NIC 
with a Latin verfion, by Jerome Wolff. 
the life of his uncle John, metropolitan of Heraclea, 
compofed Scholia on Synefius ** De Infomaiis,”’ which have 
been publithed, befides other pieces ftill in MS. eri. 
NICERON, Joun Francis, a French mathematician 
in the feventeenth century, was born at Paris in the year 
tention, and his pe 
ptices, Catoptrices, 
et Dioptrices, Pars prima, de iis qui {peCtant ad vifionem 
dire¢tam,”” which he left unfinifhed. 
ETER, aman of 
Nicreron, JouHNn letters, was born at 
himfelf in literary purfuits, to which he had ever been warmly 
attached. Befides the ancient learnéd languages, he was well 
acquainted with the principal modern ones of Europe, and 
fome of his early publications were tranflations from the Eng- 
lifh. he wor 
by which he is principally known, is entitled 
«Mémoires pour fervir 4 1’ Hiftoir 
oire des Hommes illuftrés 
in company he po 
tion. His eulogy may be found in the fortieth volume of 
the memoirs above-mentioned, which was written by the abbé 
Goujet. Moreri. 
NICETAS 
died in 6. 
as the writer of a period of Byzantine hiftory from the 
death of Alexius Comnenus, where Zonaras ceafes, to the 
year 1203, being 85 years, in 21 books, which are ftill 
Nic 
They 
and were. inferted in the Louvre edition of the By- 
s of 1647. T i 
extant. 
rthodox Faith,’’ tranf- 
lated by Morel, and printed in 1580. Moreri. 
Niceras, furnamed Serron, bifhop of Heraclea in 
eleventh century, was author of a commentary upon 
oration of Gregory Nazianzen ; 0 i 
the 
the 
NICETERIA ATHENAS, Nixntnee AQnves, in Antiquity, 
an Athenian folemnity in memory of Minerva’s viftory over 
Neptune, when they contended which of them fhould have 
the honour of giving a name to the city afterwards called 
NICHABURG, in Geography, a town of Perfia, in 
Khorafan, famous for a mine of turquoife ftones in its 
neighbourhood; 30 miles S. of Mefchxd. 
NICHE, in -Archite@ure,a cavity, or hollow place, in the 
thicknefs of a wall, to place a figure or ftatue in. 
The word comes from the Italian nicchia, fhell; becaufe 
the ftatue is here inclofed in a fhell; or, pernaps by rea- 
fon of the fhell with which the tops of fome of them are 
ad 
rned. 
iches are made to partake of all the fegments under a 
femicircle. are fometimes at an equal diftance from 
the front, and are parallel or f{quare on the back with the 
front line ; in which cafe they are called {quare recefles, or 
{quare niches. 
The larger niches ferve for groups of figures; the {mall 
ones for fingle ftatues, and fometimes only for bufts. 
Great care muft be taken to proportion the niches to the 
figures; and that the pedeftal of the figures be proportioned 
to the niches. 
Niches are fometimes made with ruftic-work, 
Nice, Angular, that formed in the corner of the build- 
ue 
es] 
Nicue, Cul de four of a. See Cut. 
Nicnz, Ground, that which, inftead of bearing on a 
i round; as the niches of 
the portico of the Pantheon at Rome. Their ordinary 
proportion is to be two diameters in height, and one in 
width 
Nicne, Round, is that whofe plan and circumference are 
circular. 
Nicue, Square, that where they are fquare. 
UMN. See CoLUMN. 
NICHILIANISTA, in Church Hiflory, heretics who 
maintained that Chrift had no being 
NICHILS. See Niuits. 
Nicuits, Clerk of the. See CLErk. . 
NICHOLAS I, pope, in Biography, called the Great, 
a native of Rome, the fon of one ‘Theodore, was or- 
dained fub-deacon by pope Sergius II., and deacon of the 
Roman church by pope Leo IV. So high was the reputa- 
tion which he acquired in thefe offices, that upon the death 
of pope Benediét ILI. in 858, he was elected to fill the 
vacant dignity. When the emperor Lewis II., who ha 
lately left Rome, heard of this event, he returned to that 
city, and affifted in perfon at the coronation of the new 
2 pontiff. 
