129 



TORRIJOS, JOSti MARIA. 



TOTT, BARON DE. 



130 



After finally quitting England in 1519, Torrigiano visited Spain, 

 where he executed several pieces of sculpture for convents, &c., and 

 among others a Virgin and Child, so beautiful that the Duke d'Arcos 

 commissioned him to make a copy of it. The payment promised for 

 it seemed such an immense sum, that the artist fancied he was about 

 to be rendered wealthy for the rest of his days ; so great therefore 

 was his indignation on discovering that the vast heap of maravedis 

 sent home to him amounted to no more in value than thirty ducats, 

 that he went and broke the statue to pieces. On this, the duke 

 caused him to be imprisoned in the Inquisition as a sacrilegious 

 heretic who had impiously destroyed a figure of the Holy Virgin. He 

 was accordingly condemned by that tribunal, but avoided the execu- 

 tion of his sentence by refusing to take any food ; preferring starving 

 himself to death to the more ignominious end which else awaited him. 

 Thus perished, in 1522, an artist of more than ordinary talent: a 

 victim partly to his own violence and imprudence, and partly to the 

 mercilessness of a most odious and sanguinary tribunal. 



TOHRIJOS, JOSfi MARIA, a Spanish general and patriot, was 

 born at Madrid on the 20th of May 1791, and at the age of ten was 

 made one of the pages of King Charles IV., a position which brought 

 him into familiar contact with the young prince, who afterwards 

 became King Ferdinand VII. It was the custom for the royal pages 

 to receive early rank in the army, and Torrijos at the age of sixteen 

 was a captain in the regiment of Ultonia or Ulster in the Irish brigade 

 in the service of Spain. On the great outbreak of the 2nd of May 

 1808, and in the subsequent war of independence, Torrijos distin- 

 guished himself by his bravery; in 1811 he was already colonel of a 

 regiment, he took part in the battle of Vittoria, and at the conclusion 

 of the war he was general of brigade. His early acquaintance with 

 the court had strengthened his aspirations for liberty, he declined the 

 command of a force under Morilla against the South-American insur- 

 gents, and in 1817 was thrown into the prison of the Inquisition on a 

 charge of conspiracy against the government. The constitutional 

 outbreak of 1820 liberated him, and as Captain General of Valencia 

 he was ardent in his services to the the constitutional cause. After the 

 French invasion of 1823 he took refuge in England, for which country 

 he always manifested a strong partiality. He partly employed him- 

 self in translating books into Spanish for the South- American market, 

 among others the ' Memoirs of General Miller,' an Englishman who 

 had been in the. Peruvian service. The French revolution of 1830 

 awakened his hopes for a speedy change in Spain and he set off for 

 Gibraltar to take the lead. Moreno, the governor of Malaga, treacher- 

 ously enticed him to a landing Ly false intelligence and promises of 

 support, and he left Gibraltar, at the head of a party of fifty, on the 

 30th November 1831, with full confidence of success. On the 5th of 

 December the whole of the party were taken prisoners by Moreno, 

 who sent to Madrid for orders how to act. It was till then believed 

 that King Ferdinand had a special kindness for Torrijos, whom he had 

 known so long, but the only reply received was in the laconic form 

 " Que los fusilen. Yo el Rey," (" Let them be shot. I the King.") 

 Torrijos and his companions, fifty-one in number, were accordingly 

 shot at Malaga on the llth of December. The subsequent death of 

 Ferdinand changed the whole face of affairs, a little more patience 

 would have brought Torrijos peaceably back to Spain, with his friends 

 in power, and the infamous treachery of Moreno ruined his own 

 career. Queen Christina, the widow of Ferdinand, ennobled the 

 widow of Torrijos with the title of countess, and his bust was erected 

 at Madrid at the house in which he was born in the Calle de 

 Preciados. 



TORTI, FRANCIS, an eminent Italian physician, was born at 

 Modena, December 1st 1658. Having finished his preliminary studies 

 in 1675, he was originally intended for the legal profession; this 

 however he soon abandoned, and embraced that of medicine, which 

 he studied under Antonio Frassoni. He took the degree of Doctor 

 of Medicine at Bologna in 1678, and upon his return to Modena, at 

 the early age of twenty-three, he obtained one of the medical pro- 

 fessorships founded by the Duke Francis II. Soon afterwards he was 

 chosen to be one of the physicians in ordinary to the duke, an appoint- 

 ment which he owed partly to his accomplishments in music and 

 literature, as he was the composer of several oratorios, and also wrote 

 a Latin letter under the assumed name of L. A. Cotta, in defence of 

 Tasso against Bouhours. Upon the death of Francis in 1694, his suc- 

 cessor continued Torti in his place of physician in ordinary ; he was 

 also prevailed upon by his representations to found an anatomical 

 amphitheatre at Modena, in which Torti was entrusted with the office 

 of demonstrator in 1698. He had previously joined with Ramazzini 

 in carrying on some researches concerning the barometer, the results 

 of which were published by the latter xinder the title ' Ephemerides 

 Barometricee Mutinenses,' Modena, 1694 ; and again 'Dissertatio altera 

 Triceps circa Mercurii Motiones in Barometro,' Modena, 1698. But 

 Torti's most important and celebrated work did not appear till 1709, 

 under the title ' Therapeutice Specialis ad Febres quasdam Perniciosas, 

 inopinato ac repente Lethales, una ver5 China China Peculiar! Methodo 

 ministrata,' 8vo, Modena. This work placed him at once in the first 

 rank among practical physicians, and still continues to be highly 

 esteemed. It has been several times reprinted. The publication of 

 this work gained him the friendship and applause of various learned 

 men, and also the title of corresponding member of the Royal Society 



BIOG. DIV. VOL. VI. 



of London, and of the Academy of Valentia in Spain. It al*o drew 

 forth some criticisms from Manget and Ramazzini, to whose remarks 

 he replied with some degree of bitterness and warmth. In 1717 he 

 was offered the professorship of Practical Medicine at Turin, and in 

 1720 he had a similar offer at Padua, but he refused them both, and 

 preferred living at Modena, where he had honours and emoluments 

 heaped upon him by the duke. An incurable trembling of the hands 

 having rendered him unable to feel the pulse of his patients with 

 sufficient accuracy, he gave up practice some years before his death, 

 and passed the remainder of his life in honourable repose, often con- 

 sulted by patients from all parts, and spending much of his leisure 

 time in the pleasures of the chase, to which he had always been much 

 addicted. Having been summoned by the Prince of Parma, in 1731, 

 to attend Henrietta d'Este, he was, upon his return to Modena, seized 

 while in a church with a sudden attack of hemiplegia, brought on 

 probably by heat and over-exertion. For some time afterwards he 

 lost the use of his right side, but gradually recovered, and lived for 

 ten years after the attack. He latterly became dropsical, and died in 

 March 1741, at the age of eighty- two. He was twice married, but 

 having no children, he left part of his fortune to found another 

 medical professorship at Modena, and directed the rest to be given 

 away in charity. 



TOTT, FRANgOIS BARON DE, the son of an Hungarian nobleman, 

 who, obliged to leave his country in consequence of his connections 

 with Prince Rogotzky, had entered the French service, was born at 

 Ferte-sous-Jouarre, on the 17th of August 1733. Young De Tott 

 obtained at an early age a commission in the hussar regiment of 

 Berchiny, which his father had been instrumental in raising and 

 disciplining. In 1755 the senior De Tott, who spoke the Turkish and 

 Polish languages fluently, and had been more than once employed in 

 missions to the Crimea, was appointed to accompany M. de Vergennes 

 to Constantinople. He took his son with him, intending that he 

 should study the language and render himself familiar with the 

 manners of the Turks. The father died of a fever in September of 

 the year 1757, but M. de Vergennes conferred upon the son an 

 appointment in the embassy, which he continued to hold along with 

 his commission in the regiment of Berchiny. De Tott remained at 

 Constantinople till 1763, when he returned to France. 



In 1766 the Baron de Tott presented a memorial to the Due de 

 Choiseul, pointing out the means of concluding a treaty of commerce 

 with the Khan of the Crimea, and extending the commerce of France 

 in the Black Sea. The French consul in the Crimea dying about the 

 same time, the Due de Choiseul appointed the memorialist his suc- 

 cessor. De Tott repaired to his post by the way of Poland. He does 

 not appear to have done anything towards realising his projects for 

 placing the commercial intercourse of France with the Crimea on a 

 better footing ; but he contrived to involve himself so deeply in the 

 intrigues of the court, that the vizir sought and obtained his removal 

 by the French government in 1769. 



The Baron de Tott returned to Constantinople, entered the service 

 of the Ottoman Porte, and continued in it till the year 1776. If his 

 own account may be believed, he was during that period one of the 

 moving spirits of the Ottoman empire. He presented the sultan with 

 a map of the theatre of war between the Turks and Russians imme- 

 diately after his arrival at Constantinople ; and suggested the advance 

 of the Pasha of Bender into the Ukrain. He proposed an entire reform, 

 in the Turkish artillery, and was appointed to carry it into effect. In 

 1770 he was charged with the defence of the Dardanelles, menaced by 

 the Russian fleet. In 1771 he devised a plan of defence for the 

 Turkish frontiers towards Oczakow; taught the Turkish artillerists 

 to make bombs, and brought them to an unprecedented dexterity in 

 working their guns. In 1772 he organised a new cannon- foundry. In 

 1773 he gave directions for the fortification of the Black Sea mouth 

 of the Bosporus. In 1773, 1774, and 1775 he was busy improving 

 the fortifications and artillery of the Turks. All these statements 

 have some foundation in fact; but the tone of exaggeration which 

 pervades all the baron's account of his own exploits renders it im- 

 possible to decide how much of them is to be believed. It is evident 

 that he did not think his services sufficiently appreciated, for in 1776 

 he tendered his resignation in disgust ; and it is equally evident that 

 they were not so highly esteemed by the Turks as by himself, for the 

 resignation was readily accepted, and the baron dismissed with some 

 cold compliments. 



He was despatched by the French government in 1777 on a tour 

 of inspection of the consular establishments in the ports of the Medi- 

 terranean from the Archipelago to the Barbary States. At the request 

 of Buffon, Sonnini was allowed to accompany the expedition. 



With this mission the diplomatic services of the Baron de Tott 

 terminated. On his return to France he had two pensions settled 

 upon him, one from the ministry of the marine, the other from that 

 of foreign affairs, and, retiring from public life, occupied himself with 

 preparing for the press the observations made during upwards of 

 twenty years of active life. The work appeared in 1784 under the 

 title ' Me"moires sur les Turcs et Tartares.' It met with great success : 

 the original French version was frequently reprinted, and translations 

 of it into English, German, Dutch, and Swedish appeared in the 

 course of a few years. 



De Tott was raised to the rank of Marechal-de-Camp in 1781. In 



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