Encyclopaedia Americana: a popular dictionary of arts, sciences, literature, history, politics and biography, brought down to the present time : including a copious collection of original articles in American biography : on the basis of the seventh edition of the German Conversations-Lexicon (Volume 13).
- Date:
- 1830-33
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Encyclopaedia Americana: a popular dictionary of arts, sciences, literature, history, politics and biography, brought down to the present time : including a copious collection of original articles in American biography : on the basis of the seventh edition of the German Conversations-Lexicon (Volume 13). Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)
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![Vossius, or Vos, Gerai-d John, a cele- brated writer on criticism and philology, born near Heidelberg, hi 1577, studied at Dordrecht and Leyden. At the age of twenty, he commenced his literary career by the publication of a Latin panegyric on prince Maurice of Nassau, and, two yeare after, became director of the college of Dordrecht. In 1G14, the chair of phi- losophy was offered him at Steinfurt; but he preferred the direction of the theological college established at Leyden ; and, after having occupied that post four years, amidst the storms of religious con- troversy. Ire procured the more peaceable appointment of professor of rhetoric and chronology. Having declared himself in favor of the Remonstrants, he became obnoxious to the prevailing party in the church; and, at the synod of Tergou, or Gouda, in 1620, he was deprived of his office. Through the influence of arch- bishop Laud, the patron of Arminianism in England, Vossius was indemnified for his loss by a prebendal stall at Canterbury, with permission to continue his residence in the Netherlands. In 1G33, he was invited to Amsterdam, to occupy the chair of history, at the schola illustris, and continued there till his death, in 1649. Among his numerous works may be specified the treatises De Ori^ine Ido- lolatri(R; De Historicis GrtBcis, et de Historicis Latinis ; De Poetis Greeds et Latinis; De Scientiis Mathematicis ; De Q^uatuor Artibus popidaribiis; Historia Pelagiana ; Institutiones HistoricfB, Gram- matic(B, Poeticft; Etymologicon Linguce lioiiruB; De Vitiis Sermonis; De Philo- sophorum Sedis. A collective edition of his works appeared in 6 vols,, folio (Am- sterdam, 1695—1701). Vos SI OS, Isaac, son of the preceding, was born at Leyden, in 1618, and, pos- sessing great natural talents, acquired early reputation among the learned. At the age of twenty-one, he published an edition of the Periplus of Scylax, with a Latin version, and notes. Christina, queen of Sweden, invited him to Stock- holm, and chose him for her preceptor in the Greek language. His quarrels with Saumaise having rendered the court of Sweden disagi-eeable to him, he quitted it in 1649, and returned to his native country, where he employed himself in the pro- duction of various learned works. In 1670, he visited England, and was ad- mitted to the degree of LL. D. at Oxford ; and, in 1673, having been presented to a canomy, at Windsor, by Charles II, he passed the remainuig part of his life in that country, where he died in 1688. Besides editing the works of Scylax, Jus- tin the historian, Catullus, Pom])onius ]Mela, St. Barnabas, and St. Ignatius, he published Dissertatio de vera Mate Mun- di; De Septuaginta Interpretibus eorumqiie Tra-nslatione et Chronologia Dissertationes, in which he defended the chronology of the Septuagint version against the He- brew text of the Old Testament; Dc Po- ematum Cantu et Viribus Rhythmi, &c. Isaac Vossius was, while in England, intimate with St. Evremond and the duchess of Mazarin ; but though he lived much in the society of the great, his behavior was sometimes rude, and his language by no means decent. In his writings, he maintained extravagant para- doxes, while he was generally consid- ered as an infidel in religion. Hence Charles II said he was a strange divine, for he believed every thing but the Bible. VoTiACKS. (See Finns.) Votive Tables are those tablets which give information of the circumstances connected with offerings deposited in a temple in consequence of vows. VouET, Simon, an eminent French painter, was born at Paris, in 1582, and was bred up under his father, who was also an artist. He accompanied the French embassy at Constantinople, and drew the grand seignior, from memory, after an audience in the train of the am- bassador. He then visited Venice and Rome, at which latter capital he acquired great distinction. He remained in Italy fourteen ye^rs, when he was sent for by Louis XIII, to work in his palaces, and furnished some of the apartments of the Louvre, the palace of Luxembourg, and the galleries of cardinal Richelieu, and other public ])laces, with his works. He was a good colorist, but had little genius for grand composition, although France was certainly indebted to him for intro- ducing a better taste. Most of the suc- ceeding French painters who gained distinction, were bred under him, in- cluding Le Brun, Perrier, Mignard, Le Sueur, Dorigny, Du Fresnoy, and others. He died in 1649. , VouLGARiANS. (See Bulgaria.) VoussoiKS; the wedge-shaped stones which form an arch. Vow. A vow, says the Catiiolic Dic- tionnaire de TMologie (Toulouse, 1817), is a promise made to God of a thing which we think to be agreeable to him, and which we are not, on other grounds, obliged to render to him. This is what the theologians understand by it when](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21136828_0034.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
