235 



VARCHI, BENEDETTO. 



VARENIUS, BERNHARDUS. 



of Naples, afterwards Charles III. of Spain, determined to erect a 

 palaco at Caserta that should be upon a scale hardly inferior to that 

 of any other edifice of the kind in Europe, he at once made choice of 

 Vanvitelli as the architect, aud the first stone was laid, January 28th 

 1752. ' This vast pile ia an unbroken parallelogram of uniform design, 

 nil its fronts being nearly similar in their elevations : those facing the 

 north and south are 730 feet, the others 570 iu length, and the general 

 height of the building is 102 feet, which is however increased to 162 

 at the angles, where there is a square pavilion, forming a second order. 

 The elevations consist of a very lofty basement, comprising a ground- 

 floor and mezzanine ; and above that an Ionic order with two series 

 of windows, and mezzanine windows in the frieze. Although it may 

 be considered in some respects as the principal front, since it faces a 

 spacious semi-flliptical piazza enclosed by a uniform range of buildings 

 for lodgings and stables, the south front is less decorated than that 

 towards the gardens, for it has columns only in the centre and at the 

 extremities, while in the other the order is continued throughout 

 in pilasters as well as columns ; yet the degree of unity thus kept up 

 is attended with a very great drawback, for the narrower inter- 

 columns between the centre and end breaks cause the others to appear 

 offensively wide, and those parts of the composition where there 

 ought to have been greater richness, to look poor and straggling : this 

 is particularly the case with regard to the centre, which is only three 

 intercolumns in width; therefore that and its pediment become in- 

 significant in comparison with the entire mass, a defect which is further 

 increased by the end pavilions being so much loftier. Owing to the 

 great height of the basement, the cornice of the order (which is very 

 plain and poor in itself) forms no adequate finish to the general eleva- 

 tion ; and even if the entablature be considered only in relation to 

 the order, independently of the basement, it is disfigured by the small 

 mezzanine windows in its frieze. Internally the general plan is 

 divided into four spacious courts by other ranges of building from 

 north to south and from east to west, at whose intersection there is a 

 large and lofty octagon crowned by a dome ; but though this lasb 

 shows itself as an important feature when seen in geometrical eleva- 

 tion, where it breaks the outline and gives a towering central mass, it 

 is eutirely lost in the building, except in a very distant view of it, and 

 can be seen only from the inner courts ; a circumstance the less to be 

 regretted, because it is very ugly. That part of the building forms a 

 large octangular vestibule, with the grand staircase on one side and 

 the chapel on the other ; and these and the upper vestibule are by 

 far the most striking and scenic portions of the interior, the rest only 

 presenting long enfilades of rooms, with little remarkable in point of 

 architecture. With the greatness of mere quantity, Caserta is deficient 

 in grandeur of quality : except those pointed out, its faults are few ; 

 but its beauties also are few : therefore, considering what ample scope 

 was afforded the architect, he must be considered to have failed at 

 least comparatively. Vanvitelli published a large folio volume of the 

 plans, &c. in 1757, under the title of ' Dichiarazione de' Disegni del 

 Reale Palazzo di Caserta.' 



Besides the palace itself and the subordinate buildings attached to 

 it, he executed at Caserta one of the most stupendous works of its 

 kind undertaken in modern times, namely, the aqueduct, or ranges 

 of aqueducts, commenced in 1753, in order to supply the palace with 

 water. His labours at Caserta led to his being employed on many 

 other works at Naples, the principal of which are the cavalry barracks, 

 near the Ponte Maddelena, and the three churches of S. Marcellino, 

 Delia Rotonda, and La Nunziata. Among those at other places are 

 the public hall at Brescia and the bridge at Benevento. Few architects 

 have enjoyed a more prosperous career; yet, shortly before his death, 

 which happened March 1st 1773, he had the mortification to incur 

 a severe stigma upon his professional character, being condemned at 

 Rome to pay the sum of 5000 crowns for having estimated the repairs 

 of the aqueduct of Acqua Felice at only 2000, though the actual 

 expense was 22,000 crowns. 



(Milizia, Vite; Quatremere de Quincy, ffistoire, <&c. des plus Cttebres 

 Architectes ; Kunstblatt, 1824.) 



VARCHI, BENEDETTO, was born at Florence in 1502. He was 

 Bent by his father, who was an advocate, to Pisa to study law ; but at 

 his father's death he gave up the law, for which he had no taste, and 

 applied himself wholly to literature. At the time of the fall of the 

 Florentine republic, Varchi, who belonged to the losing party, emi- 

 grated to Padua and Bologna, where he became intimate with Bembo 

 and other learned men. Some years after, Cosmo I., being firmly 

 established on the ducal throne of Florence, recalled Varchi, and 

 appointed him one of the directors of the New Florentine Academy, 

 which he instituted for the purpose of cultivating the Tuscan language 

 and illustrating its standard writers. The academy frittered away 

 much time in pedantic and interminable disputes about mere words, 

 but it brought forth also some useful works, among which was the 

 ' Ercolano ' of Varchi, a disquisition, in the form of dialogue, on 

 language in general, and more particularly on the Tuscan language. 

 Varchi maintained that the Tuscan or Italian language, which he, 

 through an excess of nationality, calls Florentine, was suited to any 

 branch of literature and to every style of writing, and capable of 

 expressing all kinds of sentiments and conceptions, however varied. 

 This he laboured to prove by translations from the Latin. He pub- 

 lished translations of Seneca, ' De Beneficiis,' and of Boethius, ' De 



Consolatione.' He wrote Commentaries on Dante and Petrarch, and 

 also sonnets and other short poems. But the principal production of 

 Varchi is the 'Storia Fiorentina,' from the year 1527 to 1538, an 

 important period, which embraces the last struggle and fall of the 

 republic, the tyrannical and dissolute rule of Alesaandro do' Medici, 

 which ended with his assassination, the elevation of Cosmo to the 

 ducal throne, and the subsequent inroad of Filippo Strozzi aud his 

 band of malcontents, which ended in the defeat at Montemurlo and 

 the death of the leaders. Varchi wrote it at the desire of Cosmo, and 

 he has been charged with partiality towards his patron. Thu parti- 

 ality however was probably a matter of feeling and habit, and not a 

 servile affectation. Besides, Duke Cosmo was certainly a very superior 

 man. Placed when a mere youth in a very critical position, and in 

 times of universal corruption, he proved himself stern and even cruel 

 towards his enemies ; but he effected also much good, and strove to 

 heal some of the wounds inflicted by the wars, revolutions, anarchy, 

 and misgovernment of nearly half a century. That his public 

 character has been represented as worse than it was by the reports of 

 his enemies, is an opinion entertained by several reflecting and dis- 

 passionate writers. Varchi's narrative is very diffuse, and his language 

 abounds with popular Florentine forms of speech, which are perhaps 

 too colloquial for the gravity of history. His work was not published 

 for a long time after his death ; yet parts of it transpired hi his life- 

 time, and drew upon him the vengeance of powerful persons whom 

 he had exposed. One night he was attacked and stabbed in several parts 

 of his body. He however recovered, and although the guilty parties 

 remained unknown or unpunished, Duke Cosmo endeavoured to com- 

 pensate him for the injury he had received by making him a gift of 

 his pretty country-seat called 'La Topaja,' aud of the clerical benefice 

 of Montevarchi. Pope Paul III. invited him to Rome, but Varchi 

 declined the offer. He died of apoplexy in 1565. 



About forty years since a small critical work of Varchi was dis- 

 covered in manuscript in the Magliabecchi Library at Florence, aud 

 published under the title of 'Errori di Paolo Giovio nella Storia,' 

 Florence, 1821. 



(Corniaui, / Secoli della Letteratura Italiana; Tiraboschi, Storia 

 delta Letteratura Italiana.) 



VARE'NIUS, BEHNHARDUS, author of a treatise on systematic 

 geography, of which Newton, when Lucasian professor of mathe- 

 matics at Cambridge, published an edition for the use of his students, 

 was a native of Ulzeu in the territory of Liineburg, now part of the 

 kingdom of Hanover. The materials for a Life of Varenius are 

 lamentably meagre. Nothing appears to be known of his parentage, 

 the time of his birth, or the events of his boyhood. The library of 

 the British Museum contains a copy of a Thesis, on Aristotle's defini- 

 tion of motion, printed at Hamburg in 1642, which Varenius under- 

 takes to defend, on the 16th of November, in a public disputation 

 under the presidency of his tutor Joachim Junge, rector and professor 

 of physics and (pro tempore) of logic in the gymnasium of Hamburg. 

 The thesis is dedicated to Albert von Eitzen, burgomaster of Hamburg : 

 Conrad Meyer, archdeacon of Celle ; Jodocus Capelle, preacher in the 

 St. Catherine's Church at Hamburg ; and Ernst Shele, treasurer to 

 the duke of Liineburg and Brunswick. The author calls his thesis 

 'Musarum Philosophicarum Primitiso.' The library of the British 

 Museum also contains a copy of a medical thesis ' De Febri in genere," 

 printed at Leyden in 1649, which 'Bernhardus Varenius, Ultza- 

 Lunteburgensis ' undertakes to maintain in public disputation on the 

 22nd of June as part of his trials previous to receiving the degree of 

 doctor of medicine. This ' inaugural thesis ' is dedicated by the 

 author to the burgomasters and senators of Liineburg. Varenius's 

 'Description of Japan' was published at Amsterdam in 1649; it is 

 dedicated to the burgomasters and senators of Hamburg, and the date 

 of the dedication is Amsterdam, the calends (1st) of July, about a 

 week after he had taken his degree. He assigns as the reason for 

 dedicating his book to the magistrates of Hamburg, his having learned 

 the first elements of philosophy, mathematics, and physics in the 

 gymnasium of that city. In the preface addressed to the reader he 

 mentions that after he had finished his medical studies he was for a 

 time deterred from entering upon practice by the small prospect he 

 had of obtaining employment ; and that in this state of mind he had 

 devoted himself to the study of philosophy and the mathematical 

 sciences. During this interval he had composed a treatise on ' Conic 

 Sections,' but had been unable to find a publisher for a work so remote 

 from popular interest. At last an opening had presented itself for 

 entering into medical practice, offering only a slender prospect of remu- 

 neration at first, but on the other hand ample opportunities of acquir- 

 ing practical knowledge. He had resolved, he proceeds, to embrace 

 this opportunity, and to restrict his inquiries in future to medicine, 

 and to geometry and physics, which he esteemed important auxiliary 

 studies. He thus leaves it to be inferred that the publication of his 

 account of Japan, which he describes as an amusement of his leisure 

 hours, an attempt to present in a systematic form and in the Latin 

 language a compendious view of the information respecting that 

 empire contained in Dutch and Portuguese authors, was his farewell 

 to general literature. The ' Systematic Geography ' (' Geographia 

 Generalis ') of Vareniua was originally published at Amsterdam, ia 

 1650. In the dedication of this work to the senators of Amsterdam, 

 the author alludes to his account of Japan, published the year before 



