673 



STANZIONI, MASSIMO. 



STASZIC, STANISLAV. 



674 



same ardour, soon distinguished himself among his fellow students. 

 In 1641 he obtained at Cambridge the degree of M.A., which, accord- 

 ing to the register of the University of Oxford, he had obtained in the 

 latter place a year earlier. But it is not known whether he ever 

 studied at Oxford. Some of his biographers state that after the 

 year 1641 he travelled for some time on the Continent, while others 

 are not only silent upon this point, but expressly affirm that while his 

 family during the civil commotions in England took refuge in France, 

 Thomas alone remained behind, and, in order to study the law, took 

 up his residence in London in the Middle Temple, where he formed 

 an intimate friendship with Edward Sherburne, afterwards Sir 

 Edward Sherburne. In his new place of resilience Stanley devoted 

 his time partly to his professional pursuits, but more especially to the 

 study of the ancients. The first time that he made his appearance as 

 an author was in 1649, with a volume of Poems and Translations, 

 which has subsequently been often reprinted. The volume contains 

 some English and Latin original poems, together with translations 

 from Greek poets. About the same time he translated several French, 

 Italian, and Spanish poems into English. It must have been as early 

 as this time that his chief attention was directed to one of the two 

 great works to which he owed his reputation, we allude to his 

 ' History of Philosophy,' the first edition of which appeared in three 

 parts from 1655 to 1662, folio, and was dedicated to his uncle John 

 Marsham, to whom the author attributes the merit of having designed 

 the work. The title is, ' The History of Philosophy, containing the 

 Lives, Opinions, Actions, and Discourses of the Philosophers of every 

 Sect.' A second edition appeared in 1687, folio; a third in 1701, 

 folio ; and a fourth in 1743, 4to. The work was translated into Latin 

 by Qothofredus Olearius, 4to, Lips., 1711, with numerous additions 

 and corrections. The latter part of the original, containing the 

 'History of the Chaldaic Philosophy,' was translated into Latin by 

 Leclerc in 1690, and is contained in vol. ii. of his ' Opera Philoso- 

 phical Stanley's 'History of Philosophy' was certainly at the time a 

 great production, which excelled all that had been done before 

 him in this department ; but it is nevertheless only a storehouse of 

 facts and materials diligently collected, and as such it is still a useful 

 book. In every other respect it has been superseded by later works 

 on the same subject. 



After the completion of his 'History of Philosophy,' Stanley 

 devoted most of his time to the study of the Greek poets, more 

 especially to ^Eschylus. In 1663 (some editions bear on the title-page 

 the date 1664) he published the tragedies of -iEschylus, with a Latin 

 translation, an explanatory commentary, the Greek scholia, and the 

 fragments, in one vol. folio. Thia edition, though one of the best 

 that had then appeared, has no great critical value. It was afterwards 

 reprinted, with some alterations, by De Pauw, 4to, Hague, 1745 ; 

 and with some improvements by S. Butler, Cambridge, 1809, &c. 

 After the publication of his ^Eschylus, Stanley began an extensive 

 commentary on -^Eschylus. This work, on which he spent the greater 

 part of the last years of his life, has never been published. The 

 manuscript, consisting of eight volumes folio, is preserved in the 

 public library at Cambridge. There are also some other works, 

 chiefly commentaries on ancient authors, which are ascribed to him, 

 but have not been printed. 



Stanley appears to have continued the practice of the legal pro- 

 fession, but he can never have devoted much time to it. He is said 

 to have been a man of great benevolence and integrity. He died in 

 London on the 12th of April 1678, and was buried in the church of 

 St. Martiu's-in-the-Fields. 



(See the memoir of Stanley by Sir Egerton Brydges, prefixed to his 

 edition of 'Stanley's Poems' (London, 1814 and 1815); and William 

 Wotton's Latin Eulogium on Stanley, in his Sccevolce Sammarthani 

 Elogia, Gallorum Sceculo XVI. Illustrium, prafationem prcemisit Ch. 

 A. Heumannus ; subjunctum est, quod primum nunc editur Guiltelmi 

 Wottoni Elogium Tkomce Stanleii, p. 307, &c.) 



STANZIO'NI, MA'SSIMO, Cavaliere, a celebrated Italian painter, 

 was born at Naples in 1585. He was the pupil of Caracciolo, but 

 became afterwards the imitator of the great Bolognese painters, 

 especially Guido Reni; he was called the Guido of Naples, and is con- 

 sidered the most correct of the Neapolitan painters. He was an 

 excellent portrait-painter, and was also distinguished for his frescoes. 

 There are several excellent works by Stanzioni in the church of the 

 Certosa, now an hospital, at Naples, especially the picture of St. Bruno 

 presenting the rules of his order to his monks. In the same church 

 is a picture of a dead Christ and the Marys, which, as it had somewhat 

 darkened, Spagnoletto, through jealousy, persuaded the Carthusians to 

 wash with a corrosive water, which completely spoilt it. Stanzioni, 

 disgusted with the baseness of the act, would not restore it, preferring 

 to leave it as a monument of Spagnoletto's meanness. Stanzioni died 

 at Naples in 1650. He had a numerous school, and he left many 

 notices of Neapolitan painters, which were used by Doininici. 



STAPEL, JOHN BOD^EUS A, a Dutch physician, and distin- 

 guished as a botanist, was born at Amsterdam in the beginning of the 

 17th century, where his father Engelbert Stapel practised as a phy- 

 sician. He finished his education at the university of Leyden, where, 

 under the tuition of Vorstius, he acquired a taste for botany ; and, in 

 conjunction with this science, he applied himself to the study of the 

 Greek language for the purpose of publishing a complete edition of 



BIOG. DIV. VOL. V. 



the botanical works of Theophrastus. In the midst however of his 

 studies and preparations for his great work, he died at an early age in 

 1636. He left materials enough for his father to publish an edition of 

 the ten books of Theophrastus, ' De Historia Plantarum.' This work 

 was published at Amsterdam in 1644, and exhibits great industry, 

 being perhaps one of the most laborious editions of Theophrastus ever 

 published. Under the head of each plant he has given all that has 

 been said upon it by Dioscorides, Pliny, and other writers. In addition 

 to plants known to the ancients, he has given descriptions of new ones 

 from America and the Cape of Good Hope. Among the latter is 

 a species belonging to the genus which Linnaeus has consecrated to 

 his name and called Stapelia. The original plant was called by Stapel 

 Fritillaria crassa. He had made preparations for an edition of Theo- 

 phrastus, Atria $vrurt{, or ' De Causis Plantarum ; ' but his papers 

 were not sufficiently forward for publication. He was a botanist of 

 great promise, and his early death was much lamented by his con- 

 temporaries. 



STARK, WILLIAM, M.D., was born at Birmingham in 1740, and 

 educated for the medical profession, first at Glasgow, and then suc- 

 cessively at Edinburgh, London, and Leydeu, at which last place he 

 took his degree in 1767. Returning to London in 1769, he commenced, 

 chiefly at the recommendation of Sir John Pringle and Dr. Franklin, 

 the course of experiments on diet, of which the termination, rather 

 than the scientific results, has rendered him celebrated. To ascertain 

 the effects of different quantities and kinds of food upon the human 

 economy, he confined himself for periods of from four to fourteen 

 days to certain articles of diet, and carefully registered the influence 

 which they seemed to exercise on the several functions of the body. 

 He began, for instance, with bread and water; then he added to them, 

 in succeeding periods, sugar, olive-oil, and milk; then he took different 

 kinds of animal food, and each in different quantities. His last plan 

 (when his previous experiments had already rather disturbed his 

 health) was to try the effects of a diet of bread or flour, with honey 

 and infusion of tea or rosemary. After continuing this for ten days, 

 it brought on diarrhoea and considerable weakness, and to remedy the 

 former he immediately adopted a diet consisting exclusively of bread, 

 cheese, and infusion of rosemary. This produced a totally opposite 

 state of the intestines, and was speedily followed by a condition of low 

 fever, with great disturbance of the general health, and inflammation 

 of the glands of the small intestines, of which, after five days' severe 

 illness, he died. 



The termination of Dr. Stark's labours, within seven months of 

 their commencement, is the more melancholy for the few results to 

 which they led. Had he been able to continue them for as many 

 years, it is probable they might have led to some valuable conclusions, 

 though indeed they were but roughly conducted, and open to all the 

 fallacies of experiments performed on one person for the purpose of 

 ascertaining rules to be applied to all. His works were published by 

 Dr. J. Carmichael Smyth, in 1788 (in 1 vol. 4to, London) : they 

 include the ' Journal of his Experiments,' and his ' Clinical and Ana- 

 tomical Observations,' which, though few, give proof of much acute- 

 ness in the study of disease. Had their author's judgment equalled 

 his devotion to the cause of science, he might well have been expected 

 to rise to the highest eminence in medicine. 



STASZIC, STANISLAV, President of the Polish Royal Society of 

 Arts, and a distinguished patriot and philanthropist, was born in 

 November 1755, at Pila, of which place both his grandfather and 

 father had been burgomaster. After studying at Gb'ttingen and 

 Leipzig, he passed two years at Paris, where he applied himself very 

 sedulously to natural history and physics, and became acquainted 

 with BufFon, D'Alembert, Raynal, and other eminent men. On leaving 

 France he made a tour through Switzerland, Italy, and Sicily, chiefly 

 for the purpose of studying the geology of those countries. Furnished 

 with considerable acquisitions in various departments of science, he 

 returned to his native land, with the hope that his talents would pro- 

 cure for him some distinction and favour; but meeting with only 

 coolness and indifference, he withdrew from society, devoting himself 

 entirely to study, to the exercise of private benevolence, exhortation, 

 and advice in his immediate sphere. Notwithstanding his numerous 

 bounties to others, he was so frugal in all that concerned himself as to 

 be enabled to amass a very considerable capital. With this he pur- 

 chased an estate, of which he made grants to several families, among 

 whom he parcelled it out. Although he never took an active part in 

 public affairs, he was always ready to aid with his pen the best 

 interests of hia country. Among his writings of a political or statis- 

 tical character, are his ' Warnings for Poland,' ' Statistics of Poland,' 

 and the ' Political Balance of Europe,' to which may be added his 

 'Geography of the Carpathian Mountains,' and his 'Reflections on the 

 Life of the Chancellor Andrew Zamoiski,' with which enlightened 

 patriot Staszic had for some time lived in daily and familiar inter- 

 course, having been preceptor to his sons shortly after his return from 

 abroad. Of purely literary productions he left but few, and even 

 those were chiefly translations, namely, a prose version of Homer, 

 Buffon's ' Epochs of Nature,' and Racine's poem on Religion, which 

 last he translated at the age of fifteen. 



More in compliance with the earnest desire of his mother than with 

 his own inclination, Staszic had taken holy orders, and therefore, 

 exemplary as the general tenor of his conduct was, he did not 



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