293 



VARRO, PUBLIUS TERENTIUS. 



VATTEL, EMMERICH. 



291 



of a dialogue, and in a pleasing and lively style. Besides the subject 

 it professes to treat of, it contains a great number of passages illus 

 tratiug ancient mythology, archseology,_and ethics. It is chiefly based 

 upon Greek works, and one written by the Carthaginian Mago. It is 

 printed in the collections of Varro's works published by H. Stephens 

 (1569), Popma (Leyden, 8vo, 1601), and others ; and also in all the 

 collections of the 'Scriptores Rei Rustics:/ the best of which are 

 those by J. M. Qessner, with notes of Erneati (Leipzig, 2 vols. 4to, 

 1772-74), and J. G. Schneider (Leipzig, 4 vols. 8vo, 1794-97), who has 

 also given a very good Life of Varro. Of the Menippeau Satires ol 

 Varro but a few fragments remain ; those have been collected, with 

 the fragments of the Libri Logistorici, and edited in a very satisfactory 

 manner by F. CE.hler, Quedlingburg, 8vo., 1844. 



(Fabricius, Uiblioih. Lat., i., c. 7 ; Orelli, Onomast. Tullianwrn, under 

 ' M. Terentius Varro.') 



VARRO, PU'BLIUS TERE'NTIUS, eurnamed ATACI'NUS, a 

 Roman poet, was born, according to Hieronymus, in the Chronicle of 

 Eusebius, about the year B.C. 82, at Atax in Gallia Narbonensis, or 

 according to Wiillner, at Narbo itself. Respecting his life little is 

 known beyond the facts that 'he learned Greek at the age of thirty- 

 five, and died in B.C. 37, at the age of forty-five. Varro distinguished 

 himself in epic, elegiac, and epigrammatic poetry ; but with the ex 1 

 ception of some fragments and epigrams, his works are now lost. We 

 know of three epic poems of Varro 1, 'An epic on the war of J. 

 Caesar against the Sequani,' ' Bellum Sequauicum,' of which Priscian (x., 

 p. 877) quotes the second book. 2, ' Bellum Punicum Secundum/ which 

 Fabricius attributes to Marcus Terentius Varro, but others, with greater 

 probability, to P. Terentius Varro Atacinus. 3, ' Argonautica :' this 

 poem was a free translation of the 'Argonautica' of Apollonius Rho- 

 dius, and was very celebrated among the Romans. It is frequently re- 

 ferred to by contemporary writers, as well as by later grammarians. 



(For a more detailed account of this poet see Wernsdorf, Poet. Lat. 

 Minorca, v., 3, p. 1385, &e. ; and Wiillner, Commentatio de P. Terentii 

 Varronis Atacini Vita et Scriptis, Miinster, 4to, 1829. In both of these 

 works the remains of the poet are collected.) 



VAltUS, QUINTILIUS. [HERMANN.] 



VASA, GUSTAVUS. [GUSTAVUS ERICKSON.] 



VASA/RI GIO'RGIO, Cavaliere, born at Arezzo in 1512, was a 

 celebrated painter and architect in his time, but his reputation now 

 rests nearly exclusively upon his Lives of the most excellent Italian 

 Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, ' Vite de' piu excellenti Pittori, 

 Scultori, e Architetti,' published in Florence, in 1550, in 2 vols. 8vo., 

 and again in a second edition by himself, in 1568, in 3 vols. 4to, with 

 portraits cut in wood, likewise in Florence, with many new lives of 

 living and deceased artists, up to the year 1567. This work became 

 remarkably popular, and many editions of it have been since pub- 

 lished : one at Bologna, from 1647 to 1663, with the same portraits ; 

 one at Rome, in 1759, with copperplate portraits, and emendations 

 and annotations by Bottari; again, at Leghorn and Florence, with 

 additional notes by Bottari, in 1767-72 ; another at Siena, in 1791-94, 

 by Delia Valle, with some additional information respecting the artists 

 of Siena (this edition was reprinted in the Milan edition of Italian 

 classics) ; and complete editions of the works of Vasari were published 

 in Florence, in six volumes, 8vo, in 1822-23, in which the biographies 

 were reprinted from the edition of 1568, without notes, but with 

 copies of the portraits of Bottari's edition, by Montani of Cremona 

 and Giovanni Masselli, Florence, 1832-38 ; and again in 1846. 



The last life in Vasari's work is his own, which he traces up to his 

 fifth-fifth year. He was instructed in design by his father Antonio 

 Vasari, and in painting by William of Marseille ; and being taken to 

 Florence, in 1524, by Siliro Passerini, cardinal of Cortona, he was there 

 further instructed by Michel Angelo, Andrea del Sarto, and others. 

 Vasari lost his father, in 1528, of the plague, and in 1529 he turned 

 goldsmith in order to be the better able to assist his family, who were 

 supported by an uncle. He however the same year took up his former 

 profession at Pisa. He afterwards returned to Arezzo, and studied 

 with Francesco Salviati, from whom he was taken by Cardinal Ippolito 

 de' Medici, who took him into his service to Rome, and introduced 

 him to Clement VII. He returned afterwards to Florence, and 

 there, through the encouragement and protection of the Medici family, 

 he met with all the success he could desire. Few painters have been 

 more successful in point of patronage, or have executed more works 

 than Vasari; but his paintings are remarkable for no particular 

 excellence, though they are generally correctly drawn, and many of 

 them arc conspicuous for a dignity of character which is not common. 

 He was the intimate friend and an enthusiastic admirer of Michel 

 Angelo, and he may be almost termed a'servile imitator of his style. 

 The majority of Vasari's works were executed from his designs or 

 cartoons by his scholars, who were very numerous : they painted at 

 Rome a great ceiling with many frescoes for the Cardinal Farnese, in a 

 hundred days, but so little to Vasari's satisfaction, that he determined 

 from that time, 1544, nob to entrust to them the finishing of any 

 work whatever. Vasari in his ' Life ' relates the origin of his biogra- 

 phical work; he undertook it in consequence of a suggestion of the 

 celebrated Paolo Giovio, and at the request of Cardinal Faruese. It 

 is a vast compilation and a work of great labour, whether the produc- 

 tion of one or more persons, and remains even now unrivalled by any 

 work of its kind, notwithstanding its numerous inaccuracies and his 



partiality for the Florentines : the style is excellent for the period, 

 and the language* ia both powerful and eloquent. Vasari died at 

 Florence, in 1574, and was buried in Arezzo. There is a German 

 translation of Vasari's Lives by Schorn, which is extremely valuable 

 for its notes, and an English translation by Mrs. J. Foster forma 5 

 volumes of Bohn's Standard Library. 



VATER, JOHANN SEVERIN, a distinguished German linguist 

 and theologian, was born at Altenburg on the 27th of May 1771. 

 After having received his preparatory education in the gymnasium of 

 his native town, he went in 1790 to the University of Jena, where he 

 studied philosophy and theology, the latter under Grieabach, Doeder- 

 lein, and Paulus. From the year 1792 to 1794 he continued these 

 studies in the University of Halle, where he also began his career as 

 academical teacher. In 1796 however he returned to Jena, where he 

 was appointed professor extraordinary in the theological faculty. 

 Along with the Hebrew language, the grammatical knowledge of 

 which was greatly advanced by him, he now devoted himself to the 

 study of a variety of languages, for the purpose of comparison, and 

 of discovering what was then called a philosophical or universal gram- 

 mar, which was to develope the great principles common to all 

 languages and their respective grammars. In the year 1800 he was 

 invited to go to Halle as ordinary professor of theology and Oriental 

 literature. Without giving up his linguistic studies, he now devoted 

 considerable time to the critical examination of the early books of the 

 Old Testament, and of ecclesiastical history. After the death of 

 Adelung, in 1806, who left his great linguistic work, ' Mithridates/ 

 unfinished, Vater, with the assistance of Adelung's manuscripts and 

 of several distinguished scholars, undertook its completion. Adelung 

 had only published one volume, and the other three were published 

 by Vater (Berlin, 1808-17). In 1809 he was appointed professor of 

 theology and librarian in the University of Konigsberg, where he 

 continued his linguistic labours with unabated zeal. His studies 

 embraced the languages of civilised nations, as well as those of the 

 tribes of America and Africa. In 1820 Vater returned to Halle as 

 professor of theology, and although he did not altogether abandon his 

 former linguistic pursuits, yet \ve find him chiefly engaged in eccle- 

 siastical history and the exposition of the New Testament. During 

 the last years of his life he edited several theological and religious 

 periodicals, as the ' Journal fur Prediger/ the ' Kirchenhistorisches 

 Archiv,' and the 'Jahrbuch der Hauslichen Andacht/ the last of 

 which he himself had set on foot in 1819. He died at Halle on the 

 16th of March 1826. 



Vater possessed a more extensive knowledge of languages than 

 any of his contemporaries, although he did not enter into their spirit 

 so deeply as others. His works however are very valuable on account 

 of the immense materials which they contain for the study of com- 

 parative grammar. 



The following list contains the most important of his linguistic 

 works : 1, 'Uebersicht des Neuesten was fiir Philosophic der Spracho 

 in Deutschland gethan worden ist, in Einleitungen, Ausziigen, und 

 Kritiken,' Gotha, 8vo, 1799; 2, 'Versuch einer Allgemeinen Sprach- 

 lehre,' &c., Halle, 8vo, 1801; 3, 'Lehrbuch der Allgemeinen Gram- 

 matik, besonders fiir Hohere Schulklassen, mit Vergleichung alterer 

 und neuerer Sprachen,' Halle, 8vo, 1806; 4, 'Handbuch der Hebrai- 

 schen, Syrischen, Chaldaischeu, und Arabischen Grammatik, fiir den 

 Anfang der Erlernung dieter Sprachen bearbeitet/ 2nd edit., Leipzig, 

 8vo, 1817; 5, 'Literatur der Grammatiken, Lexica, nud Worter- 

 Sammlungen aller Sprachen der Erde, in Alphabetischer Orduung/ 

 Berlin, 8vo, 1815 (this work is printed in German and Latin) ; 6, 

 'Analekten der Sprachenkunde, mit einer Sprachenkarte von Ostin- 

 dien/ Leipzig, 2 parts, 1820 and 1821; 7, ' Vergleichungstafeln der 

 Europaischen Stammsprachen und Siid-west Asiatischer ; R. K. Rask, 

 Ueber die Thrakische Sprachclasse ; Albanesische Grammatik nach 

 Fr. Mar. de Lecce; Grusinische Grammatik nach Maggio, Ghai und 

 Firalow, und Galische Sprachlehre von Ch. W. Ahlwardt/ Halle, 

 8vo, 1822. 



VATTEL, EMMERICH, the celebrated writer on international 

 law, was born at Couret, in the principality of Neufchatel, in 1714. 

 The family was of considerable antiquity in the principality. Emme- 

 rich's father David, a olergyman, had been ennobled by the king of 

 Prussia. John Frederick, an elder brother of Emmerich, entered the 

 French service, and rose to the rank of lieutenant-colonel and knight- 

 iood. Charles, a younger brother, entered the Sardinian service, and 

 'ell at the passage of the Tanaro. Jacob Vattel, who represented 

 another line of the same family, was burgomaster of Neufchatel 

 m 1762. 



Emmerich was educated for the church. He was sent to the uni- 

 versity of Bale to study the classics and philosophy. Having com- 

 sleted the usual curriculum of the Faculty of Arts, he returned to 

 itfeufchatel, and passed with distinction the preliminary examinations, 

 which all who proposed to enter the church had to undergo before 

 commencing their theological studies. He then repaired to Geneva, 

 to devote himself to those strictly professional pursuits. The writings 

 of Leibnitz and Wolff had however more attractions for him than the 

 Institutes' of Calvin. It was an age in which literary men were 

 caressed and promoted at courts, and young Vattel felt a greater 

 vocation for such worldly advancement than for the charge of a rural 

 parish. In 1741 he proceeded to Berlin, in the hope that the court 



