VINCENT DE PAUI,. 143 VINCI. founder of the missionary Order of the Lazarists. He was born at Ranquines, near Pony, in Gascony, April 24, 1576, and was sent to school at Toulouse. He became an ecclesiastical student, and was ad- mitted to priest's orders in 1600. On a voyage which lie was making from Marseilles to Narbonne his ship was captured by corsairs, and he with his companions sold into slavery at Tunis, where he passed through the hands of three diircrent masters. The last of these, who was a renegade Savoyard, yielded to the exhortations of Vincent, resolved to return to the Cliristian faith, and, with Vincent, made his escape from Barbary. They landed in France in 1607. Having gone thence to Rome, he was intrusted with an im- portant mission to the French Court in 1608, and continued for some time to reside in Paris as the almoner of Marguerite de Valois. The acci- dent of his becoming preceptor of the children of M. de Gondy, the commandant of the galleys at Marseilles, led to his being appointed almoner- general of the galleys in 1619, For the founda- tion of the Congregation of Priests of the Mis- sion, which occupied a large part of his time from 1624, see Lazaei.sts. His life was devoted to the organization of works of charity and benev- olence. To him Paris owes the establishment of the foundling hospital, and the first systematic efforts for the preservation of the lives and the due education of a class theretofore neglected or left to the operation of chance charity. The Sisters of Charity (see Beother.s and Sisteks OP Charity) were founded under his direction, and he was intrusted by Saint Francis of Sales with the direction of the newly founded Order of Sisters of the Visitation. He left nothing behind him but the Constitutions of the Congregation of the Mission, Conferences on these constitutions, and a considerable number of letters, chiefly on spiritual subjects. He died at Saint Lazare, September 27, 1660, and was canonized by Clement XII. in 1737. His festival is .July 19th, the dav of his canonization. Consult his Life by Adderiey (London, 1!»01), Jones (ib., 1873), and in French bv Loth (Paris, 1880), Morel (1884), De Broglie (Eng, trans., London, 1899), and Bougaud (Eng. trans.. New York, 1900). VINCENT OF BEATJVAIS, bo'va' (c,1190- 1264). A French historian. He belonged to the Dominican monastery of Beauvais, and was in high favor with Louis IX, of France, who in- vited him to his Court. Here he composed his famous encyclopsedia called the Speculum Ma jus. This vast summary of the knowledge of the times is in all printed editions divided into four parts : Speculum ISiaturale, Dortrinale. Eistoriale. and Morale. This last, however, is considered by most scholars to be an addition by a different hand. The Speculum 'Saturate contains all that was known at that time of natural history. The Speculum Dortrinale is a compendium of the scholastic learning of the day. The Speculum Eistoriale begins with the creation and gives the history of the world down to 1244; this book has no intrinsic value. Consult Pottha.st, Bibliotheca Ei.ttorica Medii Mvi, vol. ii, (Berlin, 1896), for editions and secondary works relating to Vincent. VINCI, vin'ehe, Leon.^rdo DA (1452-1519). A Florentine painter, one of the greatest masters of the High Renaissance, also celebrated as a sculp- tor, architect, engineer, and scientist. He was born at Vinci, a Tuscan mountain town near Enipoli, the illegitimate son of Ser Piero da Vinci, a Florentine notary, and C'atarina. a peas- ant woman. His boyhood was spent under the care of his paternal grandparents at Vinci. Af- terwards he lived in his father's ho>ise at Flor- ence, and if not actually adopted, he was at least treated as a legitimate so!i, on the same footing with Ser Piero's younger children. His father's wealth enabled him to enjoy the very best educa- tion Florence, at that time the intellectual and artistic centre of Italy, could aflord, and he speedily became the embodiment of every social and intellectual charm. He was singularly handsome in per.son, powerful in physique, per- suasive in conversation, a fine musician and im- [)rovisatorc; and his mind was possessed of a pro- found and insatiable love of knowledge and re- search, which proved the controlling factor of his life. Before taking up jiainting he began the studies in mechanics and in the natural sciences which went hand in hand with his artistic activ- ity throughout life. At what time he became the pupil of his father's friend Andrea del Verrocchio is not known. In 1472 he was entered into the painters' guild of Florence, and in 1476 he is still mentioned as Verroeehio's assistant, but in 1478 he was work- ing as an independent master. From Verrocchio Leonardo learned modeling, as well as painting; but the reliefs which he executed during his ap- prenticeship arc lost. The attribution to him of the wax bust of a girl at Lille is at least doubtful. According to the well-known legend he painted an angel in Verroeehio's "Baptism of Christ" (Academy, Florence) with such skill that his master resolved to cease painting. The statement concerning Verrocchio is wrong, but there are excellent critics who maintain that tlie angel in question is by Leonardo, The account of the terrifying shield upon which the artist paint- ed all manner of monstrosities acquired from his studies of lizards, serpents, worms, etc., may have some basis of fact; but the "Head of Me- dusa" in the Uflizi is certainly a forgery based on Vasari's description. The "Annunciation," too, in the same gallery is not by Leonardo ; the specimen referred to by Vasari is in the Louvre. In 1478 he was conunissioned b.y the Signoria of Florence to paint a picture for the Chapel of Saint Bernard in the Palazzo Pubblico; it is sometimes supposed this is the "Adoration of the Kings," •u'hich in an unfinished state survives in the Uffizi. The figures have not, for the most part, advanced further than the grounding; but they reveal a fine scheme of composition and dramatic action. The Madonna sits in the midst of a great classic ruin: and in the intense, dra- matic action of the worshipers and the crowds endeavoring to approach, the artist has far sur- passed the highest achievements of the Early Renaissance. Of the other works ascribed to this youthful period, none seem genuine, except his unfinished "Saint Jerome" (Vatican), a fine anatomical study, Berenson also attributes to him an unfinished profile of a girl, in possession of Donna Laura Minghetti at Rome. Leonardo first visited Milan in 1482 as the bearer of a present from Lorenzo de' Medici to Lodovico il Moro, who ruled the city as guardian of his young nephew-. This present was a strange musical instrument sounding like a lute, and in-
