Page:Imperial Dictionary of Universal Biography Volume 1.pdf/230

ARG Langé persisting in his claim as original discoverer of this method of concentrating the light, Argand compromised the matter with him, and they jointly took out a patent for the exclusive manufacture and sale of the lamps. This monopoly excited the jealousy of the whole trade engaged in the manufacture of lamps; and the outbreak of the Revolution, by sweeping away all privileges, effectually deprived poor Argand of any advantage he might have gained from his invention. Mortified and heart-broken, he withdrew from England to Geneva, where he betook himself to the visionary science of alchemy, and died in 1803, in great poverty.—S.  ARGATHONIUS, a king of Tartessus, in Spain, who lived in the sixth century ., and is said to have attained a great age. Herodotus relates that the Phocæans visited Tartessus in the reign of this prince, and were kindly entertained by him. He is said to have reigned eighty years.  * ARGELANDER,, a Prussian astronomer, born at Memel in 1799. This distinguished person first occupied the presidency of the observatory at Abo; from which he was translated to the chair of Bonn, where he still resides. He is of the class of the men of whom Bessel was the type on the continent, and which are represented by Airy and Robinson in our own country,—men who join mechanical tact in observing to the fullest science. Argelander's memoirs are very numerous, and of great value. We may specify his work on the "Sun's Motion of Translation," and, although of a lighter kind, an "Essay on the Zodiacal Light." His greatest work, however, is undoubtedly the "Atlas of the Stars," on an extension of which his remarkable and steady energies are now employed.—J. P. N.  ARGELLATI,, one of the most celebrated bibliographers of Italy, was born at Bologna in 1685, and died at Milan in 1755. Entirely devoted to the interests of literature, little is known of his uneventful life, and that little reflects less his character as an author than as the editor and publisher of other men's works. It was solely owing to his disinterested representations, that his great patron. Count Carlo Archinto, formed that society of Milanese noblemen, from whose press, called "Ædes Palatinæ," issued so many valuable works. The first of these was Muratori's celebrated collection, in twenty-five vols., entitled "Rerum Italicarum Scriptores;" on the appearance of which, the Emperor Charles VI. granted Argellati an annual pension of three hundred ducats, with an honorary title of imperial secretary, to which were added an additional three hundred ducats, on the republication, at the same press, of the works of Sigonius.—(Tipaldo, Biog. degli Ilal. Illust. del Sec.)—S.  ARGELLATI,, son of the preceding, was born at Bologna 1712; died 1754. He was appointed engineer to the emperor in 1740, and seems to have been a man of considerable science. He has left works on various subjects, particularly a Decameron in imitation of Boccaccio's.—S.  ARGENS,, Marquis d', one of the shallowest and most useless of that tribe of superficial freethinkers, whom Frederick the Great congregated around him, under the pleasant fancy that they were philosophers. Born in 1704 at Aix in Provence, he had scarcely reached the condition of manhood when he ran off with an actress, to Spain. His father took the trouble to send after him: he was captured and brought home. He found refuge in the army, at that time, or even later, no great hinderance to indulgence; but on account of an injury, caused by the fall of his horse, he was obliged to leave it in 1734:—while a soldier, D'Argens was of course gallant enough. Disinherited by his father, he set to write for food: it must have been his marquisate which, even at that flat period, enabled him to extract the shabbiest dinners from sheer flimsiness like those "Jewish Letters," "Chinese Letters," "Cabalistic Letters," &c. While prince-royal, Frederick sent for him, and afterwards attached him to his court, giving him a pension of £300 a year. D'Argens still wrote on, and produced his "Philosophy of Good Sense,"—dreariest of all dreary treatises! By-and-by he eloped with another actress, and lost the favour of Frederick. It were a prostitution of the name, to designate the writings of a set of persons like D'Argens, as Philosophy: he has left nothing worth opening but his rather clever correspondence with the King. D'Argens, of course, did not believe in a God; but he believed in the Devil. He was a prey to the absurdest superstitions, having firm faith in unlucky and lucky days, and trembling from head to foot on finding himself the thirteenth guest at a dinner-table. He must, we presume, have been of some use: it is said that he exercised his official influence with special purity. D'Argens died in Provence on 11th January, 1771. Requiescat—we have no desire for his reappearance or the rehabilitation of the like of him on earth!—J. P. N.  ARGENS,, Chevalier d', a brother of the preceding, who entered the Maltese order, and died in 1772.  ARGENSOLA,, a brother of Lupercio L., was born in 1566, wrote a variety of historical works, and died in 1631. <section end="230H" /> <section begin="230I" />ARGENSOLA,, a Spanish historian and tragedian, was born in 1563, at Barbastro; studied at Saragossa; became secretary of state to the viceroy of Naples; and died in that city in 1613. <section end="230I" /> <section begin="230J" />ARGENSON, ', a family of Touraine in France.

, filled various important functions under Richelieu and Mazarin. He died in 1651.

, a grandson of the preceding, became lieutenant-general of police in Paris, an office which he filled in the most admirable manner. He was afterwards made president of the council of finance, but, becoming involved in the schemes of Law, he was obliged to resign, and died in 1721.

, was born in 1696, and distinguished himself as a political writer. His views are more in accordance with those of the present day than of his own. His work on the government of France was reprinted in 1787.

, was born in 1696, became minister to Louis XV., and rendered the greatest services to his country in the war which was terminated by the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle. He enjoyed the friendship of D'Alembert, Diderot, and Voltaire; and the celebrated Encyclopedia was dedicated to him. He died in 1764.

undertook the publication of a universal library of novels, of which forty volumes only appeared. He died in 1787, governor of the arsenal.

, was born in 1772, distinguished himself at Fontenoy, and was created a field-marshal. He died in 1782.

, a politician of the Revolution era, was born in 1771, and died in 1842.—J. W. S. <section end="230J" /> <section begin="230K" />ARGENTA,, of Ferrara, became painter to the court of Turin in 1561. No work by this artist remains, and Lanzi thinks he must have been an illuminator rather than a painter. <section end="230K" /> <section begin="230L" />ARGENTAL,, Count, a French diplomatist, the intimate friend of Voltaire, died in 1788. <section end="230L" /> <section begin="230M" />ARGENTELLE, , a French botanist, who resided for a long time in India and the Mauritius. He was born in 1777, and died in 1828. <section end="230M" /> <section begin="230N" />ARGENTERIO,, a Piedmontese physician of the sixteenth century, who taught the medical sciences at Turin, Naples and Pisa, and everywhere appeared as an opponent of Galen. Two of his brothers, and, were likewise distinguished physicians. <section end="230N" /> <section begin="230O" />ARGENTI or ARIENTI,, an Italian lawyer, who was one of the earliest pastoral dramatists in the modern Italian language. He published his "Lo Sfortunato" at Venice in 1568. Died in 1576. <section end="230O" /> <section begin="230P" />ARGENTI or ARIENTI,, a lawyer, afterwards an ecclesiastic, brother of the preceding, and like him, known as one of the minor poets of Italy, died in 1594. <section end="230P" /> <section begin="230Q" />ARGENTI,, a jesuit of Modena, who was born in 1564, and died in 1629, leaving works on the state of his order in the northern and eastern parts of Europe. <section end="230Q" /> <section begin="230R" />ARGENTINI,, a musician of Rimini in Italy, who lived towards the beginning of the seventeenth century. <section end="230R" /> <section begin="230S" />ARGENTO,, a jurist of Naples, was born in 1662, was raised by the Emperor Charles VI. to the rank of vice-prothonotary in 1714, and died in 1730. <section end="230S" /> <section begin="230T" />ARGENTRÉ,, a jurist of Bretagne, noted for his strenuous exertions for the preservation of the privileges of the feudal nobility of his native province, and his opposition to the centralizing measures of the French government. He wrote a history of his native province. Born in 1519; died in 1590. <section end="230T" /> <section begin="230U" />ARGENTRÉ, ', bishop of Tulle, and author of numerous learned and able religious and ecclesiastical works, amongst them "Collectio judiciorum de novis erroribus," &c.., was born near Vitré in 1673, and died in 1740. <section end="230U" /> <section begin="230Zcontin" />ARGER,, a native of Flanders, who repeatedly <section end="230Zcontin" />