221 



TZETZES, ISAAC. 



UCCELLO, PAOLO. 



222 



the most eminent legal characters from the institution of the Court of 

 Session by James V. till the period of the Union of the Crowns ;' and 

 this was followed in 1826 by a 'Life of John Wicklyff,' published 

 anonymously. It was about this time that, on tbe earnest suggestion 

 of Sir Walter Scott/ who had at one time thought of undertaking the 

 task himself, he began his great work, ' The History of Scotland.' 

 The flrst volume was published in 1828, and the work was completed in 

 nine volumes in 1843. It has since then passed through several 

 editions, and is recognised everywhere as the standard History of 

 Scotland the only work in which Scottish history is treated at full 

 length 011 the basis of authentic materials, and in a calm and accurate 

 us distinct from a merely popular manner. It commences with the 

 accession of Alexander III. to the Scottish throne in the 13th century, 

 and brings down the narrative to the union of the crowns in 1603. 

 While writing this work, Mr. Tytler resided sometimes in Edinburgh, 

 sometimes in London, collecting materials in both places. During the 

 time that the work was in progress he threw off other smaller histo- 

 rical works, of which the following is a list : ' Lives of Scottish 

 Worthies/ iu 2 vols., 1831-33; 'Historical View of the Progress of 

 Discovery on the more Northern Coasts of America/ published in 

 Edinburgh in 1832, and recently re-edited in America ; 'Life of Sir 

 Walter Ealeigh/ 1833 ; ' Life o"f Henry the Eighth/ 1837 ; aud 

 ' England under the Reigns of Edward VI. and Mary, illustrated in a 

 series of original letters, with historical introductions and notes/ 1839. 

 Mr. Tytler also wrote the article ' Scotland ' for the seventh edition of 

 the ' Encyclopaedia Britannica/ and the article has since been re-pub- 

 lished as a useful abridgment. In recognition of claims so well 

 founded, Sir Robert Peel's government conferred on Mr. Tytler a 

 pension of 2001. a year. In politics he was a Conservative. Though 

 an Episcopalian, he took much interest in the Scottish Presbyterian 

 movement of 1834-43. In private life he was much beloved for his 

 social qualities. Towards the close of his life he suffered much from 

 ill health, aud went abroad for a time. He returned to Edinburgh, 

 and died on the 24th of December 1849. He was twice married, and 

 left two sons and a daughter by his first wife. 



TZETZES, ISAAC. [TZETZES, JOANNES.] 



TZETZES, JOANNES, a learned grammarian and poet of Constan- 

 tinople, who lived during the latter half of the 12th century of our 

 era. He was a son of Michael Tzetzes and Eudocia : his father's 

 brother, Joannes Tzetzes, though himself an unlettered man, was 

 fond of the society of the learned. His father was descended from a 

 Basque or Iberian family, but his mother was of a Greek family. He 

 had a brother Isaac, with whom Joannes spent the first years of his 

 life in his father's house, where, as Joannes says, they were trained 

 in all virtue and piety, and learned to despise the wealth and honours 

 of the world. The two brothers were instructed by the ablest 

 teachers of the time, and were afterwards distinguished by the title 

 of grammarians, which then designated a learned and accomplished 

 scholar. Further particulars of their lives are not known. 



We possess a considerable number of works by Joannes Tzetzes, 

 consisting of poetical compositions, or rather versified prose, commen- 

 taries on ancient Greek authors, and some minor works of a scientific 

 character. His poetical works, most of which are written in the 

 so-called political verse, that is, without any regard to prosody, but in 

 a metre in which only the syllables are counted, are 1. 'Iliaca' 

 ('lAia/ca), which, properly speaking, consists of three distinct poems, 

 which are called ' Ante-Homerica/ * Hotnerica,' and ' Post-Homerica/ 

 The first contains the whole cycle of the Trojan story from the birth 

 of Paris to the tenth year of the siege of Troy, where the ' Iliad ' 

 begins; the second is a mere abridgement of the 'Iliad;' and the 

 third contains the events subsequent to the death of Hector, and an 

 account of the return of the Greeks from Troy. The whole is, like 

 all the versified productions of Joannes Tzetzes, exceedingly dull. 

 Some fragments of this work were first published by F. Morel, who 

 did not know the author's name, in his ' Iliacum Carmen Poetse Grtcci 

 cuius nomen ignoratur/ and by Dodwell, in his ' Diesertationes de 

 Veterib. Grsee. et Rom. Cycli?/ p. 802. In the year 1770 G. B. von 

 Schirach published, from an Augsburg manuscript, nearly the whole 



of the 'Ante-Homerica/ a portion of the ' Horn erica,' and Dodwell'g 

 fragment of the ' Post-Homerica.' T. C. Tychsen at last discovered 

 in a Vienna manuscript the complete ' Ante-Homerica ' and ' Post- 

 Homerica/ a.nd communicated his copy of them to Fr. Jacobs, who, 

 after having also procured a complete copy of the ' Hornerica/ pub- 

 lished the first complete edition of this work at Leipzig, 8vo, in 1793. 

 The best critical edition of the text, for which a Paris manuscript 

 was collated, is that by Imm. Bekker, 8vo, Berlin, 1816. 2. Bt'/3Aoj 

 KTTopiici], more commonly called ' Chiliades/ or ' ChiliadeB Variarum 

 Historiarum.' The former is the name which Tzetzes himself gives 

 to this work ; the latter arose from the circumstance that the first 

 editor, N. Gerbelius, divided the whole work into sections of 1000 

 verses each. Tzety.es himself had divided it into three tables (iriVo/cej), 

 the first of which contained 140 stories, and ended at Cbil. iv. 460. 

 Between the first and second table there is a letter addressed to one 

 Joannes Lachanes, and the second begins at Chil. iv. 781, extending 

 to Chil. v. 192, and contains 32 tales. The third, comprising the 

 remainder of the work, contains 496 narratives. This work, with its 

 numerous mythical and historical tales, is a storehouse of information, 

 and innumerable things are recorded here which would otherwise be 

 unknown. It is however highly probable that Tzetzes did not always 

 derive his information from the original source*, and that he compiled 

 it from the works of other grammarians and scholiasts. The author 

 is exceedingly vain : he is full of his own praise and that of his 

 brother ; he delights in mentioning his own name on all occasions, 

 and he treats all other writers with contempt. The first edition of 

 the 'Chiliades' is that of N. Gerbelius, with a Latin translation by. 

 P. Lacisius, fol., Basel, 1546; the best edition is that by Kiessling, 

 8vo, Leipzig, 1826. 3. 'Carmen lainbicum de Filiorum Educatione/ 

 or ' On the Education of Children.' This poem is usually added in 

 the editions of the ' Chiliades/ 4. A fragment of a poem called Tlfpl 

 'Prj/j-druv 'AvBvirordKrcav, is printed in Bekker's 'Anecdota/ iii., p. 1090. 

 Several other versified productions have never been published, but 

 exist in manuscript in various libraries. The most remarkable among 

 them is a inc66fffis TOV 'D/u^pou, consisting of upwards of 8000 so-called 

 political verses, and giving explanations of the mythuses which occur 

 in the ' Iliad/ 



Joannes Tzetzes wrote commentaries, but only those on the ' Iliad/ 

 on Hesiod, and on Lycophron have been printed. Others, as those on 

 Oppian's ' Halieutica/ on the canon of PtolemsDus, as well as his 

 original works ' On Comedy and Comic Poets/ the 'Abridgment of the 

 Rhetoric of Hermogenes/ a collection of his letters, and other workp. 

 are still in manuscript. The only edition of the 'Commentary on the 

 Iliad' ('Exegesis in Homed Iliadein') is that by G. Hermann, who 

 published it with the work of Draco of Stratonicea on metres, 8vo, 

 Leipzig, 1812. The commentary on Hesiod is printed in the editions 

 of this poet, by Victor Trincavelli, 4to, Venice, 1537, and in that of 

 Daniel Heinsius, 4to, Leyden, 1603. The commentary on Lycophron's 

 'Cassandra' is ascribed in the manuscript to Isaac Tzetzes, the brother 

 of Joannes, but Joannes states in two passages ('Chil.' ix., 'Hist.' 296; 

 ' Epist. ad Basil. Achridenum/ printed in Potter's ' Commentary on 

 Lycophron/ p. Ill) that he wrote the Commentary himself and gave 

 it to his brother Isaac. J. C. Miiller, the last editor, is of opinion that 

 it is the joint production of the two brothers; that Isaac first pub- 

 lished it, and that Joannes afterwards made an improved and enlarged 

 edition. This opinion is strongly supported by the condition of the 

 existing manuscripts, some of which contain considerably more matter 

 than others, and display all the vanity and arrogance which are so 

 striking in the ' Cbiliades.' But however this may be, the commen- 

 tary is a most useful compilation from those of the Alexandrine gram- 

 marians, and contains a vast amount of mythological and historical 

 information not to be obtained elsewhere, and without it we should 

 scarcely be able to understand the obscure poem of Lycophron. It is 

 printed in several editions of Lycophron, first in that of Basel, fol., 

 1546, and subsequently in those of Canter, Potter, and Sebastiani. 

 The last and most correct edition, without the text of Lycophron, is 

 that by C. G. Miiller, 3 vols. 8vo, Leipzig, 1811, with useful notes and 

 indices. 



u 



TTBERTI, FA'ZIO DEQLI, of a Guibeline family of Florence, is 

 believed to have been a son of Lapo degli Uberti, and grandson of 

 the great Guibeline leader, Farinata degli Uberti, who after the defeat 

 of the Guelphs at Monteaperto, saved Florence from the fury of his 

 own party, which wanted to raze the town to the ground. Of the 

 personal history of Fazio little is known, except that he lived in the 

 middle of the 14th century, that he was an emigrant in consequence 

 of the proscription of his party by the triumphant Guelphs, and that 

 he found an asylum at various Italian courts, among the rest at that 

 of % the Visconti at Milan, amusing his patrons by reciting verses. 

 Some of his canzoni and other small poems are found in various col- 

 lections. He composed also a descriptive poem in terza rima, entitled 

 ' II Dittamondo/ from the Latin words ' dicta mundi/ the ' sayings ' or 

 'the news of the world/ in which, borrowing the plan of Dante, he 



represents himself travelling about the world in company with Solinu?, 

 the author of the ' Polyhistor/ and describes the various countries, 

 their history, the contemporary sovereigns, and other things worthy 

 of note. The poem contains six books, subdivided into cantos, but is 

 not complete. It is written with graphic conciseness and energy of 

 style, and is interesting as a memorial of the geographical information 

 of that age, mixed with fabulous traditions and mythological lore. 



The ' Dittauioudo' was printed at Vicenza in 1474, and reprinted at 

 Venice in 1501, both editions being however full of errors. An 

 improved edition, with corrections by Monti and Perticari, was pub- 

 lished at Milan in 1826. Fazio is said, by Filippo Villani, to have died 

 at Verona, after a quiet old age. 



UCCE'LLO, PA'OLO, a celebrated old Florentine painter, contem- 

 porary with the sculptors Ghiberti and Donatello, who would, in the 



