Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 20.djvu/277

* VOZNESENSK. 220 VULCAN. housps for the storaKe of grain and salt and manufacturPB brick and iron products. Popu- lation, in 1897, 14,178. VRANIA, vriin'ya, or VRANJA. The ca|ii- tal of a department in Servia, 37 miles east by south of Prishtina, Turkey, on the Morava River (Map: Balkan- Peninsula, Y) 3). It is an im- portant railway and conimereial centre, and is noted for the nianufacturo of rope. Hemp and flax are the prinoijial jirnducts of the vicinity. There are numerous sulphur springs. Popu- lation, in moo, 11,921. VRATZA, vrat'sa. Tlic capital of a depart- ment in liulfraria, 59 miles north by east of Sofia (lAlap: Balkan Peninsula, 1) 3). It manu- factures leather, wine, and jewelry and carries on an important trade. There is a school of sericul- ture here. Population, in 1900, 13,749. VEAZ, vriis, St.xko (lSlO-51). A Serbo- Croatian poet, born at Zerovec, in Lower Styria. He was educated at Gratz and joined the move- ment to fuse the Slovene and Serbo-Croatian languages under the name of Illyrian. This at- tempt was not successful; but Vi'az (who is also known as Jacob Fraz) wrote many graceful lyrics and made collections of national songs which are of great value. His work has a strong Oriental coloring and he himself ranks as one of the four important Serbo-Croatian poets. His collected works, Djela. were published at Agram in four volumes (1803-04), and a fifth volume containing his letters was added in 1877. VB.IES, vres (or FRIES), Adriaen de (1.560- C.1027). A Dutch scul|itor, born at The Hague. In his boyhood he went to Florence and there studied uiider Giovanni da Bologna. He made many copies of the antique in bronze, notably a "Farnese Bull," now in Gotha. JIany of his original works were done in wax. one of which was a "Rape of the Sabines" for Rudolph II.. who invited the sculjitor to Prague. There Dc Vries made a statue of the Emperor and thence he went to Augsburg, where his greatest works were made and remain, the most famous being the Mercury Fountain (1599) and the Hercules Fountain (1602). Both are beautiful examples of the Italian Renaissance, with much profusion of figure and fine detail. Consult the monograph by Buclnvalil (Leipzig, 1899). . VRIES, Hugo de (1848—). A Dutch bot- anist, born in Haarlem and educated at Leyden, Heidelberg, and Wiirzburg. In 1871 he became a teacher in the Commercial High School of Am- sterdam and in 1877 lecturer in the University of Amsterdam, where in 1880 he was professor of vegetable anatomy and physiology. Since 1897 he has been professor at Wiirzburg. He has made important studies on the structure of plant-cells and wrote: Vntersuchnngen iibcr die wechanischeii Ur.tachen tier ZcU- strccl-ung (1887) ; IntraccUulnrc Panpenesis (18S9): Monofiraphie dcr ^icaiigxdrehungen (1892); and iii the Lrcrhoek der Plantkiinde, which he edited with Oudemans, the first part on vegetable physiology (2d ed. 1885). VRIES, JlATTniAS DE (1820-92). A Dutch philologist, born in Haarlem, and educated at Le}?den, where in 1853 he became professor of Dutch language and literature. His most impor- tant publication was Woordenboek der Sedcr- hindachc trial (1864 et se(i.), which he began with Te Winkel and continued with the assistance of Cosijn and Verwijs, but was unable to couiplete. . other great lexicographical labor, also un- completed, was the Middelnedvrlandsch Woordrn- toefc ( 1S4-6:j) . It was in Middle Low (iermun tliat liis most typical work was done, mainly edi- tions of V"an liooft's IlV/rcnor (1843). of Boen- dalo's Lckciisinrghcl ( 1844-48), and of Von Maer- lant's Hpicghcl historiwl (with Verwijs, 1863, concluded by Utenbrocke, 1879). Mention should be made as well of his orthographical work, De tjrondheginselen dcr Nedcrlnndsche sprllinfi (with Te Winkel, 1865), which intro- duced the method now in common use. and of his many pamphlets on linguistic problems in gen- eral, of which Uc XederUindxilK' Innlhunde { 1849) and De Itecrschappij dcr taal, hct hcyinscl der icelsprekcndheid (1850) are most important. VTJILLEFROY, vu'y'-frwii', Dominique Fi5- l,ix DE (1841 — ). A French p;iinter of land- scape and :uiinials — particuhirly the latter. He was born in I'aris an<l studied under Bonnat and llebert. His first picture at the Salon was '■The Coast of Grace at llimfieur" (1867). Later pictures were: '"Free Market in Picardy" (1875) ; ••Return of the Herd" (1880; Luxembourg (ial- lerv, Paris); "In the Meadows" (1883; Luxem- bourg) ; "The Brook" (1880). VULCAN (Lat. Vulcnniis, Volcnnus; con- nected with Skt. iilka, firebrand) . or Hepii.estus. In classical mythology, the god of fire. In Greek legend Hcpha'stus was the son of Zeus and Hera. Deformed at birth, he was hurled by his mother from Olympus. He fell into the sea, and was cared for by Thetis and Eurynome. Another story represents him as hurled from heaven by Zeus for interfering in behalf of Hera. He fell on Lemnos and was cared for by the Sintians. In the Iliad his wife is Charis (Grace), but later legend united him with Aphrodite, apparently for the contrast between the lame, awkward, and grimy smith and the goddess of beauty. His de- tection of her infidelity with Ares is told in the Odt/ssey. In spite of his prominence in legend, the cult of Hephtestus was very limited. At Lemnos and in Sicily (both volcanic regions) he enjoyed honor, but in Greece proper his cult is scarcely known outside of Attica. Here he was the god of artisans, especially workers in metal, and was joined in worship with Athena Ergane. in a temple in the Ceramicus. identified by some with the so-called Thesenm. In the suburb of the Academy in the sacred precinct of Athena was a common shrine of Hephaestus and Prometheus (q.v.), a 'very similar personage. The god seems to have developed from the eon- ception of divinity in fire conjoined with local demons or gnomes honored or feared by smiths and potters. In Rome we find among the early Roman gods Volcanus. with a festival on Au- gust 23d. and a sacred place, the Volcannl, not far from the Comitium. He seems to have been a god of the destructive fire, who was appeased by the offering of living fishes, and in whose honor the captured weapons were burned. He certainly was especially invoked against danger from conflagration, and his worship became more prominent under Augustus, who had redistricted the city and provided sjjecial protection against fires. The poets of course identified him with