At one end is a statue of Vischer in his sculptor's dress; at the other one of St. Sebald. Vischer, assisted by his wife and his five sons and their wives, was thirteen years (1506-19) engaged on this monument, for which he received a wretchedly inadequate payment. By general consent the shrine of St. Sebald is regarded as the finest work of its kind and time extant. Peter Vischer died in 1530. After his death the business was carried on by his sons, of whom only Hermann acquired distinction. He was accidentally killed in 1540.—J. T—e.
VISCONTI, Ennio Quirino, antiquary and author, born in Rome, 1st November, 1751; died in France, 7th February, 1818. Instances of precocious memory, learning, and authorship are recorded of his childhood. In early manhood he cultivated poetry, but his mature age was devoted to antiquarian labours, carried on alike amongst the classic treasures of Rome and in the superb museum of the Louvre. He identified the notorious "Pasquino" of Rome as part of an ancient sculptured group representing Menelaus defending the body of Patroclus; and when conflicting opinions ran high as to the money value of the Elgin marbles, he was summoned by the English parliament to fix their price. Political convulsions, whilst they affected his fortunes, failed to divorce him from his beloved pursuits; and the number, erudition, and ingenuity of the works he has left, attest his unflagging industry. Amongst these are—the letterpress accompanying the engravings of the Museum Pio-Clementinum, 7 vols., unless we except the first volume published in conjunction with his father, whose name, Giambatista Visconti, it bears; "Osservazioni sopra un antico Cammeo rappresentante Giove Egioco;" "Libretto del Museo" (France); "Iconographie Grecque," 3 vols.; and "Iconographie Romaine," 1 vol.; two series of portraits of antique personages, copied under his supervision from carefully selected originals, and illustrated by biographical notices from his pen.—C. G. R.
VISCONTI, Filippo Aurelio, younger brother of Ennio, followed nearly the same line of study as his brother, but with less distinction. He succeeded his father as prefect of the antiquities of Rome. During the French occupation he was president of the commission of fine arts and antiquities; and on the restoration of the papal government was appointed secretary of the commission of the fine arts. He wrote the illustrations of the "Museo Chiaramonti," intended as a sequel to his brother's Museo Pio-Clementino; edited a new edition of Venuti's Roma; and wrote a great number of papers on archæology and numismatics. He died at Rome in 1830.—J. T—e.
VISCONTI, Louis Joachim, son of Ennio Q. Visconti, was born at Rome in 1797, but when two years old was taken to Paris. There he received an excellent general education, and was then placed with C. Percier to learn architecture. Soon after completing his studies he was appointed inspector of public buildings, afterwards one of the architects and surveyors to the city of Paris, and in 1825 architect to the Bibliotheque. His official duties employed most of his time, but many of the ornamental works and monuments of Paris were intrusted to him. Among the most celebrated of these were the tomb of Napoleon I.; the monuments of the Marshals St. Cyr, Soult, Lauriston, and Suchet; and the fountains Gaillon, Moliere, and St. Sulpice—the last being finished after his death by M. Klagman. The work, however, by which his name will be remembered is that in which by means of the Place Napoleon he united the Louvre with the Tuileries—a work that many sovereigns had contemplated, but which it was left to Napoleon III. to achieve. In this great undertaking—of which the Place Napoleon is six hundred feet by four hundred, with an average height of one hundred feet—M. Visconti succeeded in producing the most effective and splendid palatial edifice of recent times; and whilst his buildings are richer and more ornate than the olden structures they unite, they are quite in harmony with them. M. Visconti died December 29, 1853. The buildings were not completed till 1857, but his designs were closely followed by his successor, M. Lefuel—J. T—e.
VISDELOU, Claude de, a celebrated Jesuit missionary, was born in August, 1656. He was a native of Brittany, and came of an ancient and noble family. At an early age Visdelou entered the society of the Jesuits, and passed his novitiate in their institution at Paris. He applied himself with extraordinary assiduity to literature, mathematics, and theology, and failed not to cultivate at the same time such habits as are best calculated to promote personal virtue and piety. When Louis XIV. conceived the design of sending missionaries to China, Visdelou made one of six Jesuits who were presented to his majesty and accepted for the mission, the five others being Fontenay, Tachard, Gerbillon, Le Comte, and Bouvet. They embarked at Brest in the Oiseau on the 3rd of March, 1685, were shipwrecked on the coast of Siam, and after enduring considerable hardships, arrived at Macao in 1687. For twenty years Visdelou laboured with exemplary zeal to convert the idolatrous Celestials. When Cardinal de Tournon arrived out as legate of the Holy See, he became an intimate associate of Visdelou's, and, having already appointed him vicar apostolic, consecrated him bishop of Claudiopolis. He was at length, however, forced to leave the kingdom, the Chinese having begun to persecute the christians. In these circumstances he was sent by the legate to Pondicherri, where, with the exception of a short sojourn at Madras, he remained till his death, which took place on the 11th November, 1737. He was buried in the church of the Capuchins at that place. Visdelou translated a Chinese history of China into Latin, and was besides author of a dissertation on the doctrine of the Brahmins; of a life of Confucius; an abridged history of Japan; a treatise on Chinese chronology; another on the antiquities of China; eloges on seven Chinese philosophers, &c. These works were transmitted to the pope after their author's death, but they have never, so far as we are aware, been published.—R. M., A.
VISSCHER, Romerus, a Dutch poet, was born at Amsterdam, and died on the 12th February, 1620. His poems were much read and liked in their day, and are said to be valued even yet by his countrymen. He had considerable success in epigram, and was styled the Dutch Martial. His poems are all in the vernacular. Visscher left two daughters, both of whom were distinguished for their learning and their talents for poetry. They composed, like their father, in their mother tongue.—Anne-Roëmers, the elder, was born in 1584, and died on the 6th December, 1651. The younger was called Tesselschade-Roëmers. They are both mentioned with honour in the historical description of Amsterdam, by Jan Blauw.—R. M., A.
VITALIS, Giovanni, an Italian priest, was born at Palermo, and lived in the time of Leo X., who presented him with the citizenship of Rome. His hymns in honour of the Holy Trinity were published at Rome in 1521, in a volume entitled "Janus Vitalis de Divinâ Trinitate;" a second edition appeared at Basle, and a third at Bologna in 1553. He was also author of a work called "Theratorizes," printed at Rome, 1514. Vitalis likewise translated the Orations of Lysias, 1515; and edited the Latin translation of Xenophon's Memorabilia made by Cardinal Bessarion, Rome, 1521.—R. M., A.
VITALIS. See Ordericus.
VITE, Timoteo Bella, or Timoteo Viti, a painter, born at Urbino in 1469, was the pupil of Francia at Bologna, and the assistant of Raphael at Rome. He was originally a jeweller, and commenced painting in 1503. He was an imitator of Raphael in his later works, several of which are still preserved at Urbino, where he died in 1523. Timoteo's brother Pietro, also a painter, is supposed to be the Prete di Urbino who, according to Baldinucci, was one of Raphael's heirs.—R. N. W.
VITELLIUS, Aulus, Emperor of Rome for about eight months in a.d. 69, was the son of Lucius Vitellius, who held the government of Syria under Caligula. Born about a.d. 15, consul in a.d. 48, and subsequently proconsular governor of Africa, Aulus was in command of the legions on the Rhine when the murder of Galba threw the imperial power at Rome into the hands of Otho. The troops under Vitellius, however, had already called their general to the sovereignty, and the struggle which followed, terminating in the defeat and suicide of his rival, gave him his brief tenure of the throne. He did not use his triumph harshly in the first instance, but his moderation was the result of an indolent and sensual disposition, which, by neglecting the discipline of the army, and leaving the administration of the empire in the hands of rapacious officers, speedily sowed the seeds of discontent among the citizens. Love to the pleasures of the table was his ruling passion, and it is difficult to credit the stories told of his expensive entertainments and his inordinate gluttony. Those habits of gross self-indulgence had their natural effects, in the oppressive exactions by which the means of their gratification were provided, and in the reckless cruelties which latterly stained the name of the imperial debauchee. The standard of revolt was raised in the East, Vespasian being there proclaimed emperor; Antonius Primus in his interest led the
