themselves in Paris, where Antoine, the second, became a master painter in 1629, and Mathieu, the third, was made painter to the city of Paris in 1633. All three brothers were admitted members of the Royal Academy of Painting in March, 1648, the year of its foundation; but Louis and Antoine died within two days of each other in that same month of March. They were never married. Mathieu survived his brothers many years; he died in 1677. These three brothers, generally spoken of as one painter, executed works in various styles—church history, portrait, and genre. Their genre pictures are the best known. They are somewhat hard and forcible, being distinguished by a crisp touch, and rather crude colouring. Louis, called "Le Remain," was a good portrait as well as genre painter; Antoine was chiefly distinguished for his miniatures and small portraits; Mathieu was the principal painter of the so-called Bambocciate.—(Villot, Notice des Tableaux du Louvre, école Française.)—R. N. W.
NAKHIMOFF, Akim Nicolaevitch, a Russian fabulist and satirist whose promise of literary excellence was cut short by an early death, was born at Kharkoff in 1782, and received his education at the university there. He proceeded to Moscow to take his degrees. At the time of Napoleon's invasion of Russia he published a prose satire, entitled the "Speaking Monkeys," intended to ridicule that formidable expedition. Nakhimoff died in 1814.—R. H.
NALSON, John, an English historian and divine, who was born about 1638, and educated at Cambridge, where he received the degree of LL.D. in 1678. He became rector of Doddington and prebendary of Ely cathedral after the restoration of Charles II. He translated Maimbourg's History of the Crusades, and in 1684 published a "True Copy of the Journal of the Trial of Charles I.;" but his principal work is "An impartial Collection of the great affairs of State from the beginning of the Scotch Rebellion, an. 1639, to the Murther of Charles I.," in 2 vols. folio, London, 1682-83. John Nalson died in 1686.—B. H. C.
NANGIS, William de, was a French historian, and flourished in the fourteenth century. He is supposed to have taken his name from his native town. He was a benedictine of the abbey of St. Denis. Besides writing the lives of St. Louis and of Philippe le Hardi, he was the author of two chronicles, of which the first embraced the period from the creation to the year 1300, and the second was a chronicle of the kings of France. The former work was continued by other writers, who brought it down to the year 1368, and it has been praised for the comparative purity of its Latin style.—W. J. P.
NANI, Giambattista, Venetian statesman and historian, born in 1616; died 6th November, 1678. His father was a procurator of St. Mark, and ambassador from Venice in Rome. The son was early initiated into public business. He was twice ambassador to France, to treat for succour in the war of Candia, and once to the empire. He showed great skill as a politician and negotiator, and was highly esteemed by Mazarin. Upon his return to Venice he was made a procurator of St. Mark, and afterwards captain-general by sea, but in the latter capacity he rendered no active service. The senate commissioned him to write the "History of the Venetian republic." The work is in Italian, covering the period from 1613 to 1671, and the transactions of other countries connected with Italian affairs, and was published between 1662 and 1679. It is on the whole accounted truthful and sagacious—W. M. R.
NANNI. See Udine, Giovanni da.
NANTEUIL, Robert, a celebrated French engraver, was born at Rheims in 1630. He learned engraving of his brother-in-law, N. Regnesson, but adopted a manner of his own, and which, as applied to portraits—to which he chiefly confined his graver—was eminently successful. It consisted of a union of line and stippling, and in his hands rendered the character, expression, and colour of the original with great clearness and force. M. Nanteuil also painted portraits in crayons with much success. He was appointed designer and engraver to Louis XIV., whose portrait he engraved nineteen times, mostly from his own drawings. His engravings include the portraits of a large number of the distinguished Frenchmen of his time. Among the best as works of art, are one or two of the king, and those of Marshal Turenne; J. B. van Steenberghen, after Duchatel; the chancellor Seguier and M. de Pomponne, after Le Brun, &c. Dumesnil (Le Peintre Graveur François, t. iv.) gives a full catalogue of his prints, about three hundred in number. Nanteuil died at Paris in 1678.—J. T—e.
NAOGEORGES or KIRCHMAIER, T. See Kirchmaier.
NAPIER, NEPER, NEPAIR, NEPEIR, NAPER, NAPARE, NAPEIR, or NAIPPER, the name of an old Scottish family, famous for the great men it has produced through several centuries. "Napier" is the modern spelling of the name; but of all the modes of spelling given above, it is the only one which never occurs in ancient documents. In these the most frequent spelling is "Neper," and this corresponds with the original Scottish pronunciation, still preserved by the working people. The family is a branch of the noble house of Levenax, or Lennox, whose arms it bears with a difference. There are records of its existence towards the beginning of the thirteenth century; but its earliest representative of whom a detailed account is extant, was Sir Alexander Napare, who in 1437 was lord provost of Edinburgh, and in 1438 acquired from King James I. of Scotland the barony of Merchanstoun, Merchistoun, or Merchiston, of which the castle still stands in a habitable condition about a mile to the west of Edinburgh. He died in 1454, and was succeeded by his son Sir Alexander, who, as a reward for having gallantly risked his life in defence of Jane, queen dowager of Scotland, against a band of conspirators in 1439, had been appointed in 1449 comptroller of the royal household, and gifted with extensive lands by her son James II., and in 1451 had been sent as an ambassador to England. He afterwards held various high offices of state under James II. and James III., and was frequently sent upon important embassies to neighbouring courts, and among others to that of Charles the Bold, duke of Burgundy. He died about 1472 or 1473. From him, through five more generations of statesmen and soldiers, several of whom were slain in battle for their country, the barony of Merchiston descended to the famous inventor of logarithms.—(See Memoirs of John Napier, by Mark Napier, Esq., advocate.)—W. J. M. R.
NAPIER, Sir Charles, K.C.B., a distinguished naval officer, was born in 1786, and was the eldest son of Captain Napier of Merchiston hall, and grandson of Francis fifth Lord Napier. Having from his earliest years shown a strong inclination for the sea, his father with great reluctance removed him from the high-school of Edinburgh in his thirteenth year, and placed him on board H.M.S. Renown. He served in the fruitless expedition to Ferrol, and afterwards in the Mediterranean. After taking part in the attacks on the Boulogne flotilla, and assisting in the Courageux at the capture of the Marengo and the famous Belle Poule, he was appointed to the command of the Pultosk in 1807, and fought in her a brilliant action with a French corvette for three hours, in which his thigh was broken by a bullet, which left him with a slight halt during the remainder of his life. His wound had scarcely healed when, accompanied by only four men, he scaled the walls of a fort at Martinique, and thus greatly facilitated the surrender of that island. He was rewarded for his gallantry with the rank of post-captain; and was soon after (April, 1809) appointed by Sir Alexander Cochrane, captain of the Hautpoult, a French 74, which in the 18-gun brig the Recruit he was the first to pursue and bring to action. On Captain Napier's return home with a convoy. Lord Mulgrave, then first lord of the admiralty, a stupid, blundering official, confirmed him in his rank, but superseded him. He availed himself of this period of enforced leisure to resume his studies at the university of Edinburgh, where he attended classes in modern languages, history, chemistry, and mathematics. He soon tired, however, of this quiet and studious life, and went out to Portugal on a visit to his three gallant cousins who were serving under Wellington. He was there in the thickest of the fight at Busaco. On his return home he was appointed to the command of the 32-gun frigate the Thames, and found a congenial employment in harassing the enemy on the coast of Sicily and Calabria. He effectually frustrated Murat's intention to establish a navy by storming the martello towers of Porto del Infreschi and Palinaro, November, 1811; destroying the strong fort of Sapri, May, 1812; taking the island of Ponza, and capturing merchant vessels and a large quantity of naval stores in the face of troops, batteries, and gunboats. He was next transferred to the Euryalus, and rendered himself so formidable by his daring and reckless exploits, that he was known and feared as "Mad Charlie" along the whole of the French and Italian Mediterranean coast. He was next engaged in the wearisome blockade of Toulon, during which he drove a convoy into Cavalaire bay and destroyed it, and soon after compelled two frigates to run ashore at Calvi. On the downfall of Napoleon Napier was sent to the coast of America, where he led
