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He applied himself particularly to drawing portraits in crayons, which he afterwards engraved for the use of the academical theses; and succeeded beyond all his predecessors in that branch. He never failed to catch the likeness; and even pretended that he had certain rules which ascertained it. His portrait of the king, as large as life, which he afterwards engraved, so pleased his majesty that he rewarded him with a present of a hundred louis d'ors, and made him designer and engraver to his cabinet, with a salary of 1000 livres per annum. Nantueil

afterwards did the portrait of the queen-mother in the same manner, as also that of cardinal Mazarine, the duke of Orleans, marshal Turenne, and others. The grand duke of Tuscany hearing of his fame, requested to have Nantueil's own portrait by himself, in crayons, in order to place it in his gallery. His works consist of 240 prints, including the portraits of almost all the persons of the first rank in France. Of his filial affection we have the following anecdote. As soon as he had made an easy fortune, his first object was to invite his father to share it; and the manner in which he received him, which happened to be before many witnesses, drew tears of joy from all. From this time the son's greatest happiness was to comfort the declining years, and supply the wants, of his father. Nantueil died at Paris, Dec. 18, 1678, aged forty-eight.

Carlo Dati, in the life of Zeuxis, speaking of our engraver's works, says, "These words of Apollonius remind us to contemplate the astonishing art of the prints of the modern gravers in France, where every thing is represented so naturally, the quality of the drapery, the colour of the flesh, the beard, the hair with the powder upon it, and, what is most important, the age, the air, and the lively resemblance of a person, though nothing is made use of besides the black of the ink and the white of the paper; which not only make the light and the shade, but do the office of all the colours. All this is seen and admired above all others, in the excellent portraits of the illustrious Nantueil." This artist was a man of pleasing manners and address, had some share of learning and wit, and his conversation recommended him much to people of fashion. He was well respected at court; and Mazarine, then prime minister, retained him as his designer and engraver, and honoured him with the title of Monsieur. But he never was an economist; and of upwards of 500,000

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crowns which he had gained, he left only 20,000 to his heirs. The portraits by this excellent artist are well known, and although Strutt has given a short list of the best, he allows that it is not easy to say with any degree of precision, among so many beautiful ones, which are the best. NANTIGNI (LOUIS CHAZOT DE), a celebrated genealogist, was born in 1692, at Saulx, le Duc in Burgundy. He studied at Dijon and Paris, and at the latter city he was entrusted with the education of some young men of rank. His general turn for history settled at last in the genealogical branch, and he employed all his leisure in drawing up genealogical tables. From 1736 to 1738 he published a work entitled "Genealogies Historiques des Rois, des Empereurs, et de toutes les Maisons Souveraignes," 4 vols. 4to. He also published " Tablettes Geographiques," 1725, 12mo; "Tablettes Historiques, Genealogiques, et Chronologiques," 1748, &c. 9 vols. 24to; and "Tablettes de Themis," 1755, 12mo. He supplied many articles for the Supplement of Moreri of the edition of 1749, and during his latter years re-wrote the genealogical part of that dictionary, and of the Mercure. He died Dec. 29, 1755, after having been deprived of his sight for the three preceding years.

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NAOGEORGE, or KIRCHMAER (THOMAS), a celebrated protestant divine, born in 1511, at Straubingue, in Bavaria, acquired considerable celebrity by his satirical Latin verses against several customs of the catholic church, and died in 1578. His most celebrated poem is entitled Regnum papisticum," 1553, and 1559, 8vo. The former is the most rare edition, but not so complete as that of 1559, which sometimes contains two other pieces, the "Sylva Carminum," and "Sylvula Carminum;" "Pamachius Tragedia," 1538, 8vo; "Incendia sive Pyrgopolinices Tragedia," 1538, 8vo; "Agricultura sacra," 1551, 8vo; "Hieremias Tragedia," 1551, 8vo; "Mercator Tragedia," 1560, 8vo. There are two editions of the French translation of the "Converted Merchant," 1558, 8vo, and 1561, 12mo, and a third 1591, 12mo, in which is Beza's "Comédie du Pape malade." All the above are scarce, and highly prized by collectors. Naogeorge also left commentaries on St. John's Epistles, and several other works."

1 Perrault Les Hommes Illustres.-Strutt's Dict.-Basan.-Dict. Hist. 2 Moreri.-Dict. Hist.

a Moreri.-Dict. Hist.-Saxii Onomast.-Brunet Manuel du Libraire.

NAPIER, or NEPER (JOHN), baron of Merchiston in Scotland, and the celebrated inventor of the Logarithms, was the eldest son of sir Archibald Napier of Merchiston, and born in 1550. After going through the ordinary course of education at the university of St. Andrew's, he made the tour of France, Italy, and Germany. On his return he applied himself chiefly to the study of mathematics, to which he joined that of the Scriptures; and in both discovered the most extensive knowledge and profound penetration. His "Essay upon the book of the Apocalypse" indicates the most acute investigation; though time has discovered that his calculations concerning particular events had proceeded upon fallacious data. But what his fame now solely rests upon is his great and fortunate discovery of logarithms in trigonometry, by which the ease and expedition in calculation have so wonderfully assisted the science of astronomy and the arts of practical geometry and navigation. Napier, having much attachment to astronomy and spherical trigonometry, had occasion to make many numeral calculations of such triangles, with sines, tangents, &c. which being expressed in large numbers, occasioned a great deal of labour and trouble: To spare themselves part of this labour, Napier, and other authors about his time, endeavoured to find out certain short modes of calculation, as is evident from many of their writings. To this necessity, and these endeavours it is, that we owe several ingenious contrivances; particularly the computation by Napier's Rods, or Bones, as they are called, and seve ral other curious and short methods that are given in his "Rabdologia ;" and at length, after trials of many other means, the most complete one of logarithms, in the actual construction of a large table of numbers in arithmetical progression, adapted to a set of as many others in geometrical progression. The property of such numbers had been long known, viz. that the addition of the former answered to the multiplication of the latter, &c.; but it wanted the necessity of such very troublesome calculations as those abovementioned, joined to an ardent disposition, to make such a use of that property. Perhaps also this disposition was urged into action by certain attempts of this kind which it seems were made elsewhere; such as the following, related by Wood in his "Athenæ Oxonienses," under the article Briggs, on the authority of Oughtred and Wingate, viz. "That one Dr. Craig, a Scotchman, coming

out of Denmark into his own country, called upon John Neper baron of Marcheston near Edinburgh, and told him, among other discourses, of a new invention in Denmark, (by Longomontanus as 'tis said) to save the tedious multiplication and division in astronomical calculations. Neper being solicitous to know farther of him concerning this matter, he could give no other account of it, than that it was by proportionable numbers. Which hint Neper taking, he desired him at his return to call upon him again. Craig, after some weeks had passed, did so, and Neper then shewed him a rude draught of that he called 'Canon Mirabilis Logarithmorum.' Which draught, with some alterations, he printed in 1614; it came forthwith into the hands of our author Briggs, and into those of William Oughtred, from whom the relation of this matter came."

Whatever might be the inducement, however, Napier published his invention in 1614, under the title of "Logarithmorum Canonis Descriptio," &c. containing the construction and canon of his logarithms, which are those of the kind that is called hyperbolic. This work coming presently to the hands of Mr. Briggs, then Professor of Geometry at Gresham College in London, he immediately gave it the greatest encouragement, teaching the nature of the logarithms in his public lectures; and at the same time recommending a change in the scale of them, by which they might be advantageously altered to the kind which he afterwards computed himself, which are thence called Briggs's Logarithms, and are those now in common use. Mr. Briggs also presently wrote to lord Napier upon this proposed change, and made journeys to Scotland the two following years, to visit Napier, and consult him about that alteration, before he set about making it. Briggs, in a letter to archbishop Usher, March 10, 1615, writes thus: "Napier lord of Markinston, hath set my head and hands at work with his new and admirable logarithms. I hope to see him this summer, if it please God; for I never saw a book which pleased me better, and made me more wonder." Briggs accordingly paid him the visit, and staid a month with him.

The following passage, from the life of Lilly the astrologer, contains a curious account of the meeting of those two illustrious men. "I will acquaint you," says Lilly, "with one memorable story related unto me by John Marr, an excellent mathematician and geometrician, whom I con

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ceive you remember. He was servant to king James and Charles the First. At first when the lord Napier, or Marchiston, made public his logarithms, Mr. Briggs, then reader of the astronomy lectures at Gresham college in London, was so surprised with admiration of them, that he could have no quietness in himself until he had seen that noble person the lord Marchiston, whose only invention they were: he acquaints John Marr herewith, who went into Scotland before Mr. Briggs, purposely to be there when these two so learned persons should meet. Mr. Briggs appoints a certain day when to meet at Edinburgh; but failing thereof, the lord Napier was doubtful he would not come. It happened one day as John Marr and the lord Napier were speaking of Mr. Briggs; Ab, John,' said Marchiston, Mr. Briggs will not now come.' At the very instant one knocks at the gate; John Marr hasted down, and it proved Mr. Briggs, to his great contentment. He brings Mr. Briggs up into my lord's chamber, where almost one quarter of an hour was spent, each beholding other almost with admiration before one word was spoke. At last Mr. Briggs began: My lord, I have undertaken this long journey purposely to see your person, and to know by what engine of wit or ingenuity you came first to think of this most excellent help into astronomy, viz. the logarithms; but, my lord, being by you found out, I wonder no body else found it out before, when now known it is so easy. He was nobly entertained by the lord Napier; and every summer after that, during the lord's being alive, this venerable man Mr. Briggs went purposely into Scotland to visit him."

Napier made also considerable improvements in spherical trigonometry, &c. particularly by his Catholic or Universal Rule, being a general theorem, by which he resolves all the cases of right-angled spherical triangles in a manner very simple, and easy to be remembered, namely, by what he calls the Five Circular Parts. His construction of Logarithms too, beside the labour of them, manifests the greatest ingenuity. Kepler dedicated his Ephemerides to Napier, which were published in 1617; and it appears from many passages in his letter about this time, that he accounted Napier to be the greatest man of his age in the particular department to which he applied his abilities.

The last literary exertion of this eminent person was the publication of his "Rabdology and Promptuary," in

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