laws (a). Some critics, who fet up for admirers of the beauties of ftyle, have exclaimed against our author for his harsh and barbarous diction; but it is almost universally allowed that he was a great genius, and the imperfections of his writing were owing to the age in which he lived (b). He was in very eafy circumftances, having a handfome house in town, and a pleasant country feat. He had two fons who were likewise men of learning; and Panzirolus fays, that he had alfo a learned daughter who was chofen into the profefforship of the civil law. Accurfius died in 1229, in the 78th year De claris leg of his interpret. lib. His monument is to be feen at Bologna, with age. ii. c. xxix. the following fhort and fimple infeription: Sepulchrum Accurfii, gloffatoris legum, et Francifci ejus filii. i. e. "The fepulchre of Accurfius, the expounder of the laws, and of Francis his fon." P. 149. (a) The following paffage is quoted by one of the modern civilians who had very little esteem for gloffographers: Noftis quanta fit autoritas gloffatoris. Nonne heri, &c. "You know the great authority of an interpreter. Did not Cyn. fay yesterday, that the glofs was to be feared because of the idolatry paid to it by the lawyers, fignifying that they worship the interpreters as fo many evangelifts, after the manner of the antients, who paid adoration to idols as if they had been gods. I would therefore rather have the glofs than the text in my favour;, for, if I cite the text in behalf of my caufe, then the lawyers, who are my antagonists, and even the judges, fay, Do you imagine the interpreter did not look into the text, and understand it as well as you? I remember, when a ftudent, I was a keen difputant, and che day I had the presumption to cite a text in oppofition to our doctor's opinion. Says one of my fellow ftudents, What, do you speak against the glofs, which fays fo and fo? I replied, Tho' the glofs fays fo, yet I fay fo and fo, not knowing at that time the great authority of the gloffes; for I fuppofed they were explanatory notes, like thofe of the commentators on Virgil and Ovid, &c. But it is not fo; for the interpreters are accounted to be men of the greateft learning and authority. It will be fafer therefore for us to depend upon those who have seen thro the whole body of the laws, than on ourfelves, who are not fupposed to be capable of fuch penetration.” Raphael Fulgofius, in L. Si in folu tum C. de Action & Oblig. apud Fr. Hoftomannum, præf. confiliorum. (b) Ludovicus Vives (De caufis corrupt. artium, lib. i. p. 52.) and Bernartius (See his Treatife on the Advantages of reading History) have been most violent on the style of the gloffographers. The proverb, Græcum eft, non poteft legi, is supposed to have taken its rife from the ignorance which prevailed at that time amongst thefe interpreters, who, as it is pretended, when they met with Greek word, ufed to leave the place uninterpreted, giving this reason, That it was Greek, and could not be read. Alciatus, cap. xvi. lib. ii. ACCURSIUS (Cervot) fon to the preceding. He made much more hafte than his father to get his degrees, having ftood for a doctor's degree in laws before he was feventeen, which was granted him after many debates whether by the ftatutes terp. lib. ii. ftatutes he could be admitted at such an age. He wrote ex- Panzirol. de pofitions on the laws, which he annexed to thofe of his fa- cl. leg. inther; but they were never in esteem. Panzirolus thus fpeaks c. xix. of them: Deterior interpres ineptas gloffas et longe a vero diftantes paternis addidit, quæ Cervotianæ vocatæ ut plurimum rejiciuntur. i. e. “A bad expounder, who added trifling inac- Ib. curate comments to those of his father: they are called Cervotionæ, and are mostly rejected." ACCURSIUS (Francis) elder brother to the former, was fo highly esteemed by the citizens of Bologna, that upon hearing he was to follow the king of England into France to read the law in that kingdom, they iffued an order that he fhould not leave their city, upon pain of having his eftate confifcated. He went to Toulouse however notwithstanding this threat, and thought to have outwitted them, by felling all his property to a friend; but this artifice proved ineffectual; his eftate having been confifcated, which obliged him to return to Bologna, when it was reftored to him. He had taught in Touloufe, and was one day very much puzzled to explain fomewhat in regard to the intereft of money: James of Ravanne, one of the ableft lawyers of his time, having gone incog. amongst the hearers, and paffing for a scholar, had raised fuch objections as greatly ftaggered Accurfius. Some fay that Accurfius, at his return to Bologna, was a law-profeffor there with Bartolus; and that having a difpute with him about the reading of a paffage in the pandects, they fent to Pifa to confult the manufcript; but it feems very improbable that Accurfius was living when Bartolus was profeffor; for, in this cafe, he must have been at least 120 years of age. The conjecture of Panzirolus is therefore not unlikely, that Panziroles de the Accurfius, who was Bartolus's collegue, was fon to an cl. leg. inAccurfius who taught law in Reggio, his native country, terpr. c. about the year 1273; and likewife read lectures in Padua. ACCURSIUS (Mariangelus) a famous critic of the 16th century, born at Aquila, in the kingdom of Naples. His favourite study was fearching into and comparing of old ma nufcripts, in order to correct many paffages of the antient authors. The Diatribes, which he printed in folio at Rome, in 1524, on Aufonius, Solinus, and Ovid, fhew his ability in this kind of learning. He had likewife bestowed great pains and time on Claudian (a): this work however was ne (4) Talis (fays Accurfus) non ales legitur in codicibus Claudiani etiam noviffime recognitis. Qui tantum fint Ixvii. Nicholo ver printed. Barthius, who has a high opinion of the wit and judgment of our author, expreffed his concern that fuch a valuable work fhould remain in manufcript, and that the reft of his compofitions have not been republished. Accurfius wrote alfo Latin and Italian verfes, and had great skill in mufic, as well as optics: he travelled into the northern parts of the world, and in his travels used to remark the most minute particulars. He was perfect mafter of the French, Spanish, and German languages: he was alfo a great antiquarian, having collected à vaft number of antiques which were depofited in the capitol. He lived 33 years at the court of the emperor Charles V. who was highly pleased with him, and bestowed on him many marks of favour and esteem. In. Toppi. Bib- his edition of Ammianus Marcellinus, there are five books lioth. Nap. more than in any before printed. It was published at Ausburgh P. 206. in 1533; and Accurfiius affirms, that he had corrected five thoufand errors in this hiftorian. This fame year he publishAmmian. ed in that city the Epiftles of Caffiodorus in twelve books, Marcellin. with a Treatife on the foul; and to him we are indebted for Toppi. ubi fupra. the first edition of this author. Some Latin writers in his LeonardoNi. time having affected to make use of the most obsolete words, codeno, Ad- he ridiculed them with great humour in a dialogue published Biblioth. Na- in 1531 (b), and he annexed to it a fmall treatise written by poletan. p. Volutius Metianus, an antient lawyer. He is faid to have wrote alfo a book on the invention of printing. He was accufed of plagiarism in regard to his Aufonius, it being alledged that he had affumed to himself the labours of Fabricio Varano, bishop of Camerino: however he took an oath to the contrary, the form of which is fomewhat remarkable. The original is in Latin, of which the following is a translation : Hen. Vale fii præf. in dizioni alla 170. Toppi. p. 206. fint claudi ac deformes, ut eos ex ve- (b) M. Bayle mentions the follow- who corrupted the Latin tongue, was perhaps printed in the year 1531; but we may naturally fuppofe, that it was publickly known fome years before, fince Geoffry Tory quotes it in his Champ Fleure, printed in 4to. in 1529. In like manner, continues he, a thoufand other forms of expreffion, which Hieronymus Avacinus, a native of Verona, gives us in the beginning of his Annotations on the works of the antient poet Lucretius, which I leave to the curious who are lovers of antiquity; and which may be read at large, in a dialogue, entitled, Ofci et Volfci dialogus ludis Romanis actus, &c, "Ifwear before God and men, by the facred ties of faith and juftice, by the folemn obligation of an oath, or by any thing elfe that can be more binding than an oath, I affirm and declare as the most unfeigned truth, and I would have it fo understood by others, that I never read, nor fo much as faw the compofitions of any perfon, whence I could borrow the least hint or affistance for my own writings; nay I even endeavoured, to the utmost of my power, if I found any thing published like what I had written, to expunge it out of my work and, if I now forefwear myfelf, may the pope pronounce his curfe againft me, and may fo evil a fate attend my productions, that whatever is valuable, or at least indifferent in them, may it be accounted abominable by the ignorant many, and defpifed by the learned; and, if I have any fame left, may the winds carry it away, and may it be thought entirely owing to the injudicious vulgar." We fhould have had feveral more of the works of Accurfius published, had his fon Carimir lived longer. ACHERI (Luke D') a benedictine of the congregation of St. Maur, born at St. Quintin, in Picardy, in 1609. He made himself famous by printing feveral works which, till his time, had remained in manufcript in different libraries. The first piece he published was the epiftle afcribed to Se. Barnabas, which he printed in 1645. Father Hugh Menard, a monk of the fame congregation, defigned to have published this epiftle, and had illuftrated it with notes; but death having prevented him, Acheri published it in Greek and Latin, with Menard's notes, Three years after he published the life and writings of Lanfrank, archbishop of Canterbury, and the chronicle of the abbey of Bec. In 1651 he printed an edition of the Life and writings of Guibert, abbot of Nogent, with fome other pieces. Having afterwards collected feveral fcarce and curious tracts, and being in hopes of procuring many more, he formed a defign to compile as large a body as he could collect, and to publish them under the title, of Spicilegium, A gleaning. The first volume appeared in 1655, and was afterwards followed by twelve more, the last of which was printed in 1677. Most of the pieces contained Journal des in this work were wrote fince the decay of the Roman empire Savans. Feb. in the weft. He publifhed alfo the Rule for the Anchorites, written by father Grimlaic, and fome Afcetic pieces (a). The (a) He did not put his name to this collection: we have the title VOL. I. prefaces 28, 1678. prefaces and notes, which he annexed to many of thefe pieces, fhew him to be a man of genius and abilities. He had alfo fome fhare in the pieces inferted in the first volumes of The acts of the faints of the order of St. Bennet, the title whereof acquaints us that they were collected and published by him and father Mabillon. After a very retired life, till the age of 73, he died at Paris the 29th of April, 1685, in the abbey of St. German in the Fields, where he had been librarian.. Afceticorum vulgo fpiritualium opufculorum, quæ inter patrum opera reperiuntur. Indiculus Chriftianæ pietatis cultoribus ab Asceta Benedicti no congregationis Sancti Mauri digeftus. i. e.. A catalogue of the Afcetic, or fpiritual tracts, found I amongst the works of the fathers; digefted for the ufe of devout Chriftians, by a Benedictine of the congregation of St. Maur. Paris 4to. 1648. Mr. Teffier fays, that Acheri publifhed alfo St. Auftin's life this fame year at Paris. bACHILLINI (Alexander) born at Bologna, doctor of philofophy in that univerfity. He flourished in the 15th and 16th centuries, and by way of eminence was ftyled the Great Philofopher. He was a ftedfaft follower and accurate interpreter of Averroes upon Ariftotle, but moft admired for his acutenefs and ftrength of arguing in private and public difputations (a). He made a furprizing quick progrefs in his ftudies, and was very early promoted to a profefforship in the univerfity (6), in which he acquitted himself with fo much applause, that his name became famous throughout all Italy. He continued at Bologna till the year 1506, when the university of Padua made choice of him to fucceed Antonio Francatiano in the firft chair of philofophy. His fame brought vaft numbers of ftudents to his lectures at Padua ; but it drew upon him the envy of his collegue, Peter Pomponalius, who could not endure the fuperior reputation of his rival, and therefore, by fecret practices, endeavoured to withdraw his fcholars from him, and in the difputations, when he could not answer his arguments, he had recourfe to raillery and jefts; but all his efforts could not in the leaft leffen the reputation of Achillini. (a) He particularly frequented thofe public difputations called, The General Chapters, or Convocations amongst the Friars; and was fo acute a difputant, that where he did argue, and was not known, there went current as a proverb that saying, Either the devil or Achillini. Notizie degli Scritt, Bologn, (b) According to Orlandi, Achilini began to read lectures at Rologna in 1484, from whence it appears, he was then but twenty years old, fince the fame author tells us that he died in the 48th year of his age, in 1512; so that, according to this account, he must have been born in 1464. Notizie degli Scritt. Bologn, Our |