Page:Imperial Dictionary of Universal Biography Volume 1.pdf/289

AST of his patron; and he produced many compositions for one and two voices, with accompaniments for the harpsichord, or, in some cases, for the orchestra. These he was in the habit of singing with the duke's daughter, and the intimacy thus induced excited her father's suspicion of an attachment between the two, which prompted him to dismiss the young, noble, and unfortunate musician from his court. He did not, however, withdraw his favour from Emmanuele, but sent him to Vienna with letters to the Emperor Leopold, who received him with great kindness. Here he wrote, it seems, for some private court performance, his pastoral opera of "Dafne," which much increased his reputation. He remained in Vienna till the death of the emperor in 1706, when he proceeded to Florence, and, after a short stay there, to London. He remained in this country for two years, during which time he wrote his "Stabat Mater," which is the most esteemed of all his works. The manuscript of this extremely vocal and exquisitely expressive composition was in the possession of the Academy of Ancient Music, until the dissolution of that society, and the greater part of it is printed in Latrobe's collection. From England he went to Madrid, where he experienced renewed kindness from the Princess Ursini, which induced his sojourn at the court of Spain for several years. We next hear of him in Bohemia, where, in 1726, he reproduced his opera of "Dafne," at Breslau, this being the only occasion on which he superintended the public performance of any of his music. From Breslau he went to Prague, and either there or in some adjacent monastery he is supposed to have closed his days. Besides the works already named, he composed a requiem and several cantatas, which are notable, not for any contrapuntal elaboration, but for expression, for peculiar fitness for the voice, and for the modern character of the harmony.—(Hawkins, Rochlitz, Convers. Lex., Fètis, Schilling.)—G. A. M.  ASTORI,, an archæologist of Venice, was born in 1672, enjoyed the friendship of Maffei, Poleni, and other literary men of the day, and died in 1743, leaving, amongst other productions, a work on the Cabiri.  ASTORINI,, an Italian philosopher, was born at Albidona, in Calabria, in 1651. He entered the Carmelite convent of Cosenza in his sixteenth year, and studied first the Peripatetic, and afterwards the Cartesian philosophy, with such success that he was accused of witchcraft, but fortunately acquitted. To escape future dangers he fled to Germany, and became vice-chancellor of the university of Marburg. He next graduated as doctor of medicine at Gröningen, and became there professor of mathematics. He afterwards received permission to return to Italy; and having for some time professed mathematics at Sienna, and founded there the academy of the Fisiocritici, he re-entered his monastery of Cosenza. Fresh persecutions, however, springing up, he quitted Cosenza, and resided at Terranuova as librarian to Prince Carlo Spinelli until his death in 1702. Amongst his MS. works may be mentioned the "Philosophia Symbolica" and "Ars Magna Pythagorica."—J. W. S.  ASTORPILCO, a descendant, by the female line, of the Inca Atahualpa, found by Humboldt in his travels.  ASTRAMPSYCHUS, a Greek poet, who has left a work on the interpretation of dreams, named "Oneirocriticon."  ASTRONOMUS, or "," a French astrologian and chronicler, whose real name is unknown, and who bears this epithet derived from his favourite science. He lived towards the end of the ninth century at the court of Louis le Debonnaire, for whom he predicted future events, and of whose reign he has written a history.—J. W. S.  ASTROS,, a French cardinal, was born at Tourves in 1772. In the exercise of his functions as metropolitan vicar-general, he gave offence to Napoleon, and was imprisoned during the last years of the empire. He succeeded to the archbishopric of Toulouse and Narbonne in 1830, and in 1850 was raised to the rank of cardinal. Died in 1851.  ASTRUC,, a celebrated French physician, born in Lower Languedoc in 1684, took his degree of doctor at the university of Montpellier in 1703; was honoured three years afterwards with an appointment to lecture on medicine in the absence of Professor Chirac; succeeded to one of the university chairs in 1717; removed to Paris in 1728, and the following year accepted the post of first physician to the king of Poland. He returned to Paris in 1730, and shortly after became professor of medicine in the Royal College. He died in 1766. His treatises on professional subjects, numerous and carefully elaborated, are still held in general esteem, especially his "De Morbis Venereis Libri Sex," published at Paris in 1736; but the publication by which he is best known in modern times is a work on biblical literature, entitled "Conjectures sur les Memoires originaux, dont il paroit que Moise s'est servi pour composer le livre de la Genèse;" Bruxelles, 1753, 12mo. His hypothesis is still held by many critics.—J. S., G. <section end="289H" /> <section begin="289I" />ASTUNICA, a Spanish theologian of the beginning of the seventeenth century, who embraced the theory of Copernicus, and maintained the then startling doctrine that the Holy Spirit, in reference to physical science, spoke conformably to the ordinary opinions and language of men—not intending to teach any science of that description. Foscarini, a Carmelite, had previously held similar language. The church became alarmed, and there quickly followed the prosecution of Galileo.—J. P. N. <section end="289I" /> <section begin="289J" />ASTYAGES, called by Diodorus , the last king of the Medes, was a contemporary in the seventh century. of Alyattes, king of Lydia, whose daughter he married. <section end="289J" /> <section begin="289K" />ASTYDAMAS, a Greek tragic poet, descended from a sister of Æschylus, was a son of the poet Morsimus. He studied oratory under Isocrates, but afterwards devoted himself to the drama, and was honoured by the Athenians with a statue in the theatre. He lived in the fourth century. <section end="289K" /> <section begin="289L" />ASTYDAMAS, son of the preceding, a Greek tragic poet, to whom Suidas attributes the following dramas:—"Hercules," "Epigoni," "Ajax Furens," "Bellerophontes," "Tyro," "Alcmene," "Phœnix," and "Palamedes." <section end="289L" /> <section begin="289M" />ASTYMEDES, a chief of the Rhodians, who was employed, in 167 ., when the Romans were at war with Perseus, king of Macedonia, to negotiate a peace with the former. He was admiral of the Rhodian fleet in 153. <section end="289M" /> <section begin="289N" />ASTYOCHUS, a Spartan admiral, commanded a fleet in the years 412-411 ., when several of the islands on the coast of Asia Minor had revolted from Athens, and had invoked the protection of Sparta. He was superseded, after eight months, on suspicion of having sold himself to Tissaphernes, agent of the king of Persia. <section end="289N" /> <section begin="289O" />ASULA or ASOLA,, a musician of Verona, who is stated by some to have lived from 1565 till 1596, by others till 1600. It is curious that neither Lichtenthal nor Baini, nor our two English extensive musical historians, give any account of him, since his merits and the high esteem in which he was held entitle him to considerable notice. He was an ecclesiastic by profession, and consequently his principal compositions are for the church: these consist of masses, motets, a set of psalms for five voices, dedicated in 1592 to Palestrina, and a number of contrapuntal exercises upon the Canto Fermo, which are said to be in the style of Porta; besides these, however, he wrote madrigals and many other pieces of chamber music, and he is said by Arteaga to have set the Trionfo d'Amore of Petrarch as an opera. Padre Martini, and Padre Paolucci, each prints a composition of his as a specimen, in their respective treatises on counterpoint. His "Falsi bordoni sopra gli otto tuoni ecclesiastici," must have been extremely popular at and after the time it was produced, for this work was printed four times, namely, at Venice in 1575, in 1582, and in 1584, and in Milan in 1587.—G. A. M. <section end="289O" /> <section begin="289P" />ASULANUS,, or or , an Italian printer of the latter part of the fifteenth century and beginning of the sixteenth, so called from his having been born at Asola, near Brescia. His name occurs on various works, published between the years 1480 and 1506, and afterwards in conjunction with that of his son-in-law, Aldus Manutius.—J. S., G. <section end="289P" /> <section begin="289Q" />ASYCHIS, a king of Egypt, of whom Herodotus reports, on the authority of the priests, that he built the eastern portico of Vulcan's temple at Memphis, and one of the brick pyramids, was the successor of Mycerinus. <section end="289Q" /> <section begin="289Zcontin" />ATAHUALLPA, the last inca of Peru, was the son of the eleventh inca, Huayna Capac. His mother was of royal lineage, and through her he inherited the kingdom of Quito. With his eldest brother Huascar, who succeeded to the throne of the incas in 1523, he remained at peace five years; but on being summoned to acknowledge the dependency of his kingdom on that of Peru, he prepared for war, entered the dominions of Huascar with 30,000 men, defeated him in a pitched battle, and thrust him into prison. Three years afterwards, Pizarro captured the island of Puna, and Huascar hearing in prison of the victorious stranger, sent ambassadors to Puna requesting <section end="289Zcontin" />