VICUGNA VIENNA. 



815 



from the Conqueror, and at the same time thirty- 

 sixth sovereign in succession from the Conquest, 

 gives nearly twenty-nine years to a generation and 

 twenty-two years to a reign, in respect of the 771 

 years which have elapsed since that period. The 

 commonly received average is thirty years to a ge- 

 neration and twenty years to a reign ; according to 

 which it appears, that the cares or luxuries, or both, 

 of a crown, occasion a sacrifice to the wearer of it 

 of one year of life, as compared with ordinary 

 mortals. 



VICUGNA. See Llama. 



VICUS ; Latin for village. From this word are 

 derived the final syllables of vie, wy, wick, in Teu- 

 tonic and French geographical names, as Longwy, 

 Sleswick, Viesvic (old village). 



VIDA, MARK JEROME ; a celebrated modern 

 Latin poet, born in 1490, at Cremona, of parents 

 who were poor, but of noble descent. He studied 

 with distinction at Padua, Bologna, and Mantua, 

 and was admitted when young into a congregation 

 of the canons regular of St Mark. He afterwards 

 went to Rome, and became a canon of St John La- 

 teran. His talent for Latin poetry recommended 

 him to Leo X., who gave him the priory of St Sil- 

 vester, near Tivoli. There he wrote his Christiad, 

 which was finished in the pontificate of Clement 

 VII., who, in recompense of his merit, bestowed on 

 him, in 1532, the bishopric of Alba. Paul III. had 

 intended to translate Vida to the see of Cremona ; 

 but the death of the pope prevented his promotion, 

 and Vida died at Alba, Sept. 27, 1566. His poeti- 

 cal productions, besides the Christiad, are Scacchia 

 Ludus (the Game of Chess), which has been highly 

 praised by Warton ; Poeticorum Libri Hi., trans- 

 lated by the abbe Batteux into French, and pub- 

 lished with the Poetics of Aristotle, Horace, and 

 Boileau ; Bombycum Libri ii. (On Silk-worms), 

 esteemed the most correct and elegant of his works ; 

 Hymni de Rebus Divinis ; Carminum Liber. His 

 prose works consist of Dialogi de Reipublica Digni- 

 tate Libri ii. : Discorsi contra gli Abitanti di Pavia 

 (Paris, 1562, 8vo., republished at Venice in 1764, 

 under the title of Creinonensium Orationes tres ad- 

 versus Papiensis in Controversia Principatus) ; and 

 Synodal Constitutions, Letters, &c. Most of these 

 works were published collectively at Padua (1731, 

 2 vols. 4to.) ; and his poems have been printed at 

 Cremona ( 1550, 2 vols.Svo.), at Oxford (1722, 4vols. 

 8vo. ; in 1 725 and 1733, 3 vols., 8 vo.). The Poetics 

 of Vida were translated into English by the Rev. 

 Christopher Pitt, and the poem on Chess by George 

 Jeffreys. Vida was one of the first among the Ita- 

 lians of the sixteenth century who attempted with 

 success, to revive Latin poetry. His versification 

 is harmonious ; and it is not to be denied that he 

 possesses poetical talents ; yet it must be allowed 

 that he pushed the imitation of Virgil to excess ; 

 and it has also been objected him, that he inter- 

 mingled too much of heathen mythology with his 

 religious poems. 



VIDI (Latin for / have seen) is often put with 

 the name of a person under documents, &c., which 

 must be witnessed by the person to give them va- 

 lidity. 



VIDONIA ; a white wine, the produce of the 

 island of Teneriffe, much resembling Madeira, but 

 of a tart flavour, and a quality inferior to the last 

 mentioned wine. It may become very palatable by 

 age, but never has the fulness of Madeira. 



VIENNA (German, Wren), capital of the Aus- 

 trian monarchy, one of the oldest cities of Germany, 



originated, like many others, from a Roman stand- 

 ing camp, established in order to command the 

 Danube. It was called Vindebona. In the fifth 

 century, Christianity penetrated to the shores of 

 the Danube, and carried civilization with it. In 

 791, Austria, and therefore Vienna, came into the 

 possession of Charlemagne, after the conquest of 

 the Huns. Charlemagne erected a church here, 

 with a school, &c. He was in the habit of secur- 

 ing his frontiers by erecting margraviates ; and Aus- 

 tria became one of them. Henry, margrave of 

 Austria, in 1141, laid the foundation of the famous 

 St Stephen's church. Vienna received commercial 

 privileges, and gradually became flourishing. It is 

 situated in Ion. 16 23' E., lat. 48 12 7 30" N., on 

 the southern bank of the Danube. The city rose 

 in importance chiefly from the time when it became 

 the permanent residence of the German emperors. 

 It shows in every part the traces of gradual increase. 

 The city proper is small ; but the thirty-four sub- 

 urbs, which have been, since 1703, surrounded by 

 a wall, make the whole place large. The circum- 

 ference of the whole is about fourteen miles, in- 

 cluding 7462 houses, besides the churches ; 1217 of 

 these houses belong to the city itself. The origin 

 of the name is uncertain. The climate is very 

 changeable, and winds frequent : they often make 

 the ground very dry ; and, as this contains much 

 gravel, the dust is very annoying. Diseases of the 

 chest, especially of the lungs, are frequent, and pro- 

 bably originate from the prevailing dry and sharp 

 air, and the irregular lives of the inhabitants, who 

 are more devoted to pleasure than the people of any 

 other city in Europe. The streets are generally 

 not wide. There are eight large, and ten smaller 

 public places. Joseph's place, containing a statue 

 of the emperor Joseph, a work of no great merit, 

 is the finest. The palaces are numerous, but, 

 with few exceptions, not in good taste. Even 

 the most recent structures show no improve- 

 ment in this respect, and there is a remarkable dif- 

 ference, in this particular, between Vienna and 

 Berlin. Much has been done, of late, for the con- 

 venience and embellishment of the city. The im- 

 perial castle attracts attention more by its extent 

 and antiquity, than by beauty or symmetry. Among 

 the fourteen principal churches, that of St Stephen 

 is the most ancient, largest and most magnificent. 

 Monuments of princes, generals and bishops, in- 

 teresting pictures, and thirty-eight altars, adorn its 

 interior. Its steeple (452 feet high) is one of the 

 loftiest in Europe ; 700 steps lead up to its summit. 

 It offers a beautiful prospect of the environs, which 

 are fertile and picturesque. See Ziska's Descrip- 

 tion of St Stephen's Church and all its Curiosities, 

 in German. The church of the Augustines has 

 been, since 1630, the church of the court: it con- 

 tains a mausoleum, the work of Canova, erected 

 in 1805, by Albert, duke of Saxe-Teschen, to the 

 memory of his wife. The vault in the church of 

 the Capuchins, at St Mary, where the imperial 

 family are buried, is historically interesting. Since 

 the time of Matthias, the remains of all the mem- 

 bers of the imperial family have been placed here ; 

 and therefore Joseph II., to show the foolishness 

 of some noblemen who lived in retirement to avoid 

 mixing with people below them, said, " If I should 

 choose to live like you, with my equals only, I 

 should be obliged to live in the vaults of St Mary." 

 The Protestants and the members of the Greek 

 church have six chapels, and the Jews a synagogue. 

 There are also fourteen monasteries and three nun- 



