169 



TRIPPEL, ALEXANDER. 



TRITHEN, FREDERICK HENRY. 



170 



are also inserted Trincavellius* commentaries on the ancient medical 

 writers, viz. : 'Explanations in Galeni libros de Differentiis Febrium;' 

 ' In priorem librum Galeni de Arte Curandi ; ' ' Familiares Exercita- 

 tionea in pritnatn partem secundi libri Prognosticorum Hippocratis et 

 Galeni; ' ' Commentarii in Galeni libros de Compositione Medicamen- 

 toruin;' 'Explanations in prirnain Fen quarti Canonis Avicennse.' 

 He also in 1534 edited the works of Themistius, translated into Latin 

 by Hermolaus Barbaras, and wrote many notes to them, and trans- 

 lated or edited the commentaries of John the Grammarian on Aris- 

 totle, in 4 volumes, folio, in 1535 ; the ' History of the Expedition of 

 Alexander, by Arriau,' in 1535; the 'Manual of Epictetus,' with the 

 ' Commentary of Arrian,' and the ' Sentences of Stobseus,' in the same 

 year, and the ' Poems of Hesiod* in 1537. 



(Life, prefixed to the ' Opera omnia,' by Laurentius Marucinus ; 

 Biographie Universelle ; Haller, Bibliotheca Medicince Practices, t. ii., 

 p. 46.) 



TRIPPEL, ALEXANDER, a sculptor of considerable note, was 

 born at Schaffhausen in Switzerland, in 1747, and, at nine years of 

 age, was sent to a relation in London, where he was put to the trade 

 of a musical-instrument maker ; but having a decided inclination for 

 the fine arts, he afterwards accompanied one of his brothers to Copen- 

 hagen, and there studied sculpture under Professor Wiedewelt, director 

 of the Academy of Arts in that city. Having so employed eight years 

 in Denmark, ho went to Berlin ; but being there disappointed in his 

 expectations, returned to Copenhagen, and gained several prize medals. 

 He then visited Paris, where he remained about three years, and dis- 

 tinguished himself by a very fine allegorical group representing 

 Switzerland. In 1777 he went to Rome, where he continued to reside 

 till his death, in 1793, practising his art with great success, and with 

 the reputation of being one of the ablest sculptors of his time, both 

 on account of the noble simplicity displayed in his productions, and 

 the beauty of their execution. He was more particularly successful 

 in bas-reliefs and busts, among which last he executed one of Gothe 

 for the prince of Waldeck, which is spoken of by the poet himself as 

 being in an excellent style. Another of his works is Salomon Gesner's 

 monument at Zurich. A considerable number of his productions are 

 in Russia. Trippel's portrait is prefixed to the 54th volume of the 

 ' Neue Bibliothek der Schonen Wissenschaften.' 



TRISSI'NO, GIOVANNI GIORGIO, was born at Vicen/a, of a 

 noble family, in 1478. He applied himself to classical literature, 

 studied the Greek language under Chaicondylas, and became also an 

 elegant Latin and Italian writer. At a mature age he proceeded to 

 Rome, where Leo X. took him into his favour, and employed him 

 in several diplomatic missions. He was afterwards employed by 

 Clement VII., who sent him on a mission to Charles V., with whom 

 also Trissino ingratiated himself. Trissino died at Rome in 1550. 

 He wrote: 1, 'Sofonisba,' the first Italian regular tragedy, which 

 however has little merit, and is now forgotten. It was much praised 

 at the time as a novelty, and was performed at Rome with great 

 splendour. 2, ' L'ltalia liberata dai Goti,' an epic poem in blank 

 verse relative to the re-conquest of Italy by Belisarius in the reign 

 of Justinian. The poem is weak and dull, and was considered such 

 from its first appeai'auce. 3, ' La Poetica,' a treatise on the poetical 

 art. This is considered as Trissino's beat and most elaborate work. 

 4, 'Ritratti delle bellissime Donne d'ltalia.' 5, a comedy, entitled 

 ' I Simillimi,' in imitation of the ' Mensechmi ' of Plautus ; besides 

 some minor compositions in Italian and Latin. He attempted to 

 introduce new letters into the Italian alphabet, especially to distinguish 

 the two sounds of the o and the e, and he wrote a letter on the subject 

 to Pope Clement VII., which was published in 1524; but this inno- 

 vation met with a great and successful opposition. Firenzuola wrote 

 an invective against Trissino's new alphabetical signs. Zeno however 

 attributes to Trissino's suggestion the custom which has since pre- 

 vailed among the Italians of writing the v and the j different from 

 the u and the i, and of introducing the z in such words as ' Venezia,' 

 'grazia,' 'locuzione,' &c., which used to be formerly with a t, 'Vene- 

 tia,' &c. 



Trissino was a friend and adviser of his countryman Palladio the 

 architect, to whom he imparted his own classical erudition concerning 

 the works of art of the ancients. (Corniani, / Secoli delict, Letteratura 

 Italiana.) 



TRISTAN DA CUNHA, a Portuguese naval commander. In 1505 

 Emmanuel, king of Portugal, nominated Da Cunha viceroy of the 

 Indies, a post which he was prevented by sickness from accepting. 

 After his recovery he was appointed to the command of a fleet of 

 fifteen vessels, of which Alfonso d' Albuquerque's squadron of five, 

 intended to cruise in the Red Sea, formed a part. Da Cunha sailed, in 

 1506, with his armament from Lisbon, to which he returned in 1508 (?). 

 On leaving Portugal he steered his course southwards till he reached 

 a latitude so high that some of his men perished from the excessive 

 cold. While steering this course he discovered, in lat. 37 16' S., the 

 islands which bear his name. His fleet was dispersed by a violent 

 tempest, and the scattered vessels reassembled at Mozambique. Before 

 reaching this settlement Da Cunha had touched at Madagascar, and, 

 attracted by reports which had been spread of great quantities of 

 spices produced in that island, had examined considerable part of its 

 coasts. Not finding the country answer his expectations, he rejoined 

 his fleet at Mozambique and wintered there. In the spring he under- 



took an expedition against the chief who held Melinda, and chastised 

 the people of Brava for withholding the tribute they had promised to 

 pay to Portugal. The fleet proceeded from the scene of these actions 

 to the island of Socotra, of which he took possession in the name of 

 Portugal. Here Da Cunha and Albuquerque separated : the latter 

 proceeding to the Red Sea, the former to Cochin, where he concerted 

 with Almeida an expedition against Calicut. The enterprise was 

 successful, and Da Cunha returned to Portugal with five ships richly 

 laden. Soon after his arrival he was made a member of the council of 

 state. He does not however appear to have taken any prominent 

 part in public affairs except when he was sent ambassador to Leo X. 

 in 1515. 



In 1536 his son Nuno died at sea on his return from India, where 

 he had been superseded in the chief command by Noronha. The new 

 viceroy had refused his predecessor even a passage on board of a 

 king's vessel. Nuno sailed in a merchantman, but chagrin preyed on 

 his spirits to such an extent that he died before reaching the Cape of 

 Good Hope, and his body was, at his own request, committed to the 

 sea. Tristan da Cunha expressed his keen sense of the indignities 

 offered to his son by demanding an audience of the king ; and on its 

 being granted, appearing, followed by his grandchildren to offer pay- 

 ment for the cannon-balls which had . been attached to his son's body 

 in order to sink it. This is the last we hear of him : he appears to 

 have died soon after. An account of Tristan da Cunha's expedition 

 was compiled from his manuscripts by De Barros, and published by 

 order of the king. A translation of this narrative was published at 

 Leyden, by Pieter van der Aa in 1706. 



TRITHEN, FREDERICK HENRY, a distinguished Sanscrit and 

 Slavonic scholar, was born in February 1820 in Switzerland, from 

 whence he was removed when a few years old to Odessa, his father 

 having accepted the situation of professor at a Russian college in that 

 city. At Odessa he received an excellent education and had ample 

 opportunities for making himself acquainted with the modern lan- 

 guages, of which French, English, and German were as familiar to him 

 as Russian. At the university of Berlin, where he continued his 

 studies, and took his degree of doctor of philosophy, he was distin- 

 guished for his knowledge of Greek, and he studied Sanscrit under 

 Bopp. After passing some time in Poland, where he made himself 

 master of Polish, he came to England, where, in 1841, he was teacher 

 of modern languages at Rugby, under Dr. Tait, the present bishop of 

 London. He then began to contribute articles, chiefly on subjects 

 connected with Sanscrit literature, to the ' Penny Cyclopaedia ' and 

 the ' Biographical Dictionary ' of the Society for the Diffusion of 

 Useful Knowledge. 



In 1844 he was appointed one of the assistants in the Printed Book 

 department in the British Museum, and was partly employed in cata- 

 loguing the Sanscrit and Arabic works, and those in the Slavonic lan- 

 guages, of which a large stock had then recently been added to the 

 Museum library. In coming to the Museum he had indulged in 

 expectations that his talents and acquirements would probably attract 

 the notice of the Trustees with the effect of bringing encouragement 

 and promotion, and he was deeply disappointed to find that such 

 expectations were futile. He accepted in 1845 the post of private 

 tutor in the family of Prince Chernichev, the Russian minister of war, 

 and left London for St. Petersburg. He returned to England after 

 an absence of about two years, part of which he had passed at Con- 

 stantinople and Cairo, and in 1848 published at London an edition of 

 the ' Maha Vira Charita,' or History of Rama, a Sanscrit di-ama, by 

 Bhavabhuti. His friends suggested to him to offer himself as a candi- 

 date for the professorship of modern European languages in the 

 Taylor Institution at Oxford, which was then on the point of being 

 set in action. The professor, it was decided, was to be appointed at 

 first for five years only, but with the capability of being re-elected ; 

 his post was to be one of influence and authority, the rest of the 

 officials of the institution being placed under his directions, and his 

 salary was to be 400?. a year. Dr. Trithen was elected to this post 

 in 1848 in preference to some very able competitors, and contrary to 

 his own expectations, and entered upon his duties with a lecture 

 ' On the position occupied by the Slavonic dialects among the other 

 languages of the Indo-European family,' which he afterwards printed 

 as an essay in the ' Proceedings of the Philological Society of London,' 

 of which he had been a member since 1843. The career of usefulness 

 and honour which now seemed to lie before him was suddenly cut 

 short about the middle of 1850 by an attack of mental aberration in 

 so violent a form that his friends found it necessary to put him under 

 restraint. It was reported at the time that the immediate cause of 

 the disorder was, that a lady to whom he had paid his addresses 

 had married a rival, but a tinge of eccentricity had on some previous 

 occasions been remarked in his conduct. His father came to England 

 and in 1851 removed him to Odessa, where he remained in a hopeless 

 state till April 1854, when the city was under apprehensions of bom- 

 bardment from the English. Trithen was then removed to a village 

 at a few miles distance, where an unexpected change in his disorder 

 took place and he recovered his mental powers as suddenly as he had 

 lost them, but this was only a "lightning before deatb." After 

 expressing a strong desire to return to England, it became evident 

 that his bodily strength was failing and he expired on the 27th of 

 April 1854. He left behind him no adequate monument of the extent 



