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328 VESTA Brazil expedition in 1504, he wrote from Lis- bon a letter to Ren6, duke of Lorraine, con- taining an account of four voyages to the new world, wherein he says that the first expedi- tion in which he was concerned sailed from Cadiz May 20, 1497, and returned in October, 1498. This remark has been the source of a fierce controversy as to the first discovery of the mainland of America, and as to the true character of Vespucci, against whom it has been charged that after the return from his first voyage to Brazil he made a maritime chart, in which he gave his name to that part of the mainland. The statement in the letter is unquestionably false. The name Americi Terra was applied to this continent as early as 1507, by Waldsee-Muller (Martinus Hylaeomy- lus), a geographer of Freiburg in Breisgau, in a small work entitled Cosmographies Introductio, . . . insuper quatuor Americi Vespucci Natiga- tiones. It does not appear that Vespucci him- self had any intention of taking the honor of the discovery from Columbus, with whom he was on friendly terms; and it was not until the appearance of the Opusculum Geographi- cum of Schoner in 1533, and of the attack of Servetus in the Lyons edition of Ptolemy in 1535, that charges were brought against him. See "Life and Voyages of Americus Vespu- cius," by C. E. Lester (New York, 1846), and " Vespucius and his Voyages," by Santaretn, translated by E. V. Childe (Boston, 1850). VESTA, the Roman name of the goddess of the home or hearth, identical with the Greek Hestia. According to the Hesiodic theogony, she was the daughter of Cronos (Saturn) and Rhea. Her brother Jupiter permitted her to assume a vow of perpetual celibacy, and granted her the first oblations in all sacrifices. She was not represented by any statue in the tem- ple devoted to her honor, but by the symbolic fire which was kept perpetually burning on the hearth or altar by the vestals, her virgin priestesses. In art she was represented as a slender virgin of noble aspect, standing or sit- ting, clad or veiled, and holding a lamp or a sacrificial plate in one hand and a sceptre in the other. From her connection with the do- mestic hearth, every house was regarded in a certain sense as consecrated to her worship; and in the Roman religion she was connected with the Penates. In Greece her priestesses were widows; in Rome they were maidens, and were denominated vestal virgins. In Rome, on March 1 of every year, the sacred fire and the laurel tree shading her hearth were re- newed ; on June 9, the festival called Vestalia was celebrated; and on June 15 her temple was cleansed and purified. VESTAL VIRGINS (Lat. testale* the priestesses who served in the temple of Vesta, and guarded the sacred fire. The earliest traditions ascribe their origin to a period before the foundation of Rome, Rhea Sylvia, the mother of Romu- lus, belonging to their number; but their es- tablishment as a part of the Roman religious VESTRIS worship is usually attributed to Numa Pom pi- lius. He selected four for this office, which number was afterward increased to six. At first they were selected by the king, but during the republic and the empire by the pontifex maxima*. Originally none but the daughters of freeborn parents could be chosen ; but so great was the reluctance of fathers to part with the control of their children, that in the time of Augustus libertines were also taken. The persons selected were obliged to be from six to ten years of age, without physical blem- ish ; their parents must be residents of Italy who had never pursued any dishonorable pro- fession. Their chief duty was to watch by turns night and day the sacred fire on the altar of Vesta, the extinction of which, whether happening from carelessness or design, was regarded as an omen of terrible evil to the state. They also watched over the Palladium, a small wooden image of Minerva, which ac- cording to the myth fell from heaven upon the citadel of Troy, and was carried thence to Greece, and afterward to Rome; upon the preservation of this figure the people believed that the existence of the Roman power de- pended. The term of service lasted 30 years, the first 10 of which the priestess passed in learning her duties, the next 10 in performing them, and the remaining 10 in instructing others. After that time she might return to the world, and oven marry ; but the privilege was rarely taken advantage of. The greatest importance was attached to the chastity of a vestal ; and when she violated her vow in this respect, she was, according to the law of Numa, stoned to death, but according to the practice from the time of Tarquinius Priscus, she was buried alive in a place called the Campus Sce- leratus near the Colline gate. Her paramour was scourged to death in public in the forum. The vestals were supported at the public ex- pense, completely released from the control of their parents, could bear testimony in a court of justice without taking an oath, and could make wills; whenever they went abroad, they were preceded by lictors, and consuls and prro- tors made way for them, and lowered their fasces; a criminal whom they accidentally met was spared from punishment if they demanded it ; and their intercession in behalf of accused persons had great weight. "Wills and solemn treaties were intrusted to their care, and con- spicuous places were given them at the shows, and by Augustus at the theatres also. The oldest of the vestals was called rcxtulix maxima or virgo maxima. VESTRIS (originally VKSTEI), the name of a family of dancers of Italian extraction, who emigrated from Florence to Paris about 1740. I. Angiolo Maria Gaspare, born in Florence in November, 1730, died in Paris, June 10, 1809. He made his first appearance in Paris in 1769 at the Italian theatre, in which he performed with great success until his retirement on a pension in 1780. II. Gaetano Apollino Balda&are,