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VOL 
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and the figures scarcely discernible; and thus this grand 
work, one of the principal features of modern Rome, one of 
the greatest monuments of human ingenuity, and the support 
of the well-earned renown of an artist ranked among the best, 
has been sacrificed to ambition, vanity, and folly. Happily 
the composition is preserved by Dorigny’s print, and there is 
a great number of copies of it. Lanzi is of opinion, that 
M. Angelo must have aided Volterra in this great work, par¬ 
ticularly in the composition, as the other parts in the chapel 
are so far inferior to it. He is known to have been partial to 
him, and on terms of intimacy. One day calling in his 
absence at his study, he left behind a sketch of a colossal 
head, which Volterra never would permit to be removed, and 
which remains to this day. And when Pierino del Vaga died, 
and Angelo had the works of the Vatican assigned to him, he 
interested himself for and procured the appointment of Vol¬ 
terra to supply his place. To him also, with the consent of 
Angelo, pope Paul III. intrusted the slight clothing which 
is thrown over the nudities in the Last Judgment in the 
Sistini chapel, for which service however he was branded 
with the ludicrous name of II Bracket,tone, the breeches- 
maker. 
After his appointment in the Vatican, he was ordered to 
compleat the paintings in the Sala Regia begun by his pre¬ 
decessor, which he did, but not, as Vasari says, with skill 
equal to that he had exhibited in the chapel Orsini. 
When Julius III. mounted the papal throne, he dismissed 
Volterra from his superintendance, but afterwards assigned 
to him one half of a hall to paint, of which Salviati had the 
other part, but Volterra did little or nothing in it, having 
been disappointed in not finding the whole intrusted to 
him. 
He added, by means of his disciples, several other designs 
to the works in the Trinita da Monti, but turned his own 
mind principally to sculpture, and painted but little after this 
time. He died at Rome in 1566, aged 57. 
VOLTRI, a small but populous town of Italy; 9 miles 
west of Genoa. 
VOLTSCHANSK, a town of European Russia, in the 
government of Slobodsk-Uferaine, with 2700 inhabitants; 
60 miles north-east of Charkov. 
VOLTURNO, a river of Naples, which takes its rise in 
the Appennines, and falls into the gulf of Gaeta; 20 miles 
north-west of Naples. 
VOLUBI'LITY, s. [volubilis, Lat.] The act or power of 
rolling.— Volubility , or aptness to roll, is the property of a 
bowl, and is derived from its roundness. Watts. —Activity 
of tongue; fluency of speech. 
Say she be mute, and will not speak a word, 
Then I’ll commend her volubility. Shakspeare. 
Mutability; liableness to revolution.—He that’s a victor 
this moment, may be a slave the next: and this volubility 
of human affairs, is the judgment of providence, in the pu¬ 
nishment of oppression. L'Estrange. 
VO'LUBLE, adj. [volubilis , Lat.] Formed so as to roll 
easily; formed so as to be easily put in motion.—Neither the 
weight of the matter of which a cylinder is made, nor its 
round voluble form, which, meeting with a precipice, do 
necessarily continue the motion of it, are any more impu¬ 
table to that dead, choiceless creature in its first motion. 
Hammond .—Rolling; having quick motion. 
This less voluble earth, 
By shorter flight to the east, had left him there. Milton. 
Nimble; active. Applied to the tongue. —A friend pro¬ 
mised to dissect a woman’s tongue, and examine whether there 
may not be in it certain juices, which render it so wonderful¬ 
ly voluble and flippant. Addison. —These with a voluble 
and flippant tongue, become mere echoes. Watts. —Fluent of 
words. It is applied to the speech, or the speaker. —Cas- 
sio, a knave very, voluble ; no further conscionable, than in 
putting on the mere form of civil and humane seeming, for 
the better compassing of his loose affection. Shakspeare. 
VO'LUBLY, adv. In a voluble manner. 
This he as volubly would vent, 
As if his stock would ne’er be spent. Hudibras. 
VOLVIC, a town of France, department of the Puy de 
Dome; 7 miles north-west of Clermont en Auvergne. Po¬ 
pulation 2100. 
VO'LUME, s. [yolumen, Latin.] Something rolled, or 
convolved. As much as seems convolved at once: as a fold 
a serpent, a wave of water. 
Threescore and ten I can remember well; 
Within the volume of which time I’ve seen 
Hours dreadful, and things strange. Shakspeare. 
[ volume , Fr.] A book: so called, because books were 
anciently rolled upon a staff. 
Calmly, I do beseech you.- 
Aye, as an hostler, that for the poorest piece 
Will bear the knave by th’ volume. Shakspeare. 
VOLU'MINOUS, adj. Consisting of many complica¬ 
tions.—The serpent roll’d voluminous and vast. Milton. —■ 
Consisting of many volumes, or books. 
If heaven write aught of fate, by what the stars 
Voluminous, or single characters 
In their conjunction met, give me to spell. Milton. 
Copious; diffusive.—He did not bear contradiction with¬ 
out much passion, and was too voluminous in discourse. 
Clarendon. 
VOLU'MINOUSLY, adv. In many volumes or books. 
—The controversies are hotly managed by the divided 
schools, and voluminously every where handled. Gran¬ 
ville. 
VOLU'MINOUSNESS, s. State of being voluminous.— 
His works [Aquinas’s] mount to that voluminousness, they 
have very much by repetitions. Dodwell. 
VO'LUMIST, s. One who writes a volume; an author. 
Not in use. —Ye write them [volumes] in your closets, and 
unwrite them in your courts; hot vo/umists, and cold bi¬ 
shops ! Milton. 
VO'LUNTARILY, adv. \yolontiers, French.] Sponta¬ 
neously ; of one’s accord ; without compulsion.—Sith there 
is no likelihood that ever voluntarily they will seek instruc¬ 
tion at our hands, it remaineth that unless we will suffer them 
to perish, salvation itself must seek them. Hooker. 
VO'LUNTARINESS, s. State of being voluntary.—The 
voluntariness of an action is not able to defame it, if there 
be no irregularity imputable to the action itself, abstracted 
from the voluntariness. Hammond. 
VO'LUNTARY, adj. [ volontaire, Fr.; voluntarius, Lat.] 
Acting without compulsion; acting by choice.—God did 
not work as a necessary, but a voluntary agent; intending 
before-hand, and decreeing with himself, that which did 
outwardly proceed from him. Hooker. —Willing; acting 
with willingness. 
Then virtue was no more, her guard away. 
She fell to lust a voluntary prey. Pope. 
Done by design; purposed.—If a man be lopping a tree, 
and his ax-head fall from the helve, out of his hand, and 
kills another passing by; here is indeed manslaughter, but 
no voluntary murther. Perkins. —Done without compul¬ 
sion.— Voluntary forbearance denotes the forbearance of an 
action, consequent to an order of the mind, Locke. —Act¬ 
ing of its own accord; spontaneous. 
Thoughts which voluntary move 
Harmonious numbers. Milton. 
VO'LUNTARY, s. A volunteer; one who engages in 
any affair of his own accord. 
All th’ unsettled humours of the land ; 
Rash, inconsid’rate, fiery voluntaries. Shakspeare. 
A piece of music play’d at will, without any settled rule. 
Whistling winds, like organs, play’d, 
Until their voluntaries made 
The waken’d earth in odours rise, 
To be her morning sacrifice. Cleaveland. 
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