VERROCCHIO, ANDREA DEL. 



VERTOT, REN AUBERT DE. 



330 



scholars believed that the Fasti Capitolini, which were discovered in 

 1547, were the Fasti of Verrius Flaccus, referred to by Suetonius ; 

 but this opinion is now shown to be untenable. Flaccus was also the 

 author of several other antiquarian and grammatical works, which 

 were very highly valued for the vast quantity of information they 

 contained, as well as for the purity of their style : 1. ' Libri Rerum 

 Memoria Dignarurn/ in which among other things he treated on 

 Etruscan antiquities. It is frequently referred to by Pliny (Qellius, 

 iv. 5) ; 2. ' De Verboruni Significatione,' consisting of at least twenty- 

 four books. It gave explanations of words in alphabetical order ; 

 and besides its philological value, it seems to have been an inexhaust- 

 ible treasure of antiquarian knowledge. An abridgment of this work 

 was made by the grammarian S. Pomponius Festus, and this was 

 again abridged in the time of Charlemagne, in such a manner that 

 the original character of the work- was altogether destroyed. These 

 wretched abridgments have, as in mnny other instances, caused the 

 loss of the original work. (K. 0. Miiller, ' Psefatio ad Festum,' p. 

 12, &c.) 3. 'Saturnus' (Mncrob., 'Sat.,' i. 4 and 8) was, according to 

 Miiller's conjecture, only a' part of a greater work, 'De Rebus Sacris; ' 

 4. ' De Orthographia,' which was attacked by Scribonius Aphrodisius 

 (Suetou., 'De Illustr. Qrammat.,' 18); 5. 'De Obscuris Catonis/ a 

 linguistic work, in which he explained the antique words and phrases 

 of Cato, which had become unintelligible (Gellius, xvii. 6) ; 6. ' Epi- 

 stoltc ; ' and, 7. Poems. We still possess numerous fragments of the 

 works of Verrius Flaccus, independent of the 'Fasti Pracnestini' and 

 the abridgment of his ' De Verborum Significatione.' They are 

 collected in the work of Foggini above referred to ; in Dacier's edition 

 of Festus (i., pp. 14-27, ed. London, 1826); in E. Egger's 'Scriptorum 

 Latinorum nova Collectio,' vol. ii.; and in Lindemann's edition of 

 Festus, pp. 293, 299. 



VERRO'CUHIO, ANDRE' A DEL, a celebrated Italian painter, 

 sculptor, goldsmith, and architect of the 'fifteenth century, was born 

 at Florence in 1432. Vasari says he had little genius, but was the 

 most laborious man of his time : he was, according to Baldinucci, a 

 scholar of Donatello. He first distiugished himself as a goldsmith, 

 both at Florence and at Rome; he then devoted himself solely to 

 sculpture in bronze and in marble. His first marble work was a 

 monument in the Minerva at Rome, to the wife of Francesco Torna- 

 buoni ; it is now in the Florentine gallery. The expression of the 

 figures is good, but the execution is very imperfect. His next work 

 was a colossal bronze figure of David, now also in the Florentine 

 gallery. He executed several other works in metal, by which he 

 acquired a great reputation : the principal of them were the monu- 

 ment in San Lorenzo, of Giovanni and Pietro, the sons of Cosmo de' 

 Medici; and the Incredulity of St. Thomas, in the church of Or San 

 Michele, at Florence, finished in 1483; it is a colossal group of two 

 figures, weighing 3981 pounds, and for which, according to Baldinucci, 

 he was paid 476 gold florins (Manni, in a note to Baldinucci, says 800 

 heavy florins). In this work, says Vasari, Verrocchio left nothing to 

 be wished for; and having attained perfection in sculpture, he began 

 to turn his attention to painting. Some modern critics have differed 

 from Vasari with regard to its great excellence. Van Rumohr speaks 

 of the Winged Boy with a Dolphin, of the fountain of the first court 

 of the Palazzo Vecchio, also by Verrocchio, as a very superior work : 

 it is praised likewise by Vasari. 



Vasari mentions many designs and cartoons by Verrocchio, some of 

 which were copied and imitated by Liouardo da Viuci. Nothing is 

 known of these designs at present ; it has been conjectured that 

 many of them now pass as the works of Liouardo. Verrocchio 

 painted very few pictures ; he gave up painting upon finding himself 

 surpassed by his scholar Lionardo da Vinci, whom he had ordered to 

 paint the figure of an angel in one of his works. [ViNCi, LIONARDO 

 DA.] The fame of Verrochio reached Venice, and he was called to 

 that place to cast an equestrian statue of Bartolemeo Colleoni, the 

 celebrated general; but when he had just finished the model of the 

 horse, he was told that Vellano of Padua was to make the figure of 

 the general, with which he was so much offended that he immediately 

 broke the head and feet of his horse, and left Venice without giving 

 the slightest intimation of his determination to his employers. This 

 so exasperated the signory of Venice in their turn, that they wrote 

 to Verrocchio, and told him that he had better not return to Venice 

 if he valued his head ; to which Verrocchio answered, that he would 

 be mindful of their admonition, for they were as little capable of 

 restoring him his head as they were of finding another head sufficiently 

 beautiful for his horse. This answer pleased them greatly ; and they 

 now earnestly solicited Verrocchio to return, promising him twice the 

 remuneration formerly agreed to. Verrocchio -returned and cast his 

 model, but he caught cold in the casting, and died a few days after- 

 wards, before the statue was quite completed. This work was finished 

 by Alessandro Leopardi, who cast the pedestal, and fixed it in its 

 place in the Piazza di Santi Giovanni e Paolo, in the year 1495, and 

 it stands there still. Cicognara, who has given an outline of this 

 monument in his ' Storia della Scultura,' supposes that Leopardi recast 

 the statue itself, but he gives a very insufficient reason for this 

 opinion. Verrocchio's remains were taken by his favourite scholar 

 Lorenzo di Credi to Florence, and were deposited in the vault of 

 Michele di Cione, in the church of Sant' Ambrogio. Over the vault 

 ia the following inscription : ' S, Michaelis da Ckmis et Suorum 



et Andrso Verrocchi, filii Dpmiuici Michaelis, qui obiit Venetiis 

 M.CCCC.IXXXVIII.' The S. signifies Sepulchrum. 



Verrocchio had many scholars, of whom the following were the most 

 distinguished : Lionardo da Vinci and Pietro Perugino, painters, and 

 Lorenzo di Credi, Nanni Grosso, and Francesco di Simone, sculptors. 



Bottari fays that Verrocchio was one of the first who made plaster 

 casts from living and dead subjects; but not the first, as Vasari states. 

 This art was practised likewise by the ancient artists of Greece : it was 

 invented by Lysistrutus, the brother of Lysippuc, in the time of Alex- 

 ander the Great. (Pliny, 'Hist. Nat.,' xxxv. 12, 44.) Verrocchio also 

 assisted Orsino in his wax figures ; they made together three figures of 

 Lorenzo de* Medici, after the conspiracy of the Pazzi in 1478, which, 

 says Vasari, appeared to be living men : they were differently dressed ; 

 one, which was placed in the church of the Monarche di Chiarito, was 

 clothed in the dress which Lorenzo wore when he was wounded by the 

 conspirators. These figures are all now lost. 



Verrocchio cast the first copper ball which supported the cross at 

 the cathedral of Florence ; it was thrown down by lightning, and the 

 present ball, which is somewhat larger than Verrocchio's, was put up 

 in its place. That of Verrocchio was four ells in diameter, and weighed 

 4368 pounds. This celebrated artist, with his other accomplishments, 

 combined a good knowledge of geometry and great practical skill in 

 music. 



VERSTEGAN, RICHARD, was the grandson of Theodore Rowland 

 Verstegan, the descendant of a family of ancient respectability in 

 Guelderland, who came over to this country a young man towards the 

 end of the reign of Henry VII., and dying soon after he had married 

 an Englishwoman, left a child not more than nine months old, whom 

 his mother, when he grew up, bound apprentice to a cooper. Verste- 

 gan the cooper, who, when he became his own master, carried on hia 

 trade in the parish of St. Catherine, London, appears to have been in 

 good circumstances : Richard was his son, and after having been 

 instructed in the classics at school, was sent by him to the University 

 of Oxford, where he soon came to distinguish himself, especially by 

 his proficiency in Saxon literature and the knowledge of the national 

 antiquities, studies then much in vogue. He left the University how- 

 ever without taking a degree, objecting, it seems, to the oaths ; and 

 soon after, openly delaring himself a Roman Catholic, he left England 

 aud took up his residence at Antwerp. Here he published his first 

 work, a thin quarto, cow of great rarity, entitled ' Theatrum Crudeli- 

 tatum Haereticorum nostri Temporis.' It is a violent attack upon 

 Queen Elizabeth and her government, especially in reference to the 

 executions of Jesuits and other Popish recusants ; but it is chiefly 

 curious for a number of copper-plate engravings it contains, repre- 

 senting the hanging, beheading, and quartering of these martyrs, as 

 they are styled, after drawings made by the author. This appears to 

 have been before 1585, although the only edition of the book that is 

 now known is dated 1592; for in 1585 Verstegan is stated to have 

 .gone to Paris, and t,o have been there thrown into prison by order of 

 the king, Henri III., on the English ambassador's representation of 

 the abusive nature of the work. However he was not long detained 

 in custody ; and upon his release he returned to Antwerp, where he 

 set up as a printer, and is said to have prospered in that business, and 

 soon acquired the means of living in good style. In 1605 appeared at 

 Antwerp the first edition, in small quarto, of his best-known work, 

 entitled ' A Restitution of Decayed Intelligence concerning the most 

 noble and renowned English Nation.' This performance, which is 

 adorned, like his other book, with engravings from drawings by the 

 author, and which was reprinted at London in 4to, in 1634, and in 8vo 

 in 1653 and 1674, contains a few curious facts and remarks; but it 

 had been nearly superseded before it came from the press by Camden's 

 'Britannia,' the first edition of which appeared in the preceding year. 

 It is now considered as of hardly any authority. Verstegan is also 

 supposed to be the author of ' Odes in imitation of the Seven Peniten- 

 tial Psalms,' professing to be by R. V., and some other tracts in English 

 with the same initials, printed abroad in the first years of the 17th 

 century, of which a list is given in Wood's ' Athena) Oxonienses.' He 

 married some years before his death, which is believed to have taken 

 place about 1635. Sir Egerton Brydges has given a short account of 

 the rare volume of 'Odes' attributed to Verstegan in his ' Censura 

 Literaria,' ii. 95-97 (1st edition). 



VERTOT, RENE AUBERT DE, was the second son of a poor 

 Norman gentleman, who claimed kindred with every family of distinc- 

 tion in his province. Rend was born on the 25th of November 1655. 

 He studied in the Jesuits' College at Rouen. He was characterised 

 from childhood by an earnest spirit of piety. Towards the close of 

 the second year of his collegiate studies he disappeared, and although 

 an active search was immediately instituted, it was not till after the 

 lapse of six months that he was discovered in the Capuchin convent at 

 Argentan. All efforts to divert him from his intention of joining that 

 order were fruitless ; he took the vows, and adopted the conventual 

 name of Brother Zachary. The rigour of the order undermined a 

 constitution naturally delicate ; he was obliged to visit his family for 

 the restoration of his health. The opinions of medical men and of the 

 doctors of the Sorbonne persuaded him, with some difficulty, to join a 

 less ascetic order ; and the pope's dispensation having been obtained, 

 he entered in his twenty-second year the Premoustrant Abbey at 

 Valsery. 



