Emperor wrote back that he considered the marquis as one of the staunchest defenders of his throne. a This interval of imperial favour was short one for the marquis. On the excommunication of Frederic by the pope, Gregory IX. (Palm Sunday, 1239), the Emperor began to suspect the Guelf nobles, especially the Marquis of Este, a family always devoted to the Holy See, and compelled him to give up as hostages his son Rinaldo, with the newly married wife of Rinaldo, both of whom were sent to a castle in Apulia. Alberigo da Romano took fire at this affront, and began hostilities against the Imperialists, which, though of short duration, were sufficient to produce a reaction in favour of the Guelfs; so depressed had that party become, that no one dared even to mention the name of the Marquis of Este in Verona, Vicenza, Ferrara, or Padua, all now under the immediate tyranny of Ezzelino. As the Imperial army was passing under the walls of San Bonifazio, the count of which town was, with the Marquis Azzo, the chief Guelf noble of Northern Italy, and was at the time, together with Azzo himself, in the suite of the Emperor, a friend of the two nobles made sign to them, drawing his hand across his neck, that their execution was resolved. They instantly put spurs to their horses, and succeeded | in entering the town and closing the gates, almost before their sudden flight had suggested the idea of pursuit, and no persuasion could induce them to venture forth again. Frederic did not undertake the reduction of the place, and the marquis soon succeeded in recovering, one after the other, almost all his lost estates. The next year (1240) his old enemy Salinguerra, now more than eighty years of age, was taken prisoner by the Guelfs; and the city of Ferrara, tired of Ghibeline sway, gave the supreme authority to the Marquis of Este. Hostilities continued with varying success during the following years, no longer against Ezzelino alone, but against the Emperor himself. In 1247, when the Emperor laid siege to Parma, the Marquis of Este shut himself up in the town with a body of Ferrarese, leaving his own estates to be overrun and devastated by Ezzelino. The success of the Parmesans is well known; whilst the Emperor was engaged in hunting, they repelled their besiegers, and took and burnt the camp (1248), of which Frederic had made a town under the name of Vittoria. Meanwhile Azzo lost once more all his possessions and fortresses, even Montagnana and Este, which had been considered impregnable, and only retained the Polesino of Rovigo and his influence over Ferrara. The death of Frederic, in the year 1250, was the occasion of fresh calamity, for Conrad IV., his successor, caused Rinaldo d' Este, still a hostage, to be put to death. The enormities of the house of Romano had now reached such a pitch that the pope, Alexander IV., preached a crusade against them (1254). Azzo VII. was named captain and marshal of the whole army, and in this manner, says the chronicler Rolandino, “ the whole people were made quiet and secure, by reason of the greatness, wisdom, and courage of the lord Marquis." The Crusaders entered Padua (1255); Ezzelino took his revenge for this reverse by the execution of 11,000 Paduans, who were serving under his own banners. This butchery only served to exasperate his own subjects, and the efforts of the league were at last crowned with success in the campaign of 1259. Ezzelino had laid siege to Orci Novi, near the Oglio, between Brescia and Crema, when he found himself between two bodies of troops, the Ferrarese and Mantuans under the Marquis of Este, and the Cremonese under the Marquis Pelavicino, and threatened on a third side by the Milanese. After trying in vain to baffle them, he engaged the Marquis of Este at Ponte Cassano, after fording the Adda, and was completely put to rout and taken prisoner: he died of his wounds a few days after. The allies next besieged his brother Alberigo in San Zeno, amidst the Euganean hills. Compelled by starvation to give himself up, with his six sons and three daughters, Alberigo vainly recalled to the mind of the Marquis of Este the former ties which had subsisted between them. The whole family were put to death, and their limbs sent to the different towns till then subject to the tyranny of the house of Romano, as memorials of their deliverance (1260). The reign of Azzo VII. was little troubled after the death of Ezzelino. It may perhaps be mentioned, as a somewhat rare example of feudal honesty, that he raised money for payment of his debts by selling to the town of Padua his possessions in Monte Ricco. He died in Ferrara (13th or 16th of February, 1264), after having seen, says the monk of Padua (monachus Pataviinsis), "the most eminent Emperor Frederic despoiled of all honour, the astute Salinguerra a prisoner, the tumid Ezzelino struck down with a club, the slippery Alberigo killed dreadfully before his eyes; for those princes of iniquity, like four pestilent winds, had rushed with all their fury against the house of Este to destroy it wholly; but it did not fall." Azzo left by will his estates to his grandson Obizzo, son of Rinaldo, who had been brought back from Apulia before his father's execution. At his funeral, says another chronicler (Ricobaldus), "even his adversaries could not restrain their sighs or their tears; a man liberal, innocent, ignorant of all tyranny, always most ashamed to refuse when solicited to give." Azzo VII. was a zealous patron of Provençal literature, and retained at his court a somewhat celebrated troubadour of the name of Mastro Ferrari. (Sismondi, Histoire des Républiques Italiennes, vols. iii. iv.; Muratori, Delle Antichità Estensi, vols. i. ii., Annali d'Italia, vols. vii. viii.) J. M. L. AZZO, ALBERTO (also called ATTO or ADALBERTO), was the second son of Sigefrido, a nobleman of Lucca, who established himself in Lombardy with his family, and became patron of various towns in that province. Azzo, according to Donizo, the biographer of his descendant the "Great Countess" Matilda, seeing Canossa "stand a bare flint," made it his castle and fortified it with towers and other works. In 951, when the queen, afterwards Empress Adelaide, widow of Lothario II., having refused to marry the deformed son of Berengario II., the late guardian and now successor of her deceased husband, was imprisoned by Berengario at Rocca di Garda, on the lake of that name, and succeeded in making her escape, Adelardo, Bishop of Reggio, whose protection she besought, intrusted her to the charge of Azzo, his feudatory for the castle of Canossa. She remained for some months under his protection, and left him to meet King Otho the Great, who had not yet received the title of emperor, and who married her at Pavia, 951. Azzo was of course received under the imperial protection, but on the return of Otho to Germany, and whilst the latter was engaged in quelling the revolt of his son Ludolf, Berengario took up quarters in person before Canossa, 953, and resolved not to leave it till he should become master of the place. Canossa was situate near the river Enza, on a steep rock entirely insulated, and so well fortified as to be proof against assault or against such warlike engines as were then in use; it was moreover well victualled and defended, and fully capable of sustaining a long siege. Azzo held out for three years, unassisted by Otho, who, although reconciled with his son, was now engaged in warfare with the Slavonic and Hungarian tribes: at last the German king sent his son Ludolf with an army, on whose approach Berengario at once retired, 956. Azzo had perhaps to sustain a second siege in 959-961, but the accounts of it are little trustworthy. In 962 he received splendid gifts from Otho, and was created by him first Count and then Marquis of Reggio and Modena. He was still living in 981, and left two sons, Tedaldo, his successor, and Gotifredo, who was Bishop of Brescia in his father's lifetime. Both Azzo and his wife Ildegarda are stated to have been munificent patrons of the clergy, and to have built or established a church, a monastery, and a college of Canonists. The Countess Matilda, known in history as the devoted adherent of Pope Gregory VII., was the great-granddaughter of Alberto Azzo. (Sismondi, Histoire des Républiques Italiennes, vol. i.; Muratori, Annali d'Italia (Monaco VOL. IV. edition of 1761), vol. v.; Donizo, Vita Mathildis Comitissa, in Muratori, Rerum Italicarum Scriptores, vol. iii.) AZZO. [Azo.] J. M. L. AZZOGUI'DI, GERMA'NI, was born at Bologna, in 1740, and obtained the degree of Doctor of Medicine there in 1762. The subject of his inaugural dissertation was the physiology of generation. In 1766 he was appointed to a professorship of the institutes of medicine in the University of Bologna. About this time also he was actively engaged in the discussion then pending on the sensibility of various parts of the body, and he communicated a paper on the subject, containing the results of numerous experiments, to the Institute of Bologna; but it was not published. In 1773 his best work, that on the structure of the uterus, appeared; and in 1775 he published his Institutes of Medicine. On the reorganization of the university, about 1804, he was appointed to the professorship of comparative anatomy and physiology; and he, at this time, commenced the formation of the museum illustrative of these sciences, which is still at Bologna. He died in 1814. The following are Azzoguidi's works:"Observationes ad Uteri Constructionem pertinentes," Bologna, 1773, 4to. This was also published with essays by Palletta and Brugnone, in E. Sandifort's "Opuscula Anatomica Selectiora," Leiden, 1788, and together with them was translated into German, by H. Tabor, Heidelberg, 1791, 8vo. It is an excellent treatise, proving that the author had laboured in both the practical anatomy of the organ and in the literature concerning it. It is chiefly directed against the description of the uterus by Astruc, whose supposed discoveries of milk-vessels and venous appendages in the uterus Azzoguidi entirely denies. He denies also the existence of a distinct lining membrane of the uterus; and maintains that the uterine substance, though it may contain muscular fibres, is not, as Astruc more rightly held, truly muscular, and does not exhibit the peculiar circular fibres which Ruysch described as arranged about its fundus. He confirms the description of the membrana decidua by William Hunter; and, in the best part of his work, disproves the existence of communications between the uterine and placental blood-vessels, and suggests the best explanation of the circulation in the acardiac fœtus by the contraction of the heart of the twin fœtus connected with it. 2. "Institutiones Medicæ in usum auditorum suorum," Bologna, 1775, 2 vols. 8vo., an old-fashioned book, containing in the first volume the bare elements of physiology after Haller, and in the second, the elements of medicine." 3. "Lettere sopra i mali effetti dell' Inoculazione," Venice, 1782, 12mo. 4. "Compendio dei discorsi . . . . di Fisiologia e di Notomia Comparata," Bologna, 2 F AZZOGUIDI. 1808, 4to. Azzoguidi is said to have also | AZZOLINI. Neapolitan painter and modeller in wax, who AZZOLINI, LORENZO, a native of Fermo, was nephew of Cardinal Azzolini the elder, and uncle of Cardinal Azzolini the younger. Becoming an ecclesiastic, he was appointed by Pope Urban VIII. to be his secretary and a counsellor of state. The pope made him Bishop of Ripa Transona, in 1630, and of Narni two years afterwards, and was about (we are told) to create him a cardinal, when the intention was frustrated by the death of Lorenzo, in 1632. The following poetical works of Lorenzo Azzolini are in print:-1. "Stanze nelle Nozze di Taddeo Barberini e di Anna Colonna," Rome, 1629, 8vo. 2. "Satira contro la Lussuria," published in the collection entitled "Scelta di Poesie Italiane," Venice, 1686, 8vo. This poem, although it is confessedly tainted with the faults of the "seicento," is much esteemed by the Italian critics, some of whom assign to its author a high rank as a writer of serious satirical poetry. Other poems of Azzolini are mentioned by Mazzuchelli as preserved in various libraries. (Mazzuchelli, Scrittori d'Italia; Ughelli, Italia Sacra, 2nd edit. i. 1021, ii. 762; Crescimbeni, Storia della Volgar Poesia, iv. 172; Bibliotheca Aprosiana, 1734, p. 61.) W. S. AZZOLINI, DE'CIO, is usually called "Il Giovane," or the Younger, to distinguish him from an elder namesake and relative, who was known in the political world, and, like the younger Decio, became a cardinal. Decio the Younger was born at Fermo, in the Papal State, in 1623; was created a cardinal in 1664; and died at Rome, in 1689. There is extant a work on the rules of the Conclave, which was written by him in Italian, and translated into Latin by Joachim Henning: "Eminentissimi Cardinalis Azzolini Aphorismi Politici," &c. Osnabrück, 1691, 4to. There is likewise attributed to him, but on doubtful authority, AZZO'NI AVOGA'RI, RAMBALDO "Voto del Eminentissimo e Reverendissimo DEGLI, was born at Treviso, in the year Signor Cardinale Azzolini, l' anno 1677, nella 1719, of a noble family, two members of Canonizzazione del venerabile Servo di Dio which had filled the office of Podestà in the Roberto Cardinale Bellarmino," &c. Rome, thirteenth century. One of these, Altenieri, 1749, fol. The Cardinal is honourably was honoured with the office of "Avogaro," named as a poet, by Muratori, in his Life of advocate or champion of the church of TreFrancesco di Lemene, and by Crescimbeni, viso, as a fief from the pope, and the title who gives a canzone on the pregnancy of a was borne by all his descendants, in addition lady, as a specimen of his powers. (Mazzu- to their original surname, Degli Azzoni; a chelli, Scrittori d' Italia; Oldoini, Athenæum circumstance which has led to much confuRomanum, p. 181; Crescimbeni, Storia della sion. Rambaldo was educated at the college Volgar Poesia, iv. 184.) W. S. of the Somaschi, and first turned his attention AZZOLI'NI, MAZZOLI'NI, or ASOLE- to poetry, some specimens of which he pubNI, GIO. BERNARDI'NO, a very clever lished at a very early age. In his twentieth year he was elected a canon of the cathedral, | and character of the author, with his portrait before he had taken priest's orders. His by way of frontispiece. admissibility was disputed on that ground by a rival candidate, upon which Azzoni applied himself to minute researches into the archives of the church, and succeeded in establishing his right. This accidental circumstance determined the bias of his studies; from that time he became an enthusiastic antiquary and archæologist. The history of his native city was his chief subject, but he often extended his inquiries to the elucidation of the history of Italy. He had so strong an attachment to the place of his birth, that he refused all preferment which would have taken him away from it; and he remained a simple canon until a short time before his death, when he was elected dean, or canonico primocerio. He died in 1790, at the age of seventy-one, and was buried in the cathedral. The day of his funeral was observed as a day of mourning by the whole population of Treviso, many of the houses and shops of which were hung with black cloth as a token of respect for his memory. Azzoni re-established at Treviso a local academy of the Solleciti, for which he drew up a code of regulations, which received the approbation of Muratori, in a letter dated February 3rd, 1747. He also procured the erection at Treviso of a colony of the Arcadi, to which he was appointed custode, taking the name of Targilio Ambracio. He likewise exerted himself in the foundation of a library for the chapter of Treviso, which was open to all the citizens. A grand hall was built, chiefly at his expense; the collection of books was liberally augmented from his own stores; and, finally, he endowed the institution with a fund for the maintenance of a librarian. His marble bust now decorates the centre of the hall. Azzoni is the author of two separate works: 1. "Memorie del Beato Enrico morto in Trivigi l'anno 1315, corredate di documenti; con una Dissertazione sopra San Liberale e sopra gli altri Santi de' quali riposano i sacri corpi nella Chiesa della già detta città," Venice, 1750, 4to. This work affords ample evidence of the care and industry with which the author must have applied himself to the task of ransacking the archives of his native city. To the text, which occupies a volume, is appended a second part, separately paged, and chiefly composed of copies of ancient documents in illustration of the subject. 2. "Considerazioni sopra le prime notizie di Trivigi contenuti negli Scrittori e ne' marmi antichi, Opera postuma," Treviso, 1840, 4to. In this production the author's object, which is most elaborately worked out, is to disprove the opinion that Treviso was of Gothic origin. After remaining fifty years in MS., the work has at length been given to the public under the editorship of Signor Pulieri, who has prefixed a notice of the life The other writings of Azzoni are contained in miscellaneous collections, especially the "Nuova Raccolta" of Calogierà, to which he was a frequent contributor. His articles chiefly relate to points in the history of Italy, as illustrated by ancient documents and inscriptions; a branch of study in which he was nearly unrivalled. In one instance he contributes "Notizie de' cavalieri Alteniero e Jacopo degli Azoni," a sketch of the lives of two of his own ancestors, originally drawn up for private use. His principal production not separately published, however, is his "Trattato della Zecca e delle Monete ch' ebbero corso in Trivigi fin tutto il Secolo XIV." which is printed by Zanetti, with high encomiums, in his "Nuova Raccolta delle Monete e Zecche d' Italia," vol. iv. p. 3–201. This treatise gained for the author the special approbation of Tiraboschi, whose high opinion of Azzoni's merits is left on record in an "Elogia," published at Bassano in 1791, 8vo. It may be as well to observe, that although the title of honour which the Azzoni added to their surname was a mere addition, and was sometimes placed by Rambaldo, in his signature, after his personal office of canon, thus, "Rambaldo degli Azzoni, canonico e avogaro della Chiesa di Trevigi," yet it is so highly thought of by Italian writers, that our author is quite as often referred to under the name of "Avogaro," or "Avogadro," as under his proper family name of Degli Azzoni. (Life, prefixed to Considerazioni sopra le prime Notizie di Trivigi, Treviso, 1840, pp. ix-xx.; Corniani, Secoli della Letteratura Italiana, continuata da Ticozzi, ii. 538; Gamba, Galleria dei Letterati ed Artisti Illustri delle Provincie Veneziane nel Secolo XVIII., vol. i.; Mazzuchelli, Scrittori d'Italia, i. part 2, p. 1272; Lombardi, Storia della Letteratura Italiana nel Secolo XVIII. iv. 153; Degli Azzoni, Notizie de' cavalieri A. e J. degli Azoni, in Nuova Raccolta d'Opuscoli, &c. 1755, vol. xxxi.) J. W. AZ-ZUBEYDI' (Mohammed Ibnu-l-hasan Al-madhijí Abú Bekr), a celebrated grammarian and lexicographer, was born at Seville in Spain, in A.H. 315 (A.D. 927). According to Ibn Khallikán, Az-zubeydí's family was originally from Madhij, a district of Yemen so called because an Arabian tribe of that name settled in it. When still young, he repaired to Cordova, then the court of Al-hakem II., ninth sultan of the race of Umeyyah, and he studied in the schools of that city until he became one of the most distinguished scholars of the day. His principal masters were Abú 'Ali Al-kálí and Abú Abdillah Ar-riyáhí. Having attracted the attention of Al-hakem by an elaborate composition in prose and verse, which he presented to him on the occasion of a certain festival, Az-zubeydí was appointed chief kádhi of Seville, which office he filled to the great satisfaction of the inhabitants of that city until he was summoned to Cordova and intrusted with the education of Prince Hishám, the son and heir of Al-hakem, holding at the same time the office of sáhibu-shshortah, or chief of the police department. Az-zubeydí died at Cordova on the 15th of Jumáda the second, A.H. 379 (August, A.D. 989); such at least is the date given by Ibn Khallikán. Al-homaydí says that he died the year after (A.D.990). He wrote the following works:-1. "Mokhtassar kitábu-l-'ayn," | or an abridgment of the large Arabic dictionary entitled Al-'ayn, by Khalíl Ibn Ahmed Al-faráhidí. Kitábu-l-'ayn means the book of the letter 'ayn, not the book of the fountain (liber fontis), as Conde and other writers have erroneously asserted. In the preface to a copy of Az-zubeydí's abridgment, which is in the National Library of Madrid, the reasons are given why the original work was so entitled. It appears that Khalil, unwilling to begin his dictionary with the letter alif, the first of the Arabic alphabet, owing to certain grammatical objections of his own, put into a bag twenty eight scraps of paper, having each the name of a letter of the Arabic alphabet, and drawing them one by one, disposed his dictionary in the order that the letters came out. The letter 'ayn being the first, he entitled his dictionary Kitábu-l-'ayn. 2. “Bakyatu-l-wa'at fí tabakáti-l-laghuwín wa-n-nohat" (“The bottom of the closet: on the classes of rhetoricians and grammarians"). This is a biography of Spanish Moslems who have distinguished themselves by their knowledge of rhetoric and grammar, divided into tabakát, that is, classes or schools, from the time of Abú-l-aswad to that of his own master Abú 'Abdillah Ar-riyáhí. 3." Al-wádheh” (“The Demonstrator"), a treatise on grammar, greatly praised by the writers of the time. 4. "Al-abniyah fí-n-nahu" ("Fundamental rules of Arabic syntax"). 5. A Diwán, or collection of his own poems. Some of these have been preserved in the collections formed by Ath-tha'lebí (Brit. Mus. No. 9578, fol. 126), Ibn Khakán (ib. No. 9580, fol. 144), and others. (Al-makkarí, Moham. Dynast. i. 194, 474, ii. 190; Casiri, Bib. Arab.Hisp. Esc. ii. 133; Conde, Hist. de la Dom. i. 483; Ibn Khallikán, Biog. Dict.; D'Herbelot, Bib. Or.) P. de G. 420 London: Printed by WILLIAM CLOWES and SoNs, Stamford Street. نا |