Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 20.djvu/192

VINNITZA. 150 VIOLET. VINNITZA, ven'nyelsa. A district town in the CoviTimient of Podolia, Russia, situated on the Bug, 100 miles northwest of Kamenetz-Po- dolsk (Map: Russia, C 5). It has a Jesuit col- lege founded in 1649. Population, in 1897, 28,995. VINSAUF, vaN'sof, Geoffrey de (called also Anglicus). a poet and rhetorician, who lived in England about 1200. His name, de Vino Salvo, seems to have been derived from a work on the vine preserved in a manuscript at Cambridge, and once attributed to him. He was the author of a poem on the art of poetrj', variously known as Poetria Xotella, yova Poetria, and Ars Poet- ica. It is written in Latin hexameters and con- tains about twenty-one hundred lines. By ex- ample, Geoffrey sought to teach the various kinds of writing. His specimen of an elegy, having as subject Richard I., was playfully alluded to by Chaucer in the .Yhh's Priest's Tale. Chaucer there ironically addresses Geoffrey as his 'deere mais- ter souerayn.' VINSON, vfiN'soN', JuLiEN (1843—). A French philologist, born in Paris and educated in the Nancy School of Forestry. For some time he was sub-inspector of forests, but devoted himself more and more to linguistic study, became editor of the Revue de Linr/iiistique, and in IS79 was made professor of Hindustani in the Ecols des Langues Orientales Vivantcs. But his especial study was the languages of the Dravidian stock, especially Basque, and the dialects of Central and Southern America. He wrote Le Basque et les langues mexi.caines (1875) ; Le verbe dans les langues dravidiennes (1878); EUments de la grammaire generale hindousiani (1883); Les religions actuelles (1887); Essai d'une biblio- graphie de la langue basque (1891-96) ; Mariuel de hi. langue hindoustani (1899); and Legendes bdiiddhistcs et djaines (1900). VINTAR, ven-tar'. A town of Luzon. Philip- pines, in the Province of Ilocos Norte. It lies 5 miles northeast of Laoag, in a well-watered plain, surrounded bv mountains (Ma]): Philippine Isl- ands, EI). Population, 11,809. VIN'TON. The county-seat of Benton County, Iowa, 25 miles nortliwest of Cedar Rapids, on the Red Cedar River, and on the Burlington, Cedar Rapids and Northern Railroad (Map: Iowa, E 2). It is the seat of the Iowa College for the Blind, and of the Tilford Collegiate Academy. There are creameries, canning establishments, and manufactories of pearl buttons, sheet iron, bricks, etc. The surrounding country is engaged in farming and stock-raising. The water-workt and (lie electric light jjlant are owned by ■';he municipality. Population, in 1890, 286.=!; in 1900, 3499." VIOL (OF. viole, violle. It. viola, vu)], prob- ably from OHG. fidula, Eng. fiddle, ivotu ML. vidula, ritula. fiddle, from Lat. vitnlari, to keep holiday, originally probably to sacrifice a calf, from viluhis. calf; connected with Ok. ira?,6c, ilalos, Skt. vatsa, calf, yearling, from vatsa, Gk. iro^, etos, year). A miisical instrument, which was the immediate precursor of the violin. It is to be .seen represented on monuments as far back as the close of the eleventh century. The belly and back were flat; there were larger bends in the sides tlian in the violin ; and frets, like those of the guitar, were placed on the neck of the instrument. There was great variety in the num- ber of strings: in Germany, 3, 4, and 5 were all common; in Itah" there were usually si.x. The strings were tuned by fourths and thirds. The bridge was but slightlj' arched, so that in the case of instruments with many strings it was very difficult to play upon the strings in the centre. But. on the other hand, this low-arched bridge greatly facilitated chord-playing. Therc were treble, alto, tenor, and bass viols, and they were often played together. VIOLA (It., viol). The tenor violin. An instrument which in size and compass is mid- way between the violin and the violoncello. It has four gut strings, the lower two covered with silvered cop- per wire. It is tuned in fifths, c, g. d', a', which is exactly an octave above the violon- cello. The compass is from c to g", or even higher, and the music is written in the alto clef. In the orchestra and string quartet the viola is 'a fixture, but, in spite of its clear, mellow tone, very little use has been made of it as a solo instrument. The viola d'aniore is an obsolete stringed instrument which was very popular during the early eighteenth century. It had from five to seven strings of catgut, and below them, pass- ing under the bridge, were an equal number of wire strings, which were tuned in unison and vibrated sympathetically with them. The compass was about three octaves and a half. VIOLA. The heroine of Shakespeare's Tudfth Mght. She is wrecked, with a friendly captain, on the coast of Illyria, secures an in- troduction into the love-sick Duke's retinue, and is sent by him to plead liis cause with Olivia. She is forced to reveal her identity by the ap- pearance of her brother and finally weds her sen- timental master, whom she has long since in- spired with an unconscious passion. VIOLACE.a; (Neo-Lat. nom. pi., from Lat. violaci us relating to a violet, from viola, vio- let), or The Violet Family. A natural order of dicotyledonous plants, of which about 15 genera and 300 species are known, natives both of temperate and tropical countries, those be- longing to the former being generiilly herbaceous, those of the latter generally shrubby, the herba- ceous species being either annual or perennial. The best known species are the violets. Tile leaves of the lobolobo {Alsodeia i>hi/siphora) are used in Brazil as spinach. The chief genera are Viola. -Msodeia, and lonidium. VIOLET (OF., Fr. riolette, diminutive Of Lat. viola, violet; connected with C,k. tov. ion, violet), Viola. A genus of mostly perennial lierbs of the order Violacesc. The widely dis- triVmted and numerous species are confined to temperate climates. .Vniong the extensively cul- tivated species are Viola tricolor and Viola odo- rata. Viola tricolor, a native of the Old World, VIOLA D AMOBE.