3. "In Topica Ciceronis paraphrasis et scholia," Antwerp, 1550, 8vo. 4. "De naturæ philosophiæ seu de Platonis et Aristotelis consensione, libri quinque," Louvaine, 1554, 8vo, often reprinted. 5. "De Juventute atque de Honore," Basil. 6. Compendium Ethices, &c." Basil, 1554, 8vo. 7. "In Platonis Timæum seu de universo commentarius," ibid. 1554, fol. 8. "In Phædonem, et in ejusdem decem libros de republica commentarii," Basil. 9. "De Imitatione," Antwerp, 1554, 8vo. 10. "De conscribenda historia," Antwerp and Paris, 1557, 8vo, and Antwerp again, 1564. Miræus, Gerard Vossius, Gabriel Naudeus, and others, speak of this author as one of the most learned men of his time. 1

匪

FRACASTORIO, or FRACASTORO, (JEROM,) an eminent Italian poet and physician, was born at Verona in 1483. Two singularities are related of him in his infancy; one, that his lips adhered so closely to each other when he came into the world, that a surgeon was obliged to divide them with his knife; the othér, that his mother, Camilla Mascarellia, was killed by lightning, while he, though in her arms at the very moment, escaped unhurt. Fracastorio was of parts so exquisite, and made so wonderful a progress in every thing he undertook, that he became eminently skilled, not only in the belles lettres, but in all arts and sciences. He was a poet, a philosopher, a physician, an astronomer, and a mathematician. He was a man also of great political consequence, as appears from pope Paul III.'s making use of his authority to remove the council of Trent to Bologna, under the pretext of a contagious distemper, which, as Fracastorio deposed, made it no longer safe for him to continue at Trent. He was intimately acquainted with cardinal Bembo, Julius Scaliger, and all the great men of his time. He died of an apoplexy, at Casi near Verona, in 1553; and in 1559 the town of Verona erected a statue in honour of him.

He was the author of many productions, both as a poet and as a physician; yet never man was more disinterested in both these capacities, evidently so as a physician, for he practised without fees; and as a poet, whose usual reward is glory, no man could be more indifferent. It is owing to this indifference that we have so little of his poetry, in comparison of what he wrote; and that among other

Antonio Bibl, Hisp.-Baillet Jugemens, and Eufans celebres.—Saxii Onomast.

compositions his odes and epigrams, which were read in manuscript with infinite admiration, and would have been most thankfully received by the public, yet not being printed, were lost. He wrote in Latin, and with great elegance. His poems now extant are the three books of "Siphilis, or De Morbo Gallico," a book of miscellaneous poems, and two books of his poems, entitled " Joseph," which he began at the latter end of his life, but did not live to finish. And these works, it is said, would have perished with the rest, if his friends had not taken care to preserve and communicate them for Fracastorius, writing merely for amusement, never took any care respecting his works, when they were out of his hands.

His astronomical, critical, and philosophical treatises are enlivened with occasional poems. Several of them are composed in the form of conversations: a species of writing sanctioned by some of the finest models of antiquity, and much used in those early periods of the revival of letters. Their titles are borrowed from the names of the speakers, The "De Anima Dialogus" is denominated Fracastorius; the treatise "De Poetica" is entitled Naugerius; and the books "De Intellectione" have the title of Turrius. A young man, in the character of a minstrel, who is supposed to be more especially subject to the authority of Naugerius, sings to his lyre the verses that are occasionally introduced. The pretence is merely relaxation from severer thought; and the poems are often unconnected with the main subject.

Perhaps the productions of no modern poet have been more commended by the learned, than those of Fracastorio. His poems are, in general, written with a spirit which never degenerates into insipidity. But on his "Siphilis" the high poetical reputation of Fracastorio is principally founded. Sannazarius, on reading this poem, declared he thought it superior to any thing produced by himself, or his learned contemporaries, and Julius Scaliger was not content to pronounce him the best poet in the world next to Virgil, but affirmed him to be the best in every thing else; and, in short, though he was not generally lavish of his praise, with respect to Fracastorio he scarcely retained himself within the bounds of adoration. Fracastorio's medical pieces are, "De sympathia et antipathia,-De contagione et contagiosis morbis,-De causis criticorum dierum,-De vini temperatura, &c." His works

have been printed separately and collectively. The best edition of them is that of Padua, 1735, in 2 vols. 4to.

FRACHETTA (JEROM), an eminent political writer, was a native of Rovigno in Italy, and spent several years at Rome, where he was greatly esteemed by Sessa, ambassador of Philip II. king of Spain. He was employed in civil as well as military affairs, and acquitted himself always with great applause; yet he had like to have been ruined, and to have even lost his life, by his enemies. This obliged him to withdraw to Naples; and still having friends to protect his innocence, he proved it at length to the court of Spain, who ordered count de Benevento, viceroy of Naples, to employ him, and Frachetta lived in a very honourable manner at Naples, where a handsome pension was allowed him. He gained great reputation by his political works, the most considerable of which is that entitled "Il Seminario de Governi di Stato, et di Guerra." In this work he has collected, under an hundred and ten chapters, about eight thousand military and state maxims, extracted from the best authors; and has added to each chapter a discourse, which serves as a commentary to it. This work was printed twice, at least, by the author, reprinted at Venice in 1647, and at Genoa in 1648, 4to; and there was added to it, "Il Principe," by the same writer, which was published in 1597. The dedication informs us, that Frachetta was prompted to write this book from a conversation he had with the duke of Sessa; in which the latter observed, among other particulars, that he thought it as important as it was a difficult task, to inform princes truly of such transactions as happen in their dominions. His other compositions are, "Discorso della Ragione di Stato: Discorso della Ragione di Guerra: Esposizione di tutta l'Opera di Lucrezio." He died at Naples in the beginning of the seventeenth century, but at what age is unknown. "

FRAGUIER (CLAUDE FRANCIS), a French writer, was born of a noble family at Paris in 1666. His first studies were under the Jesuits; and father La Baune had the forming of his taste to polite literature. He was also a disciple of the fathers Rapin, Jouvenci, La Rue, and Commire; and the affection he had for them induced him

1 Tiraboschi.-Moreri.-Niceron, vol. XVII.-Greswell's Politian,-The best account, we think, is in Roscoe's Leo X.-Saxii Onomast.

2 Gen. Dict. Moreri.

to admit himself of their order in 1683. After his noviciate, and when he had finished his course of philosophy at Paris, he was sent to Caen to teach the belles lettres, where he contracted a friendship with Huet and Segrais, and much improved himself under their instructions. The former advised him to spend one part of the day upon the Greek authors, and another upon the Latin: by pursuing which method, he became an adept in both languages. Four years being passed here, he was recalled to Paris, where he spent other four years in the study of divinity. At the end of this course, he was shortly to take upon him the occupation of either preaching, or teaching; but finding in himself no inclination for either, he quitted his order in 1694, though he still retained his usual attachment to it. Being now at liberty to indulge his own wishes, he devoted himself solely to improve and polish his understanding. He soon after assisted the abbé Bignou, under whose direction the "Journal des Sçavans" was conducted; and he had all the qualifications necessary for such a work, a profound knowledge of antiquity, a skill not only in the Greek and Latin, but also Italian, Spanish, and English tongues, a sound judgment, an exact taste, and a very impartial and candid temper. He afterwards formed a plan of translating the works of Plato; thinking, very justly, that the versions of Ficinus and Serranus had left room enough for correction and amendments. He had begun this work, but was obliged to discontinue it by a misfortune which befel him in 1709. He had borrowed, as we are told, of his friend father Hardouin, a manuscript commentary of his upon the New Testament, in order to make some extracts from it; and was busy at work upon it one summer evening, with the window half open, and himself inconsiderately almost undressed. The cold air had so unhappy an effect in relaxing the muscles of his neck, that he could never afterwards hold his head in its natural situation. The winter increased his malady; and he was troubled with involuntary convulsive motions of the head, and with pains which often hindered him from sleeping; yet he lived nineteen years after; and though he could not undertake any literary work, constantly received visits from the learned, and conversed with them not without pleasure. He died suddenly of an apoplexy, 1728, in his sixty-second year. He had been made a member of the academy of inscriptions in 1705, and of the French academy in 1708.

His works consist of Latin poems, and a great number of very excellent dissertations in the Memoirs of the French academy *. His poems were published at Paris in 1729, in 12mo, with the poems of Huet, under the care of the abbé d'Olivet, who prefixed an eulogy of Fraguier; and at the end of them are three Latin dissertations concerning Socrates, which is all that remains of the Prolegomena he had prepared for his intended translation of Plato. These dissertations, with many others upon curious and interesting subjects, are printed in the Memoirs above-mentioned. 1

FRANCESCA (PIETRO DELLA), commonly called FRANCESCO DAL BORGO A SAN SEPOLCRO, a painter of considerable renown, was born at Borgo in Umbria, in 1372. In his youth he studied the mathematics; but at fifteen years of age determined on being a painter, when he was patronised by Gindobaldo Fettro, duke of Urbino. He did not, however, so completely devote his time to painting as to neglect his former studies, but wrote several essays on geometry and perspective, which were long preserved in the duke's library at Urbino. He afterwards painted in Pesara, Ancona, and Ferrara; but few of his works remain at either of these places. Having obtained much reputation, he was sent for to Rome by pope Nicholas V. to paint two historical subjects in the chambers of the Vatican, in concurrence with Bramante di Milano, called Bramantino; but Julius II. destroyed these to make room for Raphael's Miracle of Bolsena, and St. Peter in Prison. Notwithstanding this degradation of his labours, before the superior powers of Raphael, he was very deserving of esteem, if the account which Vasari gives of him be true, and we consider the imperfect state of the art at the time in which he lived. He exhibited much know

"This learned academician was unable to persuade himself that antiquity, so enlightened, and so ingenious in the cultivation of the fine arts, could have been ignorant of the union of different parts, in their concerts of voices and instruments, which he calls 'the most perfect and sublime part of music;' and thinking that he had happily discovered, in a passage of Plato, an indubitable and decisive proof of the ancients having possessed the art of counterpoint, he drew up his opinion

into the form of a memoir, and presented it to the academy of inscriptions and belles lettres, in 1716. M. Burette acquaints us that this abbé learned to play on the harpsichord at an advanced age, and concluding that the ancients, to whom he generously gave all good things, could not do without counterpoint, made them a present of that harmony, with which his aged ears were so pleased."-By Dr. Burney, in Rees's Cyclopædia.

1 Niceron, vol. XVIII.-Chaufepie.-Moreri.