321 



VERHEYEN, PHILIPPUS. 



VERNET, CLAUDE JOSEPH. 



322 



deacon of Wells, and was also collated in the same year, first to the 

 prebend of Nonniugton in the cathedral of Hereford, and then to that 

 of Scamelsby in the cathedral of Lincoln, which last he exchanged, in 

 1513, for that of Oxgate in St. Paul's. In 1525 he published at 

 London, in 8vo, but from a very imperfect and corrupt copy, the 

 first edition of the fragment of Gildas, entitled 'Do Calamitate, 

 Excidio, et Conquestu Britannise.' He dedicated it to Bishop Tonstall; 

 and, according to Nicolsou, the same bad text was reprinted in 8vo 

 at Basel in 1541, in 12mo at London in 1568, and in the 5th volume 

 of the Paris ' Bibliotheca Patrum ' of 1610, folio. Vergil finished his 

 principal work, his ' Historia Anglica,' a history of England from the 

 earliest times to the end of the reign of Henry VII., in twenty-six 

 books, in 1533 : the dedication to Henry VIII. is dated in August of 

 .that year, and the first edition appears to have been published at 

 Basel, in folio, in 1534. It was reprinted at Basel in the same form 

 in 1536, 1556, 1570, and 1583; and in octavo at Leyden, under the 

 care of Antonius Thysius, in 1549, and again in 1557. For clearness 

 of narrative and neatness of style Polydore Vergil is perhaps the first 

 of our Latin historians, and there are also a good many things in his 

 work which are not to be found elsewhere ; but he does not stand 

 high as an authority. It is alleged that he destroyed numerous 

 original documents which he had made use of in preparing his work, 

 or, according to another version of the story, sent them off to Rome. 

 His ignorance of the language and customs of the country has also no 

 doubt betrayed him into some mistakes. He is charged however with 

 having been principally misled by bis prejudices in favour of the 

 old religion, although he was hardly accounted a good Roman Catholic 

 in all points. Various passages in bis work 'De Rerum Inventoribus' 

 are condemned in the ' Indices Librorum Prohibitorum et Expurga- 

 torum ; ' and John Bale states that he approved of the marriage of 

 ecclesiastics, and was opposed to the worship of images. Nor was 

 he deprived of his preferments either by Henry VIII. or even by 

 Edward VI. 



He left England in 1550. Burnet, in his ' History of the Reforma- 

 'tion,' Part ii., says under that date, ' This year Polydore Vergil, who 

 had been now almost forty [fifty]] years in England, growing old, 

 desired leave to go nearer the *sun, which was granted ; and, in con- 

 sideration of the public service he was thought to have done the 

 nation by his History, he was permitted to hold his archdeaconry of 

 Wells and his prebend of Nonnington, notwithstanding his absence 

 out of the kingdom.' He is understood to have returned to Urbino,, 

 and is commonly stated to have died there in 1555. An opinion 

 expressed by M. de la Monnoye, in a note upon Baillet's 'Jugemens 

 des Savans,' ii. 160, that he mvist have died before 1540, appears to be 

 refuted by the above statement from Burnet, who quotes as his 

 authority the ' Rot. Pat.' 4 Ed. VI., 2 part. The English versions of 

 Polydore Vergil's History have been reprinted by the Camden Society 

 under the editorial care of Sir Henry Ellis. 



VERHE'YEN, PHILIPPUS, was born at Verbrouck in the province 

 of Waas, in 1648. His father was an honest agricultural labourer, 

 who gave him a homely education, and with whom he worked in the 

 fields till he was twenty-two years old. At this time the pastor of the 

 parish, discerning in the young Verheyen the marks of a superior 

 intellect, undertook to teach him Latin during the winter vacations 

 from his agricultural work ; and in 1672 he had made such progress 

 that the pastor obtained for him admission into the College of the 

 Holy Trinity at Louvain, where, at the end of five years' study, he 

 gained, in 1677, the highest place in the .general examination of the 

 four chief colleges. After this he studied theology for a short time : 

 but he was diverted from his intention of entering the ecclesiastical 

 order by losing his leg, in consequence of some acute disease which 

 rendered amputation necessary. On his recovery from the operation, 

 Verheyen applied himself to medicine. In 1681 he received, with 

 especial marks of honour, his licentiate's degree; in 1689, having 

 spent nearly all the intervening time in the study of anatomy and 

 medicine at Louvain, he was appointed professor of anatomy there ; 

 and in 1693 professor of surgery also, but he did not, for some un- 

 known reason, take his doctor's degree till 1695. He became by study, 

 diligently continued to the end of his life, one of the most eminent 

 anatomical teachers of his time, and his books were very widely read, 

 especially his Anatomy of the 'Human Body. He was engaged on a 

 large work, ' De Tuenda Valetudine,' when he died in 1710. 



Verhey en's works are as follows : 1, * Anatomise Corporis Humani, 

 Liber primus,' Louvain, 4to, 1693 ; a short compendium of anatomy 

 which was several times reprinted and was completed after his death, 

 in 1710, by the publication of a ' Supplementum, seu Liber secundus,' 

 and of many additions to the original work. The two together, in 

 two volumes 4to, were often printed; as, at Brussels, 1710 and 1726; 

 Naples, 1717, 1734 ; Leipzig, 1731, &c. They contain no important 

 anatomical discoveries, but were good useful books at the time of 

 their publication. The second volume, which is the more interesting 

 of the two, contains many analyses of animal fluids, and accounts of 

 numerous experiments on living animals, chiefly having relation to 

 development and respiration ; but a great part of it is filled by the 

 author's portion of a controversy with Me"ry in defence of the Harveian 

 doctrine of the circulation. 2, Dissertatio de Thymo,' Louvain, 4to, 

 1706. 3, 'Compendium Theorise Practicse/ Cologne, 8vo, 1683. The 

 first and second parts alone of this work were published. They treat 



BIOG.DIV. VOL VI. 



of affections of the head and chest, and support the chemical doctrines 

 of Willis. 4, ' Vera Historia de Sanguine ex Oculis, Auribus, Naribus, 

 &c.,' Louvain, 12mo, 1708. 



(Life, prefixed to the Anatomia, edition of Brussels, 1710; Haller, 

 Bibliothecce.) 



VERMIGLI, PIETRO MA'RTIRE, was bora at Florence in 1500. 

 He studied for the church, and entered early the order of the Regular 

 Canons of St. Augustine, in which he became distinguished for his 

 learning, and rose to offices of trust. Being at Naples he became 

 acquainted with Juan Valdes, a Spaniard, who had become a convert 

 to the doctrines of the Reformation. [VALDES, JUAN.] VermigH 

 adopted some of those tenets, but concealed them for a time. Being 

 sent by his superiors to Lucca, as prior of San Frediano, he there 

 publicly avowed his new docti-ine, and was soon after compelled to fly 

 to Switzerland, in 1542. He thence went to Strasburg, where he was 

 appointed Professor of Divinity. In 1547, at the invitation of Bishop 

 Cranmer, he repaired to England, where he was graciously received by 

 King Edward VI. and was appointed Lecturer upon the Holy Scrip- 

 tures at Oxford, where he met with much opposition from the heads of 

 colleges and the higher graduates, and ran some personal risk. In 

 1553, after the accession of Queen Mary, being obliged to leave Eng- 

 land, he returned to Strasburg, where he resumed his chair as Professor 

 of Divinity, and likewise of Aristotelian philosophy. In 1556 he was 

 invited by the senate of Zurich to fill the chair of theology in that 

 university, which he accepted. In 1561 he repaired, with other Pro- 

 testant divines, to the conference of Poissy, in France. In the follow- 

 ing year Vermigli died at Zurich, much regretted. He wrote on 

 dogmatic and ethical subjects, commentaries on parts of the Scripture, 

 besides numerous epistles to ' His Brethren of the Protestant Church 

 of Lucca,' to the Protestant Churches in Poland, to the English 

 church, to Calvin, Bullinger, Beza, Melanchthon, and other reformers, 

 to Queen Elizabeth, and to several English prelates and noblemen. 

 Tiraboschi, a zealous Roman Catholic, acknowledges that Vermigli was 

 free from the arrogance and virulence of Luther and other reformers, 

 that he was deeply acquainted with the Scriptures and the Fathers, 

 and was one of the most learned writers of the reformed communion. 

 His works were translated from the Latin into English. ' The Com- 

 mon Places of the most famous and renowned Divine Doctor Peter 

 Martyr, divided into four principal parts by Anthony Marten,' dedicated 

 to Queen Elizabeth, in 1583, with a biography of Vermigli by Josias 

 Simler, of Zurich : this collection contains a complete course of 

 Christian ethics, and may be read with advantage even now. 



VERNET, CLAUDE JOSEPH. This celebrated landscape ana 

 marine painter was born at Avignon, on the 17th of August 1714, and 

 received his first instruction in painting from his father, Antoiue 

 Vernet, and Andrian Manglard, an historical painter. Fiorillo states, 

 Vernet is said, even in his fifth year, to have had great skill in draw- 

 ing. At the age of eighteen, in 1732, he went to Italy with the inten- 

 tion of perfecting himself as an historical painter ; but the beautiful 

 views of sea and shipping at Genoa, Naples, and other parts of Italy 

 are said to have induced him to fix upon marine landscape as his prin- 

 cipal study. He studied with Fergioni at Rome, and his future 

 pictures justified his choice ; for he executed works which acquired 

 him a name, comparatively early in life, that rivalled those of both 

 Claude and Backhuyzen. But he for some time in Italy lived in great 

 poverty; he was glad to paint in any style and for the slightest remu- 

 neration ; at the sale of the collection of M. de Julienne, a piece was 

 sold for 5000 francs, which Vernet had painted in Rome for a suit of 

 clothes. He painted also several panels of carriages for coachbuilders 

 at low prices ; they were afterwards taken out and framed as works of 

 great value. He remained in Italy twenty years, including some time 

 spent in Greece and the Greek islands ; and during this period ho 

 made elaborate sketches of many of the most beautiful and most 

 interesting spots in both countries, and painted also several elegant 

 pictures in Genoa, in Naples, and in Rome. Those which he painted 

 in Rome for the palaces Rondanini, Borghese, and Colonna, are 

 among his best works : the pictures he painted for the Rondanini 

 palace were executed much in the style of Salvator Rosa, whom 

 Vernet imitated with great success ; but he afterwards entirely forsook 

 Salvator's manner for one as conspicuous for its delicacy of colouring 

 as the other waa for its force. One of his first patrons in Rome, 

 according to Pilkington, was Mr. Drake of Shard eloes in Buckingham- 

 shire, who commissioned him to paint six pictures, leaving the subjects 

 to his own choice, and he produced six excellent pieces. 



In 1743 he was made a member of the Academy of St. Luke; and 

 about the same time he married Miss Parker, the daughter of an 

 English Roman Catholic, who was an officer in the Pope's marine. 

 Vernet's reputation as a marine painter at length reached his own 

 country; and in 1752 he was invited by Louis XV., through M. de 

 Mariguy, to Paris, after an absence of twenty years. 



Vernet lost no time in complying with the invitation of his king, 

 and embarked as soon as possible at Leghorn in a small felucca for 

 Marseille. During the passage there happened a violent storm, which 

 terrified some of the passengers; but Vernet, struck with the grandeur 

 of the effect of the sea, requested one of the sailors to bind him to 

 the mast-head, that he might view it to the greatest advantage ; and 

 there he remained, lost to the dangers of his position, absorbed in 

 admiration of the grand effect around him, endeavouring to transfer 



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