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SIG his achievements in constitution-building, an occupation in which he displayed a marvellous ingenuity and vanity.—J. J.  SIGEBERT I., third son of Clotaire I., king of the Franks, was born about the year 535, and became king of Austrasia in 561. The first years of his reign were disturbed by an irruption of the Huns into his territories, whom he with great slaughter drove across the Elbe. During his absence his brother, Chilperic, took several places in Austrasia, but on his return Sigebert took Soissons, his brother's capital, and defeated him in battle. On a second irruption of the Huns, Sigebert's troops refused to fight through fear of the savage-looking enemy, so that he was obliged to give himself up a prisoner, and to supply the Huns with provisions to return to their own country. Won by his address and liberality, the victors set him at liberty. Soon after he was again obliged to take up arms against Chilperic, whom he invested in Tournay, and refused terms of accommodation. In these circumstances two assassins, hired by the implacable Fredegonda, thrust their poignards into Sigebert at Vitri, 575. Thus died the best of Clotaire's sons, in the fortieth year of his age and the fourteenth of his reign. His character was that of a generous, benevolent, intrepid sovereign, who was beloved by his subjects, and respected even by his enemies.—S. D.  SIGEBERT of Gemblours, usually termed , an annalist or chronicler of German history, was born in Brabant about 1030. In 1048 he entered as a monk into the cloister of Gemblours. Two years subsequently he was called to Metz, to the monastery school of St. Vincentius, where he died the 5th October, 1112. He had the reputation in his day of being a very learned man. His principal work is the "Chronicon," extending from 381-1112. As might be expected from the age, the monk chronicles many erroneous and fabulous things. A continuation of it was undertaken by Anselm of Gemblours, who carried it from 1113 to 1137. Robert of Torrineo, and three others, continued it farther. All have been published in the Scriptores rerum Germanicarum, vol. i.—S. D.  SIGISMUND, Emperor of Germany, was the younger son of the Emperor Charles IV., and was born in 1366. By his father's death in 1378 he inherited the margraviate of Brandenburg; and having married Maria, daughter of Ludwig king of Hungary, he was on that sovereign's decease elected to the Hungarian throne. Sigismund was crowned king of Hungary in 1386; but as monarch of this country he was unpopular, and had to contend with continual conspiracies of the nobles, which at last compelled him to flee. He returned, however, and triumphed over the malcontents. In 1410 he was chosen emperor of Germany by a portion of the electors, on the decease of Ruprecht, palatine of the Rhine. Others favoured the deposed emperor, Wenceslaus, and others Jossus of Moravia; but by the death of the latter in 1411, and the withdrawal of the former, all the suffrages were united in support of Sigismund, who was crowned at Aachen in 1414. The new ruler introduced various improvements into his government, and under him the imperial power seemed about to regain its former greatness. But "the successful attacks of the Ottomans, the necessity of re-establishing order among churchmen, and, above all, a religious war in Bohemia, prevented Sigismund from restoring the throne of the Cæsars to its ancient splendour." During the reign of Sigismund the celebrated council of Constance was held, and the Hussite war took place. The burning of John Huss was followed by protracted insurrections in Bohemia, where Sigismund was opposed by the famous Zisca, Hostilities were terminated with the treaty of Iglau in 1435. This emperor, whose conduct so often savoured of perfidy and cruelty, died in 1437; and with him perished the royal line of Luxembourg.—J. J.  SIGISMUND I., King of Poland, the youngest son of Casimir, was born in 1466, and succeeded his brother Alexander in 1506. At his accession he found the kingdom in great disorder; and his reign was an uninterrupted series of successful exertions for its security and improvement. Sigismund's firmness and sagacity, which were ably seconded by the efforts of the royal treasurer, Bonar, ere long restored the finances to a prosperous condition; and the sovereign's brilliant victories over the Muscovites, the Wallachians, and the Tartars, gave prestige to his rule and stability to his sceptre. During the reign of Sigismund the reformed doctrines began to make considerable progress in Poland, a progress which became still more marked under his son and successor. This wise and magnanimous prince died in 1548, in the eighty-second year of his age.—J. J.  SIGISMUND II., King of Poland, was the son of the preceding, and succeeded his father in 1548. He pursued his predecessor's judicious course of administration, and continued to improve the condition of the kingdom over which he ruled. His reign was chiefly marked by the acquisition of Livonia, and the union between Lithuania and Poland, effected at the diet of Lublin in 1569—a union which lasted until the dissolution of the Polish monarchy. The doctrines of the Reformation also continued to gain many adherents among the upper classes; and it is to the credit of Poland that this country was the first to adopt a complete system of toleration. Sigismund himself was inclined to favour the cause of reform. He died in 1572, and as he left no issue, the Jagellonian dynasty became extinct.—J. J.  SIGISMUND III., king of Poland, was the son of John III. of Sweden, by a sister of Sigismund II., and was born in 1566. In 1587 he was elected to the Polish throne; and the choice thus made proved an unhappy one, both for himself and his subjects. Fanatically devoted to the Roman catholic faith, he never scrupled to sacrifice civil to ecclesiastical interests. When, in 1592, Sweden was united to Poland under his single sceptre, the violent efforts that he exerted to overthrow the established Lutheran worship in the former country led to a successful rebellion, headed by his uncle Charles; and he was finally deposed in 1600, by a resolution of the Swedish states, on the ground that he had "broken his coronation oath, violated the constitution, disregarded the laws, and endangered the protestant religion." Although not so unfortunate in Poland, where he managed to retain the throne, his complete subserviency to the jesuits, and to the interests of the house of Austria, were followed by lamentable consequences. An insurrection arose among the Poles, which was suppressed with difficulty; and sanguinary Muscovite and Turkish wars added to the general disasters of his reign. Sigismund, in whom, as in James VII. of England, bigotry and folly were about equally combined, died, after a protracted reign, in 1632.—J. J.  SIGNORELLI,, one of the most celebrated of the early Italian painters, and the greatest of his time, was born about 1441 at Cortona, whence he is also called. He learnt painting under Piero della Francesca, and distinguished himself as early as 1472 at Arezzo. He was one of those employed in 1484 in the Sistine chapel at Rome, and gradually acquired such distinction that he was in 1488 elected one of the supreme magistrates of his native city, Cortona. It was, however, at Orvieto that he executed his greatest works, where in the chapel of the Madonna di San Brizzio in the cathedral, he continued the series of frescoes left incomplete by Fra Angelico in 1447. Signorelli took up the work in April, 1499, undertaking to complete the ceiling and walls for a fixed sum of eight hundred ducats, besides free quarters and a monthly allowance of wine and corn. These frescoes occupied the painter about five years. They are in some respects the most important works of their age, and are still preserved. Signorelli was, with Pollajuolo, one of the first to pay much attention to anatomical drawing in painting; and these frescoes of the Madonna di San Brizzio are further the most remarkable works of their time, for the bold foreshortening of the human figure. Signorelli is supposed to have been the model followed by Michelangelo in his great fresco of the Last Judgment, in the Sistine chapel; even in his style of form, Michelangelo was anticipated by Luca Signorelli, who in his old age retired, loaded with honours, to Arezzo, where he lived, says Vasari, "more after the manner of a nobleman than an artist." and he was still living there in 1524: the exact date of his death is unknown. His Orvieto frescoes are all engraved in the fine work published by Della Valle on the cathedral of Orvieto.—(Stampe del Domo di Orvieto, with text in quarto, folio, Rome, 1791.)—R. N. W. <section end="249H" /> <section begin="249I" />SIGONIO or SIGONE,, an erudite professor and author, born in Modena in 1524, or, according to some, in 1519; died at a villa near the same city, 12th August, 1584. He palmed off, or helped to palm off as genuine, a clever imitation of Cicero purporting to be a complete treatise, "De Consolatione." The following are noteworthy amongst his numerous works—"Regum, Consulum. Dictatorum ac Censorum Romanorum Fasti;" "De Antiquo Jure Civium Romanorum libri duo;" "De Republica Atheniensium libri quinque;" "Historiæ Ecclesiasticæ libri xiv.;" and seven books "De Republica Hebræorum."—C. G. R. <section end="249I" /> <section begin="249Zcontin" />SIGOURNEY,, a voluminous and popular American writer of verse and prose, was born in 1797 at <section end="249Zcontin" />