VIVES, Giovanni Ludovico, one of the revivers of literature, was born at Valentia, in Spain, in 1492, and studied at Paris and Louvain. He then visited England, having previously become one of the first fellows of Corpus Christi college, Oxford. He was patronised by Catharine of Arragon, and, in 1522, dedicated his Commentary upon St. Augustine's De Civitate Dei to king Henry VIII. He was also appointed to instruct the princess Mary in polite literature and the Latin language. During his residence at Oxford, he was admitted doctor of laws, and acquired much favor with Henry VIII; but, venturing to write against his divorce from Catharine, he was disgraced and imprisoned. On regaining his liberty, he repaired to Brussels, where he married, and remained, for the rest of his life, as a teacher of the belles-lettres. He died in 1541. His works were printed at Basle in 1555, in 2 vols., folio; but this collection does not include his Commentary on St. Augustine, which was esteemed too bold and free by the Louvain doctors. Among his works are De prima Philosophia; De Explanatione Essentiarum; De Censura Veri; De Initiis, Sectis et Laudibus Philosophia; and De corruptis Artibus et tradendis Disciplinis.

son.

VIVIANI, Vincent, a celebrated Italian mathematician, was born at Florence, in 1622. From the sixteenth year of his age, he pursued the study of geometry with such diligence and success, that the great Galilei gave him the advantage of his own instructions, and treated him as a After Galilei's death, he undertook the restoration of the five books of Aris tæus, a celebrated Grecian mathematician, entitled De Locis solidis, which were lost, with the exception of the names of the propositions. This labor he, however, discontinued, in order to restore the lost fifth book of the Conic Sections of Apollonius. This work he published in 1659, in folio, under the title De Maximis et Minimis Geometrica Divinatio in quintum Conicorum Apollonii Pergai, which was esteemed

superior to Apollonius himself. In 1664, he was honored with a pension from Louis XIV, and, in 1666, the grand duke of Tuscany, who employed him both in public works and in negotiation, gave him the title of his first mathematician. In 1669, he was chosen to fill a chair in the royal academy of sciences of Paris, which honor induced him to finish three books of his Divination of Aristeus, and address them to the king of France (Divinatio in Aristaum, 1701). He died in 1703, in the eighty-first or eighty-second year of his age. Fontenelle speaks warmly of the integrity and simplicity of manners of Viviani, who composed several mathematical treatises in the Latin and Italian languages, besides those already alluded to, the principal of which is entitled Enodatio Problematum (1677), comprising the solution of three problems which had been submitted to all the mathematicians of Europe.

VIVIANITE. (See Iron, vol. vii, p.

69.)

1

VIZIER is a title of honor with the Turks, belonging to all the pachas of three tails (i. e. the highest pachas). Besides these, there are at Constantinople six viziers, called viziers of the bench (i. e. of the council of state), because they have seats in the divan. Men acquainted with the laws, and such as have already held offices of importance, are chosen for this station; but they have no decisive voice in this council, and cannot give their opinion until the grand vizier asks it. They have small salaries, but are privileged to wear a turban like that of the grand viziers, this being a mark of high distinction with the Turks. They can also affix the name of the sultan to the orders sent into the provinces. The grand vizier (vízier azem) stands high above these. He is the representative of the sultan, conducts the deliberations of the divan, and decides alone. He receives a seal at the time of his appointment, on which the sultan's name is engraved, and which he must always wear on his bosom. By this seal, he is authorized to rule, with absolute power, in the name of the grand sultan.

VLIESSINGEN. (See Flushing.)

VOCAL MUSIC; music produced by the human voice (q. v.) alone, or accompanied by instruments. It is contradistinguished from instrumental music (q. v.), which is produced by instruments alone. The composer of such music must have a thorough knowledge of voices, and their musical effect, their power, and the peculiari

ties by which the human voice differs so decidedly from instruments. Vocal mu sic has many advantages over instrumental, in the fine blending of the tones, in its endless variety of intonation and expression, and in the support which it derives from its connexion with words. The different forms of vocal music are, the air, arietta, cavatina, and the like; recitativo, duetto, terzetto, quartetto, &c.; the chorus, the song, hymn, &c.; the opera, oratorio, cantata, &c. (See Music, division History of; see also Voice.)

VOGLER, George Joseph, a distinguished practical and theoretical musician, was born at Würzburg, in 1749. He studied law, but early showed great talent for playing on the organ, and for composing. The elector of the Palatinate, Charles Theodore, sent him to Italy, about 1773, to study music. In about three years, he returned to Manheim, the residence of his princely patron. In the year 1780, and the following years, he travelled in Germany, France, Holland, Sweden, England, Spain, and (as Gerber says) even in Africa and Greece. In 1786, he was appointed chapel-master to the king of Sweden. In 1790, he was in London, where his performance on the organ was heard with great pleasure. He delivered lectures on music in Stockholm and in Prague. In 1807, he was appointed chapel master to the grand duke of Hesse-Darmstadt, and remained in Darmstadt until his death, in 1814. He invented a new instrument, called orchestrion, in which the tone was determined in quite a new way, by the increase and diminution of the wind; and the sound was increased by a suspended copper vessel. He also in vented a mode of simplifying the construction of organs. He wrote various works on music, and likewise composed several pieces for the theatre, sympho gies, &c.

VOICE is the body of sounds produced by the organs of respiration, especially the larynx of men or animals. It can, therefore, only be found in animals in which the system of respiration is developed, and the lungs and larynx actually exist. Many insects intentionally produce a noise by the motion of their wings, which takes the place of a voice, but cannot be called by this name. The fishes, being deprived of lungs, and breathing through gills, are dumb; but the amphibious animals, which have the lungs and larynx in an imperfect state, have, therefore, a limited voice. In birds, however, in which the lungs are so predomi

nant, and the larynx is double, and some of which (the singing birds) have lamellæ in the bronchiæ, capable of vibration, the voice is fitted for the most varied sounds. The mammalia possess but one larynx; and with them the sound is formed by a strong expiration, whilst the ligaments of the glottis (according to the opinion of Ferrein) vibrate like the strings of an instrument, and produce various sounds, as they are more or less tense; or (according to the opinion of Dodart and Cuvier) form certain cavities, in which the tones are produced, as in wind instruments; or, perhaps, operate in both ways at the same time. But the length of the windpipe, which can be increased or shortened, and the magnitude of the lungs in proportion to the width of the glottis, also contribute much, at least to the strength of the tone. The voice, however, is more influenced by the epiglottis, by the greater or less length of the canal which extends from the glottis to the opening of the mouth, and by all the voluntary modifications which can be there given to the tone. The influence of the nerves of the voice is also to be remarked: if the nerve is cut on one side, the voice becomes weaker, and if cut on both sides, ceases entirely. The positive pole of the galvanic battery affecting the nerve produces high, the negative pole deep, hoarse tones. Liscovius, in his Theory of the Voice (in German, Leipsic, 1814), maintains that the voice is produced by the pressure of the breath through the narrow opening of the windpipe, in a similar way as the tones are produced by the mouth in whistling. According to Gottfried Weber (Cæcilia, vol. i, p. 92), the organ of voice, as a sounding membrane, or lamella, acts like the tongue-work in the organ. The uvula has, of course, considerable influence in producing the tones, and is subject to diseases in singers, orators, and others accustomed to great exertion of the vocal organs.* The voice of men and animals is a very interesting subject of inquiry. The tones by which animals express their feelings, the sweet and powerful melodies of the small birds, the tones which convey the ideas and emotions of rational man, and furnish his noblest music, are well fitted to awaken the curiosity of the naturalist, physiologist and philosopher. For some remarks on the organs of the

(physician to the Italian opera in Paris) Memoir *See Magendie's Report on Doctor Bennati's on the Diseases of the Uvula, read March 7, 1831, in the French academy.

voice in animals and men, we refer the reader to Blumenbach's Manual of Comparative Anatomy (translated by W. Lawrence, revised by Coulson, London, 1827). Respecting the sounds of hunan language, by the various combinations of which such a variety of words is produced, we will add a few remarks. Besides the lungs, the windpipe, &c., the finely-arched roof of the mouth, and the pliability of the lips (enabling us to give a great variety of forms to the mouth, which are almost the sole means of giving their peculiar character to the different vowels), are of the greatest importance. Under the articles on the separate letters the reader will find an account of the way in which the sounds represented by them respectively are produced. "The modifications of voice, easily made (says Mr. Arnott, in his Elements of Physics), and easily distinguishable by the ear, and, therefore, fit elements of language, are about fifty in number; but no single language contains more than about half of them. They are divisible into two very distinct and nearly equal classes, called vowels (q. v.) and consonants." (q. v.) In the article Consonant, the natural division of words is shown to cease with syllables: they are one sound, and the division into vowels and consonants, ingenious and useful as it is, does not, in fact, exist to the degree which we usually take for granted, from the circumstance of considering them as totally distinct from early childhood. Consonants are, generally speaking, only the beginning or end of vowels; i. e. the mouth must in some way be opened to produce a vowel sound, and closed to conclude the vowel sounds; and this mode of opening or closing gives rise to that which we call a consonant. The circumstance that consonants cannot be pronounced without the aid of vowels, shows, that the strict division into vowels and consonants is one which nature has not made. Mr. Arnott says (p. 488 of the American ed.): "To explain the second class of the modifications of sound, called

consonants, we remark, that while any continued or vowel sound is passing through the mouth, if it be interrupted, whether by a complete closure of the mouth, or only by an approximation of parts, the effect on the ear of a listener is so exceedingly different, according to the situation in the mouth where the interruption occurs, and to the manner in which it occurs, that many most distinct modifications thence arise. Thus any continued sound, as a, if arrested by a closure of the mouth at the external confine or lips, is heard to terminate with the modification expressed by the letter p; that is, the syllable ap has been pronounced: but if, under similar circumstances, the closure be made at the back of the mouth, by the tongue rising against the palate, we hear the modification expressed by the letter k, and the syllable ak has been pronounced: and if the closure be made in the middle of the mouth, by the tip of the tongue rising against the roof, the sound expressed by t is produced, and the syllable at is heard: and so of others. It is to be remarked, also, that the ear is equally sensible of the peculiarities, whether the closure precedes the continued sound or follows it; that is to say, whether the syllables pronounced are ap, at, ak, or pa, ta, ka. The modifications of which we are now speaking appear, then, not to be really sounds, but only manners of beginning and ending sounds; and it is because they can thus be perceived only in connexion with vocal sounds, that they are called consonants."—We refer the reader to Mr. Arnott's work, for further remarks on the pronunciation of the various vowels and consonants, and add here only his table of articulations, in which, if we consider the perpendicular line on the left as the opening of the mouth, and the line on the right as the back part of the mouth, the four divisions indicate the places where the letters are pronounced. See the articles on the letters and on writing.