Page:Imperial Dictionary of Universal Biography Volume 1.pdf/25

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
ABB
5
ABB

sidered as good, if not better, than any by Primaticcio himself. Messer Nicolò died at Fontainebleau in 1571. Whilst in France, he had been followed and assisted by his son Gian Camillo, also a distinguished artist.

Abbate, Pietro Paolo dell', the Elder, another son of Giovanni, continued in the meanwhile to keep his father's school at Modena, where, by his pictures of battle scenes, and especially of horses, he acquired a very great reputation. He died about 1580. Amongst his pupils, there was his nephew—

Abbate, Ercole dell', son of Gian Camillo, noted both for his great artistical talents, and for his disordered life. Ercole died in 1613, leaving his son—

Abbate, Pietro Paolo dell', the Younger, born in 1592; died in 1630—an artist of less importance.—R. M.

ABBATUCCI, Giacomo Pietro, a Corsican general of brigade in the French service, born in 1726. He attempted to defend Corsica against the British in 1793, and retired to France when the island came under British protection in 1794. Though brave and skilful as a guerilla chief, he was found entirely unfit to command regular troops in the French army. In 1799 he returned to Corsica, where he died in 1812, having survived three sons who were killed in the French service.—E. M.

ABBEVILLE, Pere Claude d', a Capuchin who wrote the history of a mission to Maragnan, 1614, in which he took part.

ABBIATI, Filippo, an Italian painter, born at Milan in 1640. He was a pupil of Carlo Nuvolone, but in his works he preferred following the style of the Pamfilo school. Like his master, he delighted in treating religious subjects. He worked for the Santuario of Saronno, near Milan.

ABBIATTI, Giuseppe, another Milanese painter, flourishing about 1700. He is especially noted for some spirited compositions of battle scenes, which he afterwards engraved.

ABBO, surnamed Cernuus or the Crooked, a monk of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, born about the middle of the ninth century. He wrote an account of the siege of Paris by the Normans, at which he had been present. His work, though very indifferent as a poem, is an historical document of great value. Guizot has published a French translation of it in his collection of documents relating to French history. Abbo died in 923—E. M

ABBO, abbot of Floury, born near Orleans about 945, renowned in his time as a philosopher and divine. Killed in 1004.

ABONDANTI, Antonio, called in Latin Abundantius a Imola, an Italian poet and historian. In 1630 he published a poetical eulogium on Count John de Tilly, one of the most celebrated generals in the Thirty Years' war. He also wrote "Travels to Cologne and to Treves," and an "Historical Outline of the Wars of the Netherlands, from 1559 to 1609."

ABBOT, Charles, Baron Colchester, an English statesman, born at Abingdon in 1757, the son of a clergyman, the Rev. Dr. John Abbot. Mrs. Abbot, after her husband's death, married in 1765 Mr. Jeremy Bentham, father, by a previous marriage, of the famous jurist. Distinguishing himself at Westminster school, Mr. Abbot was elected a student of Christchurch, Oxford, in 1775; and in 1777 obtained the medal for Latin poetry. In 1781 he was sent to Geneva to study foreign jurisprudence. In 1783 he took the degree of B.C.L. at Oxford, and was shortly afterwards admitted to the bar. In 1795 he published a work on the Welsh judicature, and earnestly recommended its abolition. About the same time he was appointed clerk of the rules in the court of King's Bench, and, some time afterwards, published his "Rules and Orders of the King's Bench." In 1795 he also became a member of parliament. In Mr. Abbot's publications, as well as his unwearied efforts during his parliamentary career to promote legislative and administrative reforms, may be traced the advantages of his continental residence, and of his intercourse with the greatest of modern legists. The reforms he successively proposed and carried in parliament related to the efficient promulgation of acts of the legislature, the improvement of the diction of the statutes in clearness and brevity, the management of the public records, the responsibility of revenue collectors, the adoption of an accurate and periodical census of the population, &c., &c. During Mr. Pitt's administration, he usually spoke on the ministerial side. On Pitt's retirement he became chief-secretary for Ireland, and a privy councillor. On the 10th of February, 1801, he was elected to the office of Speaker, which he held till the 30th of May, 1817, when an attack of erysipelas obliged him to resign. When in April, 1805, the house divided on the motion to impeach Lord Melville, and there happened to be an equality of votes. Abbot gave his casting vote for the impeachment. As Speaker of the House of Commons, he was admired for courteous attention and presence of mind, as well as fairness and accuracy in maintaining the forms of the house. On retiring from the speakership, he was raised to the peerage under the title of Baron Colchester. He died in London in 1829.—E. M.

ABBOT, Charles, a distinguished English judge, born in 1762 at Canterbury, where his father exercised the trade of a hairdresser. From King's School at Canterbury he passed in 1778 to Corpus Christi College, Oxford, where he gained the chancellor's medal for Latin verse and English prose, and was elected to a fellowship. In 1788 he entered his name upon the books of the Inner Temple, and shortly afterwards became a pupil of Mr. Wood, a distinguished special pleader at the bar, who subsequently became a baron of the exchequer. In 1795 he was called to the bar, and rapidly rose to distinction, being employed frequently as junior counsel to the treasury. The patronage of Sir John Scott, afterwards Lord Eldon, told favourably upon the fortunes of Mr. Abbot, who very soon commanded a large practice both on the Oxford circuit and in London. His "Treatise of the Law of Merchant Ships and Seamen" greatly enhanced his reputation. It was published in 1802, and has continued to be the standard work upon maritime law both in England and America. In 1808 Mr. Abbot was offered a seat in the court of king's bench, which pecuniary considerations induced him to decline. In 1816, however, after eight years more of singularly lucrative practice at the bar, he accepted a seat in the court of common pleas, and immediately afterwards was transferred to the court of king's bench. In 1818, on the resignation of Lord Ellenborough, he was raised to the dignity of Lord Chief-Justice, and in 1827 was made a peer with the title of Baron Tenderden. He died in 1832.—J. S., G.

ABBOT, George, Archbishop of Canterbury, was the son of Maurice Abbot, a cloth-worker of Guildford in Surrey, and Alice, his wife, both warmly attached to the Reformation. He was born October 29, 1562, and entered at Baliol college, Oxford, in 1578. After passing through the intermediate degrees, he became D.D. in 1597, and master of University college. It was whilst serving the office of vice-chancellor that his quarrel with Laud began. Abbot's views accorded with the sentiments of the English reformers, and necessarily exposed him to the enmity of Laud and his adherents. Abbot was made dean of Winchester in 1599, and in 1604 was intrusted with the translation of the New Testament, except the Epistles. For his services in Scotland in 1608, in disposing the Scotch to a more reception of episcopacy, he was made bishop of Lichfield, bishop of London in 1609, and in 1611 archbishop of Canterbury. In politics Abbot took the popular side, and more than once had the courage to oppose the king; as in the case of the earl of Essex's divorce, and the publication of the king's declaration respecting Sunday sports in 1618, which he forbade to be read at Croydon. Finding the infirmities of age increase, and his influence at court declining after the death of the queen, he retired to Guildford, where in 1619 he laid the first stone of his hospital, which he liberally endowed. In 1621 he had the misfortune, while hunting in Lord Zouch's park, to miss the deer and kill the keeper. Laud attempted to set him aside, by insisting that even casual homicide canonically unfits a clergyman for every clerical function. James, with commendable candour, observed that "an angel might have miscarried in this sort;" but it was necessary for him to institute a court for formal inquiry. The court recommended that his majesty should grant a special pardon, which he accordingly did, and authorized a commission of eight bishops to absolve Abbot from all the censures he might have incurred, and to declare him still invested with all metropolitan rights and authority. After this he returned to court, and was with James at the time of his death in 1625. Abbot did not long remain in favour with the new monarch; he was soon ordered by his majesty to retire to his country house at Ford, and shortly afterwards was suspended from his archiepiscopal functions. This suspension was, however, removed in 1628, on petition of the house of lords, and Abbot continued to exercise the duties of the primacy till his death, August 4, 1633, at Croydon. He gave his firm support to the Petition of Right addressed to his majesty, which, in 1628, was adopted by both houses of parliament. He died unmarried, and was succeeded in the primacy by his old adversary Laud.