Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 24.djvu/290

Rh 266 V I T V I V (2) of the adjuncts of a forum (serarium, prison, and curia); (3) of theatres, their site and construction ; (4) of laws of harmonics ; (5) of the arrangement of tuned bronze vases in theatres for acoustic purposes ; (6) of Roman theatres ; (7) of Greek theatres ; (8) of the selection of sites of theatres according to acoustic principles ; (8) of porticus and covered walks ; (9) of baths, their floors, hypocansts, the construction and use of various parts ; (11) of palaestra, xysti, and other Greek buildings for the exercise of athletes ; (12) of har bours and quays. Bk. vi. is on sites and planning, and the preface treats of various Greek authors. C. 1 is on selection of sites ; c. 2 on the planning of buildings to suit different sites ; c. 3 on private houses, their construction and styles, the names of the different apartments ; c. 4 011 the aspects suited for the A arious rooms ; c. 5 on the various sorts of buildings fitted for special positions ; c. 6 on farms and country houses ; c. 7 on Greek houses and the names of various parts ; c. 8 on construction of houses in wood, stone, brick, or concrete. Bk. vii., mostly on methods of decoration, has a preface (as usual) on the opinions of ancient Greek writers, with lists of Greek sculptors, architects, and writers on architecture, and of Roman architects. C. 1 has for its subject pavements and roads, their construction, mosaic floors ; c. 2 is on white stucco for walls (opus albarium) ; c. 3 on concrete vaults, gypsum mouldings, stucco prepared for painting ; c. 4 on building of hollow walls to keep out the damp, wall decoration by various processes ; c. 5 011 methods and styles of wall painting, the debased taste of his time ; c. 6 on fine stucco made of pounded marble, -three coats to receive wall paintings ; c. 7 on colours used for mural decoration ; c. 8 on red lead (minium) and mercury, and how to nse the latter to extract the gold from worn-out pieces of stuff or embroidery ; c. 9 on the preparation of red lead and the method of encaustic painting with hot wax, finished by friction ; cc. 10-14 on artificial colours black, blue, purple ; c. 10 white lead and ostrum, i.e., murex purple, and imitations of murex dye. Bk. viii. is on hydraulic engineer ing, and the preface on theories of the ancients. C. 1 treats of the rinding of good water, its quality according to the soil it runs through ; c. 2 of rain-water and rivers rivers in various countries ; c. 3 of hot springs, mineral waters, with an account of the chief medicinal springs of the world ; c. 4 of selection of water by observation and experiment ; c. 5 of instruments for levelling used by aqueduct engineers ; c. 6 of construction of aqueducts, pipes of lead, clay, &c., cisterns, fountains, poisoning from lead pipes, hydraulic cement, settling tanks, and other valuable matter on the subject of water-supply. Bk. ix. is ou astronomy. The preface treats of Greek sciences, geometry, the discovery of specific gravity by Archimedes, and other valuable discoveries of the Greeks, and of Romans of his time who have vied with the Greeks Lucretius in his poem De Rcrum Natura, Cicero in rhetoric, and Yarro in philo logy, as shown by his DC Lingua Latina. 1 The subjects of the eight chapters are (1) the signs of the zodiac and the seven planets ; (2) the phases of the moon ; (3) the passage of the sun through the zodiac ; (4) and (5) various constellations ; (6) the relation of astrological influences to nature ; (7) the mathematical divisions of the gnomon ; (8) various kinds of sun-dials and their inven tors. Bk. x. is on machinery, with a preface concerning a law at ancient Ephesus compelling an architect to complete any public building he had undertaken ; this, he says, would be useful among the Romans of his time. 2 The chapters are (1) on various machines, such as scaling-ladders, windmills, &c. ; (2) on windlasses, axles, pulleys, and cranes for moving heavy weights, such as those used by Chersiphron in building the great temple of Diana at Ephesus, and on the discovery by a shepherd of a quarry of marble required to build the same temple ; (3) on dynamics ; (4) on machines for drawing water ; (5) on wheels for irrigation worked by a river ; (6) on raising water by a revolving spiral tube ; (7) on the machine of Ctesibius for raising water to a height ; (8) on a very complicated water engine, the description of which is not intelligible, though Vitruvius remarks that he has tried to make the matter clear ; (9) on machines with wheels to register the distance travelled, either by land or water ; (10) on the construction of scorpiones for hurling stones ; (11) and (12) on lalistse and catapults ; (13) on battering- rams, and other machines for the attack of a fortress ; (14) on shields (tcstudincs) to enable soldiers to fill up the enemy s ditches ; (15) on other kinds of tcstudincs; (1C) on machines for defence, and examples of their use in ancient times. The first MS. of the De Arcltitectura which al traded much attention ivas a fine codex on vellum preserved in the Benedictine monastery of Monte Cassino. The first printed edition is that issued in Home by George Ilerolt about 1485-86, but without indication of place or date; it is a small folio with thirty-four lines to the page, and has neither signatures, catchwords, nor numbering of the leaves. It was edited by J. Sulpicius, and with it is printed Frontinus De Ar/nxductibus; this second work occurs as an addition in many early editions of Vitruvius, of which a very large number were printed at various places in Italy within a few years after the publication of the etlitio princeps.3 On the whole the best edition of Vitruvius s text is that edited by Schneider, Leipsic, 1807, 3 vols. 8vo, with good 1 Vitruvius names Cicero and Lucretius as &quot;post nostram memoriam nascentes.&quot; 2 The architect being at that time also the contractor. 3 One of the earliest commentators on Vitruvius was the monk-archi tect Fra Giocondo, a man of extraordinary talent (see VEROXA). notes, but no plates. An immense number of translations have also been pub lished in most European languages the first Italian translation at Como in 1021; French, at Paris in 1547 ; German, at Nuremberg in 1548 ; and the first English translation in London in 1692. The best English translation is that of Gwilt, 1826, improved edition, I860. That of Vilkins (1812) is merely a fragment of some of the books, but it is copiously illustrated with engraved plates. The name of Vitruvius has been given to several handsome works on modern architecture, such as Campbell, Yitrin ius Britannicus, London, 1715-71, a scries of illustrations of the chief buildings of the 18th century in England, including many works of the brothers Adam ; one of these brothers, William Adam, pro duced a similar work illustrating the buildings which lie had designed for Scotland, of which he was a native, under the title of Vitruvius Scoticus, Edin burgh, 1790. Thurah, Le Vitruve Danois, Copenhagen, 1746-49, is a similar collection of modern buildings in Denmark. The biographies of Vitruvius as usually published are very untrustworthy, and contain many statements which rest upon no authority whatever. (J. H. 31.) VITTOTJA, an inland town of Sicily, in the Italian province of Syracuse, about 18 miles by road east-south east from Terranova, stands in the midst of a rich vine and olive district, which also produces silk, rice, and honey. The population in 1881 was 21,755. It is quite a modern town, founded towards the beginning of the 17th century. The principal church (San Giovanni) dates from 1854. VITUS, ST, according to the lloman Breviary, while still a very young boy, had been baptized without the knowledge of his father, who, on learning this, spared no effort to bring about his return to paganism. After other severe measures had been tried in vain he was delivered to Valerian to be scourged, but even this had no effect, and he was handed back to his father. Admonished by an angel, Vitus, accompanied by Modestus and Crescentia, by whom he had been brought up, now took refuge abroad, where his fame for sanctity became so great that he was summoned by Diocletian to heal his child, who was grievously vexed with a devil. Successful in this he was urged by the un grateful emperor to worship the pagan deities, and on his refusal was cast into prison. Along with Modestus and Crescentia he was sentenced to be plunged into a cauldron of molten lead, resin, and pitch, but here their experience was that of the three Hebrew children. Next they were cast before the lion, but the wild beast fawned upon them and licked their feet. Finally they were torn limb from limb. The three are commemorated on June 15. The more extended legend of St Vitus relates that, on one occasion when he had been shut up in a dungeon, his father look ing through a chink in the door beheld him dancing with seven beautiful angels ; so dazzled was he by the sight that he became blind, and recovered only through the interces sion of his son. St Vitus is accordingly the patron saint of dancers and actors, and is invoked against the disease known as ST VITUS S DANCE (q.v.). He is the patron of Saxony, Bohemia, and Sicily, and throughout Germany ranks as one of the fourteen &quot; Nothhelf er &quot; of the church. VIVAIUNI, the surname of a family of painters of Murano (Venice), who produced a great quantity of work in Venice and its neighbourhood in the 15th century, leading on to that phase of the school which is represented by Carpaccio and the Bellinis. ANTONIO VIVAIUNI was probably the earliest of this family. He came from the school of Andrea da Murano, and his works show the influence of Gentile da Fabriano. The earliest known date of a picture of his, an altar-piece in the Venetian academj 7, is 1440 ; the latest, in the Lateran museum, 1464. He worked in company with a certain &quot; Joannes de Alemania.&quot; By some writers Joannes has been regarded as himself a Vivarini, but this appears improbable : no trace of him exists of a date later than 1447. After 1447 Antonio painted either alone or in combination with his younger brother Bartolommeo. The works of Antonio are well drawn for their epoch, with a certain noticeable degree of softness, and with good flesh and other tints. Three of his principal paintings are the Virgin Enthroned with the Four Doctors of the Church, the Coronation of the Virgin, and Sts Peter and Jerome. The first two (in which Joannes co-operated) are in the Venetian academy, the third in the London National Gallery.