most of his pictures have backgrounds of buildings, richly ornamented with sculpture in basso-relievo. Mazzolini's masterpiece is supposed to be the "Christ disputing with the doctors," painted in 1524, and now in the Berlin gallery. The London National gallery is comparatively rich in the works of this painter; it contains three, of which one is a masterpiece, representing "St. Nicholas of Tolentino adoring the Infant Saviour, St. Joseph presenting the child with some cherries; with the dove and a vision of the Father above."—(Laderchi, Pittura Ferrarese.)—R. N. W.
MAZZUCHELLI, Giammaria, Count, a famous biographical writer, born of a noble and wealthy family at Brescia on the 28th October, 1707; died 19th November, 1765. Educated among the jesuits at Bologna, he devoted himself on his return to his native place to literary studies. His favourite subjects were antiquities and biography, to the investigation of which he brought a sound judgment and unrivalled industry. Having conceived the plan of a literary history of Italy, which was intended to contain notices of fifty thousand writers, he published, by way of testing his powers, a number of separate memoirs, which were received by the learned with uncommon favour. Thus encouraged he published at Brescia in 1753 the first part of his "Scrittori d'ltalia, cioè notizie storiche e critiche intorno alle vite ed agli scritti dei letterati italiani." In the ten years following a second part of the first volume and the four parts of the second volume of the "Scrittori d'Italia" were given to the world, reaching only however to the letter B. The materials for the other letters were collected by the author, and six other volumes had been prepared under his direction when death interrupted the stupendous task. Mazzuchelli was for a long time keeper of the Quirini library in his native city.
MAZZUOLI, Francesco. See Parmigiano.
MEAD, Richard, a celebrated physician, was born at Stepney on August 11, 1673. He was the son of the Rev. Matthew Mead, a nonconformist minister. At school he acquired a considerable knowledge of the classics, and at the age of sixteen he was sent to Utrecht to complete his education. After residing there three years he chose medicine as his profession, and went to Leyden for the purpose of studying it; there he was a pupil of the celebrated Pitcairn, at that time professor of medicine in the university. He afterwards travelled in Italy, and obtained the degree of doctor of medicine at Padua. In 1696 he returned to London, and commenced practice at Stepney in the house in which he was born. Whilst there he published a treatise on poisons, which evinced great learning, ingenuity, and aptness for physiological experiment. In 1703 he was elected physician to St. Thomas' hospital; and in the next year appeared his second publication, on sol-lunar influence. Whilst travelling in Italy he had met with the researches of Bonomo on the parasitic nature of scabies, and in 1703 he presented the Royal Society with an analysis of Bonomo's letter on this subject. Admitted a fellow of that society, he was afterwards, in 1717, appointed by Sir Isaac Newton a vice-president. In 1707 the university of Oxford granted him its doctor's degree, and in 1716 he was admitted fellow of the College of Physicians. He obtained extraordinary success in practice; his rapid advancement was said to have been partly due to the good offices of Radcliffe, to whom he had early recommended himself. On Radcliffe's decease Mead took his house in Bloomsbury Square. He was called to attend Queen Anne on her deathbed, and on the accession of George II. was appointed his personal physician. He was instrumental in the introduction of the practice of inoculation, superintending in 1721, at the request of the prince of Wales, the inoculation of several condemned prisoners, who on the experiment succeeding received their liberty. When the plague visited Marseilles he was consulted by the government as to its contagious nature, and on his advice quarantine was established. Amongst his numerous writings on medical subjects is a treatise on pestilential contagion, which excited so much attention as to reach the seventh edition in the course of one year. He was the friend of Pope, Arbuthnot, Garth, and Friend; a munificent patron of literature, arts, and science; he was also distinguished by his charity and benevolence. He was twice married: his first wife was Ruth Marsh, by whom he had eight children; his second was a daughter of Sir Rowland Alston, Bart. He died on the 16th February, 1754.—F. C. W.
MEARES, John, navigator, was born in 1746, and died in London in 1801. He began life as a cabin-boy, and made several voyages in the polar seas. Entering the navy in 1776, he served against the French in North America, and was captain at the conclusion of the war. Despatched afterwards to India, he then entered the service of the North-west American Company, and made two voyages of discovery and commerce to the north-west coast of America. The first produced little or no result; the second (1788-89) was rich in geographical discovery. Meares has left an account of these voyages, with observations on the existence of a north-west passage.—W. J. P.
MÉCHAIN, Pierre-François-André, a distinguished French astronomer, hydrographer, and geodetician, was born at Laon on the 16th of August, 1744, and died at Castellon de la Plana in Valencia on the 20th of September, 1805. He was the son of an architect in reduced circumstances; and having by his early taste for astronomy attracted the notice of Lalande, obtained through him the post of hydrographer to the French navy. He occupied his leisure with astronomical observations, and gave special attention to the search for comets, in which he was very successful. In 1785 he was appointed to edit the Connaisance des Temps. In 1792 he was intrusted with the measurement of the southern portion of the arc of the meridian between Dunkirk and Barcelona—in which he was much interrupted by war and pestilence—and some years afterwards with the extension of the arc to the Balearic islands. His death by yellow fever occurred while he was engaged in the latter operation. It is stated by Delambre that Méchain, although scrupulously accurate in his observations and calculations, fell into the fault of suppressing the publication of those observations which differed to any considerable extent from the mean, in order to give an appearance of greater accuracy to the remainder; and that the consciousness of a suppression of that kind, made in the course of the measurement of the meridian, preyed upon his mind and embittered the last years of his life. The suppressed observations were found amongst his papers after his death. Delambre adds, however, that no fault can be found with the exactness of the results which Méchain did publish.—W. J. M. R.
MECHAU, Jacob Wilhelm, German painter and engraver, was born at Leipsic about 1745. He studied in the Leipsic academy, and under Rode at Berlin; painted history and landscapes; but met with more success as an engraver. His best prints are etchings, chiefly from his own designs; and a series of twelve aquatints of Italian landscapes. He died in 1808.—J. T—e.
MECHEL, Christian von, Swiss engraver, was born at Basle in 1737; studied under J. G. Wille at Paris; and settled at Basle as an engraver and printseller. He used the graver with facility and neatness; engraved and published several good contemporary portraits and subject pieces; the works of Holbein, with descriptions; the medals of Hedlinger; the Düsseldorf Gallery; views on the Rhine, &c. He died in 1818.—J. T—e.
MECHITAR or MEKHITAR, by interpretation, the Consoler, is the name of several Armenians who have been distinguished in letters and science. A priest of that name, who dwelt in Any at the end of the twelfth century, wrote a history of Armenia, Georgia, and Persia, and translated certain astronomical treatises from the Persian. A physician also of that name wrote in 1184 a treatise on fevers, of which the manuscript exists in the imperial library in Paris.—Mechitar Kosh (the Beardless), was born in the twelfth century at Gandja, in Eastern Armenia, and became a priest remarkable for his learning and piety. He wrote books on faith and on justice, a collection of canons, a commentary on Jeremiah, and a collection of fables. The last work was published at Venice in 1790, by Dr. Zohrab. This Mechitar founded a monastery in 1191 at Dandsoud, and died in 1213.—Another priest, Mechitar, born at Abaran in the fourteenth century, wrote an ecclesiastical history of his country.—The most celebrated of the name was Peter Mechitar, the founder of the Armenian monastery at Venice, the originator of a printing-press there for Armenian literature, the author of a lexicon and a grammar of his native language, and the translator of the Bible into Armenian. He was born in Cappadocia in 1676, and became a great traveller and preacher. Disgusted with a schism then prevailing in his church, he became Roman catholic, and preached at Constantinople submission to the pope. He had to flee from the persecution which ensued; and after many perils and adventures he found a secure refuge in Venice, where he died in 1749, aged seventy-four.—R. H.
MEDE, Joseph, a learned divine, was born at Berden in Essex, in 1586. He entered Christ's college, Cambridge, in
