a sect of Peripatetic philosophers, who appeared in Italy some time before the restoration of learning, and attacked the immortality of the soul. They took their denomination from Averroes, from whom they borrowed their distinguishing doctrine. The Averoists held that the soul was mortal, according to reason or philosophy, yet pretended to submit to the Christian theology, which declares it immortal. But the distinction was accounted suspicious; and this divorce of faith from reason was rejected by the doctors of that time, and condemned by the last council of the Lateran under pope Leo X.

AVERRUNCI (Del), certain gods, whose business it was, according to the Pagan theology, to avert misfortunes. Apollo and Hercules were of the number of these gods among the Greeks, and Castor and Pollux among the Romans.

AVERSA, a town of Italy, in the kingdom of Naples, and a bishop's see. It is situated in a very fine plain, in long. 14. 20. E. lat. 41. 0. N.

AVES, one of the Carribbee Islands, 451 miles south of Porto Rico, with a good harbour for the careening of ships. It is so called from the great number of birds that frequent it. There is another of the same name lying to the northward of this, in lat. 15. 0. N.; and a third near the eastern coast of Newfoundland, in lat. 50. 5. N.

AVESBURY, ROBERT, an English historian, of whom little more is known than that he was keeper of the registry of the court of Canterbury in the reign of Edward III. and consequently that he lived in the fourteenth century. He wrote Memorabilia gesta magnifici regis Anglie domini Eduardi Tertii post Conquestum, procerumque: tectis primitis quibusdam gestis de tempore patris sui domini Eduardi Scandici, quae in regnis Angliae, Scotiae, et Franciae, ac in Aquitania et Britannie, non humana sed Dei potentia, contingunt. This history ends with the battle of Poictiers, about the year 1356. It continued in manuscript till the year 1720, when it was printed by Hearne at Oxford, from a manuscript belonging to Sir Thomas Seabright.

AVEZZANO, a town of Naples, in Abruzzo Ulteriore, containing about 2700 inhabitants. Long. 13. 32. E. Lat. 41. 58. N.

AVIARY, a place set apart for feeding and propagating birds. It should be so large as to give the birds some freedom of flight; and turfed, to avoid the appearance of foulness on the floor.

AVICENNA, or AVICENES, the prince of Arabian philosophers and physicians, was born at Assena, a village in the neighbourhood of Bucharia. His father was from Balkh in Persia, and had married at Bucharia. The first years of Avicenna were devoted to the study of the koran and the belles lettres. He soon showed what he was likely to become afterwards; and the progress he made was so rapid, that when he was but ten years old he was perfectly intelligent in the most hidden senses of the koran. Abu-Abdallah, a native of Naplous, in Syria, at that time professed philosophy at Bucharia with the greatest reputation. Avicenna studied under him the principles of logic; but being soon disgusted with the slow manner of the schools, he set about studying alone, and read all the authors who had written on philosophy, without any other help than that of their commentators. Possessed with an extreme desire to become acquainted with all sorts of sciences, he likewise devoted himself to the study of medicine; and, persuaded that the medical art consists as much in practice as in theory, he sought every opportunity of visiting the sick, and afterwards confessed that he had learned more from experience than from all the books he had read. Avicenna was now in his sixteenth year, and was already celebrated as being the light of his age. At this period he resolved to resume his studies of philosophy, which medicine had caused him to neglect; and he spent a year and a half in this painful labour, without ever sleeping all the time a whole night together. If he felt himself oppressed by sleep or exhausted by study, a glass of wine refreshed his wasted spirits, and gave him new vigour for study; if, in spite of him, his eyes for a few minutes shut out the light, he then endeavoured to recollect and meditate upon all the things which had occupied his thoughts before sleep. At the age of twenty-one he conceived the bold design of incorporating, in one work, all the objects of human knowledge; and carried it into execution in a kind of Encyclopaedia, to which he gave the title of the Utility of Utilities. He died at Hamadan, aged 58 years, in the 428th year of the Hegira, and of Christ 1036.

The knowledge he had of physic did not secure him from the ailments that afflict human nature. He was attacked by several maladies in the course of his life, and in particular was very subject to the colic. His excesses in pleasures, and his infirmities, made a poet who wrote his epitaph say, that the profound study of philosophy had not taught him good morals, nor that of medicine the art of preserving his own health.

Avicenna, after his death, enjoyed so great a reputation, that till the twelfth century he was preferred for the study of philosophy and medicine to all his predecessors. His works were the only writings in vogue in schools, even in Europe. The following are their titles:—1. Of the Utility and Advantage of Science, twenty books. 2. Of Innocence and Criminality, two books. 3. Of Health and Remedies, eighteen books. 4. Canons of Physic, fourteen books. 5. On Astronomical Observations, one book. 6. On Mathematical Sciences. 7. Of Theorems, or Mathematical and Theological Demonstrations, one book. 8. On the Arabic Language and its Properties, ten books. 9. On the Last Judgment. 10. On the Origin of the Soul, and the Resurrection of Bodies. 11. Of the End we should propose to ourselves in Harangues and Philosophical Argumentations. 12. Demonstration of the Collateral Lines in the Sphere. 13. Abridgement of Euclid. 14. On Finity and Infinity. 15. On Physics and Metaphysics. 16. On Animals and Vegetables, &c. 17. The Encyclopaedia mentioned above.

AVIGLIANO, a small town of Piedmont in Italy. Long. 7. 5. E. Lat. 44. 40. N.

AVIGNON, an arrondissement in the department of Vauchuse, in France, the extent of which is 174 square miles, or 117,360 acres. It comprehends five cantons, divided into 21 communes, containing 52,504 inhabitants. The capital of the arrondissement is of the same name, and situated in a beautiful valley on the left bank of the Rhone. The city is surrounded by walls planted with trees, which form an agreeable promenade. The houses are old but large, the streets narrow and crooked, but some of the public edifices are magnificent. The dwellings at the last census were 2800, and the inhabitants 23,789. The chief object of industry is the preparation of silk and the manufacture of goods dependent on that substance. There are, besides, manufactures of paper, leather, hats, jewellery, and some other articles. Up to the French revolution the city belonged to the papal see, and was the residence of the several popes from 1303 to 1376. By an act of atrocious injustice it was seized by the republicans, and after some barbarous proceedings was at length united to France. Long. 4. 52. 20. E. Lat. 43. 56. 58. N.