Page:Imperial Dictionary of Universal Biography Volume 1.pdf/162

AMM AMMIRATO,, called , the Elder, an Italian author, canon of the cathedral of Florence, was born in the Neapolitan town of Lecce in 1531; died in 1601. His works, which are very numerous, are generally of a historical character. The chief of them are: "Istorie Florentine," which he was commissioned to write by Cosmo I., in two parts, the first extending to the year 1434, the second to 1574. This has been pronounced the most complete and exact history of Florence, up to the date mentioned, which we possess. "I Vescovi di Fiesole, di Volterra, e d'Arezzo, con l'Aggiunta di Scipione Ammirato il Giovane" (see below), Florence, 1637, 4to; "Albero e Storia dei Conti Guidi," Florence, 1650, folio, also with additions by Scipione Ammirato the Younger. The works of Ammirato are the result of a very laborious collation of an immense number of ancient documents.—A. M.  AMMIRATO,, the Younger, amanuensis of Ammirato the Elder, and the editor and enlarger of several of his works. His master made him his heir on condition of his adopting the name by which he is now known, Cristoforo del Bianco.  AMMON, ancestor of the Ammonites, is stated in Genesis xix. 38, to have been the son of Lot by his younger daughter.  AMMON,, a German protestant theologian, born at Bayreuth in 1766, died in 1820, was famous in his day as an eloquent preacher. He has left among other works an "Entwurf einer reinen Biblischen Theologie" (Sketch of a purely Biblical Theology), Göttingen, 1802, 3 vols. 8vo.  * AMMON,, son of the preceding, born 1799, became professor in the Medico-Chirurgical Academy of Dresden in 1829, and has distinguished himself by his skill in eye diseases. He has published "Clinical Observations on Maladies of the Eyes," Berlin, 1838-41, 3 vols. 8vo; and other works.  AMMONAS or AMOUN founded an ancient ascetic order in Egypt, which became celebrated. Died . 320. For certain "Ascetic Rules" attributed to him, see the "Biblioth. P.P. Ascetica," vol. ii.; Paris, 1661.  AMMONIO,, an accomplished Italian scholar, the friend of Erasmus, was born at Lucca in 1477, and died at London in 1517. On his coming to London he was for some time neglected; but in 1513 Henry VIII. made him his Latin secretary, and he also about the same time obtained some church preferments. His works, "Scotici Conflictus Historia," "Bucolica seu Eclogæ," &c., and others mentioned by Bayle, have been lost. For a number of letters by Ammonio, see the correspondence of Erasmus.—A. M.  AMMONIUS , an ancient Alexandrian surgeon, most probably in the time of Ptolemy Philadelphus, (. 285-247), who gained the surname of Lithotomus, from his skill in treating the stone. He invented a method of breaking calculi when they are too large for extracting entire. Celsus has described it, book vii. chap. 26. The operation of Ammonius did not differ materially from the modern "lithotrity."—A. M. <section end="162H" /> <section begin="162I" />AMMONIUS, an Alexandrian grammarian, lived in the first century. He was a disciple of Aristarchus, and wrote commentaries on Homer and Aristophanes. These only exist in as far as the scholiasts have used them. <section end="162I" /> <section begin="162J" />AMMONIUS, a Greek philosopher, one of the instructors of Plutarch, who wrote his life, which has not been preserved. He taught at Athens in the reign of Hadrian,. 117-138. <section end="162J" /> <section begin="162K" />AMMONIUS, called or, because he was employed as a porter to carry corn at Alexandria. He is also designated "God-taught." He is regarded as the founder of the Neoplatonic school, and there can be no doubt that he was the first to attempt the reconciliation of the Platonic and Aristotelian systems of philosophy, finding a substantial unity amid minor differences. Among his scholars were Origen, Longinus, and Plotinus. It is a matter of dispute whether he was a Christian or not. That he was born of Christian parents is expressly asserted, and he wrote on Christian subjects. He died in. 243, upwards of eighty years of age.—J. D. <section end="162K" /> <section begin="162L" />AMMONIUS, a Christian writer of Alexandria, who lived in the third century. He is the author of "A Harmony of the Four Gospels," a Latin translation of which is to be found in the "Bibliothèque des Peres," edition of Bâle & Lyon. <section end="162L" /> <section begin="162M" />AMMONIUS, an Alexandrian grammarian, author of a dictionary of synonyms. He had been priest in a temple dedicated to the ape, but was compelled to flee to Constantinople when Theodosius persecuted the pagans of Egypt in. 389. Socrates, the ecclesiastical historian, there became his pupil. The work of Ammonius, which is not without value, is entitled . It was published by Valckenaer at Leyden in 1739; and Schaefer reprinted this edition at Leipsic in 1822, with some additions. Ammonius; is also thought to be the author of a treatise, (on unclassical expressions), which has not been edited.—A. M. <section end="162M" /> <section begin="162N" />AMMONIUS, a Greek poet, whose epic, called ., on the war of the Goth Gainas, has not been preserved. He read it before Theodosius II. in 438. <section end="162N" /> <section begin="162O" />AMMONIUS,, i.e., son of Hermias, was an Alexandrian philosopher of the fifth century. A disciple of Proclus, and therefore a Neoplatonist, he was at the same time an admirer of Aristotle, on whose categories he has left excellent commentaries. These were included by Brandis in his "Scholia in Aristotelem," published at Berlin in 1836.—A. M. <section end="162O" /> <section begin="162P" />AMMONIUS,, a native of Lampræ in Attica, wrote a work, (on Altars and Sacrifices), quoted by Athenæus. He is conjectured to have lived in the third century of the Christian era. <section end="162P" /> <section begin="162Q" />AMNER,, an English unitarian dissenting minister, born 1736, died 1803; wrote an essay toward the interpretation of the prophecies of Daniel, in order to establish the hypothesis of Grotius against that of Mede and Newton. <section end="162Q" /> <section begin="162R" />AMNON, son of David and Ahinoam; slain by order of Absalom for violating and then repudiating Tamar his sister by the same mother, Maacha. <section end="162R" /> <section begin="162S" />AMO,, a learned negro, born in Guinea in 1703. Brought to Amsterdam when quite young, he was presented to the Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, whose son Antony-William became his patron and friend, and maintained him as a student at the university of Halle. Here Amo greatly distinguished himself, as he also did subsequently at the university of Wittemberg, where, on occasion of his graduating as doctor of philosophy, he wrote a "Dissertatio inauguralis philosophica de humanæ mentis, seu sensionis ac facultatis sentiendi in mente humana absentia, et eorum in corpore nostro organico ac vivo præsentia, quam publice defendet autor Ant. Gul. Amo Guinea-Afer;" Wittemberg, 1734, 4to. Although made a councillor of state at Berlin, he left Europe on the death of the Duke of Brunswick; and all that has been heard of him since is, that David Henry Gallandat, founder of the Scientific Society of Zealand, when on a voyage to the Gold Coast, found him leading the life of a hermit at Axim, and that he subsequently removed from Axim to St. Sebastian, a Dutch fort at Chamah, also on the Gold Coast. Amo is said to have been perfectly conversant with the Hebrew, Greek, Latin, French, German, and Dutch languages. The reader may find further information in Gregoire's De la littérature des Nègres, and in Winckelman's life of Gallandat in the Verhandelingen uitgegeeven door het Zeeuwseh Genootschap der Wetenschappen, 1792, ix. 19, 20.—A. M. <section end="162S" /> <section begin="162T" />AMOLON, AMULON, or AMULUS, a learned French ecclesiastic, successor of Agobard as archbishop of Lyons in 841, and held in high estimation by king Charles le Chauve and Pope Leo IV. He distinguished himself, among other things, by his opposition to the Jews, and his "Traite contre les Juifs" is still extant, together with some other writings not without interest. Died in 852.—(See the Bibliotheca Patrum.)—A. M. <section end="162T" /> <section begin="162U" />AMOMETUS a Greek author, of whose voyage on the Nile only a few highly interesting fragments have been preserved.—(See Müller's Fragment. Hist. Grec. in A. F. Didot's Greek Classics.) <section end="162U" /> <section begin="162V" />AMONTONS,, a meritorious French natural philosopher; born 1663, died 1705. His work, entitled "Remarques et expériences physiques sur la construction d'une nouvelle clepsydre, sur les baromètres, thermomètres, et hygromètres," Paris, 1695, attracted so much attention among scientific men as to procure him admission into the Royal Academy of Sciences. Amontons has been held to be the inventor of the system of telegraphing by reading alphabetical signs with the aid of telescopes, though this method was not adopted till fifty years after he propounded it.—(See Fontenelle's "Eloge d'Amontons," in the Histoire de l'Academie, 1705.)—A. M. <section end="162V" /> <section begin="162Zcontin" />AMORETTI,, an Italian naturalist, was born at Oneglia in 1740. The first years of his manhood were passed in orders, but having obtained a licence from the Pope, in 1772, to resume his secular character, he resigned the chair of canon law, which he had occupied for some months at the university of Parma, and devoted himself to a laborious study of natural <section end="162Zcontin" />