Aretino, Pietro, Italian poet, born at Arezzo 1492, died at Venice 1556, the natural son of a nobleman called Luigi Bacci. He early displayed a talent for satirical poetry, and when still a young man was banished from Arezzo on account of a sonnet against indulgences. He went to Perugia, and thence to Rome (1517), where he secured the papal patronage, but subsequently lost it through writing licentious sonnets. Through the influence of the Medici family he found an opportunity to insinuate himself into the favour of Francis I. In 1527 Aretino went to Venice, where he acquired powerful friends, among them the Bishop of Vicenza. By his devotional writings he regained the favour of the Roman Court. He called himself 'the divine', and 'the scourge of princes', but he was also their abject flatterer, and that solely to obtain money. The obscenity of some of his writings was such that his name has become proverbial for licentiousness. Among them are five comedies and a tragedy.
Arezzo (a˙-ret´sō; ancient Arretium), a city of Central Italy, capital of a province of the same name in Tuscany, near the confluence of the Chiana with the Arno. It has a noble cathedral, containing some fine pictures and monuments; remains of an ancient amphitheatre, &c. It was one of the twelve chief Etruscan towns, and in later times fought long against the Florentines, to whom it had finally to succumb. It is the birthplace of Mæcenas, Petrarch, Pietro Aretino, Redi, and Vasari. Pop. 50,093.—The province of Arezzo contains 1274 sq. miles, and 292,763 inhabitants (1915).
Ar´gal, Argol, or Tartar, a hard crust formed on the sides of vessels in which wine has been kept, red or white according to the colour of the wine. It is an impure bitartrate of potassium.
Ar´gali, a species of wild sheep (Caprŏvis Argăli or Ovis ammon) found on the mountains
of Siberia, Central Asia, and Kamtchatka. It is 4 feet high at the shoulders, and proportionately stout in its build, with horns nearly 4 feet in length measured along the curve, and at their base about 19 inches in circumference. It lives in small herds. This true argali must not be confounded with the North-African wild sheep, called the bearded argali and known as the arni, the Algerian moufflon, and the Barbary sheep.
Ar´gall, Sir Samuel (1572-1639), one of the early English adventurers to Virginia. He planned and executed the abduction of Pocahontas, the daughter of the Indian chief Powhattan, in order to secure the ransom of English prisoners. He was deputy-governor of Virginia (1617-9), and was accused of many acts of rapacity and tyranny. In 1620 he served in an expedition against Algiers, and was knighted by James I.
Ar´gand Lamp, a lamp named after its inventor, Aimé Argand, a Swiss chemist and physician (born 1755, died 1803), the distinctive feature of which is a burner forming a ring or hollow cylinder covered by a chimney, so that the flame receives a current of air both on the inside and on the outside.
Argaum (a˙r-ga˙´u¨m), a village of India, in Berar, celebrated for the victory of General Wellesley (Duke of Wellington) over the Mahrattas under Scindia and the Rajah of Berar, 29th Nov., 1803.
Ar´gelander, Friedrich Wilhelm August, German astronomer, born in 1799. He added to the knowledge of the progressive motion of the solar system in space, and published a catalogue of 560 stars having 'proper motion'. His works include: Atlas des nördlichen gestirnten Himmels (1857), Neue Uranometrie (1843), &c. He died in 1875.