153 



TRAVERS, JOHN. 



TREDIAKOVSKY, VASS1L1 KIRILOVICH. 



154 



Forster-lane, London. lu 1733 he was preseiited to the living of 

 Harliugton in Middlesex by Lord Boliugbroke, and in the following 

 year was elected one of the joint lecturers of St. Martin's-in-the-Fields. 

 He died November 22, 1747, at the age of sixty-eight, and was buried 

 in Uarlingtou church. 



]Jr. Trupp was a hard student, and published numerous works, 

 which acquired for him considerable reputation in his own day, but 

 would now scarcely repay the trouble of reading. One of his best 

 works is said to be ' Notes upon the Gospels,' first published in 1747. 

 He published several sermons, which he preached upon various occa- 

 sions, and also numerous pamphlets against the Whigs, but these 

 generally appeared without his name. His translation of Virgil into 

 blank verse, published in 1717, in 2 vols. 4to, generally succeeds in 

 giving the meaning of the original, but is a complete failure as a 

 work of art. His Latin poetry is said to be better than his English ; he 

 published a Latin translation of ' Auacreon ' and of Milton's ' Paradise 

 Lost.' 



TRAVERS, JOHN. The author of musical compositions so popu- 

 lar, elegant, and charming as ' Haste, my Nanette,' ' I, my dear, was born 

 to-day,' ' When Bibo thought fit,' ' Soft Cupid,' is fairly entitled to a 

 few lines in our biographical department, though his life was void of 

 any remarkable incident. He was educated first in St. George's 

 Chapel, Windsor, afterwards under the celebrated Dr. Greene 

 [GIIEENE]. About the year 1725 he followed Kelway as organist of 

 St. Paul's, Covent Garden, and subsequently filled the same situation 

 also at Fulhani. In 1737 he was appointed organist to the Chapels 

 Royal. He died iu 175S, and was succeeded iu the latter office by 

 Dr. ISoyce. 



Travers composed much cathedral music, but except an anthem, 

 ' Ascribe unto the Lord,' and a ' Te Deum,' his productions for the 

 church have fallen into disuse. We will only add that Dr. Burney's 

 notice of him is neither discriminating nor just. 



TRAVERSA 'RI, AMBRO'GIO, called also Ambrosius Camaldu- 

 lensis, a great scholar and public character of the 15th century, was 

 born in the village of Patico near Forli, in 1386. Some assert that his 

 family was a branch of the Traversari who once ruled over Ravenna. At 

 fourteen years of age Ambrogio entered the order of the Camalduleuses 

 at Florence. He is said to have studied Greek under Chrysoloras, 

 and afterwards under Demetrius Scarani of Constantinople, who 

 became a Camaldulensian monk at Florence about 1417. Traversari 

 became a good Greek and Latin scholar, and applied himself entirely to 

 classical studies till 1431, when he was made general of his order. He 

 was intimate with Cosmo da' Medici, Niccolo Niccoli, Francesco 

 Barbaro, Leonardo Giustiuinni, and other learned men and patrons 

 of learning of that age. When Cosmo and his brother Lorenzo the 

 elder were in banishment at Venice, in 1433, Traversari, who was in 

 that town, often visited them, and he speaks of them iu his letters with 

 esteem and affection. He instructed several pupils, and among others 

 Giaunozzo Manetti, who became a distinguished scholar. Traversari 

 travelled much for the affairs of his order, and he collected in his 

 travels materials for his ' Hodsoporicon,' which is a description of 

 what he had seen, containing many particulars concerning the literary 

 history of that time, and the various libraries then existing in Italy. 

 The ' Hodseporicon ' was first edited at Lucca by Bartolini, in 1681. 

 He also collected valuable manuscripts which helped Cosmo to form 

 the public library in the convent of St. Marco, together with the 

 collection of Niccolo Niccoli and those of Peruzzi and Salutati. In 

 1435 Pope Eugenius IV. sent Traversari to the stormy council of 

 Basel, where he exerted himself with much ability in favour of Euge- 

 nius, and was instrumental in winning over to the pope's party the 

 learned Cardinal Cesarini, the president of the council, who suddenly 

 left Basel and repaired to Ferrara, whither the pope had transferred 

 the council in January 1438. Traversari was sent from Basel into 

 Germany on a mission from the pope to the Emperor Sigismund, and 

 on returning to Italy he was deputed to Venice to receive the 

 Emperor Palseologus and the patriarch of Constantinople, and to con- 

 duct them to Ferrara, from whence the council was soon after 

 removed to Florence. Traversari acted iu that assemblyjas interpreter 

 between the Greeks and the Latins, and he had the satisfaction of 

 seeing the reunion of the two churches. He soon after died at 

 Florence, in October 1439. He left Latin translations of many Greek 

 works, especially of ecclesiastical writers, such as Chrysostorn, Basi- 

 Hus, Athanasius, Ephrem Syrus, Johannes Climachus, and others, of 

 which, as well as of other inedited works of Traversari, his biographers 

 Mehus, Cateni, Ginanni, and Zeuo have given catalogues. His trans- 

 lation of the Lives of Diogenes Laertius, dedicated by him to his 

 friend Cosmo de' Medici, was printed at Venice in 1475. Some of his 

 Orations delivered in the council of Basel are also printed. His nume- 

 rous letters were collected by Father Canneti, and published, with 

 the addition of learned notes and a biography of Traversari, by 

 Lorenzo Mehus : ' Traversarii Ambrosii Epistolso Latinse et aliorum 

 ad ipsum, curaute P. Canneto, cum Ambrosii Vita, studio L. Mehus,' 

 2 vols. fol., Florence, 1759, an important work for the literary history 

 of Italy during the 14th and 15th centuries. 



TREDGOLD, THOMAS, was born in the little village of Brandon, 

 about three unles west of the city of Durham, on the 22nd of August 

 1788. At an early age he was sent to a small school in his native 

 village, where he received what must have been a very limited edu- 



cation, as he says in the preface to his first publication that he had 

 written that work " without the advantage of any other education 

 than that of which my own industry had made me master." At the 

 age of fourteen he was apprenticed to a cabinet-maker at Durham for 

 six years, during which period he was particularly noticed for his 

 attention to business and his devoting all his leisure hours to books 

 and mathematical or architectural studies. He informed the writer 

 of this notice that, instead of going to see the races, as apprentices 

 were then allowed to do in the afternoons of the race-days, he taught 

 himself perspective. 



Soon after the expiration of his apprenticeship, in 1808, he went to 

 work as a journeyman carpenter and joiner in Scotland, where he 

 remained for five years, iu no way distinguished from his fellow-work- 

 men except by his continued life of study. It was during these years 

 that, by depriving himself of the necessary hours of repose, and not 

 taking that relaxation which the human frame requires, he impaired 

 his naturally weak constitution. He rose early, hastily took his meals, 

 and sat up late, in order that every spare moment might be given to 

 the acquirement of knowledge, while the chief hours of the day were 

 spent in laborious manual employment. On leaving Scotland he 

 repaired to London, where he entered the office of his relative William 

 Atkinson, Esq., architect to the Ordnance, in whose house he lived for 

 six years, and remained in his service some years after quitting his 

 house. At this time it may be said that his studies combined all the 

 sciences connected in any degree with architecture and engineering; 

 and iu order that he might be able to read the best scientific works on 

 the latter subject, he taught himself the French language. He also 

 paid great attention to chemistry, mineralogy, -and geology, and per- 

 fected his knowledge of the higher branches of mathematics. Before 

 the- publication of his first work he had occasionally contributed 

 articles to several periodical publications, and he continued to do so for 

 some time afterwards. These contributions extend over a wide range 

 of subjects, comprising papers on the elasticity of air; the velocity of 

 sound ; the causes, laws, &c., of heat ; gases ; the nature of curves ; the 

 flexure of astronomical instruments ; and the principles of beauty in 

 colouring. They are chiefly to be found in Tilloch's ' Philosophical 

 Magazine,' Thomson's ' Annals of Philosophy,' &c., and besides these 

 he was the author of several articles in the ' Encyclopaedia Britannica.' 

 In the year 1820 he published his valuable work ' The Elementary 

 Principles of Carpentry, a treatise on the pressure of beams and 

 timber frames, the resistance of timber, the construction of floors, 

 roofs, centres, and bridges.' This work contains many practical rules 

 and useful tables, and is illustrated by 22 plates. It was printed in 

 quarto, and went through a second edition in 1828. His essay on the 

 ' Strength of Cast Iron,' published in 1821, reached a second edition 

 in 1824, and a third in 1831. 



Before the appearance of his next work, owing to the great increase of 

 his private business and literary labours, he resigned his situation in Mr. 

 Atkinson's office, and in 1823 commenced practice as a civil engineer- 

 on his own account. In 1824 he published his ' Principles of Warming 

 and Ventilating Public Buildings, Dwelling-Houses, Manufactories, 

 Hospitals, Hothouses, Conservatories, &c.,' which was so favourably 

 received that a second edition was very soon required. In the course 

 of the following year appeared his ' Practical Treatise on Railroads 

 and Carriages,' which was immediately followed by a pamphlet 

 addressed to Mr. Huskisson, then president of the Board of Trade, 

 and entitled ' Remarks on Steam Navigation, 'and its Protection, 

 Regulation, and Encouragement.' This letter, which contained many 

 valuable suggestions for the prevention of accidents, has been for 

 some time out of print. The last important work published by Tred- 

 gold was a thin quarto volume, with numerous illustrations, entitled 

 ' The Steam-Engine,' containing an account of its invention and pro- 

 gressive improvement, with an investigation of its principles and the 

 proportion of its parts for efficiency, strength, &c. The first edition 

 came out in 1827, and so highly was it appreciated that when it was 

 nearly sold out the copyright was purchased by its present possessor 

 at a very much higher price than the author originally received for it. 

 A posthumous edition, greatly extended by the contributions of 

 several scientific men, especially in the department of steam-navi- 

 gation, was published in 1838. This beautiful edition is in two large 

 4to volumes, illustrated by 1 25 plates and numerous wood-cuts. It 

 was edited by W. S. B. Woolhouse, and a portrait of Tredgold is pre- 

 fixed to the first volume. Mr. Tredgold died on the 28th of January 

 1829, in his forty-first year, completely worn out by his devotion to 

 study. He left, besides a widow, three daughters (of whom only one 

 survives) and a sou, who was brought up to his own profession, and 

 inherited his father's abilities, as well as, unfortunately, his delicate 

 constitution. He was engineer in the Office of Stamps of the East 

 India Company at Calcutta, where he died in April 1853. 



TREDIAKOVSKY, VASSILI KIRILOVICH, a Russian poet of 

 great but unfortunate celebrity, was born February 22nd, 1703. The 

 place of his birth is not stated, but he is said to have received his first 

 education in a school kept by a foreigner at Archangel, where he 

 attracted the notice of Peter the Great, who, visiting the school, and 

 ordering the boys to be drawn up for his inspection, after attentively 

 looking at Trediakoveky, exclaimed, "He will prove ^ a most capital 

 journeyman in his profession, but no master in it ! " in allusion to 

 which incident the poet remarks " The emperor was exceedingly 



