chief hand in establishing the Haerlem Society of Sciences, and in 1778 formed a separate branch for the study of Economics. In both he acted as secretary for many years; and, besides some Sermons, published, in the Transactions of that Society, a variety of scientific papers. He died at Haerlem in 17951. AAGARD (CHRISTIAN), a Danish poet, born at Wibourg in 1616, was professor of poetry at Sora, and afterwards lecturer in theology at Ripen, in Jutland. Among his poems are: 1. "De hommagio Frederici III. Daniæ et Norw. Regis," Hafniæ, 1660, fol.; and 2. "Threni Hyperborei" on the death of Christian IV. All his pieces are inserted in the "Deliciæ quorundam Poetarum Danorum, Frederici Rostgaard," Leyden, 1695, 2 vols. 12mo. He died in February 1664, leaving a son, Severin Aagard, who wrote his life in the above collection. AAGARD (NICHOLAS), brother of the above, was librarian and professor in the University of Sora, in Denmark, where he died Jan. 22, 1657, aged forty-five years, and left several critical and philosophical works, written in Latin. The principal are: 1. "A treatise on Subterraneous Fires." 2. "Dissertation on Tacitus." 3. "Observations on Ammianus Marcellinus." And 4. "A disputation on the Style of the New Testament," Sora, 4to, 1655. He and his brother were both of the Lutheran Church 3. AAGESEN (SUEND, in Latin SUENO AGONIS), a Danish historian, flourished about the year 1186, and appears to have been secretary to the archbishop Absalon, by whose orders he wrote a history of Denmark, intituled, "Compendiosa historia regum Daniæ à Skioldo ad Canutum VI." This work is thought inferior in style to that of Saxo Grammaticus; but, on some points, his opinions are in more strict conformity to what are now entertained by the literati of the North. He was also author of "Historia legum castrensium Regis Canuti magni," which is a translation into Latin of the law called the law of Witherlag, enacted by Canute the Great, and re-published by Absalon in the reign of Canute VI. with an introduction by Aagesen on the origin of that law. Both works are included in "Suenonis Agonis filii, Christierni nepotis, primi Dani gentis historici, quæ extant opuscula. Stephanus Johannis Dict. Hist. edit. 1810. Moreri. Diet. Hist. 1810. ? Ibid. Stephanius ex vetustissimo codice membraneo MS. regiæ bibliothecæ Hafniensis primus publici juris fecit. Soræ, typis Henrici Crusii," 1642, 8vo. His history is also printed, with excellent notes, in Langebek's "Scriptores rerum Danicarum," vol. I.; and the "Leges castrenses," are in vol. III. AARON, a presbyter of Alexandria, the author of thirty books on physic in the Syriac tongue, which he called the Pandects. They were supposed to be written before 620, and were translated out of the Syriac into Arabic, by Maserjawalh, a Syrian Jew, and a physician in the reign of the calif Merwan, about A. D. 683; for then the Arabians began to cultivate the sciences and to study physic. In these he has clearly described the small-pox, and the measles, with their pathognomonic symptoms, and is the first author that mentions those two remarkable diseases, which probably first appeared and were taken notice of at Alexandria in Egypt, soon after the Arabians made themselves masters of that city, in A. D. 640, in the reign of Omar Ebnol Chatab, the second successor to Mohammed. But both those original Pandects, and their translation, are now lost; and we have nothing of them remaining, but what Mohammed Rhazis collected from them, and has left us in his Continens; so that we have no certain account where those two diseases first appeared; but it is most probable that it was in Arabia Felix, and that they were brought from thence to Alexandria by the Arabians, when they took that city. AARON (ST.) a Briton, who suffered martyrdom with another, St. Julius, during the persecution under the emperor Dioclesian, in the year 303, and about the same time with St. Alban, the protomartyr of Britain. What the British names of Aaron and Julius were, we are not told; nor have we any particulars of their death. They had each a church erected to his memory in the city of Caer-Leon, the antient metropolis of Wales, and their festival is placed, in the Roman Martyrology, on the first of July3. AARON-HARISCON, a celebrated Jewish rabbi, was a physician at Constantinople towards the end of the 13th century, and a man of extensive reputation. He wrote: Biographie Universelle, 1811. • Mangeti Bibl.-Dict. Hist.-Fabric. Bibl. Græc. Biog. Brit.-Tanner.-Leland. 2 1. "A commentary on the Pentateuch;" a translation of which into Latin was published at Jena, 1710, fol. a work highly praised by Simon, in his Critical History of the Old Testament, and by Wolfius, in his Bibl. Hebraica. It appears by a manuscript of the original, in the library of the Oratory at Paris, that it was written in 1294. 2. "A commentary on the books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings, translated from the Arabic into Hebrew," a manuscript in the library at Leyden. 3. "A commentary on Isaiah and the Psalms," in the same library. 4. "A commentary on Job," which the author notices in his firstmentioned work on the Pentateuch. 5. "A treatise on Grammar," a very rare work, printed at Constantinople in 1581, which some have attributed to another Aaron. 6. "The Form of Prayer in the Caraite Synagogue," Venice, 1528-29, 2 vols. small quarto1. AARON (PIETRO), who flourished in the sixteenth century, was a Florentine, of the order of Jerusalem, and a voluminous writer on Music. He first appeared as an author in 1516, when a small Latin tract in three books, "De institutione Harmonica," which he wrote originally in Italian, was translated into Latin, and published at Bologna, by his friend Joh. Ant. Flaminius, of Imola, 4to. 2. "Toscanello della Musica, libri tre." This treatise, the most considerable of all his writings, was first printed at Venice, 1523; then in 1529, and lastly, with additions, in 1539. In the Dedication he informs us, that he was born to a slender fortune, which he wished to improve by some reputable profession; that he chose Music, and had been admitted into the Papal chapel at Rome during the pontificate of Leo X. but that he sustained an irreparable loss by Leo's death. 3. "Trattato della natura e cognizione di tutti li Tuoni di Canto figurato," Venice, 1525, fol. 4. "Lucidario in Musica di alcune Oppenioni Antiche e Moderne," 4to. Venice, 1545. In this work we have discussions of many doubts, contradictions, questions, and difficulties, never solved before. 5. "Compendiolo di molti dubbj segreti et sentenze intorno il Canto-fermo e figurato," 1547, 4to. This seems a kind of supplement to his Lucidario. There is not much novelty in any of his works; but, in the state of musical science in his time, they were all useful. 1 Simon Biblioth. critique, vol. II. p. 201-205.-Clement Bibl. cur. des liv. rares. Dict. Hist. 1810. -Moreri. / 2 Burney's Hist. of Music, vol. III.-Dict. Hist. 1810. AARSENS (FRANCIS), lord of Someldyck and Spyck, one of the most celebrated negociators of the United Provinces, was the son of Cornelius Aarsens, (who was greffier, or secretary of state, from 1585 to 1623,) and was born at the Hague in 1572. His father put him under the care of Duplessis Mornay at the court of William I. prince of Orange. The celebrated John Barnevelt sent him afterwards as agent into France; and, after residing there some time, he was recognised as ambassador, the first whom the French Court had received in that capacity from the United States; and the king, Louis XIII. created him a knight and baron. After holding this office for fifteen years, he became obnoxious to the French Court, and was deputed to Venice, and to several German and Italian princes, on occasion of the troubles in Bohemia. But such was the dislike the French king now entertained against him, that he ordered his ambassadors in these courts not to receive his visits. One cause of this appears to have been a paper published by Aarsens in 1618, reflecting on the French king's ministers. In 1620 he was sent as ambassador to England, and again in 1641: the object of this last embassy was to negociate a marriage between prince William, son to the prince of Orange, and a daughter of Charles I. Previous to this, however, we find him again in France, in 1624, as ambassador extraordinary, where it appears that he became intimate with and subservient to the cardinal Richelieu; who used to say that he never knew but three great politicians, Oxenstiern, chancellor of Sweden, Viscardi, chancellor of Montferrat, and Francis Aarsens. His character, however, has not escaped just censure, on account of the hand he had in the death of Barnevelt, and of some measures unfriendly to the liberties of his country. He died in 1641. The editors of the Dict. Historique attribute to him "A Journey into Spain, historical and political," published by De Sercy at Paris, 1666, 4to, and often reprinted; but this was the work of a grandson, of both his names, who was drowned in his passage from England to Holland, 1659. ABANO. See APOΝΟ. ABARIS, a celebrated sage, or impostor, whose history has been the subject of much learned discussion. Jamblicus, in his credulous Life of Pythagoras, mentions Abaris as a disciple of that philosopher, and relates the wonders Du Maurier's Memoirs. - Wicquefort's Treatise on Ambassadors. Gen. Dict. 1 he performed by means of an arrow which he received from Apollo. He also gives the particulars of a conversation which he had with Pythagoras, whilst the latter was detained prisoner by Phalaris, the tyrant. But this narration is filled with so many marvellous circumstances, and chronological errors, that it deserves little credit. Brucker, whom we principally follow in this article, gives the following instance. It is said that, in the time of a general plague, Abaris was sent from the Scythians on an embassy to the Athenians. This plague happened in the third olympiad. Now, it appears, from the learned contest between Bentley and Boyle, on the subject of Phalaris, that this tyrant, in whose presence Abaris is said to have disputed with Pythagoras, did not exercise his tyranny, at the most, longer than twenty-eight-years, and that his death happened not earlier than the fourth year of the fifty-seventh olympiad, which is the opinion of Bentley, nor later than the first year of the sixty-ninth olympiad, which is the date fixed by Dodwell. It is evident, therefore, that Abaris could not have lived, both at the time of the general plague mentioned above, and during the reign of Phalaris. The time when he flourished may, with some degree of probability, be fixed about the third olympiad; and there seems little reason to doubt, that he went from place to place imposing upon the vulgar by false pretensions to supernatural powers. He passed through Greece, Italy, and many other countries, giving forth oracular predictions, pretending to heal diseases by incantation, and practising other arts of imposture. Hence the fabulous tales concerning Abaris grew up into an entire history, written by Heraclides. Some of the later Platonists, in their zeal against Christianity, collected these and other fables, and exhibited them, not without large additions from their own fertile imaginations, in opposition to the miracles of Christ'. ABATI (ANTONY), an Italian poet of the 17th century, enjoyed much reputation during his life. He was in the service of the archduke Leopold of Austria, and travelled in France and the Netherlands. On his return to Italy, he was successively governor of several small towns in the ecclesiastical state. He died at Sinagaglia, in 1667, after a long illness. The emperor Ferdinand III. made a bad acrostic in honour of his memory, but does not appear Bayle in Gen. Dict. - Brucker Hist. Philos, abridged by Enfield.-Fabric. Bibl. Græc, 1 |