844 



VOLPATO VOLTA. 



putation ; and, taking up his residence at Auteuil, 

 near Pan*, he became intimately connected with 

 some of the most eminent among his literary con- 

 temporaries. On the convocation of the states- 

 general, in 1789, Volney was elected a deputy from 

 the tier flat of Anjou, when he embraced the 

 cause of liberty, and frequently appeared with ad- 

 vantage as a public speaker. In 1791, he published 

 his deistical work, entitled Lei Ruines, ou Medita- 

 tions mr let Revolutions des Empires. After the 

 conclusion of the sessions of the national assembly, 

 he accompanied M. Pozzo di Borgo to Corsica, 

 where he had projected some agricultural improve- 

 ments. He made attempts to establish in that 

 island the cultivation of the sugar-cane, indigo, and 

 other tropical plants; but he was unsuccessful. 

 Returning to Paris, he suffered persecution under 

 the reign of terror ; and, after ten months' imprison- 

 ment, the fall of Robespierre restored him to liberty. 

 In November, 1794, he was appointed professor of 

 history at the normal school ; and the course of 

 lectures on the philosophy of history which he 

 delivered, and which was published and translated 

 into English, added considerably to his reputation. 

 In 1795, he made a voyage to the United States of 

 America; and he would probably have settled in 

 America, had not the prospect of a war with France 

 induced him to return home in the spring of 1798. 

 After the revolution which elevated Bonaparte to 

 the consulship, he was nominated a senator ; and it 

 is said the office of second consul was designed for 

 him, but his political opinions prevented the ap- 

 pointment from taking place. In the senate, he 

 co-operated with Lanjuinais, Cabanis, Destutt de 

 Tracy, Collaud, Garat, and others, whose influence 

 was constantly exerted in the cause of freedom. 

 After the restoration, Volney, by a decree of the 

 fourth of June, 1814, was designated a member of 

 the chamber of peers, where he remained faithful 

 to his principles, always appearing among the ar- 

 dent defenders of the rights of the nation. His 

 death took place at Paris, in 1820. Besides the 

 works already mentioned, he published Simplifica- 

 tion des Langv.es Orientales, Ou Methode nouvelle et 

 facile d'apprendre les Langues Arabe, Persane et 

 Turque, avec les Caracteres Europeens (1795, 8vo.); 

 Tableau du Climat et du Sol des Etats Unis d'Ame- 

 rique (1803, 2 vols., 8vo.), with a Vocabulary of 

 the Language of the Miamis ; Cronologie d' Hero- 

 dote conforme a son Texte (1808, 2 vols., 8vo.) ; 

 Recherches nouvelles sur I'Histoire Ancienne (1814 

 1815, 3 vols., 8vo.). His (Euvres completes, 

 with his Life, appeared at Paris, in 1821, in 8 vols. 

 VOLPATO, GIOVANNI, an engraver, born at 

 Bassano, in 1733, spent his early years in executing 

 drawings for embroidery. Having acquired the use 

 of the burin, without any instruction, he afterwards 

 went to Venice, where he executed engravings, in 

 connexion with Bartolozzi, for Wagner, a picture 

 dealer, and finally left Venice for Rome. Here a 

 society of amateurs, at the head of whom was Er- 

 cole Bonajuti, had been formed for the purpose of 

 procuring engravings of Raphael's works in the Va- 

 tican. The drawings of the Spanish painter La 

 Veja, in eighty sheets, which had been prepared by 

 a labour of three years for cardinal Silvio Valenti. 

 and which had been bequeathed by the cardinal 

 Luigi Valenti to the Vatican library, were made 

 the basis of this work. Volpato was employed in 

 its execution, and soon became distinguished among 

 the artists connected with him. The six sheets 

 executed by him are of the highest merit. They 



reproduce, as far as is possible in a small space, the 

 impression of the original, and prove how fully the 

 artist appreciated the pictorial merits of those great 

 paintings, by his masterly distribution of light and 

 shade. The most skilful union of the burin Tvith 

 the dry-point could alone have enabled him to ac- 

 complish this difficult task in a work of such ex- 

 tent. The publication of Raphael's loygie and ara- 

 besques placed Volpato at the head of a school of 

 design, and gave him the honour of having rendered 

 the productions of that great master more generally 

 known, and of having awakened a purer taste among 

 engravers. Accuracy of execution, and attention 

 to the pictorial effect, so far as it depends not upon 

 colouring, but upon light and shade, are the distin- 

 guishing merits of his school, from which proceeded 

 Raphael Morghen, at first the pupil, afterwards the 

 friend, and finally the son-in-law of Volpato. Gavin 

 Hamilton, the companion of his Socratic suppers, 

 at which Canova also used to be present, was not 

 without influence upon the taste of the artist. 

 Volpato died in 1803, and Canova honoured the 

 memory of his friend and benefactor by a relief, 

 which is placed in the hall of the church of the 

 Apostles in Rome. 



VOLSCI ; an Ausonian tribe, which resided, 

 before the foundation of Rome, in the ancient La- 

 tium (now Campagna di Roma}. They had a re- 

 publican government. Livy calls them the eternal 

 enemies of Rome. Their principal city was An- 

 tium, the ruins of which are to be seen in the 

 neighbourhood of cape Angio. Corioli, from which 

 Coriolanus derived his surname, was another city 

 of theirs. After having several times endangered 

 the Roman state, they were conquered, and dis- 

 appeared from history, like the other tribes of La- 

 tium. 



VOLTA, ALESSANDRO, descended from a re- 

 spectable family of Como, was born in that place, 

 in 1745, and died there in 1827. While pursuing 

 his studies at Como, he displayed not less inclina- 

 tion for the poetic art than for the severe sciences, 

 and composed a fine Latin poem upon physics. But 

 he soon after devoted himself entirely to physical 

 inquiries, and laid the foundation of his fame in 

 two treatises, published in 1769 and 1771, in which 

 he gave a description of a new electrical machine. 

 In 1774, Volta became rector of the gymnasium in 

 Como, and professor of physics, and, in 1779, was 

 transferred to Pavia. Here he occupied himself 

 entirely with electrical researches. He had pre- 

 viously (1777) invented the electrophorus, and his 

 invention of the electroscope was also an important 

 improvement. (See Electricity.') His observations 

 upon the bubbles which arise from stagnant water, 

 led him also to some valuable discoveries in regard 

 to gases. The electrical pistol, the eudiometer, 

 the lamp with inflammable air, the electrical con- 

 denser, and other inventions, are among his claims 

 to renown. He next turned his attention to some 

 of the atmospherical phenomena, as the nature of 

 hail, &c., and subsequently increased his reputation 

 by the discovery of the Voltaic pile (see Galvanism}, 

 and, in 1782, made a tour through France, Germany, 

 England and Holland, on which occasion he was 

 treated with great respect by Haller, Joseph II. and 

 Voltaire. On his return to Italy, he introduced 

 the cultivation of the potato into Lombardy. In 

 1794, he received the Copleian medal from the 

 royal society of London, on account of his paper 

 upon the condenser; and, in 1801, his electric ap- 

 paratus attracted so much notice in France that 



