Page:Imperial Dictionary of Universal Biography Volume 1.pdf/46

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
ADA
26
ADA

second and most important work—his "Roman Antiquities," which was published in 1791—at once established his reputation as a scholar. His "Compendious Dictionary of the Latin Tongue," was published in 1805. Dr. Adam may be regarded as the founder of the Burgh and Parochial Schoolmasters' Widows and Orphans' Fund, established by Act of Parliament in the beginning of this century. On December 13, 1809, when in his class-room, he was seized with apoplexy, of which, after lingering five days, he died. Becoming delirious before his dissolution, he imagined that he was still in school, conducting the business of his class. After some expressions of applause or censure, he suddenly stopped short, and said, "But it grows dark, boys, you may go," and instantly expired. During the course of his life. Dr. Adam had under his training many pupils who afterwards rose to high distinction, among whom may be particularly named, Dugald Stewart, Francis Horner, Sir Walter Scott, Lord Jeffrey, Lord Cockburn, and Lord Brougham. (See Lockhart's "Life of Scott," vol. i., p. 33.) Besides the works already mentioned. Dr. Adam was the author of a "Summary of Ancient Geography and History," Edinburgh, 1794; and "Classical Biography," Edinburgh, 1800. His large Latin dictionary, which he had been preparing, and the MS. of which is now in the High School, he had only brought down to the word "Comburo."—J. A.

ADAM d'Ambergau, a printer, born at Amberg in High Bavaria. He lived in the fifteenth century, and his name is marked on an edition of Cicero's orations, printed at Venice in 1472. Editions of Lactantius and Virgil had appeared in the previous year, bearing the name Adam, but these cannot be with certainty attributed to the subject of our notice.

ADAM of Bremen, a chronicler and geographer of the eleventh century, was a native of Upper Saxony. He went to Bremen in 1067, and there became canon and director of the public school. From thence he appears to have made many journeys into the northern countries for missionary purposes, and to these are due the interesting details he has furnished respecting the ecclesiastical condition of Denmark, Sweden, and Russia at that period. His works, however, require to be consulted with discretion, as there is much fable mixed up with the facts contained in them.—S.

ADAM, Charles Adolphe, a musician, the son of Jean Louis, was born at Paris on the 24th of February, 1804. He had the great advantage of his father's instructions on the pianoforte, till he entered the Conservatoire in 1817. In this institution he studied composition, first under Reicha, and subsequently under Boieldieu. His first complete work was the comic opera, in one act, of "Pierre et Catherine," performed at the Opera Comique in 1829; this, however, did little but open a course of opportunities for the production of several others, and they little more than gain him a reputation for facility. In 1832 he came to London, and wrote the music for a ballet called "Faust," which was brought out at the King's theatre, then under the management of his relation Laporte; this had very considerable dramatic character, and was marked by the fluency of melody and brilliancy of instrumentation that are his chief distinctions. He introduced much of this music in his ballet of "Giselle," brought out several years later at the Academic Royale, which, together with his "Diable à Quatre," written for the same theatre in 1843, entitles him to consideration, not only as being one of the best writers of ballet music, but as giving to this class of composition an artistic character. His fame in the higher department of dramatic music was more decidedly established by his opera of "Le Proscrit," at the Opera Comique in 1833; and in 1836, his "Postilion de Lonjumeau" fixed him as one of the most esteemed writers for that theatre, and immediately spread his popularity all over Europe; this will always be esteemed his best work, but "Le Brasseur de Preston," and still less "Le Chalet" (both one act operas), must not be disregarded, since these are, as their vivacity and piquancy entitle them to be, especial favourites of the French lyric stage. In 1847 he wrote his first mass, and in 1850 another; but though they have elicited admiration, his talents little fitted him for this class of composition. In style he was a follower of Auber, but never wrote with the intensity of expression that elevates some of the more earnest works of his original, above all imitation. He was elected a member of the French Institute in 1844, and appointed a professor of composition in the Conservatoire in 1848. He was mainly concerned in the establishment, and subsequently director of the Theatre Lyrique, the fourth theatre for operas in Paris. He died suddenly in 1856.—G. A. M.

ADAM, Daniel, born at Prague in 1546, was a professor in the university of his native town, and has left several works on Bohemian history, language, and literature. One of those he names "A Journal of all the Memorable Events which have happened at Prague," published in 1577.

ADAM, Georg, a German landscape painter and etcher. He died at Nüremberg in 1823.

ADAM DE LA HALE. See Hale.

ADAM, Jacques, a French writer, born at Vendôme in 1663. He was recommended by Rollin to the Abbé Fleury, whom he assisted in the preparation of his "Histoire Ecclesiastique." He had the charge of educating two princes of the house of Bourbon Conti, and wrote several translations.

ADAM, James, a German engraver, who lived at Vienna about the close of the last and the beginning of the present century. He is known as the engraver of the plates for the celebrated "Picture Bible" of Vienna (Bilder-Bibel), and also for an engraving of the Marriage of Francis, archduke of Austria, with the Princess Elizabeth of Wurtemberg.

ADAM, James, brother of Robert Adam the architect, was the designer of Portland Place, London, and for some time architect to the king. "The works in architecture of R. & J. Adam," were published in numbers in 1773. Died in 1794.

ADAM, Jean, a jesuit, was preacher before the French court in Lent, 1656, and afterwards head of the professed jesuits' house at Bordeaux. Died in 1684.

ADAM, Jean Louis, an eminent composer for the pianoforte, born about 1760 at Mieltersboltz, department of the Lower Rhine, and died at Paris, April 8, 1848. When very young, he gave himself passionately to music. After receiving a few lessons from a relative, and from an organist of Strasburg, named Hepp, he went to Paris at the age of seventeen to teach music. In Paris he attracted attention by producing at a concert two symphonies arranged for the piano, harp, and violin, the first compositions of the kind ever attempted. Glück, who saw the merits of the young composer, favoured him with his friendship and employment. In 1797 he was appointed professor to the Conservatory of Music. In 1829 the government acknowledged the value of his services, by creating him a member of the Legion of Honour. His works, and especially his books of instruction, were highly valued; and he reared up a class of pupils who in their turn have become famous in the musical world.—J. F.

ADAM, Melchior, or less correctly Adami, deserves honourable mention in these pages, as one of the most laborious and useful of biographical writers. Bayle acknowledges his great obligations to him, and would have been glad to express his gratitude in the form of a full account of his life, if he could have found the necessary materials. But no life of him had then appeared, nor has the deficiency been supplied since. He was born at Grotkau in Silesia, in the last quarter of the sixteenth century, and was educated first in the protestant gymnasium of Brieg, where he was supported by the bounty of a Silesian nobleman, and where he remained for eight years. He afterwards studied in the university of Heidelberg, which he joined in 1598, and where he publicly disputed in theology in 1601, under the presidency of David Pareus. He took the degree of Phil. Mag., and earned the distinction of prize poet. In 1606 he was appointed co-rector of the gymnasium of Heidelberg, which office he continued to hold in 1613. He was afterwards rector of the gymnasium, and a professor in the university. According to some accounts, he was parish pastor of Heppenheim in 1622, when he died.

His great work was the "Vitæ Germanorum Philosophorum, Theologorum, Jurisconsultorum, Medicorum," &c. Confining himself to the sixteenth century, and the first decade of the seventeenth, he published in 1615 the first volume of the series, containing the philosophers, under which name he included poets, humanists, and historians, as well as philosophers more strictly understood. Three additional volumes followed—the theologians in 1619, the lawyers and physicians in 1620. In 1618 he published a volume of lives of foreign theologians, extending to twenty, including Calvin, Farel, Beza, Cranmer Knox, &c. In all, his lives of theologians amount to 156, all protestants. The first editions of these volumes are the most correct and valuable, having been brought out in Heidelberg, under the author's own eye. He was the author of various