Page:A new and general biographical dictionary; containing an historical and critical account of the lives and writings of the most eminent persons in every nation v1.djvu/183

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A L E A N D K R. 147 title of bull-carrier : he fays allb, th.it he was no: a mr.ti too much addiilted to truth. ALEANDER (Jp.ROMr.), a IcarmI man of the f-vrn- teenth century, born in the principality of Fnuli, of the. I nil-- family with the preceding. When be went to Rome, he' employed as fecrctary ur.'-lrr cardinal ' . o : '.ndini, and he difcharged this office with gruat honour for almolt twcn:y years. He bcojn bairn- s to venture hi:; reputation ;is> an au- thor j for no looner had he received his in !a. he publifhcd " A Commentary nn the Irftifuti Caius." He was one of the hi i". ,: -. ' 'lu- moriils,an:i he wr.-tc a !c;ir:;;j'J u > It^lM:; device of the fccicty. He dilplayed iiis genius on many diflcrent fubje&s. He publilhed a treatife on tvo antique^ [A] : he wrote alfo on the queHion of the luluubi.ui churches; .:iiJ he was the author of a piece againft an anonymous writer on thatfubject in favour of the proteftants. He printed alfo a volume of verfes, whieh was followed with a vindication of' r the Adonis of the cavalier Marino, againft the vijlcnt attacks of the cavalier Stiliani. Urban VIII. had a great efteem for AlcanJcr, nr.c! toe!: all imaginable pains to draw him from the fervice of cardinal Bandini, and to engage him with the Bnrbcrini ; in which he at length fucceeded, and Aleancier became fecretary to cardinal Francis Barbcrini. He accompanied him to Rome, when he went there in the character of legate a latere ; and bore the fatigues of this long journey with great alacrity, nut- withftanding his delicate conftitution and infirm ftate of health. He did not ^cape fo well f.om good cheer : he had entered into an agreement wit?h ibme of his intimate friends, C.ul that they (hould treat one another by turns every three days; and at one of thefe entertainments he indulged to an exccfs )rwin ' which threw him into a dilbrdcr, of v.liiJi he died. Cardinal Barberini gave him a magnificent funeral, at the Academy of Humorifls : the academtfts carried his corpfc to the grave : and Gafpar de Simeonibus made his funeral oration there the 3 ift of December, 1631. Aleander had fo neat^and eafy a manner of writing, that the compliment which Nicius Ery- [ A] Thcfe were two marbles, a table " folis effigle fymbolifque exf.u'pf*: ex- and a ftatue, the former containing the " plicatio figillotum ftoi figure and fymbols of the fun, the latter " am marmcre.-.m cingfr girt with a zone full of icu'lptures. The printed in quarto ai 10, title of Aleander's work is as follows, ami at I'itis in 1617.

  • ' Explicatio antiquae tabulx marmorez,

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