637 



SPEUSIPPUS. 



SPINOLA, MARQUIS OF. 



038 



the bauds of the Emperor Alexander, who received him with the 

 greatest distinction, and restored him to his seat in the Imperial 

 council, of which his exile had deprived him. In 1825 the Emperor 

 Nicolas nominated him to the presidency of his chancery, and it was 

 under hia able direction that the celebrated ' Svod Zakonow ' (or 

 'Corpus Juris'), which contains the laws and ordinances from 1694 to 

 1838, was completed. About this time he published his work, ' Precis 

 des Notions Historiques sur la Reformation du Corps des Lois Rueses,' 

 &c. (Petersburg, 1833). Speranski died in 1840, at the age of sixty- 

 nine years. His manners were pleasing, and his aspect indicated 

 genius and commanding power. 



SPEUSIPPUS, the son of a sister of the philosopher Plato, was bom 

 in Attica, in the demus of Myrrhinus. He was a disciple of his uncle 

 Plato, whose general principles he adopted in his philosophy ; but he 

 differed from his master, as he mixed up empiricism with the idealism 

 of Plato, and consequently attributed more importance to the senses, 

 and also combined with his system several Pythagorean principles. In 

 some of his works, which are mentioned b'y Diogenes Laertius and 

 Athenseus, he wrote about plants, animals, and natural objects, into 

 which he inquired more deeply than Plato. (Sext. Empir., 'adv. 

 Math.,' vii. 145.) But on the whole he must be regarded as the con- 

 tiuuator of the Platonic philosophy, and as the founder and the head 

 of the old Academic school of philosophy, in which light he was 

 always considered by the ancieuta themselves. Among his disciples 

 several females are mentioned. Some ancient writers blame him for 

 having taken money for his instruction, and for having indulged in 

 sensual pleasures more than was becoming to a philosopher. A long 

 list of his works, of which only few fragments are preserved, is given 

 by Diogenes Laertius (iv. 1). 



(Braudis, De Perdilis Aristot. Libris, de Jdeis et Bonis, p. 46, &c. ; 

 Bitter and Preller, Historia Philosophies, &c., p. 228, &c.) 



SPIGE'LIUS, ADRIAN, was born at Brussels in 1578. He studied 

 philosophy and medicine at Louvain, and afterwards pursued the 

 latter science at Padua, where he received his diploma of doctor. He 

 practised first in his own country, and then in Moravia; but in 1616 

 he was invited, at the recommendation of his former preceptor 

 Fabiicius ab Aquapendente, to take the principal professorship of 

 anatomy and surgery at Padua. He seems to have filled the post 

 with great honour both to himself and to the university, for its repu- 

 tation was greater in his time than even when Fabricius and Casserius 

 were professors. He died in 1625, of a disease said to have been 

 caused by an accidental wound in the hand, leaving several works 

 which were published after his death by his son-in-law and by Bucretius. 

 The most important of them was that ' On the Structure of the Human 

 Body,' an excellent and well-written system of anatomy, in ten books, 

 in which however there is contained little that was unknown to his 

 predecessors ; even the lobe of the liver, which is called after his name, 

 having been before described by Vesalius and others. Haller's judg- 

 ment of Spigelius, that he commends himself chiefly by the purity of 

 bis style and by his practical annotations ('Biblioth. Anatom.,' i. 357) 

 is probably correct; and may explain why, as a professor, he had 

 more repute than his two predecessors, both of whom were certainly 

 more learned anatomists. The whole works of Spigelius were published 

 by Van der Linden, folio, Amsterdam, 1645. 



*SPINDLER, KARL, one of the most prolific of German novelists, 

 was born in Breslau about 1795. He was removed early to Strasburg, 

 where his father practised as a musician, and where he received his 

 education, but with his father visited in succession Hanau, Stuttgardt, 

 Munich, and Baden-Baden. His first novel, ' Eugen von Kronstein,' 

 was published in 1824, and displayed considerable talent, with decided 

 proofs of a juvenile judgment and taste. To this followed in rapid 

 succession a host of others. ' Der Bastard ' was the first, issued in 

 1826, a lively and tolerably correct picture of the manners of the 

 times of the Emperor Rudolf II., which is one of his best, and estab- 

 lished his reputation. It has been translated into English by Lord 

 Conyngham, under the title of 'The Natural Son.' His next was 

 'DerJude' ('The Jew'), probably his best, published in 1827, depicting 

 the manners of the first half of the 15th century. In 1829 appeared 

 ' Der Jesuit,' which was highly popular, and has been translated under 

 the title of ' The Jesuit, a Picture of Manners and Character,' of 

 which the period is the first quarter of the 18th century. Among 

 the more noticeable of his others are ' Der Invalide ;' ' Der Enthusiast," 

 which has also appeared in English ; ' Der Vogelhiindler von Imbst,' 

 a picture of domestic life, and others ; with numerous translations 

 from the French. Spindler has invention and facility, but has written 

 far too much for his own fame. Most, if not all of his later works, are 

 greatly inferior to his earlier productions. Since 1830 he has been 

 editor, and a principal contributor to 'Das Vergissmeinnicht ' ('The 

 Forge t-Me- Not'), a pocket-book somewhat on the plan of our own 

 annuals, and he has produced a number of dramatic pieces which, pos- 

 sessing aome of the better qualities of his novels, have little dramatic 

 capabilities. His collected works have been published in several 

 editions, and occupy now upwards of 100 volumes. 



SPINELLI, PARRI, a celebrated old Italian painter, was the son 

 of Spinello Aretino, and was born at Arezzo, apparently about 1388 90, 

 though his father was then very old, upwards of seventy. [ARETINO, 

 SPINELLO.] This conjecture however rests only upon Vasari's state- 

 ment respecting the age of Spiuello, and the assertion that Parri died 



when he waa fifty-six years of age, and on the date 1444, which ia 

 on the altar-piece of San Cristofano at Arezzo, which is attributed 

 to him. 



He waa first instructed by his father, and was afterwards employed 

 by Lorenzo Ghiberti in Florence as an assistant in preparing the 

 celebrated gates of the Baptistery of San Giovanni, which were 

 executed between 1402 and 1424. He painted chiefly in Arezzo, and 

 Vasari enumerates many of hia works, but few now exist. He 

 returned to Arezzo, says Vasari, upon the death of hia father, and 

 after many years' absence, from which it would appear that the father 

 lived further in the 15th century than is at preseut supposed: he is 

 known to have been living in 1408, and hia death ia believed to have 

 happened about this time. Vauari's statement that he died in 1400 is 

 probably a misprint aa well aa an error, as the account of Parri'n 

 assisting Ghiberti and returning to Arezzo at the time of his father's 

 death and after many years' absence, is a complete contradiction to it. 

 Parri was an excellent colourist, and was the best practical fresco- 

 painter of his time ; his draperies were also good, but his figures were 

 too long in proportion ; Vasari says some of them measured aa many 

 as eleven heads in height, and yet they were not ungraceful. 



SPl'NOLA, AMBRO'SIO, MARQUIS OF, was born at Genoa in 

 1569. His family were originally from Spinola, a small town on the 

 confines of the duchy of Milan and the Monferrat ; but one of hig 

 ancestors removed to Genoa, where he amassed considerable wealth 

 by engaging in mercantile speculations. On the death of his father, 

 Ambrosio followed his pursuits, while his younger brother Frederic 

 embraced the military profession. Having in 1598 entered the service 

 of Philip III. of Spain, with six galleys equipped and armed at hia 

 own expense, Frederic was employed against the Dutch, over whom 

 he gained several victories, ruining their trade, and capturing or 

 sinking their ships. In 1601 Frederic was appointed admiral of the 

 Spanish fleet on the coast of the Netherlands, and shortly after was 

 invested with full powers to raise a body of troops to operate against 

 the insurgents of Flanders. He then went to Genoa, and prevailed on 

 his brother Ambrosio to take the command of the land forces, whilst 

 be scoured the sea with his fleet. The army was to be raised in the 

 duchy of Milan and to consist of 9000 men, Italians and Spaniards, 

 whom the two Spinolas were to arm and pay, after the manner of the 

 old ' condottieri,' to be afterwards reimbursed by the Spanish treasury. 

 This circumstance, at a time when the conduct of wars depended so 

 much upon the troops being regularly paid, contributed in a great 

 degree to the success which afterwards rendered Spinola so celebrated. 

 While the Spanish troops in Flanders were disorderly and mutinous, 

 those under the command of Spinola were always a pattern of 

 obedience and discipline. Ambrosio left Milan in May 1602, and 

 entered the Low Countries. He served at first under Mendoza, who 

 sent him to the relief of Grave, besieged by Maurice; but he was 

 defeated in an attempt to break through the enemy's lines, and Grave 

 surrendered on the 20th of September 1602. The ensuing year (May 

 1603) his brother Frederic was killed in a naval engagement with the 

 Dutch. Shortly after Spinola was appointed general-in-chief of the 

 Spanish forces in the Netherlands. He began the campaign by an 

 attempt to relieve the town of Sluys, which was besieged by the Prince 

 of Nassau; but in this he failed, the place having capitulated on the 

 19th of August 1604. The Archduke Albert of Austria, governor of 

 the Netherlands, having employed him in the capture of Ostend, 

 which had long been besieged by the Spaniards, it fell into his hands 

 after it had sustained a siege of three years and two mouths. Although 

 Spiuola obtained possession of a mere heap of ruins, his reputation 

 was at once established throughout Europe. After this he repaired 

 to Madrid, where he was received by King Philip with the respect due 

 to his talents, and appointed commander-in-chief of all the Italian and 

 Spanish forces in the Netherlands. On his way back to the theatre 

 of war, he passed through Paris, where he had an interview with 

 Henry IV. This king having asked him what were his plans for the 

 ensuing campaign, Spinola, who penetrated his motives, entered 

 without hesitation into the detail of his projects, and of the military 

 operations which he intended to perform. Taking for granted that 

 Spinola wished to deceive him, Henry wrote to Maurice the very 

 contrary of what he had been told ; and when he saw that by per- 

 forming exactly what he had stated, Spinola had deceived both him 

 and his antagonist, he is said to have exclaimed, " Others have deceived 

 me by falsehood, but Spinola by telling the truth." Maurice at length 

 saw the artifice, and changed his plan of operations, but he was 

 unable to gain any decisive advantage over his adversary, who 

 dexterously availed himself of the fortresses and of the nature of the 

 ground to keep him in check. A decisive naval action, in which the 

 Dutch admiral Heemskerk destroyed the Spanish squadron near 

 Gibraltar (1607), induced the cabinet of Madrid to propose an armis- 

 tice, which was concluded between Spinola and Maurice for twelve 

 years (1609). The war was renewed in 1621, owing to the disputed 

 succession to the duchy of Cleves, and Spain, by her connection with 

 the house of Austria, and the hope of recovering her lost dominion 

 over Holland, entered into it. Spinola commanded the Spanish forces, 

 and Maurice was again his opponent. The advantage however re- 

 mained entirely with the former. Juliers was invested and taken, and 

 the siege of Breda was commenced. Whilst trying to relieve this city, 

 the Prince of Nassau [MAUBICE] died of a fever occasioned by the 



