where he was minister. Aspelin was a poet of the old, or French, school in Sweden, and was particularly successful in the composition of verses on public events. His poem on the union of Norway and Sweden won, in 1813, the great prize from the Swedish academy; another, entitled "The Grave," obtained, in 1816, the second gold medal from the same body, and a similar reward was given in 1818 to his poem on the accession of Charles John, the present king of Sweden. These poems, and some others, were collected in the first volume of the " Skaldestycken" of David Aspelin, Stockholm, 1819, 8vo., to which no second volume has ever appeared. (Hammarsköld, Svenska Vitterheten, edit. of Sondén, p. 552.) T. W. ASPELMAYER, or ASPELMEYER, FRANZ, ballet composer to the Emperor of Austria, Joseph II., died at Vienna, August 9, 1786. His published works are:-Six Quartets, Six Duets for Violin and Violoncello, Six Trios for Stringed Instruments, and Six Sonatas for Wind Instruments. He also wrote two operas, "Die Kinder der Natur," and "Der Sturm," as well as a musical drama called "Pygmalion." (Gerber, Lexicon der Tonkünstler.) E. T.

ASPER. It is generally supposed that there were two Latin writers of this name. Servius, Pomponius Sabinus, Philargyrius, the so-called Probus, and Cynthius Cenetensis, in their respective commentaries on Virgil, frequently quote or refer to the remarks of Asper on that poet. Pomponius and the pseudo Probus call him Æmilius Asper, but Cynthius Cenetensis quotes Æmilius and Asper as different persons. Heyne suspected that there was an error in the text of Pomponius, and was disposed to read Velius for Æmilius, and to identify Asper with the Velius Asper Longus cited by the scholiast on Statius (Achilleis, ii. 41), who is perhaps the Velius Longus whose tract, "De Orthographia," has come down to our time. But in the compilation of notes on Virgil published by Angelo Mai from a palimpsest manuscript, which was found among the archives of the canons of Verona, Longus and Asper are distinguished from each other. Lion, in his edition of Servius, is disposed to agree with Heyne in identifying the Asper quoted by that writer with Velius Asper Longus. Heyne supposed that Asper wrote not a commentary on Virgil, but only rules of grammar and poetry, illustrated by examples from the works of Virgil; but an examination of the quotations, and the manner in which they are referred to, show that they were taken from a commentary. The Veronese palimpsest commentary quotes Asper as an annotator on Virgil.

An Asper, probably the same person, wrote commentaries on Sallust and on Terence: the first of these is expressly cited by the grammarian Sosipater Charisius (Institutiones Grammatica, lib. ii. sub voc. "recens "), and

the second by Rufinus of Antioch (Commentarius in Metra Terentiana, sub initio). Donatus, in his commentary on Terence, quotes Asper three times.

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An Asper, commonly identified with the above, wrote one or more grammatical treatises. Priscian quotes a remark on the formation of the perfect tense from " Asper de Verbo," apparently the subject or title of the treatise from which the citation is made. Asper was a writer of considerable repute. He is quoted by Antonius and Macrobius, and by Saints Jerome and Augustin, as well as by the authors already mentioned. Of the time in which he lived nothing certain is known. He was at least older than Donatus, who lived in the first half of the fourth century. If Heyne is correct (which we much doubt) in identifying him with Velius Longus, he may have lived as far back as the reign of Hadrian. (Heyne's account of the ancient commentators on Virgil, in the prolegomena to his edition of that poet, Leipzig, 1788; Lion's preface to his edition of Servius, Göttingen, 1826; Mai, Classicorum Auctorum e Vaticanis Codicibus editorum, tom. vii., Rome, 1835.) J. C. M.

ASPER, usually distinguished from the writer just mentioned by the epithet Junior. Mai conjectures that he is cited in the Veronese palimpsest commentary on Virgil, ad. Æn. ix. 386, as "In. Asper." which he is disposed to correct by reading Ju. (Junior) Asper. Nothing more is known of him than that he was the author of a very meagre work on grammar, entitled “Grammatici Ars" or " Ars Grammatica," published by Putschius in his "Grammatica Latinæ Auctores Veteres" (4to. Hanover, 1605), by Lindemann in the 1st vol. of his "Corpus Grammaticorum Latinorum Veterum" (4to. 1831), and in other collections. Of the age in which he lived, and of his other works, if any, nothing is known. Lindemann considers that he lived not later than Priscian, who lived at the beginning of the sixth century. A certain Securus Melior Felix Asper is said by Lion, on the authority of Angelo Mai, to have revised the works of Martianus Capella. Who he was, whether the subject of this or the preceding article, or, as seems likely, a third writer of the same name, is not known. (Lindemann's Preface, and Lion's Preface to his edition of Servius.) J. C. M.

ASPER, CAIUS JULIUS, a Roman of eminence in the time of Caracalla. Dion Cassius describes him as a man of considerable attainments and high spirit. Caracalla had advanced him and his sons to high honour; but the fickle temper of that prince induced him to treat Asper with contumely in the very midst of the honours to which he had raised him and his family, and to banish him with insult, and in much alarm, to his native country. An inscription given by

Fabretti (Inscriptionum Antiquarum Explicatio, lib. vi. no. 188) records the second consulship of a C. Julius Asper, with another C. Julius Asper for his colleague, in the year of Rome 96-, which, as may be gathered from other sources, is 965, or A.D. 212. In the Fasti of Panvinio the consuls are called M. Pompeius, M. F. Asper, and Asper; but the inscription is the better authority. It was probably during this year that the banishment of Asper occurred; and we judge that he was then consul for the second time, with one of his sons. The vague expression of Dion that Asper was at the time of his banishment "dignified by so many fasces at once" corroborates this supposition. We have no means of determining the time of his first consulship.

A Julius Asper had been appointed proconsul of Asia by Caracalla toward the close of his reign; but, apparently from reluctance on his own part, or remonstrance on that of the provincials, had not entered upon the administration of the province, when the assassination of the emperor took place. His successor, Macrinus, at first confirmed the appointment, deeming Asper a suitable person to allay some disorders which had arisen in Asia; but having heard that he had given utterance to some unseemly expressions, recalled the appointment before he had reached the province, and sent Anicius Festus in his room. Lampridius perhaps refers to Asper when he speaks of a governor of Asia whom Macrinus had spared, though guilty of rebellion, for the sake of former friendship. (Lampridius, Diadumenus.)

Elagabalus allowed to return to Rome a Julius Asper, whom Macrinus had banished: this was probably the same person who had been deprived of the government of Asia; but whether he was the Asper insulted by Caracalla, or the son who was consul with his father A.D. 212, is not clear. The latter is, on the whole, most likely. (Dion Cassius, lxxvii. 5, lxxviii. 22, lxxix. 4.) J. C. M. ASPER, CONSTANT GHILAIN CHARLES VAN HOOBROUCK, BARON D'. [HOUBROUCK.]

ASPER, HANS, a celebrated Swiss painter, born at Zürich, in 1499. He was the contemporary of Holbein, painted in a similar style, and was not much inferior to him in some of his portraits. His works are, however, extremely scarce, which is partly accounted for by the report that many of them have been sold as, and are still reputed to be, the works of Holbein. Fiorillo says he copied many of the works of Holbein. Asper painted also landscapes, birds, and animals, and objects of natural history generally. He made the original drawings for Gessner's natural history, "Historia Animalium Conradi Gesneri," and drew the views engraved by Rudolph Meyer for Maurer's "Helvetia Sancta."

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In the library at Zürich there is a portrait of Zwingli by Asper; and in the townhall of that place there is, by him, a picture of the arms of Zürich, supported by two lions, and otherwise ornamented. A medal was struck in honour of him at Zürich during his lifetime; yet, notwithstanding his popularity, he is said to have died there in great poverty, in 1571. He had two sons, Hans Rudolph and Rudolph, who were both painters. (Füssli, Geschichte der Besten Künstler in der Schweitz; Fiorillo, Geschichte der Zeichnenden Künste, &c.) R. N. W.

ASPERTI'NI, AMI'CO, or, as he was called, MAESTRO AMICO, a very eccentric painter of Bologna, said by Malvasia to have been a pupil of Francia, but of which there are no traces in his works. He was born at Bologna in 1474, and died there, at an advanced age, in 1552, leaving, says Vasari, some whimsical specimen of his eccentricity in nearly every street and every church in the city. He was such an extraordinary figure when he was at work, that the very stones, says the same writer, would have laughed at him if they could: his body was girt round with paint pots, he wore a pair of spectacles upon his nose, and held a brush in each hand, with which he painted at the same time, putting on the lights with one and the shadows with the other; a habit through which he acquired the sobriquet of "Amico da due penelli." He seems to have been known to every one, to have quarrelled with many; and, among others, to have afforded the historian Guicciardini many a hearty laugh. He had great facility of execution, and he was nearly always as careless as bold; but he had a ready invention, and a great store of studies, which he made during journeys throughout Italy, copying every thing he saw that pleased him, whether good or bad.

Guercino used to say that Amico regulated his labour according to the remuneration he was to receive for it; when well paid he always produced a good picture, but if badly paid he merely made a daub. He was a good animal-painter. There are still several of his works at Bologna, and some at Lucca. His style was a mixture of all styles, from Giotto to Giorgione, and he ridiculed the imitators of Raffaelle, asserting that every painter's works should be the index of his own mind. The crazy character given by Vasari to Amico and his works has offended Amico's countryman Malvasia, who has endeavoured to show that he was a very able painter.

GUIDO ASPERTINI was the brother of Amico, and, according to Malvasia, his pupil; but Vasari says he studied under Ercole da Ferrara. He died at the age of thirty-five, about the beginning of the sixteenth century, otherwise, says Malvasia, he would have equalled his contemporary and countryman

3 F 2

Bagnacavallo. The only picture remaining by Guido is in the Academy of Bologna: it represents the adoration of the Magi, and was formerly in the church of S. Maria Maddalena until 1749, when that church was rebuilt, and the picture was purchased by Francesco Zambeccari, who presented it to the Institute, and it was placed in 1803 in the gallery of the Academy of the Fine Arts. (Vasari, Vite de' Pittori, &c.; Malvasia, Felsina Pittrice; Giordani, Pinacoteca di Bologna.) R. N. W.

ASPERTUS, or ANSBERTUS, a priest who is sometimes erroneously called Albertus, was appointed archi-cancellarius, or first private secretary and keeper of the seal, by King Arnulf of Germany in A.D. 889. There are many documents extant which were drawn up and signed by Aspertus, whose name is also mentioned by several contemporary and subsequent writers. In 891 he became bishop of Ratisbon (Regensburg), which dignity he held until his death in 894. His successor in the see of Ratisbon was Enno. Aspertus is supposed to be the author of a small portion of the celebrated" Annales Fuldenses," namely, the period from 888 to 891, which occupies only two folio pages in Freher's "Germanicarum Rerum Scriptores" (vol. i. pp. 49-50). The reasons in favour of his authorship, which is disputed by some, are: 1. That a part of the "Annales Fuldenses" is written by some cancellarius Aspertus, though it is not said which part. 2. That the part of the "Annales" mentioned above is written in more barbarous Latin than any other portion of the work; and that this barbarous language bears a great resemblance to that of the documents drawn up and signed by Aspertus. 3. That the archi-cancellarius Aspertus is known to have been engaged in writing the events of his own time. (Eckhart, Commentarii de Rebus Franciae Orientalis, ii. 701; Hund a Sulzenmos, Metropolis Salisburgensis, i. 128.) L. S. ASPETTI, TIZIANO, an Italian nobleman and sculptor, of Padua, where he was born in 1565. His mother was the sister of Titian. Aspetti studied sculpture with Jacopo Sansovino at Venice, and executed many good works in marble and in bronze in that place, in Padua, Florence, and in Pisa, where he died in 1607. He was buried in the church of the Carmelites, and a statue by his pupil, Felice Palma, was placed there to his memory. Vasari calls him Tiziano Padovano. There are several of his works in the church of Sant Antonio at Padua. (Vasari, Vite de' Pittori, &c.; Baldinucci, Notizie de' Professori del Disegno, &c.) R. N. W. ASPLUND, ARNOLD, was born at Stockholm on the 26th of September, old style, in 1736. He took his degree as master of philosophy at Upsal in 1754, after four years' study at that university, and entered into holy orders in 1763. For the rest of

He

his life he occupied a prominent place among the ecclesiastical body at Stockholm. became a member of the society" Pro Fide et Christianismo," shortly after its foundation in 1771; in 1786 a member of the Educational Society, and in 1788 of the Theological Homiletic Society. He was for two years, from 1773 to 1775, vice-pastor of the national Finnish church at Stockholm, and afterwards pastor of different congregations: first, of that named after Queen Ulrica Eleonora, then of that of Clara. In 1789 and 1809 he was a "Riksdagsman," or member of the National Diet, and in 1793 he was made in succession, deputy of the Consistory of Stockholm to the jubilee festival at Upsal, doctor of theology at that university, member of the Royal Committee on the general economy of the kingdom (Rikets allmänna Hushållning), and member of the Royal Ecclesiastical Committee. He afterwards held different appointments in connection with the Swedish National-Debt Office and the Bank; and it is to the effects of a fall in the year 1810, from his chair in the Bank, while occupied with his duties there, that his death is attributed, which took place on the 12th of January, 1815. The list of his offices is curious, as showing the ordinary occupations and honours of a distinguished churchman in the Swedish capital.

Asplund was eminent for his talents as a preacher. The critic Thorild alludes to him as one of the three of his contemporaries to whom only he allowed excellence in that department. In the ecclesiastical commission he is said to have been a judicious critic on the alterations proposed in the Swedish Liturgy. His published works were very few, consisting of five sermons only, one of which, a funeral sermon on N. J. Nymanson (Stockholm, 1777, 4to.), is that which obtained the commendation of Thorild. A Specimen usus Philologici Libelli Plutarchiani, πepl waidŵv åywyns, in exponendo sacro Codice Græco," which he had prepared for an academical dissertation in 1770, was for some unknown reason not printed. (Biographiskt Lexicon öfver namnkunnige Svenska Män, i. 307-310, where his works are enumerated at length.) T. W.

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ASPRE'NAS, LU'ČIUS, perhaps the same person as L. NONIUS ASPRENAS, who was consul A.D. 6, about eight years before the death of Augustus Cæsar. He served in Germany under Quintilius Varus, his maternal uncle: but was in command of a separate force of two legions when Varus, with nearly all the rest of the Roman army, was cut off in the Teutoburgian forest, near the Visurgis, or Weser, A.D. 10. On hearing of this dreadful defeat, Asprenas hastened to the relief of the few survivors, and effectually preserved them from the pursuit of the enemy, and secured the safety of his own forces. He then took up his winter quarters on the

lower Rhine, and secured the allegiance of the Belgic Gauls thereabout, which had been shaken. Paterculus says that Asprenas was believed by many to have seized the property of those who fell in the defeat of Varus.

He was afterwards (at least a person of the same name was) proconsul of Africa, and, according to some accounts, the soldiers who put to death Sempronius Gracchus in the little island of Cercina (A.D. 14) were sent by him, by the secret direction of Tiberius, who vainly hoped to throw on Asprenas the odium of the deed. Asprenas is noticed again (A.D. 20) as taking part in the discussions in the senate which followed the trial of Piso and his family. (Velleius Paterculus, ii. c. 120; Dion Cassius, lvi. c. 23; Tacitus, Annales, i. 53, iii. 18.) J. C. M. ASPRUCK, FRANZ, a painter, engraver, and apparently a sculptor, or rather bronze and silver founder, of Augsburg, where he lived at the beginning of the seventeenth century. Heineken calls him a native of Brussels, and, from his style, concludes that he was a pupil of Spranger. There are some prints of saints, and a few others after Aspruck, by D. Custos; and there are four prints of the Archangels Michael, Gabriel, Raphael, and Uriel, engraved by himself: L. Kilian engraved a Venus after him. Brulliot notices a bronze group marked with an F within an A, which he ascribes to Aspruck. (Heineken, Dictionnaire des Artistes, &c.; Brulliot, Dictionnaire des Monogrammes, &c.) R. N. W. ASPULL, GEORGE, was born at Manchester in June, 1813. From infancy he gave indications of possessing, in an uncommon degree, the faculties which unite in the formation of an accomplished musician-a quick | apprehension, a strong memory, a lively fancy, a clear and distinct utterance, were early displayed in connection with a decided love of music. He was fond of inventing rather than repeating musical phrases from a child; but infantine exhibitions on the piano-forte, like those of Crotch, were not encouraged by his father, who did not permit him to practise it till he was more than seven years old. His progress was so great, that in half a year he played Cramer's First Studio in C with astonishing rapidity and expression. His first public appearance was at a concert given by his brother in 1822, where he sang and played in a manner not only to astonish but delight his hearers. He now continued his practice with eager diligence, and soon mastered some of the finest and most difficult compositions of Clementi, Cramer, Dussek, Kalkbrenner, and Moscheles. His power of reading at sight was only equalled by the retentiveness of his memory, in which every composition that he had learned was faithfully stored up. The habit of extemporaneous performance, which nature had so amply fitted him to acquire, was sedulously

cultivated; and these exercises displayed as well his increasing resources as his casual frame of mind.

In 1823 he was introduced, at Liverpool, to Kalkbrenner, to whom he played Beethoven's 66 Polonaise," and who remarked that "he had never met with such excellence, and so strong a disposition for music in one so young." Soon afterwards his father, who had been his sole instructor, took him to London, where Clementi heard him. The opinion of the veteran coincided with that of Kalkbrenner; and Rossini, to whom he also played, pronounced him "the most extraordinary creature in Europe." In February, 1824, George IV. commanded young Aspull attendance at Windsor Castle. A select party was invited to witness his performance. He took his station at the piano-forte, and commanded the attention of the royal party for more than three hours. The public expectation was now excited, and a concert which he gave at the Argyle Rooms was crowded with astonished and delighted hearers.

The following notice of his performance, in the Harmonicon for March, 1824, is from the pen of a competent and dispassionate judge :

"The compositions of Kalkbrenner and Moscheles, prepared for displaying the manual skill of those celebrated performers, are played evidently without the smallest effort by this extraordinary child. He has also made himself master of a piece by Czerny, which was written as a trial of skill for all the piano-forte players in Europe, and combines all the mechanical niceties of which the instrument is susceptible. But the mechanical skill of young Aspull is that which least surprised those who heard him. A child with a certain cleverness and quickness of parts may be taught, by repeated efforts, to conquer difficulties, and, when conquered, there will remain nearly the same impression from them as results from witnessing an exhibition on the tight-rope, or the antic tricks of the unfortunate pupils of a posture-master. Young Aspull is not a player of this sort: his mind evidently participates in all that his hand executes. He also possesses the rare talent of extempore playing (at which he willingly passes hours) with a fluency that seems to indicate it to be the vehicle by which he can best express his ideas."

The lad's fame was now established: his performance had been subjected to the severest test, and his acquirements as a musician, as well as his powers as a player, were acknowledged by the most experienced and accomplished judges. He gave concerts during the succeeding year in many provincial towns, always drawing large and admiring audiences. In 1825 his father took him to Paris, principally that he might hear and play to Hummel. The opinion of this great master