S I G 
Sistina, where he pa 1 nted the Journey of Moses and Zip- 
porah, and the Promulgation of the old Law; exhibiting 
a superior arrangement of composition. He painted at 
Urbino, Volterra, Arezzo, Sienna, and Florence, and 
established a name among the most eminent of the Floren¬ 
tine painters. He died in 1521, aged 82. 
SI'GNPOST. & That upon which a sign hangs.-—This 
noble invention of our author’s hath been copied by so 
many signpost daubers, that now ’tis grown fulsome, 
rather by their want of skill than by the commonness. 
Drt/den. 
SIGNY LE GRAND, a small town in the north-east of 
France, department of the Ardennes, on the Vaux. Popula¬ 
tion 2100 ;. 14 miles north-west of Mezieres. 
SIGNY LE PETIT, a village in the north-east of France, 
department of the Ardennes, with 1700 inhabitants; 11 miles 
west of Rocroy. 
SIGONXO (Carlo), was born of a good family at 
Modena, about the year 1524. At the age of seventeen he 
went to Bologna, where he passed three years in the study 
of philosophy and medicine, to which last profession he was 
destined by his father. But having no turn for physic, he 
■spent a year at Pavia, and then entered into the service of 
■cardinal Grimani. At the age of twenty-two he was taken 
by invitation from his native city to occupy the chair of 
Greek, vacant by the departure of Porta, the master under 
.whom he had formerly studied. In 1550 he made himself 
advantageously known to the learned world by publishing 
the “ Fasti Consulares,” with a commentary, which quickly 
went through several editions. In 1552 he was invited to 
the professorship of belles-lettres at Venice, and in that city 
he published seven discourses on important topics of 
literature, and his valuable notes and conjectural emenda¬ 
tions of Livy. In 1560 he was removed to the chair of 
eloquence at Padua, then the most celebrated of the Italian 
universities, but in 1563 he accepted an invitation to 
Bologna, which was from this time the usual place of his 
residence. In this situation he rendered himself so acceptable 
to the city, that he was presented with its freedom, together 
with a large increase of salary. Here he employed himself 
in the compositioti of learned works, which have handed 
down his name to posterity with high honour, and he was 
so well satisfied with his condition, that he refused a very 
flattering proposal from Stephen, king of Poland, to occupy 
a professorship in that country. He visited Rome in 1578, 
where he was honourably received by pope Gregory XIII., 
by whom he was engaged to compose an ecclesiastical 
history. Of this, however, he executed no more than some 
learned illustrations of Sulpicius Severus; for he died at 
Modena in the year 1584. He was a most able and 
successful elucidator of ancient history and antiquities. He 
was indefatigable in searching to the bottom all subjects 
which he undertook to examine, so that in many he left 
little to be added by later enquirers, and his works are all 
.carefully composed in a pure, and even an elegant, Latin 
style. Besides the pieces already mentioned, he published 
.many valuable tracts on the Roman laws and customs, also 
on the republics of the Hebrews, Athenians, and Lace¬ 
daemonians. He composed twenty books of a history 
relating to the western empire, from the time of Dioclesian 
to its final destruction, and he performed the more arduous 
task of framing from the rude and obscure chronicles of the 
times, a history of the kingdom of Italy, from the arrival of 
the Lombards to the year 1286. Sigonio was involved in 
several controversies, in one of which he is supposed to have 
disgraced himself. About twelve months before he died, an 
intimate friend of his edited a pretended treatise of Cicero, 
entitled “ Consolatio.” Its authenticity was immediately 
impugned by critics, and there is now no doubt that it was 
not genuine; but Sigonio wrote so warmly in defence of it, 
that he is .generally supposed to be the author. The works 
of this learned man were published collectively in 1732-3, 
by Argelati, at Milan, in six vols. fol. with his Life, by Mu- 
ratori, prefixed. 
S I K 203 
SIGRAMMA, two small islands of the Hebrides, on the 
west coast of the Isle of Lewis. 
SIGRI, Cape, the north-west point of the island of Mity- 
lene. Lat. 39. 26. N. 
SIGTUNA, a small town of Middle Sweden, in the pro¬ 
vince of Upland, on a creek of the lake of Malar. It was 
anciently a place of note, and is supposed by some anti¬ 
quaries to have been founded by the celebrated Odin or 
Sigge. It was at one time pillaged by the Norwegians; 
at another by the Russians; and having long been deserted 
by the Swedish nobility, for Stockholm, it is now a petty 
place, with hardly 500 inhabitants; 10 miles north of 
Stockholm. 
SIGUAN-GUYACU, a small river of Quito, in the pro¬ 
vince of Mainas, which runs north-north-west, and enters 
the Yana. 
SIGUAS, a river of South America, in the province of 
Veragua, which enters the Pacific Ocean. 
SIGUENZA, anciently Segontium, a city of Spain, in 
Old Castile, province of Guadalaxara, situated on the edge 
of a mountain near the source of the Henares. It contains 
5000 inhabitants, is the see of a bishop, and was the seat 
of an university founded in 1441, by cardinal Ximenes, but 
suppressed in 1807. It contains three churches, three con¬ 
vents, two hospitals, a castle, and an arsenal. In the en¬ 
virons there are salt springs. A battle was fought here 
between Pompey and Sertorius; and, in the beginning of 
the 7th century t the Goths were defeated here by a Roman 
army; 75 miles north-east of Madrid, and 95 south-south¬ 
east of Burgos. Lat. 40. 58. N. long. 2. 57. W. 
SIGUETTE, in the Manege, was a semicircle of hollow 
and vaulted iron, with teeth like a saw, to be put upon 
the nose of a fiery horse, in order to keep him in sub¬ 
jection. 
SIHIAM, a town of China, of the third rank, in Chan-si. 
S1HO, a town of China, of the third rank, in Chan-si. 
SIHOA, a town of China, of the third rank, in Honan. 
SIHON, or Sier, the ancient Jaxartes , a large river of 
Independent Tartary, rising on the western side of the 
mountains which separate that region from Cashgar, in Chi¬ 
nese Tartary. After a long course, chiefly to the north¬ 
west, it falls into the Aral sea, on its eastern side. The 
country through which it flows, though little known, is 
described as very fertile; and on its banks are the great 
cities of Koukan Khojund, Taschkent, and others. 
SIHUTLA, a town of Mexico, in the province of Me- 
choacan; 25 miles west of Zacatula. Lat. 18. 45. N. long. 
103. 26. W. 
SI KAKAP, a strait in the Eastern seas, separating the 
Poggy or Nassau islands, two miles long, and a quarter of 
a mile in width, containing several islets, and forming a 
safe road for ships. 
SIK, or Sike, adj. Such. Retained in the north of 
England: as, sik a thing; siklike. See Such. 
Sike mister bene all misgone, 
They heapen hills of wrath ; 
Sike syrlie shepherds han we none. 
They keepen all the path. Spenser. 
SIKAR, a town of Hindostan, province of Ajmeer, sub¬ 
ject to the rajah of Jyenagur. Lat. 27. 32. N. long. 75. 
5. E. 
S1KARIA, or Sakaria, a considerable river of Asia 
Minor, which rises in the heart of Caramania, near Sevri- 
hissar and the Salt Lakes. For a long time it pursues a 
north-west course, passing near Eskishehr and Isnik, then 
turns to the north-east, and falls into the gulf of Erekli, in 
the Black Sea. Lat. 41. 10, N. long. 30. 45. E. 
SIKE, s. [pc, pch, Sax., a water-furrow; sijke, Icel., a 
streamlet.] A small stream or rill; one which is usually 
dry in summer. A water-furrow, and a gutter. Used in the 
north of England. 
SITEER, adj. and adv. The old word for sure or surely. 
Mr. Mason affects to doubt that, though Spenser frequently 
uses 
