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VIT army of the Danube into Italy; Rome was taken, and Vitellius died a miserable death in the streets of his capital.—W. B.  VITELLIUS,, was born at the town of Zirizee in Zealand. After travelling for some time in Italy, France, and Germany, he returned to his native place, and was made rector of its college. He subsequently, however, removed to Amsterdam, where he died in 1618. Vitellius translated into Latin the Description of the Low Countries written by Guicciardini, the Italian historian. He also published an abridgment of Camden's Britannia, with the chorographic maps.—R. M., A.  VITELLO or VITELLIO, the name assumed by a Polish man of science, whose family name was Ciolek, and who flourished in the thirteenth century. The earliest known editions of his writings were not published until the middle of the sixteenth century. They relate to perspective and to optics, and show a considerable advance beyond the knowledge evinced by his predecessors.—W. J. M. R.  VITRÉ,, one of the most celebrated of the French printers, died at Paris in July, 1674. He was printer to the clergy of France, and printer of the oriental languages to the king, consul and syndic of the corporation of printers, &c. It was Vitré who printed the superb Polyglott Bible of Guy-Michel Le Jay, in 6 vols. folio, a work still unsurpassed as well for the beauty and majesty (the words of a French critic) of its characters, as for its extraordinary accuracy. This book raised him to the top of his profession, and gave him a reputation above that even of Robert Stephen, to whom Vitré, however, was very inferior in point of learning. The Corpus Civile cum notis Gothofredi, printed in 1628, is also a marvel of correctness and beauty of type; as also the Biblia Sacra, in folio and quarto. But Vitré's great success turned his head; his vanity having at length degenerated into such a preposterous form of jealousy that he actually melted the fine types with which he had printed the Polyglott Bible, in order that another impression might never be produced.—R. M., A.  VITRINGA,, a famous divine and commentator, was born at Leuwarden in Friesland on the 16th of May, 1659. He studied at Franeker and Leyden. At this last college he was in his twentieth year created D.D., and the following year he was appointed professor of oriental languages, and two years later professor of theology in the university of Franeker. He died of apoplexy on the 31st of March, 1722. Among his principal works are his "Commentarius in Jesaiam," learned and full, but prolix; "Vetus Synagoga," an excellent and trustworthy piece of sacred antiquities; "Anacrisis Apocalypseos;" "Commentarius in Zechariam;" "Dissertationes Sacræ;" "Typus Theologiæ Propheticæ"—with many other works, all excellent and erudite, the result of great and conscientious industry.—J. E.  VITRINGA,, the younger, and a son of the preceding, was born at Franeker, 23rd March, 1693. He studied at Franeker, Leyden, and Utrecht. In 1715 he became D.D., and was in 1716 appointed professor extraordinary at Franeker. He was the author of several theological essays, which were published by Venema after his death, which took place within a year of that of his father, on the 11th January, 1723.—J. E.  VITRUVIUS POLLIO,, Roman architect and writer on architecture. Whilst it is to the "Architectura" of Vitruvius that we are indebted for nearly all we know of Greek and Roman architecture, beyond what can be acquired by the study of the buildings or fragments of buildings which still remain, we are left without any information respecting the writer except the little which can be gathered from his book. Frontinus in his treatise De Aquæductibus, and Pliny in the list of authors from whom he borrowed, are the only ancient writers by whom he is mentioned. The year and the place of his birth are merely conjectural. From the way in which he speaks of himself in the dedication of his great work to Augustus, it is probable that he was born between 85 and 75. Formia, now Mola di Gaëta, has been fixed on as his birthplace, from the occurrence there of several inscriptions to the Vitruvian family. He received a good general education, and studied architecture not only practically, but in the works of numerous writers, of whom he gives a list in the introduction to his seventh book, "On private dwellings." He mentions having erected a basilica or hall of justice at Fanum, of which he supplies a description, but no other building is known to have been constructed by him. He served in Africa under Julius Cæsar about 46. His first professional employment was as a military engineer; and at the time he wrote his treatise, which must have been between 20 and 13 ., he was one of the inspectors of military engines, an office for which he was indebted to the recommendation of the emperor's sister. He says that he was neither rich nor famous, but he hoped by the work he was writing to secure a reputation with posterity. His treatise is divided into two books, and treats of the qualities and education necessary for the architect; of the general principles of architecture, and its several branches; the choice of sites for buildings; of materials; of design; of the orders; of the different kinds of public buildings—temples, theatres, &c.; of private dwellings—their arrangement, symmetry, fittings, and decoration; of water and its supply; of sun-dials, and the scientific principles upon which their accuracy depends; of civil and military engines and machinery. Directly and incidentally there is also given much information respecting the architects and architecture of Greece, the painting, sculpture, and decorative work generally of the ancients, and on various matters more or less closely connected with the main subject. The style is not always clear, but it is that of a man thoroughly master of his subject; and the information is full and minute. Milizia styles Vitruvius the father of architecture. For a long period his treatise was regarded by architects as the final authority; and it is still the text-book for the study of the architecture of Greece and Rome. The first edition of it was published at Florence, in folio, about 1480, by G. Herolt, the editor being J. Sulpitius. A more accurate edition appeared at Florence, also in folio, in 1496. Numerous other editions have since appeared, and it has been translated into almost every European language. The first complete English translation was that of Robert Castell, with notes by Inigo Jones and others, 2 vols. folio, 1730; the last by Joseph Gwilt, 4to, 1826, and in 12mo, 1860.—J. T—e.  VITUS,, was born of a good family at Basingstoke in Southamptonshire about the middle of the sixteenth century. He studied at Oxford; but abiding by the old faith, he found England to be an uncongenial soil and migrated to Louvain, from which place he soon after found his way to Padua. He ultimately, however, took up his residence at Douai, in the university of which town he was for the long period of thirty years regius professor. Hitherto he had been a mere secular man—he had even been twice married; but Clement VIII., his wives being, we suppose, both dead, cleansed him from all remaining taints of matrimony, and opened his way into the priesthood. Vitus wrote a book on the celebrated Bologna enigma, "Ælia Lælia Crispis;" and another on the laws of the Decemvirs. He was author besides of some pious treatises, and of a history of England, which is entitled "Historiarum Britannicæ Insulæ ab origine mundi ad annum octogentesimum libri novem."—R. M., A. <section end="536H" /> <section begin="536I" />VIVALDI,, Abbate, a musician, was born at Venice in the latter half of the seventeenth century, where he died in 1743. He was eminent as a violinist, and was also an extensive composer for the violin. His most famous work was a series of twelve concertos (op. 8), entitled "Le quattro Staggioni," the purpose of embodying in which the sentiments and emotions peculiar to the four seasons was ridiculed by the critics of the time, but admired by the public. His "Cuckoo Concerto," so named from its containing an imitation of the notes of the bird, was for very many years a favourite show-piece with violinists in England, and it is not, even now entirely out of practice. Vivaldi held for a time the office of kapellmeister to the elector of Hesse Darmstadt, and in 1713 he returned to Venice, where he remained till his death. There he entered the church, and so obtained the title of abbate, and was appointed maestro di concerti in the Ospitale della Pieta. His red hair gained him the soubriquet among the people of Il Preto rosso, by which he was more commonly known than by his own name. He was of such pious habits that the rosary was never out of his hand, save when he was engaged in his art; but music more than divided his attention with theology, for he once stopped in the performance of mass to retire to the sacristy and write down the subject of a fugue, for which irregularity he was tried by the inquisition, whose sentence disqualified him from fulfilling his priestly function.—G. A. M. <section end="536I" /> <section begin="536Zcontin" />VIVANT,, doctor of the Sorbonne, was born at Paris, where he became curé, first of the parish of Saint Leu, and then (1697) of St. Gilles. He was afterwards appointed penitentiary of Paris (a pénitencier is a person having power of absolving in cases reserved for him) and vicar general under the famous Cardinal de Noailles. On the 7th of August, 1711, he <section end="536Zcontin" />