V E R 



partifans of Vefpafian made it a place of arms. Towards 

 the year 249 A.D., the emperor Philip was put to death in 

 this city, or its environs, by order of Decius. Under the 

 empire of Carus, in 284, Sabinus Julianus revolted and took 

 poffefllon of Verona, but he was defeated by the emperor 

 near the walls of the city. It (hut its gates againft Con- 

 ftantine, when he took poflcffion of the empire againft Max- 

 entius ; but opened them after the defeat of the latter to the 

 conqueror, who treated the inhabitants with moderation after 

 his viftory. In 56S, Verona was transferred to the Lom- 

 bards. See the next article. 



Verona, in Geography, a city of Italy, and capital of 

 the Veronefe, the fee of a bilhop, fituatcd on the Adige. 

 It is fortified in the ancient manner, and defended by three 

 cailles ; two of which, namely, St. Felix and St. Pietro, 

 ftand on a hill ; and the third, called IJ Caftello Vccchio, 

 and a kind of citadel, lies in a plain along the river Adige, 

 which runs through the city, and over which are four ftone 

 bridges, of which the principal, near the laft-mentioned 

 caftle, is 348 feet long. The city makes a better appear- 

 ance by its delightful outlets than within, moll of the 

 ftreets being narrow, crooked, and dirty, and the houfes but 

 mean. The number of its inhabitants is now computed to 

 amount to nearly 50,000, but formerly was much greater. 

 The belt ftreet is that called the Corfo, which is pretty long. 

 The cathedral is an old building. One of the fineft churches 

 is that of St. Georgio, belonging to the Benediftines. The 

 palace in which the fociety, or academy, of Philharmonics 

 aflemble, as alfo the fociety of the Philati, in order to the 

 revival and improvement of martial exercifes, is remarkable, 

 particularly on account of the great colleftion of all the an- 

 cient infcriptions and monuments in the Etrurian, Punic, 

 Egyptian, Greek, and Latin languages, found or brought 

 here for a great many years paft. The largeil fquare in the 

 city is the Piazza d' Armi, in which is a marble ftatue, repre- 

 fenting the city of Venice. In the Palazzo della Regione, 

 or the Guildhall, are the ftatues of five illultrious natives of 

 Verona, viz. Catullus, Marcus jEmilius, Cornehus Nepos, 

 the elder Pliny, and Vitruvius ; but the moft valuable piece 

 of antiquity iicre is the celebrated Roman amphitheatre, ( fee 

 AMPliiTlfEATUE, j which fo far excecds all otluTs, the ileps, 

 or feats, on which the people fat, being Hill entire ; though, 

 in reality, but little of it appears ancient, having been care- 

 fully repaired, from time to time, at the city's expence. 

 The lear/ied count Maffei computed that it held 22,184 

 fpeflators : the outward wall and the upper llory are want- 

 ing. Near this city is a delightful place, called Campus 

 Martius, at prefent ufed for the annual fair ; it is conltrnft- 

 cd in a quadrangular form, with four gates, and in the 

 centre, along the Hands and booths, which are placed in a 

 direft line, one may fee all the four gates. The trade of 

 this city is not improved as it might be, by fupplying other 

 countries with the medicinal plants growing on Monte Balbo, 

 olives, oil, wine, and very good linen, fewing filk, and 

 woollen ftuffs. The Scaligeri were lords of this city for 

 170 years ; and one of them, for his greater fecurity, and to 

 keep the city in awe, built the Caftello Vecchio, and the 

 large ftone bridge. In 1387, Galeaflb Maria, firft duke of 

 Milan, drove out the Scaligeri, and ufurpcd the fovereignty 

 of this city ; but in the year 1409, tlie Venetians became 

 mafters of it. In 1796, Verona was taken by the French ; 

 60 miles W. of Venice. N. lat. 45° 37'. E. long. 8° 9'. 



VERONESE, Ai.KssANDRO, called i,'0rif//(7, in Biogra- 

 phy, was born at Verona in 1582. He acquired the name of 

 Orbetto, from having been, vvhilft a boy, thcconduftor of a 

 blind beggar > from this condition he was refcoed by Do- 

 menico Riccio, and inftrufted in the art of painting, for 

 Vol. XXXVII. 



V E R 



which he had exliibitcd confiderable ability. After pafliiij; 

 fome years with Riccio, of whom he became the rival rather 

 than the fcholar, he went to Venice, and there ftudied under 

 Carlo Caghari, and acquired an excellent idea of colouring. 

 He then went to Rome, and drew attentively, and in the 

 end compofed a ftyle of his own, in which he attempted to 

 combine the excellencies of the two fchools in which he had 

 ftudied, and in a great degree fucceeded. 



He had a ready imagination, fo that frequently he pro- 

 ceeded to paint his fmaller works without any preparatory 

 fketch. We feldora fee in this country any other than fmall 

 produdions of this celebrated mafter, and tliofe generally 

 painted upon marble, but it is not upon them that his fame 

 is founded. Lanzi, fpeakiiig of a piAure of his in the 

 church of S. Stefano in Verona, called the Forty Martyrs, 

 fays, " it is a work which, in the impafto of colour, and the 

 keeping, has the quality of the Lombard fchool ; it partakes 

 of the Roman in defign and expreflion, and of the Venetian 

 in colouring. It is the moft ftudied, the moft finidicd, the 

 gayeft, that he ever made, with a degree of beauty in the 

 heads, almoft rivalling thofe of Guido ; and with fo much 

 art in the compofition, that all is underftood, even the mul- 

 tiplied circumftances which are introduced in the back- 

 ground of the pifture." 



There is alfo another fine piAure by him at Verona, a 

 Pieta, in the church of the Mifericordia, which is efteemed 

 one of the very fineft in that city. He maintained himfelf 

 fully in competition with Andrea Sacchi and Pietro da Cor- 

 tona, in the church of La ConcefTione ; and he painted feveral 

 other piftures for public buildings in Rome. He died at 

 Rome 1648. 

 Veronese, Paolo. See Cagliari. 

 Veronese, in Geography, a province of Italy, fo called 

 from its capital, Verona, bounded on the north by the Tren- 

 tin, on the eaft by the Vicentin, on the fouth and foutii-weil 

 by the Mantuan, and on the weft by the lake of Garda ; about 

 50 miles in length, and 25 in breadth. The foil is fertile, 

 and produces plenty of filk, corn, wine, oil, and the moft de- 

 licious fruits. The Veronefe was anciently a Roman colony ; 

 afterwards it made a part of Lombardy. After divers revo- 

 lutions, it became the property of the houte of Efte, from 

 whence it fell to the dukes of Milan ; and in 1409, to the 

 Venetians. 



VERONICA, a term abbreviated fi-om vericenica, of 

 vera-icon, q. d. true image, and applied to portraits, or repre- 

 fentations of the face of our Saviour on handkerchiefs. 

 Veronicas are imitations of that celebrated original one, 

 preferved with great veneration at St. Peter's in Rome ; and 

 imagined by fome to be the handkerchief laid over our Sa- 

 viour's face in the fepulchre. 



The firft mention we find of this famous relic is in a cere- 

 monial compiled in 1143, dedicated to pope Celeftine, by 

 IJenedift, a canon of St. Peter's : but there is no mention 

 made of the time when it was brought to Rome. A fcaft 

 is kept in honour thereof in moft churches, on the Tuefday 

 in Quincjuagefima week. 



It is to be obferved, that the name veronica is only given to 

 fuch handkerchiefs as reprcfent no more of our Saviour than 

 his face ; for fuch as rcprefcnt his whole body, as that of 

 Befan^jn, which (hews his fore-part at length ; and that of 

 Turin, which reprcfents both his fore and hind-part, as 

 having covered him all over, were never called by this 

 name. 



The painters fometimcs reprcfent the veronica as held 



up by an angel, but moft commonly by a woman, which 



woman the common people imagine to be a faint, called 



St. Veronica ; a perfon of that name having been fup- 



I pofcd, 



