V A L 



V A L 



neric charafter, and to which the name has been iince 

 generally apphed. See Pergularia. 



I. V. Pergulanus. Sweet Bower-vine. Burm. Ind. 51. 

 (Flos pergulanus ; Rumph. Amboin. v. 6. book 7. 51. 

 t. 29. f. 2. Carack naffi of the Malays. Pergularia glabra ; 

 Linn. Mant. 53. Willd. Sp. PI. v. i. 1247.)— This, the 

 only known fpecies, is a native of Java and Amboyna, ufed 

 for bowers and treillis-work, as it makes a very thick (hade. 

 The Malay women are fond of adorning their liair with its 

 fragrant flowers. Thejiem is perennial, fhrubby and twiir- 

 ing. Ltaves oppoiite, llaiked, ovate, acute, entire, thick 

 and fhining, five inches long, two and a half or three wide, 

 with ftrong pale veins. When the leaves or twigs are 

 ■wounded, they difcharge a thick, vifcid, yellow milk. 

 Fhwer-Jlalls from between the foottfalks, forked, corym- 

 bofe. Flo<wers white, and highly fragrant, compared by 

 Rumphius to thofe of Jafmine, (probably Jafminum Sambac,) 

 but having a Ihorter tube, with five fliining bodies in the 

 middle. He fpeaks of the fcent of thefe flowers as too 

 ftrong for Europeans, though highly ellcemed by the 

 natives of the country where they grow. 



VALLE, PiETRO BELLA, in Biography, a Roman pa- 

 trician, who, in the year 16 14, commenced his travels into 

 Egypt, Turkey, Perfia, and India. At Bagdat he fell in 

 love with a young female of the Maronite fedl of Chriftians, 

 jLud married her. She accompanied him in his journey, and 

 on his return towards Italy, flie died near the Perfian gulf. 

 The lofs fo much afTcfted him, that he had her remains em- 

 balmed, and carried them with him during his fubfequent 

 travels, and on his return to Rome, they were magnificently 

 interred in the church of Ara Coeli ; and he himfelf pro- 

 nounced her funeral eulogy, which was printed. The ac- 

 count of his travels, written by himfelf in Italian, and con- 

 tained in fifty-four letters, was publifiied at Rome in 1650. 

 They have been often cited as authority, though not defti- 

 tute of marks of credulity, and ftill bear a refpeftable rank 

 among books of travels. The ftyle is pure and elegant, 

 though the nan-ation is prolix. Doni has fpoken of him in 

 terras of high commendation, and reprefents him as vvfell ac- 

 quainted with the Oriental languages, and with mufic. He 

 wrote on other fubjefts befides his travels, and was a mem- 

 ber of the Academy degli Umorifti. His fecond wife was a 

 Georgian, attached to his firft wife, and the companion of 

 his travels. Moreri. 



For the opinion of this agreeable writer concerning the 

 mufic of his own times, we refer to the article Opera, in- 

 fertiiig here his account of the manner in which the firft 

 opera, or mufical drama, was exhibited at Rome, which is ex- 

 tremely amufing and curious. " Though no more than five 

 voices, or five inilruments, were employed, the exaft num- 

 ber which an ambulant cart could contain, yet thefe afforded 

 great variety : as, befides the dialogue of fingle voices, 

 icmetimes two, or three, and, at laft, all the five fung to- 

 gether, which had an admirable effeft. The mufic of this 

 piece, as mav be feen in the copies of it that were afterwards 

 printed, though dramatic, was not all in fimple recitative, 

 which would have been tirefome, but ornamented with beau- 

 tiful pafl^ages, and movements in meafure, without deviating 

 however from the true theatrical ftyle ; on which account it 

 pleafed extremely, as was manifeft from tlie prodigious con- 

 courfe of people it drew after it, who, fo far from being 

 tired, heard it performed five or fix feveral times ; there 

 were fome even who continued to follow our cart to ten or 

 twelve different places where it ilopt, and who never quitted 

 us as long as we remained in the ftreet, which was from four 

 o'clock in the evening till after midnight." 



This njaration feems to furnifti a curious circumftance to 



the liiftory of the ftage, which is, that the firft opera, oT 

 mufical drama, performed in modern Rome, like the firft 

 tragedy in ancient Greece, was exhibited in a cart. It has 

 been imagined by many of the learned, that the recitative in 

 modern operas is a revival of that fpecies of melos in which 

 ancient dramas were fung; and here the mo<veable Jlage on 

 which it was performed, Hke that ufed by Thefpis at 

 Athens, furnifoes another refemblance. 



" Plaullris vexifle, 



Poemata Thefpis." Her. 



Delia Valle, after having proved that the finging of his 

 time was better, and the compofitions more varied, more 

 rational, and amical to poetry, than the more ancient, pro- 

 ceeds to fpeak of inftrumental mufic ; and after difcriminat- 

 ing the different kinds of playing on an inftrument, in a 

 folo, in a full piece, in accompanying a voice, or leading a 

 band ; he fays, he mull agree with his friend, that folo 

 playing, however exquifite and refined, at length tires ; and 

 that it had frequently happened to organifts of the higheft 

 clafs, when loft and immerfed in carrying on a happy fub- 

 jeft of voluntary, to be filenced by a bell ; which never 

 happened to fingers, who, when they leave off, difpleafe the 

 congregation or audience, to whom their performance feems 

 always too ftiort. 



After difcufling inftrumental mufic, he cemes tojinging, 

 and this he confiders in folo fongs, and in mufic of many 

 parts. His friend, among the fcprani, or treble voices, of 

 his youth, had greatly praifed the falfetti who ufed to fing 

 in the pope's chapel, and elfewhere ; and Delia Valle fays 

 he remembered one of them, Gio. Luca Falfetto, who had 

 great execution, and went up to the clouds ; and mentions 

 Orazietto, a very- good finger, either in a falfet or tenor ; 

 Ottaviuccio and Verovio, famous tenors, who all three fung 

 in his cart. " However, thefe," he adds, " trills, graces, 

 and a good portamento, or direftion of voice, excepted, were 

 extremely deficient in the other requifites of good finging ; 

 fuch as piano ^ni forte, fweUing and diminifhing the voice 

 by minute degrees, exprefllon, affifting the poet in fortify- 

 ing the fenfe and palTion of the words, rendering the tone 

 of voice chearful, pathetic, tender, bold, or gentle at plea- 

 fure : thefe, with otlier embelliihments in which fingers of 

 the prefent times excel, were never talked of even at Rome, 

 till Emilio del Cavalierc, in his old age, gave a gocd fpeci- 

 men of them from the Florentine fchool, in his oratorio, at 

 the Chieia Nuova, at which I was myfelf, when very young, 

 prefent." 



What follows is extremely curious and fatisfaftory con- 

 cerning a delicate point of mufical hiftory, which is, the 

 firft eftabliihment of evirati in the pope's chapel, and the 

 ufe of them in early operas. 



It is aftoniftiing how much fooner Delia Valle got rid of 

 the pedantry of the then old fchool, than any of his contem- 

 poraries. He raanifcfls as much good tafte in his refleftions 

 on imitative and dramatic mulic, as any writer of the laft 

 century. 



Delia Valle 's biographers feem to have known nothing of 

 the corrcfpondence with Guidiccioni, or of his fliill and 

 good talle in mufic. This agreeable and intelligent traveller 

 died in 1652, aged 66. 



Valle, in Geography, a town of Norway, in the pro- 

 vince of Chriilianfand ; 16 miles S.W. of Chriftianfand. 

 — Alfo, a town qf Norway, in the province of Chriftian- 

 fand ; 44 miles N. of Chriftianfand Alfo, a town of 



Iftria, and chief place of a diftrift ; 8 miles N. of Pola. 

 N. lat. 45° 9'. E. long. 13' 57*. — Alfo, a town of Italy, 

 in the department of the Adda and Ogho ; 8 miles N.N.E. 



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