381 



VIQILIUS. 



VIGNOLES, ALPHONSE DES. 



362 



cautious mode of estimation) at the very time when Diophantus 

 probably wrote ; and to suppose anything like an immediate and 

 direct transmission of a Greek writing to India, and an immediate 

 cultivation and extension of its results, is to start an hypothesis which 

 not only bears on tho face of it the purpose which it is to serve, but 

 pays far too high a compliment to the natives of India, whether as 

 recipients of the knowledge of others, or as extenders of their own. 

 There is one difficulty in the way of our own opinion as to the algebra, 

 and that not a small one : Why did not the Greeks, or the Greek, 

 obtain the Indian principle of local value in numeration at the same 

 time as he learnt their algebra ? 



VIGI'LIUS, a deacon of the church of Rome, happened to be at 

 Constantinople when Theodora, wife of tho emperor Justinian, deter- 

 mined to depose Pope Sylverius, who had incurred her displeasure for 

 reasons not very clearly ascertained. Anastasius Bibliothecarius says 

 that Sylverius had refused to reinstate in the see of Constantinople 

 the patriarch Anthimus, who had been deposed through the influence 

 of Pope Agapetus I., the predecessor of Sylverius, on the charge of 

 heresy. A charge was brought Against Sylverius of having held cor- 

 respondence with the Goths, who were besieging Rome in A.D. 537 ; 

 upon which Belisarius, who commanded in that city, arrested Sylve- 

 rius, stripped him of his pontifical garments, and banished him to 

 Patara in Asia Minor. Belisarius then, according to tho instructions 

 which he had received from Theodora, ordered the clergy of Rome to 

 proceed to a new election, suggesting at the same time the deacon 

 Vigilius, who had been intriguing with the court of Constantinople, as 

 the fittest candidate. Vigilius was accordingly elected in November 

 537, and he soon after repaired to Rome, where he was installed in his 

 see through the influence of Belisarius. His election however was 

 generally looked upon as having been forced and unlawful, and the 

 historians of the Church consider him as an intruder as long as Sylve- 

 rius lived. Vigilius is said by some to have agreed with Theodora to 

 reject the Council of Chalcedon, and to receive into his communion 

 Anthimus>, Theodosius, bishop of Alexandria, and others who enter- 

 tained Eutychian doctrines. Liberatus Diaconus and Pagi quote 

 letters of Vigilius in proof of his connivance at these doctrines. It is 

 also said that he paid a large sum of money to Theodora to obtain his 

 election. In the year 538 Sylverius, who had been sent back to Italy 

 by the emperor Justinian, to be tried concerning his alleged treason, 

 died ; Procopius says that he was put to death by order of Antonina, 

 the wife of Belisarius ; others say that he was starved to death in the 

 island of Ponza by order of Vigilius, who after his death remained 

 undisputed possessor of the see of Rome. Vigilius has been since 

 generally acknowledged as legitimate pope from the date of his prede- 

 cessor's death. From that time also Vigilius showed himself less 

 docile to the caprices of the court of Constantinople ; he maintained 

 the authority of the Council of Chalcedon, and he even incurred the 

 displeasure of Justinian, because he would not subscribe to the theo- x 

 logical opinions of that emperor. 



In the year 545 Vigilius left Rome for Sicily, from whence he sent 

 supplies to Rome during the subsequent siege of that city by the Goths 

 under Totilas. In 547 Vigilius repaired to Constantinople, at the 

 request of Justinian, who was warmly engaged in a theological con- 

 troversy, which is known in Church history by the name of the ' three 

 chapters.' Vigilius, after remaining at Constantinople for some years, 

 was obliged to escape from the wrath of the emperor to Chalcedon, 

 where, in 552, he took refuge in a sanctuary. In the following year 

 Justinian convoked a general council at Constantinople, chiefly to 

 decide upon the question of the ' three chapters,' or, in other words, to 

 condemn certain controversial writings of three bishops of the pre- 

 ceding century THEODORE of Mopsuestia, Ibas of Edessa, and THEO 

 DORETDS. Vigilius, who considered those writings to be orthodox, 

 refused to condemn them, and for this he was banished, with other 

 bishops of his own opinion, to the island of Proconnesus, from which 

 he was recalled, in 554, at the urgent entreaty of the clergy of Rome, 

 supported by the intercession of Justinian's successful general Narses. 

 Meantime the Council of Constantinople had condemned the ' three 

 chapters,' and its decision was now sanctioned by Vigilius, after which 

 Justinian permitted him to return to Italy. On his way to Rome hy 

 sea, Vigilius landed at Syracuse, where he died of the stone, of which 

 he had been suffering for some time, in the seventeenth year of his 

 troubled pontificate. He was succeeded by Pelagius I. 



(Muratori, Annali d' Italia, and the authorities therein quoted.) 



VIGNO'LA, GIA'COMO BAROZZI, a very eminent Italian archi- 

 tect, and one of the greatest modern authorities in his art, was born in 

 1507, at Vignola, in the territory of Modena, whence he derives the 

 name by which he is more generally mentioned than by his family 

 appellation. Giacomo was the only child of his parents, and by the 

 death of his father he was left at an early age entirely dependent upon 

 his mother. Having manifested some taste for drawing, he was sent 

 by her at a suitable age to Bologna to study painting, but he made so 

 very little progress that he determined to abandon it and apply him- 

 self to architecture, a study he had been led to by that of perspective, 

 in which he had discovered principles and practical rules that in the 

 then state of the science were eminently useful. He now set out for 

 Rome in order to make himself acquainted with ancient architecture 

 by examining the various remains in that city; and afterwards he 

 mads a series of drawings of them for an academy or architectural 



society which was at the time just established under the auspices of 

 several persons of rank. In the meantime, or previously to being eo 

 employed, he had supported himself by painting. What was the 

 length of his first residence at Rome is not known, but it could hardly 

 have been one of many years, because, about 1537, he accompanied 

 Primaticcio to France, where he remained two years, during which he 

 made several models and designs for Francis I., none of which however 

 was executed, owing to the unfavourable state of public affairs. The 

 Chateau Chambord indeed has been erroneously attributed to him, but 

 it was erected somewhat earlier, and is of a very different character 

 from any of his works. 



On returning to Italy he fixed himself for awhile at Bologna, where, 

 in competition with many others, he made designs for the facade off 

 San Petronio, in which he endeavoured to combine the antique, or 

 rather the style founded upon its orders, with the Gothic of the original 

 fabric ; but, as not unfrequently happens under such circumstances, 

 neither his nor any of the other designs were adopted, for the whole 

 scheme fell to nothing. Ho was however employed upon various 

 works in that city, and among them are the Casa Bocchi (no very 

 favourable specimen of his taste, as he was obliged to comply with 

 that of the proprietor), alterations of the Bank or 'Change, the ' Navig- 

 lio,' or canal leading to Ferrara, and the Palazzo Isolaui at Minerbio, 

 at a short distance from Bologna. So poorly were his services for the 

 work of the Naviglio recompensed, that on its being completed he 

 took his leave of Bologna and went to Piacenza, where he designed 

 the ducal palace, leaving however the building of it to his son Giacinto. 

 It was perhaps about this period that he erected the church at Maz- 

 zano, the Madonna degli Angeli at Assisi, the chapel of San Francesco 

 at Perugia, and other structures in various parts of Italy, the precise 

 dates of which are unknown. During the pontificate of Julius III. 

 (1550-56) he was introduced by his friend Giorgio Vasasi to that pope, 

 who had known him while legate at Bologna, and who appointed him 

 his architect. Besides the direction of the Trevi aqueduct, his new 

 patron employed him almost immediately on the villa for himself, 

 called ' La Papa Giulio,' or ' Villa Giulia.' This last has always been 

 regarded as a superior piece of architecture, and it forms the siibject of 

 a splendid atlas volume, published by the architect Stern in 1788; 

 nevertheless it is difficult to account for its celebrity, there being little 

 to admire, or that is striking, except the picturesque arrangement and 

 effect of the inner cortile and its semicircular loggia ; it is besides a 

 mere ' casino,' both small and incommodious as a house. The same 

 work also contains plans, &c. of the small church of S. Andrea, near 

 Ponte Molle at Rome, another highly esteemed production of Vignola's, 

 but which also has been greatly overrated : at the best its merits are 

 of a negative kind, because though taken by themselves the individual 

 parts and their mere proportions are correct, they have no particular 

 character, and the composition is anything but masterly or in accord- 

 ance with the spirit and system of the antique. The heavy double 

 attic causes the order to appear insignificant and the pediment un- 

 meaning. In such cases however the established reputation of a work 

 generally silences criticism, and deters from nice examination into 

 merits which may safely be taken upon trust ; accordingly Stern speaks 

 of this building in very encomiastic terms, as does likewise De Quincy. 

 After the death of Julius, Vignola found a liberal patron in his nephew 

 the Cardinal Alexander Farnese, for whom he erected his chef-d'oeuvre, 

 the celebrated palace at Caprarola, a magnificent edifice of very pecu- 

 liar character, it being a mixture of military and civil architecture, 

 pentagonal in plan, and presenting a lofty mass reared upon an equally 

 lofty substructure of terraces of the same form. Yet although suffi- 

 ciently stately, there is also something both lumpish and monotonous 

 in its general outline. Within is a circular cortile with open galleries 

 or arcades, with which all the principal rooms immediately communi- 

 cate, and but for which they would be merely thoroughfares to each 

 other. The magnificence of the interior consisted chiefly in the fres- 

 coes and other paintings with which the walls and ceilings of the 

 apartments were decorated, and of which a very circumstantial account 

 has been given by Vasari in his Life of Tacldeo Zucchero, the principal 

 artist employed upon them. Philip II., on the part of whom he had 

 been consulted relative to the des-ignsfor the Escurial, would willingly 

 have engaged Barozzi in his immediate service, but the architect ex- 

 cused himself on the score of advanced age and infirmity, and his 

 having also undertaken the superintendence of the works at St. Peter's, 

 on the death of Michel Angelo (1564). He therefore regained at 

 Rome, where he died July 7th, 1573. 



What has mainly tended to confer on Vignola the celebrity he 

 enjoys throughout Europe is his ' Treatise on the Five Orders,' which 

 has been received as an authority in regard to them ; but though it 

 has been of service to the profession, it' has done injury to the art, it 

 being impossible to say what variety might have been produced in 

 regard to ' orders,' had architects been left to treat them as freely as 

 other parts of design, instead of tying themselves down to fixed rulef, 

 which after all are of little use, inasmuch as they do not secure any 

 further merit. Of Vignola's own designs, &c., the best collection ia 

 that entitled ' CEuvres completes de J. B. de Vignola, publie"es par 

 H. Lebas et F. Debret,' in large folio, and in outline, Paris, 1823, &c. 



(Milizia, Vite; Quatremerede Quincy, CSlebres Architects ; Vasari.) 



VIGNOLES, ALPHONSE DES, was descended from a Protestant 

 family of great antiquity in Languedoc, where he was born, at the 



