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VANINI, LUCILIO, or, as he styled himself in his works, (1585-1619), Italian free-thinker, was born at Taurisano, near Naples, in 1585. He studied philosophy and theology at Rome, and after his return to Naples applied himself to the physical studies which had come into vogue with the Renaissance. Like Giordano Bruno, though morally and intellectually inferior to him, he was among those who led the attack on the old scholasticism and helped to lay the foundation of modern philosophy. Vanini resembles Bruno, not only in his wandering life and in his tragic death, but also in his anti-Christian bias. From Naples he went to Padua, where he came under the influence of the Alexandrist Pomponazzi (q.v.), whom he styles his divine master. At Padua he studied law, and was ordained priest. Subsequently he led a roving life in France, Switzerland and the Low Countries, supporting himself by giving lessons and disseminating anti religious views. He was obliged to flee from Lyons to England in 1614, but was imprisoned in London for some reason for forty nine days. Returning to Italy he made an attempt to teach in Genoa, but was driven once more to France, where he made a valiant effort to clear himself of suspicion by publishing a book against atheists, Amphitheatrum Aeternae Providentiae Divino-Magirum (1615). Though the definitions of God are somewhat pantheistic, the book is sufficiently orthodox, but the arguments are largely ironical, and cannot be taken as expounding his real views. Vanini expressly tells us so in his second (and only other published) work, De Admirandis Naturae Reginae Deaeque Mortalium Arcanis (Paris, 1616), which, originally certified by two doctors of the Sorbonne, was afterwards re-examined and condemned to the flames. Vanini then left Paris, where he had been staying as chaplain to the maréchal de Bassompierre, and began to teach in Toulouse. In November 1618 he was arrested, and after a prolonged trial was condemned, as an atheist, to have his tongue cut out, and to be strangled at the stake, his body to be afterwards burned to ashes. The sentence was executed on the 6th of February 1619.

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VANLOO, CHARLES ANDREW (1705-1765), subject painter, a younger brother of John Baptist Vanloo (q.v.), was born at Nice on the 15th of February 1705. He received some induction from his brother, and like him studied in Rome under Luti. Leaving Italy in 1723, he worked in Paris, where he gained the first prize for historical painting. After again visiting Italy in 1727, he was employed by the king of Sardinia, for whom he painted a- series of subjects illustrative of Tasso. In 1734 he settled in Paris, and in 1735 became a member of the French Academy; and he was decorated with the order of St Michael and appointed principal painter to the king. By his simplicity of style and correctness of design, the result of his study of the great Italian masters, he did much to purify the modern French school; but the contemporary praise that was lavished upon his productions now appears undue and excessive. His "Marriage of the Virgin" is preserved in the Louvre. He died at Paris on the 15th of July 1765.

VANLOO, JOHN BAPTIST (1684-1745), French subject and portrait painter, was born at Aix in Provence on the 14th of January 1684. He was instructed in art by his father. Having at an early age executed several pictures for the decoration of the church and public buildings at Aix, he was employed on similar work at Toulon, which he was obliged to leave during the siege of 1707. He was patronized by the prince of Carignan, who sent him to Rome, where he studied under Benedetto Luti. Here he was much employed on church pictures, and in particular executed a greatly praised "Scourging of Christ" for St Maria in Monticelli. At Turin he painted the duke of Savoy and several members of his court. Then, removing to Paris, where he was elected a member of the French Academy, he executed various altar-pieces and restored the works of Primaticcio at Fontainebleau. In 1737 he went to England, where he attracted attention by his portrait of Colley Cibber and of Owen McSwiny, the theatrical manager; the latter, like many other of Vanloo's works, was engraved in mezzotint by the younger Faber. He also painted Sir Robert Walpole, whose portrait by Vanloo in his robes as chancellor of the exchequer is in the National Portrait Gallery (London), and the prince and princess of Wales. He did not, however, practise long in England, for. his health failing he retired to Paris in 1742, and afterwards to Aix, where he died on the 19th of December 1745. His likenesses were striking and faithful, but seldom flattering, and his heads are forcible in colouring. The draperies and accessories in his pictures were usually painted by Van Achen, Eccardt and Root.

VANNES, a town of western France, capital of the department of Morbihan, 84 m. N.W. of Nantes on the railway to Brest. Pop. (1906), town, 16,728; commune, 23,561. It is situated 10 m. from the open sea, at the confluence of two streams forming the Vannes river, which debouches into the land-locked Gulf of Morbihan about a mile below the town. The narrow, steep and crooked streets of the old town, which lie on a hill facing the south, are surrounded by fortifications of the 14th, 15th and 17th centuries, pierced by four gates and flanked by nine towers and five bastions, connected by battlements. In the Constable's Tower Olivier de Clisson was confined in 1387. The modern suburbs, with the port, the public buildings, barracks, convents, squares and promenades, notably the Garenne and the park of the Prefecture, surround the old town. The archaeological museum, the contents of which are mainly the fruit of excavations at Carnac and elsewhere in the vicinity, includes one of the richest collections of prehistoric remains in Europe. There are also a museum of natural history and a library. The cathedral of St Peter overlooks the old town; burnt by the Normans in the 10th century, it was rebuilt in the 13th, 15th and 18th centuries. It has remains of a cloister and contains the relics and tomb of the Spanish Dominican preacher St Vincent Ferrier, who died at Vannes in 1419. The curious round Chapelle du Pardon to the left of the nave was built in 1537 in the Italian style. Some interesting old houses, including that of the presidents of the parlement of Brittany, the rich private collections of M. de Limur, and the church of St Paterne (18th century) are also worthy of mention. There is a monument to Le Sage, born near Vannes. Vannes is the seat of a prefect, a bishop and a court of assizes, and has tribunals of first instance and of commerce and a branch of the Bank of France. A communal college is among the educational institutions. Among the industries are building, tanning and cotton-weaving. The port of Vannes, to the south of the town, is formed by the Vannes river and is accessible only to small vessels. Vessels of 800 tons can make the harbour of Conleau about 25 m. from the town.

Vannes (Dariorigum), the capital of the Veneti (whence Gwened, the Breton name of the town), was at the head of the Armorican league against Julius Caesar, who in 56 overcame their fleet and opened up their country by six roads. St Paternus, the first bishop, was consecrated in 465. In the 5th century Vannes was ruled for a time by independent counts,