comprise 20 Masses, 52 motets, and many other liturgical
pieces. His works are in a style as sophisticated as PALEST-
RINA’s, whose pupil he may have been, but of an emotional
intensity rarely equaled elsewhere. Perhaps best known
are his motet O quam gloriosam and the Mass that he based
upon it.
Further reading: Gustave Reese, The New Grove High
Renaissance Masters: Josquin, Palestrina, Lassus, Byrd, Vic-
toria (London: Macmillan, 1984).
Victorius, Petrus See VETTORI, PIERO
Vida, Marco Girolamo (c. 1485–1566) Italian prelate
and poet
Born at Cremona and educated in Mantua, Vida went in
1510 to Rome and the papal court of Leo X, where he be-
came acquainted with CASTIGLIONE, BEMBO, and other em-
inent literary figures. He was consecrated bishop of Alba
in 1535 and took part in the Council of TRENT. His works
are important contributions to neo-Latin literature in the
Renaissance. His Christus or Christiad (1535), written in
Virgilian hexameters, adapted the epic to Christian matter
in presenting Christ as the heroic redeemer. The episode
of a council in Hell, borrowed from Boccaccio’s Filocolo,
influenced similar scenes in TASSO’s epic and, through
Tasso, Milton’s Paradise Lost. De arte poetica (1527), in the
tradition of critical essays that extends from Horace to
Alexander Pope, is concerned with epic style and imita-
tion of classical models. Among other works are the di-
dactic poems Scacchia ludus (The Game of Chess; 1527),
which expounds chess in the guise of a mock-heroic ac-
count of a match between Apollo and Mercury, and De
bombyce (On the Silkworm; 1527), on the production of silk.
Vienna (German Wien) The capital city of Austria on the
River Danube. Celts and Romans lived on the site, but Vi-
enna’s history is continuous only from the early 12th cen-
tury. The city was granted its charter in 1147 and as the
capital of the dukes of Babenberg from 1156 became a
center of courtly patronage. When the HAPSBURGStook
over in 1278 they made Vienna their capital and from
1558 it became the capital of the Holy Roman Empire, al-
though under Emperor RUDOLF IIits primacy was usurped
by Prague. It was not only its capital status but also its po-
sition on important trade routes that brought prosperity to
the city. Vienna was temporarily occupied by the Hungar-
ian monarch in the late 15th century and it heroically re-
sisted the siege by the OTTOMAN TURKSin 1529. Both in
1529 and in 1683 it was the bastion against the Turkish
advance into the heart of Europe. Under Hapsburg rule Vi-
enna was a center of the Counter-Reformation in southern
and eastern Europe. Vienna possesses a number of fine
14th-century Gothic churches and the cathedral of St.
Stephen (1137–1578).
Viète, François (1540–1603) French mathematician
Although the greatest French mathematician of the cen-
tury, Viète, who was born at Fontenay-le-Comte, trained
initially in law at the university of Poitiers. Much of his
early life was spent in politics. He served as a member of
the Brittany parlement, practiced law in Paris, and in 1580
was appointed an officer of the Paris parlement. As Henry
IV’s cryptographer, he broke an elaborate cipher used by
Spanish agents. It is, however, as an algebraist that he is
mainly remembered. In his In artem analyticam isagoge
(1591) Viète introduced such basic algebraic conventions
as using letters to represent both known and unknown
quantities, while improving the notation for the expres-
sion of square and cubic numbers. Further advances in the
solutions of cubic and quartic equations were described by
Viète in the posthumously published De aequationum
recognitione (1615).Vigarni, Felipe (Felipe Biguerny) (died 1543)
Burgundian-born sculptor
Vigarni was active chiefly in Spain after 1498. Combining
features of northern European art with Italian ideas, Vi-
garni executed work for Burgos cathedral and the chapel
royal at Granada (1520–21) before embarking upon his
best-known work at Toledo cathedral. In collaboration
with Diego Copin and Cristiano from Holland, Rodrigo
the German, Sebastián de Almonacid, and the painter Juan
de Borgoñia, Vigarni executed the high wooden altar
(1498–1504), designed by Peti Juan. His other works in-
cluded a number of medals, such as that of Cardinal
XIMÉNES DE CISNEROS(before 1517; Madrid university).Vigenère, Blaise de (1523–1596) French diplomat and
cryptographer
Vigenère, who was born at St.-Pourcain, began his career
as a secretary to Francis I in 1540. Shortly afterwards he
entered the service of the duke of Nevers with whom,
apart from several diplomatic missions, he remained for
the rest of his life. He first came into contact with cryp-
tology while in Rome in 1549 on diplomatic business. In
1570 Vigenère retired from the court to write. Of the more
than 20 books he published two are still remembered. The
first, Traicté des cometes (1578), was one of the earliest
works to suggest that comets were natural phenomena,
bringing no special dangers for monarchs and princes.
Many great kings, he pointed out, had died unheralded by
any comet. In the second and more important work,
Traicté des chiffres (1586), Vigenère laid the foundations of
modern CRYPTOGRAPHY.Vignola, Giacomo Barozzi da (1507–1573) Italian
architect
Named after his birthplace of Vignola, near Modena, Vig-
nola worked in the mannerist style and is best known for
his highly influential treatise upon VITRUVIUS, the RegolaVViiggnnoollaa,, GGiiaaccoommoo BBaarroozzzzii ddaa 4 49933