NIC 
G8 
34 vols. nmo. including three volumes of Letters, and 
five of Moral Reflexions on the Epiftles and Gofpels 
throughout the Year. 2. Theological InftruXions, 9 vols. 
32010. confifting of two volumes on the Sacraments, two 
on the Creed, one on the Lord’s Prayer, two on the De¬ 
calogue, and two containing “ A Treatife on Prayer.” 
3. A Treatife on Human Faith, 1664, 4to. the joint pro- 
duXion of MM. Nicole and Arnauld. 4. The Perpetuity 
of the Faith of the Catholic Church refpeXing the Eucharift, 
1670, 1672, and 1674, 3 vols. 4to. in which he had fome 
afliftance from M. Arnauld. 5. Well-grounded Prejudices 
againfl: the Calvinifts. 6. A Treatife on the Unity of the 
Church, which is afnafterly work on the Catholic fide of 
the queftion. 7. The pretended Reformed conviXed of 
Scliifrn ; together with other controverfial pieces againfl: 
the Proteftants. 8. Imaginary and vifionary Letters, 
1657, 2 vols. nmo. intended to refute and expofe the re¬ 
veries of Maret de St. Sorlin. 9. Several treatiles on ge¬ 
neral Grace, colleXed together in 4 vols. nmo. with the 
writings of Arnauld, Quefnel, and otlier divines, who 
combated that fyftem. 10. A vaft number of articles in 
defence of Janfenius and Arnauld, and againfl: the Re¬ 
laxed Cafuilts, of which the reader may find a correX lift 
in the feventh edition of Alarm. 
NICO'LE (Francis), a very celebrated French mathe¬ 
matician, who flourifhed in the eighteenth century, was 
born at Paris in. the year 1-683. He early difcovered a 
ftrong attachment to mathematical ltudies, and, being 
blefled with an able inftruXor, he made a moft fuccefsful 
progrefs, and became intimately converlant with the 
higher branches of geometry. He was firft brought into 
notice by deteXing the fallacy of a pretended quadrature 
of the circle. The author of this quadrature was fo con¬ 
fident in the merit of his fuppofed ciifcovery, that he de- 
pofited 3ooolivresin the hands cfa public notary at Lyons, 
to be paid to any perfon who, in the judgment of the 
Academy of Sciences, fliould demonftrate his folution to 
be erroneous. Nicole undertook the talk, and fo effec¬ 
tually expofed the author’s‘errors, that the Academy 
.awarded him the prize, without the fmalleft hefitation. 
The premium thus obtained he prefented to the Hotel- 
Dieu of Lyons. In the year 1707, the Academy nomi¬ 
nated him mechanician ; in 1716, adjunX ; in 1718, aflo- 
ciate; and, in 1724, penfioner. He retained his penfion 
til! his death in 1758, when he was about feventy-five 
years of age. Though a profound geometrician, he mixed 
with the beft company, and was himfelf a lively and ami¬ 
able companion. His works are numerous, and inferted in 
the different volumes of the Memoirs of the Academy of 
Sciences. They are all mathematical, and chiefly in the 
higher departments of learning: a lift of them is given in 
Hutton's Math. Did. 
NICOLE'TE, a town of Canada, on the fouth-eaft 
bank of Lake St. Pierre, at the mouth of the River Nico- 
lete, which runs into this lake in lat. 46. 12. N. Ipn. 72. 
30. W. 
NICOLI'NO (Grimaldi), ilCavaliere, commonly known 
by the name of Nicolini. This great finger, and ftill 
greater aXor,-arrived in England in the year 1708, which 
forms an era in the annals of our lyric theatre; as.he was 
the firft vocal performer of the higheft clafs from Italy 
that trod our ftage, and gave us a tafte at once for fine 
finging and fine aXing. He was a native of Naples ; his 
voice was at firll z/uprano, but afterwards defcended into 
a full and rich contralto. Quadrio has ranked him very 
properly among the 'great opera-fingers who began to ap¬ 
pear. between 1690 and 1700:'for in 2697 and 1698 we find 
him the principal finger in the Neapolitan opera?, and in 
1699 and 1700 at Rome, where indeed he made his debut 
in 1694. From this period till his arrival in England, 
whither he was drawn, as Cibber informs us, chap. xi. by 
the report of our paftion for foreign operas, “ without any 
particular invitation or engagement,” lie fung at Venice; 
Milan, and other cities of Italy, where the mufical drama 
was eitablilhed. Before his abilities as a finger are conli- 
N I C 
dered, let us remind the reader of fir Richard Steele’s 
eloge upon him, in theTatler, N° 115, as an aXor ; where, 
after calling the opera (it was Pyrrhus and Demetrius) 
“ a noble entertainment,” he adds, “ for my own part I 
was fully fatisfied with the fight of an aXor, who, by the 
grade and propriety of his aXion and gefture, does honour 
to the human figure. Every one will imagine I mean 
fignior Nicolini, who fets olf the charaXer he bears in art 
opera by his aXion, as much as he does the words of it by 
his voice. Every limb and every finger contributes to 
the part he aXs, infomuch that a deaf man may go along 
with him in the fenle of it. There is fcarce a beautiful 
pofture in an old (ta'cue which he does not plant himfelf 
in, as the different circumftances of the ftorygive occafion 
for it. He performs the moft ordinary aXion in a manner 
fuitable to the greatnels of his charaXer, and fhews the 
prince even in the giving of a letter, or difpatching of a 
meU'enger. Our beft aXors (Continues he) are fomewh’at 
at a lois to fupport themfeives with proper gefture, as 
they move from any confiderable diftance to the front of 
the ftage ; but I have feen the perfon, of whom I am now 
fpeaking, enter alone, at the remoteft part of it, and ad¬ 
vance from it with fuch greatnefs of air and mien, as 
feemed to fili the ftage, and at the feme time commanded 
the attention of the audience with the majefty of his ap¬ 
pearance.” 
The opera-prices were raifed on the arrival of this per¬ 
former, the firft truly great finger who had ever fung in 
our theatre, to 15s. for the boxes on the ftage, lialf-a- 
guinea the pit and other boxes, and firft gallery five fhil- 
lings. Nicolini was a phenomenon that occupied the at¬ 
tention at this time of the whole nation ; and Addil'on, 
not in very good humour with operas fo foon after the 
failure of his Rofiunond, celebrates the abilities of Nico¬ 
lini as an aXor in the SpeXator, N c 13, after feveral hu¬ 
morous papers on the combat with the lion in the opera 
of Hydal'pes, with very high and ferious panegyric : “ It 
gives me a juft indignation,” fays he, “ to fee a perfbn 
whofe aXion gives new majefty to kings, refolution to 
heroes, and foftnefs to lovers, thus finking from the great¬ 
nefs of his behaviour, and degraded into the character of 
the London ’prentice. I have often wiflied that our tra¬ 
gedians would copy after this great mailer in aXion. 
Could they make the fame ufe of their arms and legs, and 
inform their faces with as fignificant looks and paflions. 
How glorious would an Englifh tragedy appear with that 
aXion which is capable of giving a dignity to the forced 
thoughts, cold conceits, and unnatural exprellions, of an 
Italian opera.” In 1712, when Nicolini appeared in the 
opera of Antiochus for the laft time before his departure 
for Itaiy, as was imagined for ever, Mr. Addil'on, in the 
SpeXator for June 14th, N° 405, fays, “ I am lorry to 
find, by the opera-bills for this day, that we are likely to 
lofe the greateft performer in dramatic msfic that is now 
living, or that perhaps ever appeared upon a ftage. I 
need not acquaint my readers that I am fpeaking of fig¬ 
nior Nicolini. The town is highly obliged to that excel¬ 
lent artift for having fliewn us the Italian mufic in its 
perfeXion, as well as for that generous approbation he 
lately gave to an opera of our own country, in which the 
compoler endeavoured to do juftice to the beauty of the 
words, by following that noble example which has been 
fet him by the greateft foreign mafters in that art.” This 
is allufive to the opera qf Calypfo, with the fifth perform¬ 
ance of which the lealon was doled, June 25,1712. Nico- 
iini, however, returned to England ; and, in the year 
1715, we find him perform ingin Handel’s opera of Rinaldo, 
and receiving his accuftomed applaufe. He continued 
here till the year 1717, when he returned to Italy for the 
laft time ; but continued in favour there as an aXor, after 
his vocal powers were faded, and a new ftyle of dinging 
was eftablifhed ; for in 1723 we ftiil find him at Rome 
with the Tell, in Leo’s Timocrate. Burneifs Hilt, of 
Mufic. 
NIC'OLO del ABA'TE, born at Modena in 151^, 
was 
