Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 24.djvu/110

V A R V A S garded as examples of dcdinatio. Yarro adopts a compromise be tween the two opposing schools of grammarians, those who held that nature intended the dcclinationes of all words of the same class to proceed uniformly (which uniformity was called analogia) and those who deemed that nature aimed at irregularity (anmnalia). The matter is treated with considerable confusion of thought. But the facts incidentally cited concerning old Latin, and the state ments of what had been written and thought about language by Varro s predecessors, are of extreme value to the student of Latin. The other extant prose work, the Da tic Rustlca, is in three books, each of which is in the form of a dialogue, the circumstances and in the main the interlocutors being different for each. The dramatic introductions and a few of the interludes are bright and interesting, and the Latin style, though still awkward and unpolished, is far superior to that of the De Lingua Latino.-. A complete collection of the remains ofVarro is still a desideratum. The fragments of the different treatises have been partially collected in many .separate publications of recent date. The best editions of the De, Lingua Latino, are those by C. O. Mtiller and by L. Spengel (re-edited by his son in 1885). The most recent and best recension of the De He Rustica is that of Keil (Leipsic, 1SS4). Of modern scholars Ritschl has deserved best of Varro. Several papers in his Opuscula treat of the nature of Varro s works which have not come down to us. (J. S. R.) VARRO, PrjBuus TERENTIUS, with the cognomen ATACINUS, a Roman poet whose life extended from 82 to about 37 B.C. The name Atacinus, given to distinguish him from the more famous Varro of Reate, is drawn from Atax, the name of a small district or river in Narbonensian Gaul, near to which he was born. He was perhaps the first Roman born beyond the Alps who reached to eminence in literature. He seems to have taken at first Ennius and Lucilius as his models, and wrote an epic, entitled Bellum Sequanicum, eulogizing the exploits of Caesar in Gaul and Britain, and also Satires, of which Horace speaks slight ingly. Jerome has preserved a statement that Varro began to study Greek literature with great avidity in his thirty- fifth year. The last ten years of his life were given up to the imitation of Greek poets of the Alexandrian school. Quintilian (indirectly confirming the judgment of Horace concerning the Satires) says that Varro made his name as an interpres operis alieni "a translator of other men s works," for such is the force of the word interpres. Even in this capacity Quintilian bestows on him restricted praise as " by no means to be despised." But Quintilian probably much undervalued the Roman imitators of the Alexandrians, Catullus included. From other evidence we may conclude that, though he had not sufficient power to excel in the historical epic or in the serious work of the Roman satira, Varro yet possessed in considerable measure the lighter gifts which we admire in Catullus. His chief poem of the later period was the Argonautica, modelled, somewhat closely it would seem, on the epic of Apollonius llhodius. The age was prolific of epics, both historical and mythological, and that of Varro seems to have held a high rank among them. Ovid asks what age will ever be unacquainted with the story of the first ship as told by Varro. In one of Ovid s lists of Roman poets Varro stands between Ennius and Lucretius, while in another he is linked with Virgil. Statius, in his poem on the birthday of Lucan, gives to the epic of Varro an equally distinguished place. Later he published erotic poems, probably in the elegiac metre. These Propertius seems to have valued highly, for in a well-known passage he ranks the Leucadia celebrated by Varro along with the Lesbia of Catullus, the Quintilia of Calvus, the Lycoris of Gallus, and his own Cynthia. The other titles which have been preserved are the CosmograpMa, or Chororjraphia, a poem on geography, imitated from the Greek of Alexander, an Ephesian, described by Cicero (Att., ii. 22) as a careless man and no good poet ; and the Epkemeris, a poem on weather-signs, in hexameters, after Aratus. The Varro whom Quintilian (i. 4, 4) mentions in company with Lucretius as author of a poem on philosophy can hardly have been either Varro of Atax or Varro of Reate. The fragments of Varro Atacinus which remain, about fifty lines in all, are put together by Riese at the end of his edition of the fragments of the greater Varro s Menippean Satires ; but there is not enough of them to enable us to form a judgment on his style. VASA, GUSTAVUS. See GUSTAVUS I. VASARHELY. See HODMEZO-VASARHELY and MAROS- VASARHELY. VASARI, GIORGIO (1513-1574), a painter and architect, whose main distinction rests on his valuable history of Italian art, 1 was born at Arezzo in 1513. At a very early age he became a pupil of Guglielmo da Marsiglia, a very skilful painter of stained glass. At the age of sixteen he went to Florence, where he studied under Michelangelo and Andrea del Sarto, aided by the patronage of the Medici princes. In 1529 he visited Rome and studied the works of Raphael and others of his school. The paintings of Vasari wer.e much admired by the rapidly degenerating taste of the 16th century; but they possess the smallest amount of merit, being in the main feeble parodies of the powerful works of Michelangelo. Vasari was largely employed in Florence, Rome, Naples, Arezzo, and other places. Many of his pictures still exist, the most important being the wall and ceiling paintings in the great hall of the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence, and his frescos on the cupola of the cathedral, which, however, were not completed at the time of his death. As an architect he was perhaps more successful : the loggia of the Uffizi by the Arno, and the long passage connecting it with the Pitti Palace, are his chief works. Unhappily he did much to injure the fine mediaeval churches of S. Maria Novella and Santa Croce, from both of which he removed the original rood-screen and loft, and remodelled the retro-choir in the degraded taste of his time. Vasari enjoyed a very high repute during his lifetime and amassed a considerable fortune. He built himself in 1547 a fine house in Arezzo, and spent much labour in decorating its walls and vaults with paintings. He was elected one of the municipal council or priori of his native town, and finally rose to the supreme office of gonfaloniere. He died at Florence on 27th June 1574. Personally Vasari was a man of upright character, free from vanity, and always ready to appreciate the works of others : in spite of the narrow and meretricious taste of his time, he expresses a warm admiration of the works of such men as Cimabue and Giotto, which is very remark able. As an art historian of his country he must always occupy the highest rank. His great work was first published in 1550, and afterwards partly rewritten and enlarged in 1568, bearing the title Delle Vite de piu Ec- cellenti Pittori, Scultori, ed Architettori, It was dedicated to Cosimo de Medici, and was printed at Florence by the Giunti ; it is a small quarto illustrated with many good woodcut portraits. This editio prinreps of the complete work is usually bound in three volumes, and also contains a very valuable treatise on the technical methods em ployed in all branches of the arts, entitled Le Tre Arti del Diseyno, doe Architettura, Pittura, e Scoltura. The best edition of Vasari s works is that published at Florence by Milanesi, 1878-82, which embodies the valuable notes in the earlier edition by Le Monnier. The Lives has been translated into French, German, and English (by Mrs Foster, London, 1850). They are written in a very pleasant style, interspersed with amusing stories, and are in the main trustworthy, except some of the bio graphies of early artists. 2 With a few exceptions Vasari s judgment is acute and unbiassed. VASCO DA GAMA. See GAMA, VASCO DA. 1 Vasari gives a sketch of his own biography at the end of his Vite, and adds further details about himself and his family in his lives of Lazzaro Vasari and Francesco Salviati. He was related to the painter Luca Signorelli. 2 As in most other kindred subjects the tendency of modern criti

cism is to underestimate the historical accuracy of Vasari s work.