

 eminent of them, was born at Paris in 1504. He began life as an 

 advocate, and, after filling various high offices, was raised in 1564 to 

 the rank of president a niortier, the highest grade but one in the 

 Parisian parliament. In that capacity the parliament, having refused 

 to register an edict for the establishment of the Inquisition, deputed 



