Volume 3, Part 1, Slice 1 Part 15 (1/2)

Avicenna, however, remained hidden for forty days in a sheik's house, till a fresh attack of illness induced the amir to restore him to his post. Even during this perturbed time he prosecuted his studies and teaching. Every evening extracts from his great works, the _Canon_ and the _Sanatio_, were dictated and explained to his pupils; among whom, when the lesson was over, he spent the rest of the night in festive enjoyment with a band of singers and players. On the death of the amir Avicenna ceased to be vizier, and hid himself in the house of an apothecary, where, with intense a.s.siduity, he continued the composition of his works. Meanwhile, he had written to Abu Ya'far, the prefect of Isfahan, offering his services; but the new amir of Hamad[=a]n getting to hear of this correspondence, and discovering the place of Avicenna's concealment, incarcerated him in a fortress. War meanwhile continued between the rulers of Isfahan and Hamad[=a]n; in 1024 the former captured Hamad[=a]n and its towns, and expelled the Turkish mercenaries. When the storm had pa.s.sed Avicenna returned with the amir to Hamad[=a]n, and carried on his literary labours; but at length, accompanied by his brother, a favourite pupil, and two slaves, made his escape out of the city in the dress of a Sufite ascetic. After a perilous journey they reached Isfahan, and received an honourable welcome from the prince. The remaining ten or twelve years of Avicenna's life were spent in the service of Abu Ya'far 'Al[=a] Addaula, whom he accompanied as physician and general literary and scientific adviser, even in his numerous campaigns. During these years he began to study literary matters and philology, instigated, it is a.s.serted, by [v.03 p.0063] criticisms on his style. But amid his restless study Avicenna never forgot his love of enjoyment. Unusual bodily vigour enabled him to combine severe devotion to work with facile indulgence in sensual pleasures. His pa.s.sion for wine and women was almost as well known as his learning. Versatile, light-hearted, boastful and pleasure-loving, he contrasts with the n.o.bler and more intellectual character of Averroes. His bouts of pleasure gradually weakened his const.i.tution; a severe colic, which seized him on the march of the army against Hamad[=a]n, was checked by remedies so violent that Avicenna could scarcely stand. On a similar occasion the disease returned; with difficulty he reached Hamad[=a]n, where, finding the disease gaining ground, he refused to keep up the regimen imposed, and resigned himself to his fate.

On his deathbed remorse seized him; he bestowed his goods on the poor, restored unjust gains, freed his slaves, and every third day till his death listened to the reading of the Koran. He died in June 1037, in his fifty-eighth year, and was buried in Hamad[=a]n.

It was mainly accident which determined that from the 12th to the 17th century Avicenna should be the guide of medical study in European universities, and eclipse the names of Rhazes, Ali ibn al-Abbas and Avenzoar. His work is not essentially different from that of his predecessors Rhazes and Ali; all present the doctrine of Galen, and through Galen the doctrine of Hippocrates, modified by the system of Aristotle. But the _Canon_ of Avicenna is distinguished from the _Al-Hawi_ (_Continens_) or _Summary_ of Rhazes by its greater method, due perhaps to the logical studies of the former, and ent.i.tling him to his surname of Prince of the Physicians. The work has been variously appreciated in subsequent ages, some regarding it as a treasury of wisdom, and others, like Avenzoar, holding it useful only as waste paper. In modern times it has been more criticized than read. The vice of the book is excessive cla.s.sification of bodily faculties, and over-subtlety in the discrimination of diseases. It includes five books; of which the first and second treat of physiology, pathology and hygiene, the third and fourth deal with the methods of treating disease, and the fifth describes the composition and preparation of remedies. This last part contains some contingent of personal observation. He is, like all his countrymen, ample in the enumeration of symptoms, and is said to be inferior to Ali in practical medicine and surgery. He introduced into medical theory the four causes of the Peripatetic system. Of natural history and botany he pretends to no special knowledge. Up to the year 1650, or thereabouts, the _Canon_ was still used as a text-book in the universities of Louvain and Montpellier.

About 100 treatises are ascribed to Avicenna. Some of them are tracts of a few pages, others are works extending through several volumes. The best-known amongst them, and that to which Avicenna owed his European reputation, is the _Canon of Medicine_; an Arabic edition of it appeared at Rome in 1593, and a Hebrew version at Naples in 1491. Of the Latin version there were about thirty editions, founded on the original translation by Gerard of Cremona. The 15th century has the honour of composing the great commentary on the text of the _Canon_, grouping around it all that theory had imagined, and all that practice had observed. Other medical works translated into Latin are the _Medicamenta Cordialia_, _Cantic.u.m de Medicina_, _Tractatus de Syrupo Acetoso_. Scarcely any member of the Arabian circle of the sciences, including theology, philology, mathematics, astronomy, physics and music, was left untouched by the treatises of Avicenna, many of which probably varied little, except in being commissioned by a different patron and having a different form or extent.

He wrote at least one treatise on alchemy, but several others have been falsely attributed to him. His book on animals was translated by Michael Scot. His _Logic_, _Metaphysics_, _Physics_, _De Caelo_, are treatises giving a synoptic view of Aristotelian doctrine. The _Logic_ and _Metaphysics_ have been printed more than once, the latter, _e.g._, at Venice in 1493, 1495 and 1546. Some of his shorter essays on medicine, logic, &c., take a poetical form (the poem on logic was published by Schmoelders in 1836). Two encyclopaedic treatises, dealing with philosophy, are often mentioned. The larger, _Al-s.h.i.+f[=a]'_ (_Sanatio_), exists nearly complete in ma.n.u.script in the Bodleian library and elsewhere; part of it on the _De Anima_ appeared at Pavia (1490) as the _Liber s.e.xtus Naturalium_, and the long account of Avicenna's philosophy given by Shahrastani seems to be mainly an a.n.a.lysis, and in many places a reproduction, of the _Al-s.h.i.+f[=a]'_, A shorter form of the work is known as the _An-naj[=a]t_ (_Liberatio_). The Latin editions of part of these works have been modified by the corrections which the monkish editors confess that they applied.

There is also a _Philosophia Orientalis_, mentioned by Roger Bacon, and now lost, which according to Averroes was pantheistic in tone.

For Avicenna's life, see Ibn Khallikan's _Biographical Dictionary_, translated by McG. de Slane (1842); F. Wustenfeld's _Geschichte der arabischen Aerzte und Naturforscher_ (Gottingen, 1840). For his medicine, see Sprengel, _Histoire de la Medecine_; and for his philosophy, see Shahrastani, German trans. vol. ii. 213-332; K. Prantl, _Geschichte der Logik_, ii. 318-361; A. Stockl, _Phil. d. Mittelalters_, ii. 23-58; S.

Munk, _Melanges_, 352-366; B. Haneberg in the _Abhandlungen der philos.-philolog. Cla.s.s. der bayerischen Academie_ (1867); and Carra de Vaux, _Avicenne_ (Paris, 1900). For list of extant works see C.

Brockelmann's _Geschichte der arabischen Litteratur_ (Weimar, 1898), vol.

i. pp. 452-458.

(W. W.; G. W. T.)

AVIENUS, RUFIUS FESTUS, a Roman aristocrat and poet, of Vulsinii in Etruria, who flourished during the second half of the 4th century A.D. He was probably proconsul of Africa (366) and of Achaia (372). Avienus was a pagan and a staunch supporter of the old religion. He translated the [Greek: Phainomena] of Aratus and paraphrased the [Greek: Periegesis] of Dionysius under the t.i.tle of _Descriptio Orbis Terrarum_, both in hexameters. He also compiled a description, in iambic trimeters, of the coasts of the Mediterranean, Caspian and Black Seas in several books, of which only a fragment of the first is extant. He also epitomized Livy and Virgil's _Aeneid_ in the same metre, but these works are lost. Some minor poems are found under his name in anthologies, _e.g._ a humorous request to one Favia.n.u.s for some pomegranates for medicinal purposes.

AVIGLIANA, a town of Piedmont, Italy, in the province of Turin, 14 m. W. by rail from the town of Turin. Pop. (1901) 4629. It has medieval buildings of some interest, but is mainly remarkable for its large dynamite factory, employing over 500 workman.

AVIGNON, a city of south-eastern France, capital of the department of Vaucluse, 143 m. S. of Lyons on the railway between that city and Ma.r.s.eilles. Pop. (1906) 35,356. Avignon, which lies on the left bank of the Rhone, a few miles above its confluence with the Durance, occupies a large oval-shaped area not fully populated, and covered in great part by parks and gardens. A suspension bridge leads over the river to Villeneuve-les-Avignon (_q.v._), and a little higher up, a picturesque ruined bridge of the 12th century, the Pont Saint-Benezet, projects into the stream. Only four of the eighteen piles are left; on one of them stands the chapel of Saint-Benezet, a small Romanesque building. Avignon is still encircled by the ramparts built by the popes in the 14th century, which offer one of the finest examples of medieval fortification in existence.

The walls, which are of great strength, are surmounted by machicolated battlements, flanked at intervals by thirty-nine ma.s.sive towers and pierced by several gateways, three of which date from the 14th century. The whole is surrounded by a line of pleasant boulevards. The life of the town is almost confined to the Place de l'Hotel de Ville and the Cours de la Republique, which leads out of it and extends to the ramparts. Elsewhere the streets are narrow, quiet, and, for the most part, badly paved. At the northern extremity of the town a precipitous rock, the Rocher des Doms, rises from the river's edge and forms a plateau stretching southwards nearly to the Place de l'Hotel de Ville. Its summit is occupied by a public garden and, to the south of this, by the cathedral of Notre-Dame des Doms and the Palace of the Popes. The cathedral is a Romanesque building, mainly of the 12th century, the most prominent feature of which is the gilded statue of the Virgin which surmounts the western tower. Among the many works of art in the interior, the most beautiful is the mausoleum of Pope John XXII., a masterpiece of Gothic [v.03 p.0064] carving of the 14th century. The cathedral is almost dwarfed by the Palace of the Popes, a sombre a.s.semblage of buildings, which rises at its side and covers a s.p.a.ce of more than 1 acres. Begun in 1316 by John XXII., it was continued by succeeding popes until 1370, and is in the Gothic style; in its construction everything has been sacrificed to strength, and though the effect is imposing, the place has the aspect rather of a fortress than of a palace. It was for long used as a barracks and prison, to the exigencies of which the fine apartments were ruthlessly adapted, but it is now munic.i.p.al property. Among the minor churches of the town are St Pierre, which has a graceful facade and richly carved doors, St Didier and St Agricol, all three of Gothic architecture. The most notable of the civil buildings are the hotel de ville, a modern building with a belfry of the 14th century, and the old Hotel des Monnaies, the papal mint which was built in 1610 and is now used as a music-school. The Calvet Museum, so named after F. Calvet, physician, who in 1810 left his collections to the town, is rich in inscriptions, bronzes, gla.s.s and other antiquities, and in sculptures and paintings. The library has over 140,000 volumes. The town has a statue of a Persian, Jean Althen, who in 1765 introduced the culture of the madder plant, which long formed the staple and is still an important branch of local trade. In 1873 John Stuart Mill died at Avignon, and is buried in the cemetery. For the connexion of Petrarch with the town see PETRARCH.

Avignon is subject to violent winds, of which the most disastrous is the _mistral_. The popular proverb is, however, somewhat exaggerated, _Avenio ventosa, sine vento venenosa, c.u.m vento fastidiosa_ (windy Avignon, pest-ridden when there is no wind, wind-pestered when there is).

Avignon is the seat of an archbishop and has tribunals of first instance and of commerce, a council of trade-arbitrators, a lycee, and training college, a chamber of commerce and a branch of the Bank of France. It is in the midst of a fertile district, in the products of which it has a large trade, and has flour-mills, distilleries, oil-works and leather-works, manufactures soap, chemicals and liquorice, and is well known for its sarsanet and other fabrics.

Avignon (_Avenio_) was an important town of the Gallic tribe of the Cavares, and under the Romans one of the leading cities of Gallia Narbonensis. Severely hara.s.sed during the barbarian invasions and by the Saracens, it was, in later times, attached successively to the kingdoms of Burgundy and of Arles and to the domains of the counts of Provence and of Toulouse and of Forcalquier. At the end of the 12th century it became a republic, but in 1226 was taken and dismantled by Louis VIII. as punishment for its support of the Albigenses, and in 1251 was forced to submit to the counts of Toulouse and Provence. In 1309 the city was chosen by Clement V.

as his residence, and from that time till 1377 was the papal seat. In 1348 the city was sold by Joanna, countess of Provence, to Clement VI. After Gregory XI. had migrated to Rome, two antipopes, Clement VII. and Benedict XIII., resided at Avignon, from which the latter was expelled in 1408. The town remained in the possession of the popes, who governed it by means of legates, till its annexation by the National a.s.sembly in 1791, though during this interval several kings of France made efforts to unite it with their dominions. In 1791 conflicts between the adherents of the Papacy and the Republicans led to much bloodshed. In 1815 Marshal Brune was a.s.sa.s.sinated in the town by the adherents of the royalist party. The bishopric, founded in the 3rd century, became an archbishopric in 1475.

See Fantoni Castrucci, _Istoria della citta d'Avignone e del Contado Venesino_ (Venice, 1678); J. B. Joudou, _Histoire des souverains pontifes qui ont siege a Avignon_ (Avignon, 1855); A. Canron, _Guide de l'etranger dans la ville d'Avignon et ses environs_ (Avignon, 1858); J. F. Andre, _Histoire de la Papaute a Avignon_ (Avignon, 1887).

aVILA, GIL GONZALEZ DE (_c._ 1577-1658), Spanish biographer and antiquary, was born and died at avila. He was made historiographer of Castile in 1612, and of the Indies in 1641. Of his numerous works, the most valuable are his _Teatro de las Grandezas des Madrid_ (Madrid, 1623, sqq.), and his _Teatro Eclesiastico_, descriptive of the metropolitan churches and cathedrals of Castile, with lives of the prelates (Madrid, 1645-1653, 4 vols. 4to).

aVILA, a province of central Spain, one of the modern divisions of the kingdom of Old Castile; bounded on the N. by Valladolid, E. by Segovia and Madrid, S. by Toledo and Caceres, and W. by Salamanca. Pop. (1900) 200,457; area, 2570 sq. m. avila is naturally divided into two sections, differing completely in soil, climate, productions and social economy. The northern portion is generally level; the soil is of indifferent quality, strong and marly in a few places, but rocky in all the valleys of the Sierra de avila; and the climate alternates from severe cold in winter to extreme heat in summer. The population of this part is mainly agricultural. The southern division is one ma.s.s of rugged granitic sierras, interspersed, however, with sheltered and well-watered valleys, abounding with rich vegetation.

The winter here, especially in the elevated region of the Paramera and the waste lands of avila, is long and severe, but the climate is not unhealthy.

In this region stock-breeding is an important industry. The princ.i.p.al mountain chains are the Guadarrama, separating this province from Madrid; the Paramera and Sierra de avila, west of the Guadarrama; and the vast wall of the Sierra de Gredos along the southern frontier, where its outstanding peaks rise to 6000 or even 8000 ft. The ridges which ramify from the Paramera are covered with valuable forests of beeches, oaks and firs, presenting a striking contrast to the bare peaks of the Sierra de Gredos.

The princ.i.p.al rivers are the Alberche and Tietar, belonging to the basin of the Tagus, and the Tormes, Trabancos and Adaja, belonging to that of the Douro. The mountains contain silver, copper, iron, lead and coal, but their mineral wealth has been exaggerated, and at the beginning of the 20th century mining had practically been abandoned. Quarries of fine marble and jasper exist in the district of Arenas. The province declined in wealth and population during the 18th and 19th centuries, a result due less to the want of activity on the part of the inhabitants than to the oppressive manorial and feudal rights and the strict laws of entail and mortmain, which acted as barriers to progress.

Towards the close of this period many improvements were introduced, although the want of irrigation is still keenly felt. Wide tracts of waste land were planted with pinewoods by the ducal house of Medina Sidonia. The main roads are fairly good; and avila, the capital, is connected by rail with Salamanca, Valladolid and Madrid; but in many parts of the province the means of communication are defective. Except avila there are no important towns. The princ.i.p.al production is the wool of the merino sheep, which at one time yielded an immense revenue. Game is plentiful, and the rivers abound in fish, specially trout. Olives, chestnuts and grapes are grown, and silk-worms are kept. There is little trade, and the manufactures are few, consisting chiefly of copper utensils, lime, soap, cloth, paper and combs. The state of elementary education is comparatively good, rather more than two-thirds of the population being able to read and write, and the ratio of crime is proportionately low.

aVILA (anc. _Abula_ or _Avela_), the capital of the province described above; on the right bank of the river Adaja, 54 m. W. by N. of Madrid, by the Madrid-Valladolid railway. Pop. (1900) 11,885. The city is built on the flat summit of a rocky hill, which rises abruptly in the midst of a veritable wilderness; a brown, arid, treeless table-land, strewn with immense grey boulders, and shut in by lofty mountains. The ancient walls of avila, constructed of brown granite, and surmounted by a breastwork, with eighty-six towers and nine gateways, are still in excellent repair; but a large part of the city lies beyond their circuit. avila is the seat of a bishop, and contains several ecclesiastical buildings of high interest. The Gothic cathedral, said by tradition to date from 1107, but probably of 13th or 14th century workmans.h.i.+p, has the appearance of a fortress, with embattled walls and two solid towers. It contains many interesting sculptures and paintings, besides one especially fine silver pyx, the work of Juan de Arphe, dating from 1571. The churches of San Vicente, San Pedro, Santo Tomas and San [v.03 p.0065] Segundo are, in their main features, Romanesque of the 15th century, although parts of the beautiful San Vicente, and of San Pedro, may be as old as the 12th century. Especially noteworthy is the marble monument in Santo Tomas, carved by the 15th-century Florentine sculptor Domenico Fancelli, over the tomb of Prince John (d. 1497), the only son of Ferdinand and Isabella. The convent and church of Santa Teresa mark the supposed birthplace of the saint whose name they bear (c. 1515-1582) avila also possesses an old Moorish castle (_alcazar_) used as barracks, a foundling hospital, infirmary, military academy, and training schools for teachers of both s.e.xes. From 1482 to 1807 it was also the seat of a university. It has a considerable trade in agricultural products, leather, pottery, hats, linen and cotton goods.

For the local history see V. Picatoste, _Tradiciones de avila_ (Madrid, 1888); and L. Ariz, _Historia de las grandezas de ... avila_ (Alcala de Henares, 1607).

AVILA Y ZUNIGA, LUIS DE (_c._ 1490-_c._ 1560), Spanish historian, was born at Placentia. He was probably of low origin, but married a wealthy heiress of the family of Zuniga, whose name he added to his own. He rose rapidly in the favour of the emperor Charles V., served as amba.s.sador to Rome, and was made grand commander of the order of the Knights of Alcantara. He accompanied the emperor to Africa in 1541, and having served during the war of the league of Schmalkalden, wrote a history of this war ent.i.tled _Commentarios de la guerra de Alemana, hecha de Carlos V en el ano de 1546 y 1547._ This was first printed in 1548, and becoming very popular was translated into French, Dutch, German, Italian and Latin. As may be expected from the author's intimacy with Charles, the book is very partial to the emperor, and its misrepresentations have been severely criticized.

AVILeS, PEDRO MENeNDEZ DE (1519-1574), Spanish seaman, founder of St Augustine, Florida, was born at Aviles in Asturias on the 15th of February 1519. His family were gentry, and he was one of nineteen brothers and sisters. At the age of fourteen he ran away to sea, and was engaged till he was thirty in a life of adventure as a corsair. In 1549 during peace between France and Spain he was commissioned by the emperor Charles V. to clear the north coast of Spain and the Canaries of French pirates. In 1554 he was appointed captain-general of the ”flota” or convoy which carried the trade between Spain and America. The appointment was made by the emperor over the head and against the will of the Casa de Contratacion, or governing board of the American trade. In this year, and before he sailed to America, Aviles accompanied the prince of Spain, afterwards Philip II., to England, where he had gone to marry Queen Mary. As commander of the flota he displayed a diligence, and achieved a degree of success in bringing back treasure, which earned him the hearty approval of the emperor. But his devotion to the imperial service, and his steady refusal to receive bribes as the reward for permitting breaches of the regulations, made him unpopular with the merchants, while his high-handed ways offended the Casa de Contratacion. Reappointed commander in 1557, and knowing the hostility of the Casa, he applied for service elsewhere. The war with France in which Spain and England were allies was then in progress, and until the close of 1559 ample occupation was found for Aviles in bringing money and recruits from Spain to Flanders. When peace was restored he commanded the fleet which brought Philip II. back from the Low Countries to Spain. In 1560 he was again appointed to command the flota, and he made a most successful voyage to America and back, in that and the following year.

His relations with the Casa de Contratacion were, however, as strained as ever. On his return from another voyage in 1563 he was arrested by order of the Casa, and was detained in prison for twenty months. What the charges brought against him were is not known. Aviles in a letter to the king avows his innocence, and he was finally discharged by the judges, but not until they had received two peremptory orders from the king to come to a decision.

On his release he prepared to sail to the Bermudas to seek for his son Juan, who had been s.h.i.+pwrecked in the previous year. At that time the French Huguenots were engaged in endeavouring to plant a colony in Florida.