References.—“Dict. Hist. de la Médecine,” par N. F. J. Eloy, Mons, 1778, Vol. III. 419–422; Eunapius, “Vitæ Philos. et Soph.”; Sprengel (Kurt Polycarp Joachim), “Hist. de la Médecine”; “La Grande Encycl.,” Vol. XXV. p. 561; “Biog. Gén.,” Vol. XXXVIII. pp. 786–789; Fabricius (Johann Albert), “Bibliotheca Græca,” Vols. IX. p. 451; XII. p. 640, and XIII. p. 353; Linden (Joannes Antonides van der) “... de scriptis medicis,” Amst., 1651, pp. 476–477.
Orpheus, to whom Gilbert alludes (De Magnete, Book I. chap. ii.; Book II. chap. iii. and Book V. chap. xii.) is supposed to be the Vedic Ribhu. Orpheus is a very important figure in Greek legend, whose existence is denied by Aristotle, but to whom are attributed many writings such as the Argonautica, Lithica, Bacchica, Orphica, etc.
References.—“La Grande Encyclopédie,” Vol. XXV. pp. 607–608; “Biog. Générale,” Vol. XXXVIII. pp. 868–877; “English Cyclopædia,” Vol. IV. pp. 592–593.
Oviedus, Gonzalus—Gonzalo Fernandez de Oviedo y Valdès—was one of the earliest historiographers of the New World (1478–1557), whose principal work—“Summario de las Indias Occidentales,” printed 1525—Gilbert says (De Magnete, Book I. chap. i.) contains earliest mention of the fact that in the meridian of the Azores there is no variation.
References.—The complete edition of Oviedus’s writings which appeared in 1850; “Thesaurus Liter. Botanicæ,” 1851, p. 218; Ticknor (George), “Hist. of Span. Lit.,” 1849.
Parmenides, an ancient philosopher, native of Southern Italy, living in fifth century A.D., and the most prominent of the followers of the Eleatic School (founded by him and Xenophanes), has embodied a brief summary of his tenets in a work called “Nature,” of which an able analyzation is to be found in the ninth “Encycl. Brit.,” Vol. XVIII. pp. 315–317. Gilbert’s only allusion to him is at Book V. chap. xii. of De Magnete, where he says that the ancient philosophers, as Thales, Heraclides, Anaxagoras, Archelaus, Pythagoras, Empedocles, Parmenides, Plato and the Platonists—nor Greek philosophers alone, but also the Egyptian and the Chaldean—all seek in the world a certain universal soul, and declare the whole world to be endowed with a soul.
Parmenides has also left fragments of a poem on astronomy which was published by Scaliger.
References.—Ritter (Dr. Heinrich), “Hist. de la Philos.” (tr. M. Tissot), Vol. I; Fabricius (Johann Albert), “Biblioth. Græca,” Vol. I. p. 798; “Diog. Lært.,” IX. 23; Houzeau et Lancaster, “Bibl. Gén.,” Vol. II. p. 220; Larousse, “Dict. Univ.,” Vol. XII. p. 307; “Biog. Gén.,” Vol. XXXIX. pp. 227–230; Dr. Friedrich Ueberweg, “Hist. of Philosophy,” New York, 1885, Vol. I. pp. 54–57; Paul Tannery, “Pour l’Histoire de la Science Hellène,” Paris, 1887, Chap. IX. pp. 218–246.
Paulum Venetum. See [Marco Polo, at A.D. 1271–1295.]
Paulus Venetus. See [Sarpi, Pietro at A.D. 1623].