bent near the lower extremity, and termi- | nated with a hollow ball. In consequence of an increase of heat in the atmosphere, the air in the ball and the mercury in the tube were caused to expand, and a scale of inches by the side of the latter served to indicate the temperature; the height of the column of mercury being corrected by adding or subtracting the difference between thirty inches and the height of the column of mercury in an ordinary barometer. His hygrometer consisted of a coloured liquid which was contained in a glass tube three feet long, with a hollow ball at each end; and the lower ball, in which was a small orifice, was inclosed in a leather bag containing mercury. The variations in the humidity of the atmosphere being accompanied by a greater or less expansion of the leather, the liquid in the tube descended or ascended, and thus indicated the degree of the moisture in the air. Several of the hygrometers which have since been devised are founded on the same principle. Amontons has a claim to the honour of being one of the inventors of the telegraph, and it is said that about the year 1702, he twice made a public exhibition, in presence of the royal family of France, of a process for communicating rapidly between places at great distances from one another. He proposed to establish a chain of persons, at certain intervals, between the two extremities of the line of communication, as between Paris and Rome, and signals consisting of figures indicating letters of the alphabet were to be exhibited at one extremity of the line: these being observed by means of a telescope at the first intermediate station, were there to be repeated, and so on. In 1684, that is, about eighteen years earlier, Dr. Hooke read before the Royal Society of London a paper entitled "The way how to communicate one's mind at great distances," and there is a similarity in the processes of the English and the French philosophers; it is very probable, however, that the latter, when he announced his invention, was wholly unacquainted with what had been already proposed in this country. Amontons applied himself for a time to the study of architecture, and, as a branch of the art, he cultivated drawing so far at least as to acquire a facility in executing plans of ground and designs for edifices: he did not make a profession of architecture, but it appears that he was occasionally employed in superintending the construction of public works. It is said that at the commencement of his philosophical career he attempted some contrivance for producing perpetual motion. About that time the opinion that such a contrivance was possible was entertained by many scientific men; and it can scarcely be considered as a reproach to Amontons that, in his youth, the same idea occupied his mind. The attempt failed, as may be supposed, but it is probable that it had the salutary effect of prompting him to study profoundly the laws of mechanical action. Amontons enjoyed good health till he was about forty-two years of age, when an internal inflammation suddenly took place and terminated his useful life he died October 11. 1705. He appears to have been a man of great modesty and disinterestedness: he made no effort to court the favour of the great for the purpose of advancing his fortune; and the distinction which he obtained among the learned was that to which, by his talents alone, he was justly entitled. (Mémoires de l'Académie Royale des Sciences, 1696 to 1705; Eloge d'Amontons, by Fontenelle in the Histoire de l'Académie, 1705.) J. N. AMORETTI, CARLO, was born at Oneglia, in the territory of Genoa, in the year 1740. His father was a merchant ; and from the circumstance of his having held the commission of captain in the burgher guard of his town, it has been inferred that he was a man of some note among his townsmen. Carlo studied theology, and actually took, while yet little more than a boy, the vows in the order of St. Augustine. He lectured on canon law for a short time in the university of Parma. He did not, however, feel a very decided vocation to a clerical career, and obtained, what seems to have been no very difficult matter in Italy about the middle of the eighteenth century, the Pope's licence to resume the secular character. Having laid aside the monastic habit, he devoted himself to the study of physical science and natural history. Similarity of pursuits led to an intimacy with the Abati Fortis and Venini, and Padre Soave, which ripened into friendship. In 1772 Amoretti was prevailed upon to quit Parma and accept the situation of tutor in the Cusani family. The esteem and patronage of that family rendered his position in Milan agreeable, and he continued to make that city his home for the rest of his life. In 1775 Amoretti began, in conjunction with Padre Soave, to publish a collection of the most interesting essays and memoirs of the European literati, under the title "Scelta di Opuscoli interessanti." In the course of three years thirty-six volumes of this publication appeared, when the editors, fearing that the utility or sale of the work might be injured by the excessive number of small volumes, changed its form and title. first volume of the "Opuscoli Scelti sulle Scienze e sulle Arti," in quarto, appeared at Milan in 1778, and the twenty-second and last at the same city in 1803. The series contains a large number of important memoirs, some published from manuscripts, others translated or reprinted from the The Transactions of the most celebrated societies of Europe. Encouraged by Fumagalli, Amoretti undertook to translate Winckelmann's "History of the Arts of Design among the Ancients." The translation was published at Milan in 1799, in two volumes quarto, with the title "Storia delle Arti del Disegno presso gli Antichi di Giovanni Winkelmann; tradotta dal Tedesco : con Note originali degli Editori." The editors were the Cistercian monks of Milan; but in their prefatory address they state that the translation was done entirely by Amoretti, and that the most important of the notes were from his pen. This work gave him an Italian reputation. The other translations published by Amoretti may as well be mentioned here. They werefrom the German, Sonnenfels' "Essay on the Abolition of Torture," and Sulzer's "Journey from Berlin to Nice;" from the Latin, Mitterpacher's" Elements of Agriculture.' He In 1783 Amoretti was elected secretary of the Società Patriotica of Milan, founded by Maria Theresa in 1776 for the encouragement of agriculture and the useful arts. continued to fill this office for fifteen years, at the end of which the society was dissolved. In 1784 he published a life of Leonardo da Vinci, which raised still higher the reputation he had gained by his translation and notes upon Winckelmann. In compiling this biography he availed himself of the MSS. of Leonardo preserved in the Ambrosian library. The title of the work is:-"Memorie storiche sù la Vita, gli Studi, e le Opere di Leonardo da Vinci. Milano, 1784," 8vo. This work has been reprinted several times, and has been included in the "Raccolta di Classici Italiani" published in 1809. The most important of Amoretti's works, and that upon which in all likelihood his reputation will ultimately rest, was published in 1794 it is entitled "6 Viaggio da Milano ai tre Laghi," and contains a large and interesting accumulation of information respecting the political and natural history and geography of the Lago Maggiore, the lakes of Como and Lugano, and the district in which they are situated. The author subsequently undertook various excursions among the Alps of Savoy, and to Vienna and the south of Italy, in the course of which he had opportunities of extending and maturing the observations he published in his journey to the lakes. These appendices to his great work are to be found in his "Opuscoli scelti” mentioned above, and in the transactions of different societies to which he belonged. The Viaggio," published originally in 1794 at Milan, was reprinted there in 1803 and 66 The | brosiano." His closer connection with that invaluable collection led to his publishing two MSS. which it contains of considerable importance to comparative geography. The first in importance, and also in the order of publication, was Pigafetta's account of the first voyage round the world by the squadron under the command of Magalhaens. place to speak at length of this work is in the life of Pigafetta: here it will be sufficient to state that Amoretti prefaces the narrative with a brief sketch of the progress of maritime discovery, and an historical account of the MS., and has added an essay on navigation, from a MS. bound up along with it. The book appeared at Milan in 1803, and a French translation of it, also by Amoretti, was published at Paris in the same year. The Parisian edition contains a translation of Murr's life of Martin Behaim. The Italian edition is in quarto, the French in octavo. The title of the former is "Primo Viaggio intorno al Globo Terracqueo; ossia Ragguaglio della Navigazione alle Indie Orientale per la Via d' Occidente, fatta dal Cavaliere Antonio Piggafetta Patricio Vicentino sulla Squadra del Capitano Magaglianos negli Anni 1519-22; ora publicato per la prima Volta, tratto da un Codice MS. della Biblioteca Ambrosiana di Milano, e corredato di Note da Carlo Amoretti Dottore del Collegio Ambrosiano, con un Transunto del Trattato di Navigazione dello stesso Autore. In Milano, 1800." The apocryphal voyage of Maldonado was also published by Amoretti both in French and Italian. We have only seen the former edition. It is printed at Piacenza, and its title-page is "Voyage de la Mer Atlantique à l'Océan Pacifique par le Nord-ouest dans la Mer glaciale, par le Capitaine Laurent Ferrer Maldonado, l'An 1588: traduit d'un MS. Espagnol, et suivi d'un Discours qui en démontre l'Authenticité et la Véracité. Par Charles Amoretti. Plaisance, 1812." Amoretti maintains stoutly the truth of the narnative but it is scarcely necessary to say that his arguments are far from conclusive. In 1805 Amoretti published in French, "Le Guide des E'trangers en Milan," a correct and neat little work. He was created, in the same year, a knight of the order. of the Iron Crown; he was nominated a member of the Institute of Italy, and one of the council of Mines. His circumstances, however, continued unimproved: he remained a poor man to the last. In 1808 he published "Ricerche fisiche e storiche sulla Rabdomanzia," which is little more than a reprint of several papers on the powers of the divining rod in the discovery of water and metallic ores. Amoretti's remarks on this subject imply a considerable amount of credulity. He also wrote, in 1808, the preface for a periodical commenced in that year by a literary society in Milan, under the title "Giornale della Società d'Incorag K K AMORETTI. giamento delle Scienze e delle Arti stabilita in Milano;" and he contributed a few papers of no great consequence to the work. Among others, one of the first notices of the invention of lithography that appeared in Italy. In 1810 he published a paper on turf and lignite considered as a substitute for wood used as fuel, reprinted from the second part of the memoirs of "Instituto Nazionale Italiano." Carlo Amoretti closed an active and useful literary life on the 25th of March, 1816. He occupies a respectable position among the men of letters of modern Italy, a class of writers less known in England than their industry and accuracy deserve. (Lombardi, Storia della Letteratura Italiana del Secolo XVIII. Modena, 1828; Life of Amoretti by Weiss in the Supplement to the Biographie Universelle. All Amoretti's publications mentioned above have also been consulted in comW. W. piling this sketch.) AMORETTI, MARI'A PELLEGRI'NA, a cousin of Carlo Amoretti, born at Oneglia in 1756, and died in the flower of life on the 12th of October, 1787. She is the only female who has obtained the degree of doctor of laws Maria in Italy except Bassi of Bologna. Pellegrina maintained theses in philosophy in public at Pavia, against all who chose to appear as disputants, in her fifteenth year, and received her degree from the university in her twenty-first. She composed atreatise on the law of dower among the Romans ("De jure Dotium apud Romanos"), which was printed after her death. She had the reputation of modesty and piety. (Lombardi, Storia della Letteratura Italiana del Secolo W. W. XVIII.) AMOREUX, PIERRE JOSEPH, was born at Beaucaire in Languedoc in 1741. In 1761 he accompanied his father, Guillaume Amoreux, who had for some time been a physician at Beaucaire, to Montpellier. He received the diploma of doctor of medicine at Montpellier in 1762, became an Associate of the Royal Society of Sciences there in 1764, and soon afterwards, in conjunction with his father, was appointed librarian to the faculty of medicine. He held for a short time a professorship of natural history, and died in 1824, at Montpellier. P. J. Amoreux was the author of numer- | divers Lichens, dont on peut faire Usage dans J. P. Italian AMORO'SI, ANTONIO, an painter of the early part of the eighteenth century, a native of the Comunanza of Ascoli in the Piceno, and the scholar of the Cav. Giuseppe Ghezzi, also a painter of Ascoli. Amorosi painted historical and religious pieces, but he is better known for his humorous and characteristic pictures of low life, which the Italians term bambocciate, so called from the nickname of Bamboccio given by them to Peter Laer, the first who acquired a reputation in Italy by pictures of Amorosi's pictures exhibit both this class. fun and satire: "and," says Lanzi, "if his colouring had been a little more brilliant, his works would be equal to the Flemish pictures of the same kind." In the accessories of his pictures he displayed great ability for architectural, landscape, and animal painting. His historical pieces are not numerous; there are a few pictures by him in some of the churches in Rome, and in the Piceno, and there is a painted hall by him in the town-house of Civitavecchia. (Pascoli, Vite de' Pittori, &c., R. N. W. Moderni; Lanzi, Storia Pittorica, &c.) AMOROSY, PODOBAYDIV. [PODOBAYDIV.] AMOROSY, PROTASOV. [PROTASOV.] AMORT, CASPAR, a clever Bavarian painter born in the Jachenau, near Benediktbaiern, in 1612. He commenced painting when very young with J. Donauer at Munich, AMORT, EUSE'BIUS, a German eccle- His literary merit attracted the notice of Cardinal Lercari, titular archbishop of Nazianzus, and protector of the congregation of Lateran, to which Amort belonged. Some of his works were dedicated to the cardinal, who made him his chaplain and took him with him to Rome, where he was in the latter part of 1734, as appears by the dedication of his treatise on indulgences to Pope Clement 495 | XII. AMORT. At a later period he became chaplain also to the bishop of Augsburg, and dean of the church of Pollingen. In A. D. 1759 he was chosen a member of the Electoral Acaeighty-third year. demy of the Sciences at Munich. He died on the 5th of February, A. D. 1775, in his doctrines and claims of the Roman Catholic church. He asserted the supremacy of the Amort was a zealous supporter of the pope, not only in spiritual things, but in secular also; and defended the Inquisition, forcible conversions, and all other means by which the church of Rome had thought fit to enforce its creed or vindicate its authority. ferred in the spiritual courts to the laws of He contended for the canon law being prethe land. On the other hand, he struggled times were the fruits either of imposture or against many old prejudices, and contended that the visions and revelations of modern of an enthusiastic imagination. He was an ardent votary of science, a learned theologian and canonist, and one of those to whom Bavaria is much indebted for the advancement of literature. The principal of his works, which are very numerous, are as follows: 1. "Nova Philosophiæ Planetarum et Artis is mentioned, as published with these treacriticæ Systemata." 4to. Nürnberg, 1723. In tises, the first part of a system of "Philosothe " Acta Eruditorum" (Leipzig, 1724) there phy," embracing treatises on logic and metaphysics. The whole system of philosophy appears to have been designed to comprehend physics, ethics, economics, politics, mathematics, and medicine. planets is worthy of notice as maintaining The treatise on the the immobility of the earth, in opposition to the system of Copernicus, and propounding system of Amort is given in the "Acta Eruseveral curious notions. ditorum" (Leipzig, 1724), and in J. F. Weidler's "Historia Astronomia." An analysis of the berg, 1741. In the "Acta Eruditorum" is a 4to. Wittenand brief analysis of the treatises on "Criticism Philosophy." Augsburg, and reprinted at Venice in 5 vols. lingana," published in 1 vol. fol. 1730, at 2. "Philosophia Pol8vo. 1734, and in 4 vols. 12mo. 1740-1744. remaining treatises, if not the whole of the We presume that this work contains the extensive course which Amort had promised. totius Controversiæ, &c." 8vo. Augsburg, "Scutum Kempense." 4to. Cologne, 1725. "Plena et succincta Informatio de Statu Amort vindicates the title of Thomas à 1725. In the former of these two works Kempis to the authorship of the well-known work "De Imitatione Christi' Imitation of Christ "); in the latter he gives dicates anew the claim of Thomas à Kempis. ("On the a review of the whole controversy, and vinHe published many years afterwards a third work on the subject. guten Christen 5. "Brevier eines ("A good Christian's 4. 3. 66 KK 2 or Damer, the miser, whom Pope calls "the wealthy and the wise." Thomas was not born in Ireland, as some accounts state; but little is recorded of his early life. He was born about 1691, and is said to have been educated for the profession of physic, though it does not appear that he ever followed that or any other profession. About 1757 he was living in a very secluded way upon a small fortune, in Westminster; and he had also a country residence at Bedfont, near Hounslow. He was married, and had a son named Robert, who practised for many years at Wakefield in Yorkshire as a physician. That gentleman, in consequence of the publication of some erroneous particulars respecting his father in the "St. James's Chronicle," addressed a letter to the "Gentleman's Magazine," in November, 1788, at which time his father was still living, ap Breviary "), 8vo. Augsburg, 1735, frequently reprinted. 6." De Origine, Progressu, Valore ac Fructu Indulgentiarum." fol. Augsburg, 1735, reprinted at Venice, fol. 1738, and a supplement, folio, at Augsburg, 1739. 7. "Lebensbeschreibungen der Patriarchen, Jesu, Mariä, und der Apostel und Evangelisten ("Lives of the Patriarchs, Jesus, Mary, and the Apostles and Evangelists"), 4 vols. 4to. Augsburg, 1741. He appears also to have written lives of the saints. 8. "Regulæ tutæ de Revelationibus, Visionibus, et Apparitionibus privatis." 8vo. Augsburg, 1744. In this and some of his subsequent works he attacked the pretended revelations of Maria de Agreda. [AGREDA, MARIA DE.] One of his works on this subject, "Nova Demonstratio de Falsitate Revelationum Agredanarum," 4to. Augsburg, 1751, was suppressed by order of the Elector of Bavaria. 9. "Demonstratio critica Religionis Catholicæ." fol.parently at Wakefield, although he had long Venice, 1744. 10. " Disquisitiones dogma- ceased to see company. He died on the 25th tica or "Disquisitiones theologica." 4to. of the same month, at the age of ninetyVenice, 1745. 11. "Judicia de Wolfiana Philosophia et Leibnitiana Physica." 4to. Frankfort, 1746. 12. "Vetus Disciplina Canonicorum regularium et secularium," &c. 2 vols. 4to. Venice, 1748. 13. "Theologia eclectica, moralis, et scholastica," 4 vols. fol. or 23 (24 according to Ersch and Gruber) vols. 8vo. Augsburg, 1752. 14. "Abhandlung von Anrufung der Heiligen" (" A Treatise on the Invocation of the Saints"), 8vo. Augsburg, 1756. 15. "Elementa Juris Canonici veteris et moderni," 3 vols. 4to. Ulm, 1757; reprinted at Ferrara, 1763. 16. "Vindicia Jurisdictionis ecclesiasticæ, adversus Seculi moderni Politicos." 4to. Ulm, 1757. 17. "Theologia moralis." 2 vols. 4to. Venice, 1757, repeatedly republished. We rather believe that the "Ethica Christiana," 8vo. Augsburg, 1758, mentioned by Adelung, is a reprint of this work, These works show the industry and fertility of Amort as an author, and indicate the variety and extent of his studies and attainments. He brought out a new edition of the "Dictionarium Selectorum Casuum Conscientia" of Pontas, 2 vols. fol. Augsburg, 1733; and of the work "De Privilegiis Religiosorum of Rupert Grüber, 4to. Augsburg, 1747. He left several manuscripts, especially a Church History, ready for the press. (Ersch and Grüber, Allgem. Encyclopädie; Adelung, Supplement to Jöcher's Allgem. Gelehrten Lexicon; Acta Eruditorum; and Works of Amort.) J. C. M. AMORY, THOMAS. This eccentric individual was the son of Counsellor Amory, who attended William III. in Ireland, and was appointed secretary for the forfeited estates in that kingdom, where he possessed extensive property in the county of Clare. The counsellor was, according to the statement of his grandson in the "Gentleman's Magazine," the youngest brother of Amory, seven. In 1751, on the publication of Lord Orrery's remarks on the life and writings of Swift, Amory announced, in the " Whitehall Evening Post" of December 12. the publication of "A Letter to Lord Orrery, in answer to what his Lordship says in his late Remarks in praise of Swift's Sermon on the Trinity;" in which he proposed to vindicate the divinity of the first person of the Trinity, and to convince his lordship, if he had a mind open to conviction, that the tritheistic discourse alluded to, instead of being the masterpiece which he considered it, was "in reality the most senseless and despicable performance that ever was produced by orthodoxy to corrupt the divine religion of the blessed Jesus." Chalmers, whose long account of Amory's writings was abridged from a still longer article in the preceding edition of the "General Biographical Dictionary," was unable to discover whether this pamphlet was ever printed. In 1755 Amory published, in 1 vol. 8vo., " Memoirs of several Ladies of Great Britain; interspersed with Literary Reflections, and Accounts of Antiquities and curious Things in several Letters. This curious work was reprinted in 1769, in 2 vols. 12mo.; and a continuation was promised, but never appeared. ladies whose memoirs are given were all, like Amory himself, zealous Unitarians, in addition to which they are made beautiful, learned, and ingenious; but Chalmers says that their characters are "truly ridiculous, and probably the offspring of fiction." The "Retrospective Review" contains a notice of this work, by a writer who formed a very different estimate of Amory's work from that given by Chalmers. He styles the memoirs : The a Unitarian romance," and states that the design of the book was evidently to diffuse the author's principles, and that it is as sin |