425 



VITTORINO DA FELTRE. 



VIVIANI, VINCENTIO. 



426 



but without the notes of Caesarinus ; and again, with a less copious 

 index, in 1535. The first five books, by Caporali, Perugia, folio, in 

 1536 ; by Barbaro, Venice, folio, in 1556 ; and again, by Barbaro, in 

 quarto, in 1567, reprinted in quarto in 1584, and in small folio in 

 1629 and in 1641 ; and by the Marchese Qaliani, with the Latin text, 

 in 1758; in folio, at Naples, and, without the Latin, in 1790; into 

 Spanish, by Urrea, Alcala de Henarez, folio, in 1602 ; and at Madrid, 

 by Ortiz y Sanz, large folio, with plates, in 1787 ; into English, by 

 B. Castell, with notes by Inigo Jones and others, 2 vols. fol. 1730 ; 

 by W. Newton, London, 2 vols. fol., with plates, in 1771-91 ; by W. 

 Wilkins, R.A., ' The Civil Architecture of Vitruvius,' in two parts, 

 4to, in 1812, being a translation of the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth 

 books only ; but the text is not entire and the introductions are 

 omitted ; and by Joseph Gwilt, London, in royal 8vo., in 1826, to 

 which is prefixed a list of the several editions and versions of Vitruvius, 

 of which the one here given is an abstract. His work was translated 

 into Flemish by Peter Koek. 



VITTORI'NO DA FELTRE, was born in 1379, at Feltre in North 

 Italy, studied at Padua under the celebrated Guarino of Verona, and 

 afterwards became professor of rhetoric and philosophy in the same 

 university. Being some time after invited by G. F. Gonzaga, lord of 

 Mantua, to superintend the education of his children, Vittorino re- 

 paired to Mantua, where a separate and commodious residence was 

 prepared for himself and his pupil, which was named 'La Giocosa.' 

 Other youths of distinction repaired thither in succession to avail 

 themselves of Vittorina's instruction, and among them Federico di 

 Montefeltro, afterwards duke of Urbino, Giberto, prince of Correggio, 

 Taddeo Manfredi, of the princely house of Faenza, Gio. Battista Palla- 

 vicino, afterwards bishop of Reggio, Lodovico Torriano and Bernardo 

 Brenzoni, who became afterwards celebrated as jurists, Theodore Gaza 

 and George of Trebisond. 



Ambrogio Traversari, or Camaldulensis, who visited the school of 

 Vittorino at Mantua, gives in his Epistles (lib. vii. & viii.) an inter- 

 esting account of his system of education ; and Carlo Rosmini has 

 written a work on the same subject, entitled ' Idea dell" ottimo 

 precettore nella vita, e disciplina di Vittorino da Feltre a de' suoi 

 discepoli." It appears from the example of Vittorino, of Guarino 

 Veronese, and others, that education in the larger sense of the term, 

 was better understood in Italy in the 14th century than it has been 

 since, but it was confined to the upper classes. Gymnastics formed 

 a part of Vittorino's system. He lived with his pupils and took his 

 meala with them. Their fare was wholesome, but plain. He had 

 tablets of various colours to teach his younger pupils the rudiments 

 of reading. His older pupils were instructed in rhetoric, mathematics, 

 and ethics. He was very strict with regard to their morals. He 

 watched the disposition and abilities of each pupil, in order to direct 

 him to that particular professional course for which he was best 

 adapted. Temperate in his corrections, he allowed time to pass 

 between the offence and its punishment, and he never showed himself 

 out of temper. He was beloved by his disciples, and he loved them 

 like a father. Such was the character of this distinguished preceptor. 



(Corniani, / Secoli della Letteratura Italiana ; Tiraboschi, Storia 

 della Letteratura Italiana ; Rosmini, as above mentioned.) 



VI'VARES, FRANCOIS, a celebrated engraver, born at Lodeve, 

 near Montpellier, in 1712, and died in London in 1782. He was, it is 

 said, originally a tailor, but he did not keep long to that occupation. 

 He came early to England, and learned landscape-engraving here from 

 J. B. Chatelain, but being possessed of great ability, he studied from 

 nature direct, and formed a style of his own. His great excellence was 

 in foliage, and he was one of the best engravers after Claude, " and pre- 

 served," says Strutt, "as much of the picturesque beauties of that 

 admirable painter as could be expressed by two colours only." Strutt 

 continues : " He kept a print-shop in Newport-street, near Newport 

 Market, for a considerable length of time, where he died some few 

 years since. His widow still continues in the same shop (1786), and 

 carries on the print-selling business." 



Vivares etched also with great freedom. His prints are not uncom- 

 mon : Huber, in his ' Manuel des Amateurs,' &c., mentions fifty-seven, 

 many of which are English landscapes. Strutt notices only four, all 

 after Claude Lorraine. His works are unequal : some are hard, and 

 are totally deficient in aerial perspective a defect perhaps of the 

 pictures engraved, for in his works after Claude, who was a great 

 master in this respect, the aerial perspective is well expressed. 



VIVARI'NI, the name of a celebrated family of painters in the 15th 

 century, of the island of Murano at Venice. The oldest of this family, 

 the reputed Luigi Vivarini the Elder, lived about 1414, according to a 

 picture in the church of Santi Giovanni e Paolo at Venice, inscribed 

 with his name and this date ; but as this is the only work attributed 

 to him, Lanzi doubts whether there were two Luigis; and, as the 

 inscription is not an autograph, he concludes that there is an error in 

 the name or iu the date, and that the picture may be the work of 

 Luigi Vivarini, called the Younger, who lived towards the close of the 

 15th century. 



Ridolfi and Zanetti mention, after Luigi, a Giovanni and an Antonio 

 Vivarini, or Da Murano ; but Lanzi has shown that this Giovanni was a 

 German, known as Joannes de Alemania, or Johann Alamanus. There 

 is mention of Antonio as late as 1451 ; he painted several works in 

 company with Johana Alamanus and his own brother Bartolomeo 



Vivarini. Some of his pictures are still in a good state of preservation ; 

 they are richly coloured, and, for the period, well drawn : there is one 

 of these works in the Venetian Academy, inscribed ' Joannes de Ale- 

 mania et Antonius de Muriano pinxit.' 



Bartolomeo was a more distinguished painter; he was the first 

 Venetian who painted what is called in oil His first picture in this 

 manner is dated 1473 : it is now in the church of Santi Giovanni e 

 Paolo at Venice. He painted several pictures in oil and ' a tempera,' 

 in the Gothic style, and generally in various compartments, but in 

 excellent taste for that style. 



Luigi dei Vivarini the Younger was likewise a good painter for his 

 period (1490). His master-piece is St. Jerome caressing a lion, from 

 which some monks are flying in fear, in the Scuola di San Girolamo at 

 Venice. In the Sala delle Antiche Pitture, in the Venetian Academy, 

 there are several pieces by Bartolomeo and Luigi Vivarini. 



VIVES, JOHN LOUIS, commonly called LUDOVICUS VIVES, was 

 born at Valencia in Spain, in March 1492. He received his early edu- 

 cation in his native country, and went to the University of Paris to 

 study dialectic. He afterwards went to the University of Louvain, 

 and there devoted himself to the study of the ancient languages, and 

 ultimately became professor of humanity or the Latin language at 

 Louvain. He had at Paris been a zealous disciple of the scholastic 

 philosophy, but he had now become disgusted with it, and in 1519 he 

 published a book against the schoolmen, entitled ' Liber in Pseudo- 

 Dialecticos.' At Louvain Vives formed an intimate friendship with 

 Erasmus and Budseus. He undertook to edit for the series of works 

 of the fathers set on foot by Erasmus, Augustin ' De Civitate Dei ; ' 

 and this edition was published in 1522, and dedicated to Henry VIIL, 

 king of England. Henry very soon after invited Vives to England, 

 and gave him the charge of the education of the Princess Mary. For 

 the benefit of his royal pupil Vives wrote two little essays on educa- 

 tion, published under the title ' De Ratione Studii Puerilis Epistolae 

 Duse.' Vives resided, while he was in England, principally at Oxford, 

 was admitted in that university to the degree of doctor of laws, and read 

 lectures on law and humanity. Henry VIII. went with his queen to 

 Oxford, in order to be present at some of his lectures. Vives however 

 soon lost the favour of the king by making open opposition to the divorce 

 of Catherine of Aragon ; he was put into prison by the king's order, 

 and remained imprisoned for six months. When released, he left 

 England, and went to visit his native country. He soon went from 

 thence again into the Netherlands, and settled at Bruges, where he 

 married, and devoted himself assiduously to study. The greatest 

 number of his works were composed between his taking up his resi- 

 dence at Bruges and his death. He died on the 6th of May 1540, at 

 the age of forty-eight. 



Vives has a distinguished place among the philosophers who, towards 

 the close of the 16th century, undermined the hitherto supreme 

 influence of the schoolmen, and gave an impulse to the study of 

 classical literature. He is spoken of as having been one of a trium- 

 virate in the republic of letters, of which Erasmus and Budaeus are 

 the two other members, all three being equally distinguished for 

 learning, while Erasmus had the pre-eminence in eloquence, Budasus 

 in wit, and Vives in soundness of judgment. The works of Vives are 

 very numerous, and comprehend a wide range of subjects philology, 

 mental and moral philosophy, and divinity. Those which are best 

 known are 'DeCausis Corruptarum Artium;' 'De Initiis Sectis et 

 Laudibus Philosophorum ; ' ' De Veritate Fidei Christianse;' and'De 

 Anima et Vita.' A complete edition of his works was published at 

 Basel, in 2 vols. fol., in 1555, and another at Valencia, his birthplace, 

 in 1782. A list of his works may be found in Niceron, ' Mdmoires 

 pour servir,' &c., torn, xxi., p. 172.) 



VIVIA'NI, VINCE'NTIO, a learned mathematician of Italy, who 

 was born of a noble family at Florence, on the 5th of April 1622. He 

 received in that city a good general education, but having a decided 

 inclination for mathematical researches, he applied himself diligently 

 to the study of the ancient geometry in the works of Euclid and 

 Pappus, and he is said to have acquired a complete knowledge of the 

 four first books of Euclid's ' Elements ' without the assistance of a 

 teacher. 



In the seventeenth year of his age Viviani became a pupil of Galilei, 

 who was living in retirement at Arcetri, and who, though then 

 blind and infirm, rendered him a proficient in the higher branches of 

 mathematical science. After the death of that distinguished philoso- 

 pher, he continued during several years to prosecute his studies under 

 the direction of Torricelli, who had previously been his fellow-pupil, 

 and for whom, as well as for Galilei, he expressed to the end of his 

 life the highest esteem and gratitude. 



Before he was twenty-four years of age he formed the project of 

 restoring the lost treatise of Aristseus entitled, in Latin, ' De Locis 

 Solidis,' and he actually began the work; other occupations however 

 prevented him for a long time from proceeding with it, and it was not 

 completed till near the end of his life, though a first edition was pub- 

 lished iu 1673, at Florence. The treatise of the Greek geometer, who 

 was nearly contemporary with Euclid, consisted of five books, and 

 contained the demonstrations of certain properties of the conic 

 sections ; but nothing remains of it except the enunciations of the 

 propositions, which have been preserved in the 'Mathematical 

 Collections' of Pappus. 



