363 



VIGNY, ALFRED, COMTE DE. 



VILLANI, GIOVANNI. 



394, 



chateau of Aubais, October 29th, 1649. He had been designed by hia 

 father for the military profession ; but preferring the Church, he went 

 through the usual studies, first at Geneva, and then at Saumur, after 

 which he spent some time in England. Returning home in 1675, he 

 became minister at Aubais, and, after some time, at Calais, where he 

 remained till the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685. He then 

 retired to Geneva, whence after a time he removed to a church in 

 Berlin, and then to that of Brandenburg ; but when the Royal Society 

 of Berlin was founded in 1701, being chosen one of the first members, 

 and invited on the suggestion of Leibnitz to take up his residence in 

 that city, he returned thither, and being appointed minister of the 

 neighbouring church of Copenick, he remained there till his death, at 

 the age of ninety-four, on the 24th of July 1744. 



Dea Vignoles ia the author of many papers in the ' Memoirs of the 

 Royal Society of Berlin,' and in the periodical journal called the 

 ' Bibliotheque Germanique,' of which he became one of the editors in 

 1711 ; but his principal work is his 'Chronologic de 1'Histoire Sainte 

 et des Histoires Etrangeres depuis la sortie d'Egypte jusqu'a la Cap- 

 tivite' de Babylone,' which appeared in 2 vols. 4to, at Berlin, in 1738. 

 Chronology was the study to which he had chiefly devoted his 

 attention. 



* VIGNY, ALFRED, COMTE DE, one of the most estimable of 

 the modern French poets, was born at Loches, in the department of 

 Indre-et-Loire, on the 27th of March 1799. His father was one of the 

 few of the old French nobility, who did not emigrate. Alfred was 

 educated with great care at one of the colleges in Paris. After the 

 Restoration of Louis XVIII. he was admitted as one of the Red 

 Musketeers of the king's household, in which the privates ranked as 

 officers, and wore the epaulette. This regiment was dissolved during 

 the Hundred Days ; whereupon De Vigny was transferred to the Royal 

 Guard. In 1823, he passed into a regiment of the Line, in hope of 

 taking part in the expedition into Spain; but his regiment continued 

 in cantonments in the Pyrenees during the whole campaign. Already 

 a number of fugitive pieces, both in poetry and prose, besides one or 

 two dramas, had drawn attention to the young nobleman, when, in 

 1825, he formed the acquaintance of a rich English lady, whom he 

 married in the following year. At the same time, he withdrew from 

 the army, to devote himself exclusively to literature. His earliest 

 attempts had been published in various Parisian periodical works in 

 1820, since which his 'Dolorida,' his ' Eloa,' his ' Maise,' and others 

 had appeared in that evanescent form ; but in 1826, they were 

 collected and published in a volume, under the title of ' Poemes 

 Antiques et Modernes,' five editions of which were sold during the 

 first two years. In 1826, likewise, his clever historical romance, 

 ' Cinq-Mars, ou une Conspiration sous Louis XIII.,' in 2 vols., was 

 printed. He had meditated the plot of this tale, during his sojourn 

 in the Pyrenees. It ran through several editions, the sixth being 

 published in 1840. The style of Cinq-Mars is pure, natural,; and 

 graceful; the character of Cardinal Richelieu is drawn with great 

 strength, the figure of the king, though feeble, as he is represented in 

 history, being perhaps equally true to life. This romance was soon 

 translated into most European languages, and from it may have been 

 taken some hints for the fine conception of the drama of ' Richelieu ' 

 by Sir E. Bulwer Lytton. The later editions of this production have 

 been preceded by a thoughtful and instructive preface, abounding in 

 deeper views, and exhibiting greater research and more subtle criti- 

 cism, than is usually found among romancists. His 'Stello ou les Diables 

 bleus/ a narrative delivered by a physician to one of his patients, was 

 given to the public, in 1832; it comprises three separate stories, 

 exemplifying the struggles, aspirations, disappointments, and untimely 

 death of three poets, Gilbert, Andre" Chenier, and Chatterton. In 

 these tales, the natural interest belonging to them is impaired by a 

 vague philosophy, which the author appears to have taken up as a 

 caprice. In several passages we miss the graceful pen of De Vigny, 

 and are reminded of that of Victor Hugo. 



Among his dramatic productions we may name his version of 

 'Othello,' and 'Le Marchand de Venice,' which appeared in 1830; his 

 'Mare'chale d'Ancre,' produced in June 1831, and his 'Chatterton,' 

 which was produced in 1835. The success of this last was prodigious, 

 partly owing to the exciting nature of the subject in French hands, 

 and partly owing to the excellent acting of Madame Dorval, then 

 the rising star of the Parisian stage, whom all Paris hastened to see. 

 Alfred de Vigny is the author of many articles in the ' Revue des 

 Deux Mondes.' A complete edition of his works in 8 vols. was pub- 

 lished in 1838. 



VIGORS, NICHOLAS AYLWARD, was born in 1787, at Old 

 Leighlin, in the county of Carlow, where his family had long lived. 

 He received his early education at home, and afterwards became a 

 student at Trinity College in the University of Oxford, where he gave 

 considerable proof of his classical and literary acquirements, by the 

 publication, in 1810, of 'An Enquiry into the Nature and Extent of 

 Poetic Licence.' In the year 1809 he had an ensigncy purchased for 

 him in the Grenadier Guards, and was present at the action of 

 Barossa, in the early part of 1811, where he got severely wounded. 

 On his return to England he quitted the army, and devoted himself 

 to the study of zoology, especially of birds and insects. In both these 

 subjects he acquired great knowledge, and formed extensive collec- 

 tions, which he at a subsequent period presented to tho museum of the 



Zoological Society. On the death of his father he succeeded to the 

 family estate, and, in 1832, became the representative in parliament of 

 the borough of Carlow, for which and for the county of Carlow he 

 continued to eft until the termination of his life, on tho 26th of 

 October 1840. 



Although Mr. Vigors has written no work devoted to the subject of 

 zoology, he has contributed a large number of valuable papers to the 

 ' Transactions ' of the Linmean Society and of the Zoological Society, 

 and the pages of the ' Zoological Journal.' He was an advocate of 

 the circular or quinary system of arrangement as propounded by Mr. 

 "W. S. Macleay, in his ' Horce Entomologies ; ' and the two papers 

 for which he is best known, the one ' On the Natural Affinities that 

 connect the Orders and Families of Birds," and the other, ' On the 

 Arrangement of the Genera of Birds, are devoted to the applications 

 of this system to ornithology. He was one of the founders of the 

 -Zoological Club of the Liunsean Society, from which sprung the Zoolo- 

 gical Society, of which society he was the first secretary, and through 

 the whole of his life he devoted much of his time and talents to its 

 interests. In his papers he did not confine himself to one depart- 

 ment of zoology, but there are many in the ' Zoological Journal ' and 

 ' Proceedings of the Zoological Society ' that attest his acquirements in 

 the whola range of zoology. He died suddenly in the midst of a 

 useful career, and has left among those who knew him a lively 

 sense of his worth as a friend and of his talents as a man of science. 



VIJA, GANITA. [ViGA GANITA.] 



VILLA'NI, GIOVANNI, born at Florence in the latter part of 

 the 13th century, was a merchant by profession, and travelled in 

 various countries in the pursuit of business. He also filled several 

 offices in the service of the republic of Florence, was repeatedly one 

 of the priors or executive council, and was employed in negociating 

 the peace with Lucca and Pisa in 1317. . He afterwards served in the 

 Florentine army in the war against Castruccio Castracani, after whose 

 death, in 1328, he negociated the peace with Lucca. He was involved 

 in the bankruptcy of the mercantile company of the Bardi in 1345, by 

 which he was a great loser, and he was even imprisoned in conse- 

 quence of it as an insolvent. He died of the plague in 1348. Villani 

 wrote the history of his country, in twelve books, from the building 

 of Florence to the time of the author's death. He does not however 

 confine himself to the history of Florence, but he relates also the 

 occurrences of other countries, both of Italy and out of Italy, so as to 

 retain the character of a general chronicler. In the earlier period of 

 his narrative he exhibits considerable credulity, and a want of critical 

 skill, but as he draws near to his own times, he can be more depended 

 upon for correctness of facts and impartiality. Villani, though 

 belonging to the Guelph party, appears to have been, as a writer, com- 

 paratively free from party spirit. His style is remarkably clear ; his 

 language is the pure Florentine of his age, some of the expressions of 

 which however are now become antiquated. Villani is liable to the 

 charge of plagiarism, for he has copied in great part the older 

 chronicle of Iticordano Malespiui, without once mentioning him, 

 which chronicle, including the continuation, by Giacotti Mulespini, 

 comes down as far as the year 1236. From this epoch, however, to 

 that of Villani's death, 1348, Villani's history is original. The work 

 appears to have lain forgotten for nearly two centuries, until it was 

 first printed at Venice in 1537. Machiavelli quotes Villani once at 

 the beginning of the second book of his ' Storie Florentine,' but he 

 does not seem to have followed or consulted him in his narrative, and 

 the other historians anterior to Machiavelli do not mention. Villani's 

 work. It is worthy of remark that the chronicle of Dino Compagni, 

 also a writer of the 14th century, whose interesting narrative embraces 

 part of the period of that of Villani, remained unedited till the 18th 

 century, when Muratori published it in his great collection. 



The first ten books of Villani's history were published at Venice in 

 1537, and the eleventh and twelfth books were afterwards published 

 at Florence in 1554, under the title, 'La Seconda Parte della Cronica 

 Universale de' suoi Tempi, di Giovanni Villani, Cittadino Fiorentino.' 

 In 1587 Baccio Valori published a new and more correct edition of the 

 whole at Florence, and dedicated it to Francesco de' Medici : ' Istoria 

 di Giovanni Villani, Cittadino Fiorentino, nuovamente corretta, e alia 

 sua vera lezione ridotta.' This is the edition which is quoted by the 

 academy of La Crusca as a ' Testo di Lingua,' or a book of authority in 

 matters of language. 



MATTED VILLANI, brother of Giovanni, wrote, after his brother's 

 death, a continuation of his history, and brought it down to the year 

 1363, in which he died. His veracity has been praised by Muratori, 

 but his style is inferior to that of his brother. 



FiLipro VILLANI, Matteo's son, also added a continuation to his 

 father's narrative, including the years 1363-4. The whole body of 

 history by the three Villani was published together by Muratori, and 

 has been reprinted several times since. 



Filippo Villani was also a Latin writer ; he wrote, ' De Origine 

 Civitatis Florentias et ejusdem fatnosis Civibus.' The first part of the 

 work, which treats of the origin of Florence, is full of fables, and it 

 has never been printed. Of the second part which contains short bio- 

 graphies of distinguished men of Florence, detached biographies in 

 the original text have been published in the Life of Ambrosius Carnal- 

 dulensis, by Mehus, who discovered the manuscript, and some others 

 by Sarti ; Moreui published those of Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio, 



