of the latter, expressed on all occasions, attests at once the bounty of his patron and his own humility. Another of his patrons was Heneage Finch, earl of Winchelsea, whose portrait he painted and engraved, and who, being. president of the society of antiquaries on its revival in 1717, appointed Vertue, who was a member, engraver to that learned body. Henry Hare, the last lord Coleraine, was also one of his antiquarian benefactors, and the university of Oxford employed him for many years to engrave the head pieces for their almanacks.

With lord Orford, lord Coleraine, and Mr. Stephens the historiographer, he made several tours to various parts of England. For the former he engraved portraits of Matthew Prior, sir Hugh Middleton, and other distinguished men for the duke of Montague he engraved sir Ralph Windwood; for sir Paul Methuen, the portraits of Cortez, and archbishop Warham from Holbein's original at Lambeth; and for lord Burlington, Zucchero's queen Mary of Scotland, a plate which evinces more felicity, and a better taste of execution, than most other of his works. In 1727 he travelled with lord Oxford to Burleigh, Lincoln, Welbeck, Chatsworth, and York, at which latter place he obtained from Francis Place many of those anecdotes of Hollar which are inserted in his biography. In the next year, the duke of Dorset invited him to Knowle. From the gallery there, he copied the portraits of several of the poets, but he was disappointed on an excursion to Penshurst, at not finding there any portrait of sir Philip Sidney.

In 1730 appeared his twelve heads of distinguished poets, one of his capital works, which he meant to have followed with the portraits of other eminent men, arranged in classes, but this scheme was taken out of his hands by the Messrs. Knapton; and there is reason to think that Vertue's rigid regard for veracity, which made him justly scrupulous of authenticating the likenesses of deceased characters without the clearest proofs, and not the superior taste or discernment of the Knaptons, made them engage the superior talents of Houbraken and Gravelot, to finish a work which our artist had begun, and had himself projected.

His next considerable production was, the portraits of king Charles I. and the loyal sufferers in his cause, with their characters subjoined from Clarendon. But this was scarcely finished, before Rapin's history of England ap

peared, a work which had a prodigious run, insomuch that it became all the conversation of the town and country, and the noise being heightened by opposition and party, it was proposed to publish it in folio by numbers, of which thousands were sold every week. The Messrs. Knapton engaged Vertue to accompany it with effigies of the kings and other suitable embellishments, an undertaking which occupied three years of his life. He presented a copy of this work, when finished, richly bound, to the prince of Wales, at Kensington.

He now renewed his topographical journeys, accompanied sometimes by the earl of Leicester, sometimes by lord Oxford, and sometimes by Roger Gale the antiquary; and between 1734-38, visited St. Albans, Northampton, Oxford, Penshurst, Warwick, Coventry, Stratford, and travelled through the counties of Kent, Sussex, and Hampshire, where he made various sketches, drawings, and notes, always presenting a duplicate of his observations to his patron lord Oxford. In 1739 he travelled eastward with lord Coleraine, through the counties of Essex, Suffolk, and Norfolk, stopping as usual to make drawings and observations at every memorable church, seat, or other spot congenial to his pursuits. In 1741 he lost his noble friend and patron the earl of Oxford, who died on the 16th of June. But his merit and modesty still raised him benefactors. The countess dowager of Oxford, even, alleviated his loss, and the duchess of Portland (their daughter), the duke of Richmond, and lord Burlington, did not forget him among the artists whom they patronized.

In 1749 he found a yet more exalted protector in the prince of Wales, whom he often had the honour of attending, and to whom he sold many prints, miniature pictures, &c. and had now reason to flatter himself with permanent fortune; but the death of this prince suddenly blasted the hopes of Vertue, and affected him with considerable dejection of spirits, from which he never perfectly recovered. He died in 1756, and was buried in the cloisters of Westminster-abbey. Lord Orford has given a catalogue of his engravings (amounting to near five hundred!) classed under the heads of Royal Portraits, Noblemen, Bishops, Poets, Antiquaries, Tombs, Historic Prints, Coins, Medals, Frontispieces, &a &c. &c.

Valuable as Vertue's engravings are, he would have hadmore admirers, if his style had been more spirited; yet the

antiquary and the historian who prefer truth to elegance of design, and correctness to bold execution, have properly appreciated his works, and have placed him, in point of professional industry at least, next to his predecessor Hollar. But the public owe another obligation to Vertue. After his death the late lord Orford purchased the manuscript notes and observations which he had put down, as materials for a history of artists, and from them published that very useful and entertaining work, which he entitled "Anecdotes of Painting in England; with some account of the principal Artists, and incidental notes on other Arts, collected by Mr. George Vertue," 1762, 5 vols. 4to; since republished in 1782, 5 vols. 8vo.. "Vertue," says Mr. Walpole, "had for several years been collecting materials for a work upon Painting and Painters: he conversed and corresponded with most of the virtuosi in England: he was personally acquainted with the oldest performers in the science he minuted down every thing he heard from them. He visited every collection of them, attended sales, copied every paper he could find relative to the art, searched offices, registers of parishes, and registers of wills for births and deaths, turned over all our own authors, and translated those of other countries which related to his subject. He wrote down every thing he heard, saw, or read. His collections amounted to near forty volumes, large and small. In one of his pocket-books I found a note of his first intention of compiling such a work: it was in 1713, and he continued it assiduously to his death in 1757. These MSS. I bought of his widow after his decease." Vertue's private character, it must not be omitted, was of the most amiable kind; friendly, communicative, upright in all his dealings, a most dutiful son, and an affectionate husband. He laboured almost to the last, solicitous to leave a decent competence to a wife, with whom he lived many years in tender harmony, and who died in 1776, in the seventy-sixth year of her age. He had a brother James, who followed the same profession at Bath, and died about 1765.1

VESALIUS (ANDREW), a celebrated anatomist and physician, was descended from a family which had abounded with physicians. John Vesalius, his great-grandfather,

1 Walpole's Anecdotes.-Nichols's Bowyer, where are many letters to and from Vertue, which present his character and industry in a very pleasing light.

was physician to Mary of Burgundy, first wife of Maximilian I.; and went and settled at Louvain when he was old. Everard, his grandfather, wrote commentaries upon the books of Rhases, and upon Hippocrates's "Aphorisms :" and his father Andrew was apothecary to the emperor Charles V. Our Vesalius was born at Brussels, but in what year seems to be uncertain; Vander-Linden finding his birth in 1514, while others place it in 1512. He was instructed in the languages and philosophy at Louvain, and there gave early tokens of his love for anatomy, and of his future skill in the knowledge of the human body; for, he was often amusing himself with dissecting rats, moles, dogs, and cats, and with inspecting their viscera.

He

Afterwards he went to Paris, and studied physic under James Sylvius; but applied himself chiefly to anatomy, which was then a science very little known. For, though dissections had been made formerly, yet they had long been discontinued as an unlawful and impious usage; and Charles V. had a consultation of divines at Salamanca, to know, if, in good conscience, a human body might be dissected for the sake of comprehending its structure. perfected himself in this science very early, as we may know from his work "De Humani Corporis Fabrica:" which, though then the best book of anatomy in the world, and what justly gave him the title of "the Father of Anatomy," was yet composed by him at eighteen years of age. Afterwards he went to Louvain, and began to communicate the knowledge he had acquired: then he travelled into Italy, read lectures, and made anatomical demonstrations at Pisa, Bologna, and several other cities there. About 1537, the republic of Venice made him professor in the university of Padua, where he taught anatomy seven years, and was the first anatomist to whom a salary was given; and Charles V. called him to be his physician, as he was also to Philip II. king of Spain. He acquired a prodigious reputation at those courts by his sagacity and skill in his profession, of which Thuanus has recorded this very singular proof. He tells us, that Maximilian d'Egmont, count of Buren, grand general, and a favourite of the emperor, being ill, Vesalius declared to him, that he could not recover; and also told him, that he could not hold out beyond such a day and hour. The count, firmly persuaded that the event would answer the prediction, invited all his

friends to a grand entertainment at the time; after which he made them presents, took a final leave of them, and then expired precisely at the moment Vesalius had mentioned. If this account be not true, it shews at least the vast reputation Vesalius must have risen to, where such stories were invented to do him honour.

Vesalius was now at the very height of his reputation, when all at once he formed a design of making a journey to Palestine. Many reasons have been given, and more conjectures formed, about his motive to this strange adventure; yet nothing certain appears concerning it. Hubert Languet, in a letter to Gasparus Peucerus, gives this account of the affair: "Vesalius, believing a young Spanish nobleman, whom he had attended, to be dead, obtained leave of his parents to open him, for the sake of inquiring into the real cause of his illness, which he had not rightly comprehended. This was granted; but he had no sooner made an incision into the body, than he perceived the symptoms of life, and, opening the breast, saw the beart beat. The parents, coming afterwards to the knowledge of this, were not satisfied with prosecuting him for murder, but accused him of impiety to the inquisition, in hopes that he would be punished with greater rigour by the judges of that tribunal than by those of the common law. But the king of Spain interposed, and saved him; on condition, however, that, by way of atonement, he should undertake a pilgrimage to the Holy Land." Manget, in his "Bibliotheca Medicorum," states the same; and the account has been generally adopted. In the mean time others pretend, that he undertook this journey out of an insatiable thirst after riches: but this is a more improbable reason than the former; for, how was a journey to Jerusalem calculated to make a man rich? Swertius ascribes it to the querulous and imperious humour of his wife, which, made home insupportable to him: and Imperialis informs us, that the uneasiness arising from the cabals of envy, and the hatred of the Galenists, whose master and doctrines he censured with great freedom, without allowing any thing to inveterate prejudices, so disgusted him with his present situation, and perhaps hurt him with his prince, that, in order to withdraw from court with the best grace he could, he formed this extraordinary resolution. But, whatever was the motive, he set out with De Rimini, general of the Venetian army, whom he accompanied to Cyprus; whence