Page:EB1911 - Volume 28.djvu/73

 We know of one important service rendered by Vieta as a royal officer. While at Tours he discovered the key to a Spanish cipher, consisting of more than 500 characters, and thenceforward all the dispatches in that language which fell into the hands of the French could be easily read. His fame now rests, however, entirely upon his achievements in mathematics. Being a man of wealth, he printed at his own expense the numerous papers which he wrote on various branches of this science, and communicated them to scholars in almost every country of Europe. An evidence of the good use he made of his means, as well as of the kindliness of his character, is furnished by the fact that he entertained as a guest for a whole month a scientific adversary, Adriaan van Roomen, and then paid the expenses of his journey home. Vieta’s writings thus became very quickly known, but, when Franciscus van Schooten issued a general edition of his works in 1646, he failed to make a complete collection, although probably nothing of very great value has perished.

 VIEUXTEMPS, HENRI (1820–1881), Belgian violinist and composer, was born at Verviers, on the 20th of February 1820. Until his seventh year he was a pupil of Lecloux, but when De Bériot heard him he adopted him as his pupil, taking him to appear in Paris in 1828. From 1833 onwards he spent the greater part of his life in concert tours, visiting all parts of the world with uniform success. He first appeared in London at a Philharmonic concert on the 2nd of June 1834, and in the following year studied composition with Reicha in Paris, and began to produce a long series of works, full of formidably difficult passages, though also of pleasing themes and fine musical ideas, which are consequently highly appreciated by violinists. From 1846 to 1852 he was solo violinist to the tsar, and professor in the conservatorium in St Petersburg. From 1871 to 1873 he was teacher of the violin class in the Brussels Conservatoire, but was disabled by an attack of paralysis in the latter year, and from that time could only superintend the studies of favourite pupils. He died at Mustapha, in Algiers, on the 6th of June 1881. He had a perfect command of technique, faultless intonation and a marvellous command of the bow. His staccato was famous all over the world, and his tone was exceptionally rich and full.  VIGAN, a town and the capital of the province of Ilocos Sur, Luzon, Philippine Islands, at the mouth of the Abra river, about 200 m. N. by W. of Manila. Pop. of the municipality (1903) 14,945; after the census of 1903 was taken there were united to Vigan the municipalities of Bantay (pop. 7020), San Vicente (pop. 5060), Santa Catalina (pop. 5625) and Coayan (pop. 6201), making the total population of the municipality 38,851. Vigan is the residence of the bishop of Nueva Segovia and has a fine cathedral, a substantial court-house, other durable public buildings and a monument to Juan de Salcedo, its founder. It is engaged in farming, fishing, the manufacture of brick, tile, cotton fabrics and furniture, and the building of boats. The language is Ilocano.  VIGÉE-LEBRUN, MARIE-ANNE ELISABETH (1755–1842), French painter, was born in Paris, the daughter of a painter, from whom she received her first instruction, though she benefited more by the advice of Doyen, Greuze, Joseph Vernet and other masters of the period. When only about twenty years of age she had already risen to fame with her portraits of Count Orloff and the duchess of Orleans, her personal charm making her at the same time a favourite in society. In 1776 she married the painter and art-critic J. B. P. Lebrun, and in 1783 her picture of "Peace bringing back Abundance" (now at the Louvre) gained her the membership of the Academy. When the Revolution broke out in 1789 she escaped first to Italy, where she worked at Rome and Naples. At Rome she painted the portraits of Princesses Adelaide and Victoria, and at Naples the "Lady Hamilton as a Bacchante" now in the collection of Mr Tankerville Chamberlayne, and then journeyed to Vienna, Berlin and St Petersburg. She returned to Paris in 1781, but went in the following year to London, where she painted the portraits of Lord Byron and the prince of Wales, and in 1808 to Switzerland. Her numerous journeys, and the vogue she enjoyed wherever she went, account for the numerous portraits from her brush that are to be found in the great collections of many countries. Having returned to France from Switzerland, she lived first at her country house near Marly and then in Paris, where she died at the age of eighty-seven, in 1842, having been widowed for twenty-nine years. She published her own memoirs under the title of Souvenirs (Paris, 1835-37). Among her many sitters was