was received as procureur au siège royal de St. Louis, and soon exhibited talents which raised him out of the embarrassing position in which he at first found himself. He then quitted this charge, and received the brevet of captain aidemajor of the militia. Having become a planter, he exhibited in the cultivation of his lands a genius which very soon gave him a great influence: as proprietor of an indigo manufactory at Aquin, he showed much skill in conducting water to it; proprietor at the Grand Anse and at the Cayes, he made a road across the mountains, from one of these parishes to the other. Finally, he persuaded his neighbours of the Cayes, to form a company for the construction of a canal to fertilize the beautiful plain of the Fond; and, in the absence of a professed engineer, he undertook himself, for the sum of 30,000l. sterling, to have the canal made in the space of five years by his own slaves; and it was completed within the term specified, at the beginning of 1765, and was looked upon as a wonderful work. In fact, alone, without any other guide than his enterprising genius, he had executed in five years, a canal three feet (French) deep, nine feet broad, and which, after running a full league before arriving at the basin for the distribution of the waters, was there continued in two branches to water more than nine thousand acres of land, and to give a powerful motion to nineteen great manufactories. He had still to contend with some embarrassments, caused by the tricks of some of the shareholders, but these were, to his own honour, repressed in a manner highly flattering to himself, by the intervention of the comte d'Argout, lieutenant-governor, and by the award in judgment of the prince de Rohan, governor-general. He had married in 1752 Marie Thérèse de Linois, a near relation of the vice-admiral of that name; and he had by her five children, of which the only one now alive is the duchessdowager of Sorrentino, at Palermo.

2. Jean Pierre Valentin Joseph d'Avezac de Castera, born in 1756, and died in 1803, at St. Domingo, was the second son of the preceding. He was one of the deputies elected in 1790, by the great planters in St. Domingo, to form the famous assemblée générale of St. Marc, who undertook to resist the invasion of the revolutionary spirit of the mother country, and who, besieged by the partizans of the new ideas, embarked on board the Leopard to go to Paris, to

encounter the storm. Every one knows with what enthusiasm the eighty-five deputies, among whom was d'Avezac, were received at Brest; but at Paris, the national assembly treated them as aristocrats, and took part with their adversaries. Nevertheless, on their return to St. Domingo, they were all re-elected deputies to the new colonial assembly, where they continued their mission of resistance; and in these troubles, in which the insurrections of the mulattos was encouraged by the party which then ruled in France, they were obliged to seal with their blood the cause which they had espoused. D'Avezac had two of his sons killed in expeditions in which they commanded detachments sent against the insurgents; his youngest brother, and his brother-in-law, made prisoners in another action, were shot at Léogane, by the mulatto general Rigaud; his mother-in-law was killed by a gunshot at Port-au-Prince; himself, after having exhausted himself in vain efforts in the cause of order against that of anarchy, took refuge with the rest of his family in Jamaica, and from thence went to New Orleans.

He returned to St. Domingo during the expedition of Leclerc, and died of grief at the Cayes, on the ruins of that flourishing colony, which he had not been able to save from irreparable destruction. By his marriage with Rose Geneviève Tallary de Maragou, sister by the mother's side to his own mother, there remain but four children, of whom the eldest, Auguste Geneviève Valentin d'Avezac, the friend of Jefferson and of Jackson, came to Europe in 1831, as envoy extraordinary and plenipotentiary of the United States, to the courts of Naples and the Hague, whilst Edward Livingston, the husband of his sister, was minister of the department of state under president Jackson, and afterwards ambassador to Paris.

3. Pierre Valentin Dominique Julien d'Avezac de Castera, sieur de Macaya, born at St. Domingo, Jan. 17, 1769, died in the United States, Feb. 7, 1831, was younger brother of the last mentioned. He received at Soreze a very distinguished education, but he was scarcely of age when the revolution of 1789 came to compromise, and soon after to swallow up his fortune. When, after the treaty of Amiens, France sent an expedition to St. Domingo, he went there himself in the hopes of gathering some fragments of his shipwrecked riches; but he was soon obliged to seek refuge

at the Havannah, from whence again he was compelled to fly in those times of troubles and massacres, to find a final asylum at New Orleans. The family of his brother was already established there, and he himself obtained a public employment. Adversity had in no respect changed his taste for letters; he read in their original languages the chefsd'œuvres of the literature of all the nations of Europe, and he loved to translate into French verse the poets of other countries. He has left numerous manuscripts of this kind, and among others a version of the Marmion of Sir Walter Scott, preceded by an elegant and graceful letter, addressed to the celebrated romancer, who appeared very sensible of this compliment from a muse which repeated his songs in another hemisphere. Whilst he charmed his leisure hours with the cultivation of poetry, d'Avezac did not fear to enter upon more serious and drier subjects; to him we are indebted for the French official translation of the penal code of Louisiana, the English text of which had been composed by his nephew, Edward Livingston. D'Avezac had married, in 1793, Renée Lezée Potier, a lady universally respected for her many virtues, who had been educated by his aunt, Madame Saint-Augustin d'Avezac, prioress of the convent of Ursulines at Tarbe; he has left by her a son well known by various works in historical and geographical criticism.

AVIA, (Jacob,) a musical amateur of the seventeenth century, and most probably the father of burlesque songs in Germany. He published, in 1650, at Costnitz, Teutsche neue Kurzweilige Tafel Musik, von Gespraechen, Quodlibetten, und andern erbarn Schnitzen, und Schnacken, 4to, arranged for two, three, and four voices.

AVIANI, a native of Vicenza, flourished about the year 1630. He excelled in painting perspective and architectural views, principally of streets in Venice, which were frequently embellished with numerous figures by Giulio Carpioni. He occasionally painted landscapes and seaports, which are held in high estimation. "In the Foresteria, or Stranger's Lodge," says Lanzi, "of the Padri Serviti, are four of his views, exhibiting temples and other magnificent edifices; while several more are to be met with in possession of the marchesi Capra, in the celebrated rotunda of Palladio, as well as of other nobles in various palaces. He likewise

decorated the ceilings, or cupolas, of several churches. (Lanzi, Stor. Pitt. iii. 212. Bryan's Dict.)

AVIANO, (Jeronimo,) a celebrated burlesque poet of Vicenza, who flourished about the year 1610. Some of his poems are found in the collections entitled, Rime Piacevoli. (Biog. Univ.)

AVIAU DU BOIS DE SANZAY, (Charles François d',) was born in 1736. He was a doctor of the faculty of theology at Angers, and pronounced the funeral oration of Louis XV. In 1789 he was made archbishop of Vienne by Louis XVI. He was obliged to quit France in 1792; and went to Rome, where he was kindly received by Pius VI., who gave him the title of the "saint archevêque,” which was afterwards confirmed to him by Pius VII. In 1797 he returned secretly to France; and though exposed continually to the risk of being taken and executed, went from village to village in the disguise of a peasant, exercising the duties of his office, and administering the consolations of religion. After the Concordat had restored peace to the church, he was appointed archbishop of Bordeaux, and was installed in April, 1802. The manner in which he discharged his duties deserves the highest praise. In 1811 Bonaparte summoned the bishops to Paris, to obtain their sanction to his treatment of the pope, and though he imprisoned and persecuted most of those that protested against it— and the archbishop was as vehemently opposed as any-he did not venture to touch him.

After the return of the Bourbons, he received the duke of Angoûleme at the door of the cathedral, with the warmest congratulations. In March, 1826, the curtains of his bed caught fire, and the archbishop was so severely burnt, that after lingering for some months, he died in the July following. He wrote, Melanie et Lucette, ou les Avantages de l'Education Religieuse; Poitiers, 1811. A life of this prelate, by J. Tournon, was published at Montpelier in 1829. (Biog. Univ. Suppl.)

AVIBUS, (Gaspar ab,) an engraver, born at Padua, about the year 1530, whose works are dated from 1560 to 1580. He is supposed to have learnt engraving under Giorgio Ghisi, called Mantouano, many of whose prints he professedly copied, and whose manner in them he entirely adopted. He often signed his prints with a monogram formed of the letters which compose the word Gaspar; at other times he put Gaspar only, or

GA. P. F., or Gaspar P. F., and sometimes Gaspar Osello Padovano. His principal work appears to have been a large folio volume, in five parts, containing portraits of the emperors, archdukes, princes, &c. of the Austrian family. It is engraved somewhat in the style of Sadelers. In this work he signs himself, Gaspar Patavinus, incisor, 1569; and at the bottom he has also added the word Citadelensis to his name. M. Heinecken also mentions Cæsar ab Avibus; but Mr. Strutt considers he is the same as Gaspar, and observes that Florent. le Comte, in attributing the Austrian portraits to him, has led many persons into error. He says that they are evidently the same artist. (Heinecken, Dict. des Artistes. Strutt's Dict. of Eng.)

AVICE, (le chevalier,) an amateur engraver, who flourished in the middle of the seventeenth century. He lived at Paris, and etched some slight plates after Nicholas Poussin and others, and among them the Adoration of the Magi, a middling-sized plate lengthways, after that master, which is in much esteem. (Strutt's Dict. of Eng.)

AVICENNA. See SINA, IBN.

AVIDIUS, (Cassius,) was reputed, and professed himself a descendant of the republican Cassii, and especially of the notorious conspirator. But the family had fallen into decay, and Avidius Severus, his grandfather, was a centurion under Trajan and Adrian. Little more than the general history of Avidius Cassius is known. His revolt against the good emperor Marcus has alone made him memorable in the age of the Antonines. He served with distinction as the lieutenant of Lucius Verus, in the Parthian war; or, to speak more correctly, he gained the victories for which Verus and his colleague triumphed. He was employed in the insurrection of the Gætulian Moors, and against the armed peasants of Upper Egypt. (Bucolici Milites.) Early in the reign of Marcus, Avidius was sent to command the Syrian legions. They required his rigid discipline, his steady and judicious training. Yet without bringing on his own destruction, he can hardly have practised the severities which his Augustan biographer imputes to him. Upon his arrival at Antioch, he proclaimed that any soldier found at Daphne, the beautiful and licentious suburb of the capital of Syria, should be instantly discharged. Even success, if at the expense of discipline, was punished by him. According to the

same biographer, Avidius in his own conduct displayed some inconsistency; being by turns temperate and dissolute, indulgent and severe, profane and superstitious. He emulated, (it was said by his contemporaries perhaps after his death,) the fame of a second Catilina or Marius. The brother emperors he affected to despise. Marcus he called a "philosophic dotard," "philosopham aniculam ;" Verus, a "profligate buffoon," "luxuriosum morionem.' The latter always suspected him, and imparted his suspicions to his colleague. But Marcus, in reply, quoted the pithy remark, that "no one ever put his successor to death;" and on another occasion observed, that he "had not so deported himself, either to men or the gods, as to be in dread of Avidius." The motives for the revolt of Avidius are various and doubtful. It is said that Faustina instigated him to rebel, and promised him her hand, on the death of Marcus. The weak health of the emperor, and the dangers to which Commodus would be exposed in his minority, made her desirous to have a protector for her children. Another cause was that Avidius was dissatisfied with Marcus's administration. And this is in some measure supported by a letter which Vulcatius has preserved. Avidius admits that the emperor was excellent as a man and a philosopher; but his contemplations made him blind or indifferent to the vices of his family and the conduct of his lieutenants. "The times," he said, "called for the ancient severity of morals and discipline, and not for lectures on mind, on justice, and clemency." A third reason was a false report of the emperor's death. The rebellion, however, was of short duration. As soon as the news reached the camp, that the legions of the Danube were marching on Syria, and that Marcus was alive, Avidius was dispatched by his own followers. Marcus resisted the entreaties of Faustina and the votes of the senate, to punish with severity the adherents and the family of Avidius. He regretted that his violent death had deprived him of the pleasure of converting an enemy into a friend. He allowed the children of Avidius to retain the greater part of his estates, and even advanced them to honours. Under Commodus, however, they became the objects of suspicion to the tyrant, and were involved in the common doom of the most respectable senators. (The materials for the life of Avidius Cassius are the biography of Vulcatius

Gallicanus, in the Augustan History, and Dio. Cassius, lxxi. cc. 22-28.)

out.

AVIENUS, (Rufus Festus,) lived probably in the reigns of Valens, Valentinian, and Gratian, or possibly earlier, in those of Julian and Constantius. He was twice proconsul; once, probably, of Africa, and once, certainly, of Achaia. His Spanish origin, as well as his descent on the mother's side from the celebrated stoic, C. Musonius, are not certainly made The principal work of Avienus is his Metaphrasis Periegeseos Dionysii, or Situs, or Ambitus Orbis, now generally entitled, Descriptio Orbis Terrarum, in 1394 hexameter verses. As its name imports, it is not a literal translation of the Greek original, but a paraphrase, or imitation, with many changes and additions, which render parts of the work original, and display considerable powers of research and descriptive fancy in the author. There exists a fragment of a similar work of Avienus, in iambic metre, entitled, Ora Maritima. It contained a minute chorography of the principal features of the coasts of the Mediterranean, the Euxine, and the Mootis. But of this poem only 703 verses-the first book-have been preserved. These delineate the coast from Cadiz to Marseilles. But the poet seems to have taken his account from the old geographers, rather than from actual observation, or from surveys extant in his time. Either his originals or himself had consulted Carthaginian charts and descriptions. (See Heeren's African Nations, Appendix II. English Translation, vol. ii.)

AVIGADOR. Two rabbinical writers of this name are mentioned by De Rossi. 1. Abraham, (born about 1350,) author of a Compendium of Logic, and a Hebrew Grammar, both of them still in

MS.

2. Solomon, son of the preceding, who wrote a book of philosophy, called the Book of Degrees (still in MS.), and translated John de Sacro Bosco's Book of the Sphere. This translation was printed at Offenbach in 1720, in Abraham Ben Chaia's Tzurath Haaretz.

AVILA. Spain has produced many persons of this name.

1. Luis d'Avila Zuniga, a native of Placenza, commandador of the order of Alcantara, a general, diplomatist, and historian. He was high in favour with Charles V.; and having served that mcnarch in the field and the cabinet, against the Protestants of Germany, and in embassies to the Italian states, he took up the

pen, and published what he had seen or heard from the report of eye-witnesses. His Commentary on the Wars of Ger many, undertaken by Charles V. in 1546 and 1547, (Madrid, 1549,) is a well known work. Its prejudices too are well know yet with all its defects it is a respectable performance. The style is very clear, the reflections judicious, the manner nervous. The author evidently imitated Cæsar. So much was he esteemed by Charles, that the monarch thought hi self more fortunate than Alexander, i having such an historian. But what in partiality could be expected from the man who wrote to please his sovereign!

2. Juan d'Avila, (1500-1569, of Almodovar del Campo, studied & Acala, took orders, and was preparing go out as missionary to India, whe the archbishop of Seville, thinking that missionaries were wanted in Spain much as anywhere, detained him in Ardalusia. During about forty years, this excellent man visited every corner of Andalusia, preaching repentance, and alluring to a virtuous life by his example more than by his precepts. Hence be has been called the Apostle of Andalusia He had to preach to open or secret Mahommedans, (to the Moriscos,) ve less than to those of his own commu nion. His life and works were published by Ruiz, Madrid, 1618, in 2 vols, 4to.

3. Sancho d', (1546-1625,) who died bishop of Placenza, wrote some picts works, but calculated only to interest members of his own communion.

4. Alfonso, (1546—1618,) a jesuit of Belmonte, who having been for many years an eloquent preacher, left two volumes of Sermons in Latin.

4. Sancho d', one of the officers who fought under the duke of Alva in the Low Countries, and whose atrocities during the civil wars equalled those of his superior. His name will always be ex ecrated by the Belgians and Dutch.

5. Alfonso, wrote a life of St. Secundo, bishop of Avila, in 1583.

6. Esteban, (1549-1601,) a jesuit missionary to Peru, who died at Lima, wrote on ecclesiastical censures, scholastic theology.

and

7. Gil Gonsalvo d', (died 1658,) a Spaniard by birth, but educated in the house of a Roman cardinal, published, on his return to his native land, a history of the Antiquities of Salamanca. This work gave him a name, yet it has no great merit. In 1612 he was called to Madrid, as historiographer of Castile, in the place

of Tamajo. In that capacity, so favourable to his pursuits, he wrote a history of Enrique III. king of Castile; an account of the remarkable objects at Madrid; an historical view of Spanish and SpanishAmerican churches, &c.

AVILER, (Augustin Charles d',) architect, born at Paris 1653, deceased 1700. He commenced his architectural studies at an early age, and pursued them with such success, that at twenty he gained the grand prize, and was sent by the academy to Rome. He embarked at Marseilles, for the purpose of proceeding thither in company with Desgodets, who has since distinguished himself by his work on the Edifices of Rome, and with the celebrated antiquary Jean-Foi Vaillant. It is seldom that the life of an architect presents any striking occurrence, which offers general interest apart from his professional career; and the memoir of an artist rarely affords any other incident than the records of his various productions. To this, however, d'Aviler presents a striking exception: for his first entrance into life, beyond the mere routine of the studies of his closet, seemed to be destructive of all his future prospects. The vessel, in which he and his companions sailed, was taken by an Algerine corsair, and all on board became slaves. D'Aviler, with an elasticity of spirit which seems never to abandon his countrymen under any adverse circumstances however trying, still cultivated his art; and it is said that his masters were so captivated by his talents, that he was employed to design and superintend the erection of a mosque, built at Tunis, in the great street leading to Babaluk; and it is not improbable that it is worthy the reputation which it acquired, of being the handsomest building of the sort in that country. Louis XIV. at length obtained the liberty of the young travellers after a detention of sixteen months, and d'Aviler immediately proceeded to Rome, his ardour unchecked by his captivity, to pursue his studies among the monuments of ancient and modern art. At the end of five years he returned to Paris, and was employed by Mansard, the leading architect of the time, to superintend his various works. Becoming at length ambitious to distinguish himself by the erection of some monument of his own genius, he went to the south of France, to direct the construction of a city gate at Montpellier, designed by d'Orbay; hoping that his connexion with this flourishing town

might afford him the opportunity of evincing his professional powers. He acquitted himself so much to the satisfaction of the chief officer of Languedoc, by the manner in which he superintended the work, that he became his protector and friend, and in consequence d'Aviler was extensively employed at Carcasoenne, Beziers, Nismes, and Toulouse, in which last city he erected the episcopal palace. His talents thus became fully appreciated, and he was appointed architect of Provence, a post created expressly for him.

The reputation of d'Aviler in foreign countries rests principally upon his very sensible work entitled, Cours d'Architecture. It consists of a republication of the orders of Vignola, to which he added fuller descriptions, and many judicious observations; to these he has appended illustrations of some of the buildings of Vignola and Michael Angelo. The more original matter consists of one or two designs for handsome French town houses, with the details of staircases, chimneys, and other parts of such buildings; so that he has not treated the art monumentally, but merely in its application to private dwellings of that class. The second volume contains a dictionary of architectural terms. Milizia remarks, that the success of this work only tended to induce d'Aviler to exert himself to improve it; and that its author evinced that he possessed the qualities of a superior mind, when instead of being satisfied with the reputation which it had acquired him, he examined its defects with critical severity, and sought only to render it more deserving the praises bestowed upon it. But a premature death cut off this distinguished and modest artist at the early age of forty-seven. Alexander Le Blond, and other editors, have successively augmented and improved the Cours d'Architecture, which has seen several editions. (Quatremère de Quincy, Dict. Historique d'Architect. Milizia, Memoire degli Architetti.)

AVILES, (Manoel Leitam de,) master of the orchestra at Granada in 1625, born in Pontalegre; a celebrated composer of church music, who enjoyed much celebrity in his time. Several masses for eight and twelve voices, composed by him, are carefully preserved in the royal musical library of Lisbon.

AVIS. See LOYSEL.

AVISON, (Charles,) an English composer of music, who was organist at Newcastle, and who is supposed to have been