Ancient Egyptian Vineyard, with a large tank of water.
VINEYARDS
797
VIOLA
lously cured (2 Kings iv, 39-41). It is to this also that Moses alludes in his prophetic (lescriptioii <if' the ("utiire degeneracy of the Israelites, "For their vine is of the vine of Sodom, and of the fields of (Jomcirrali : their grapes are grapes of gall, their clusters are hitter: their wine is the poison of dragons, and the cruel venom of asps" (Deut. xxxii, 32, 33). See Vine of Sodom.
VINEYARDS, Plain of the (D^rins b^X ; Sept. 'EfiiXxapi-ieiv v. r. 'AjStX a^nrtXioi'wi' ; Vulg. Abel qtice est viiitis consit(i), a place mentioned only in Judg. xi, 33; possibly now represented liy a ruin bearing the name of Beit el-Kerm — "house of the vine" — to the north of Kerak ( De Saulcy, Narr. i, 353), if the Aroer named in the same passage is the place of that name on the Arnon (W. Jlnjeb). It is, however, by no means cer- tain; and, indeed, the probability is that the Ammon- ites, with the instinct of a nomadic or semi-nomadic people, betook themselves, when attacked, not to the civilized and cultivated country of Moab (where Beit el- Kerm is situated), but to the spreatiing deserts towards the east, where they could disperse themselves after the usual tactics of such tribes. — Smith. See Abel-cera-
MI.M.
Vini, Sebastiano, an Italian painter, was a native of Verona, who settled at Pistoja in the early part of the 16th century. He enjoyed a high reputation, and left many works both in oil and fresco. His tn<(st im- portant work, however, was in the suppressed chapel of San Desiderio, in which the " fa(;ade over the great altar was storied with the Crucifixion of the Ten Thousand Martyrs — a work abounding with figures and invention." See Lanzi, Storia Pilturica; Spooner, Biofj. Hist, of the Fine A rts, s. v.
Vintage (prop. "■■'^2, hittsir), the season of ingath- ering of the grape (Lev. xxvi, 5; Isa. xxiv, 13, etc.), which of course was one of hilarity. See Harvest. The produce of the wine-crop is denoted by the term ^1"iJn, tirush, " new wine." See Wine. For the oper- ations of the vintage (Heuvel,Z)e Vindemia Vet.Hebrceoi: [Tr. ad Kh. 1755]), see Vine.
Vintimille, Charles Gaspart) Guillaume de, a French prelate, was born in the diocese of Frejus, Nov. 15, 1655, of the distingiushed family of De Luc. As soon as he had obtained licensure from the Sorbonne, he received from his micle, Jean de Vintimille, bishop of Toulon, a canonship in bis cathedral,and he was likewise prior of three abbeys in Provence until nominated (June 27, 1684) to the see of Marseilles; but the political dis- turbances of the time prevented his consecration till Jan. 9, 1692. He was thence transferred (Feb. 1, 1708) to the archbishopric of Aix, and finally (iNlay 12, 1729) to that of Paris. In all his offices he displayed great fidelity and public generosity, but often fell under royal and even papal displeasure for his defence of national and popular rights. He died at Paris, March 13, 1746. See Hoefer, Xoiiv. Biofj. Generule, s. v.
Vinton, John Adams, a Congregational min- ister, was born in Boston, Mass., Feb. 5, 1801. He graduated at Dartmouth College in 1828, and at An- dover Theological Seminary in 1831. He preached for several churches in Maine,Vermont, and Massachusetts, from 1832 to 1852. He was the author of the Vintnn Memorial (Boston, 1858) -.—The Giles Memorial (1864) : — The Sampson Famibj in America (1864) : — and edited a reprint of Deborah Sampson's Female Review (1866); besides contributing to a number of religious and liter- ary periodicals.
Vinton, Justus H , a Baptist missionary in Bur- mah, was born in Willington, Conn., in 1806, and was educated at the Hamilton Literary and Theological In- stitute, now Madison LTniversity. He sailed from Bos- ton July 3, 1834, for the field of his missionary labors, where he remained, meeting with remarkable success in his work, until his return to the United States in 1848.
He returned to Burmah in 1850, and continued his labors, devoting himself especially to the conversion and religious training of the Karens. He died JIarch 31, 1858. Mr.Vinton is regarded as one of the most zealous and successful missionaries ever sent to heathen lands by the Baptists of the United States. (J. C. S.)
Vinton, Robert Spencer, a Methodist I<;piscopal minister, was first employed in pastoral work in 1817; joined the Baltimore Conference in 1.S18; was ordained deacon in 1820, and elder in 1822; in 1868 was super- numerated, and in 1869 superannuated. Diirini;; the war president Lincoln commissioned him as chaplain in the United States army, and charged him with the re- ligious watch-care of the military hospitals of Baltimore. He died of paralysis, July 31, 1870. jMr. Vinton was devoted, energetic, of spotless reputation, and success- ful as a minister. See Minutes of Annual Conferences, ' 187 J, p. 19.
Viol, the rendering in the A. V. at Amos v, 23 ; vi, 5, of the Heb. PrJ/?! nebel, which is elsewhere rendered "psaltery." It is a musical instrument, used chiefly in worship (1 Kings x, 12; 1 Chron. xv, 16; xxv, 1; 2 Chron. v, 12; xxix, 25; Mishna, Sucroth, x,4),but also in worklly festivals and bampiets (2 Chron. xx. 28; Isa. V, 12; xiv, 11), and is hence often connected with chinnor', "1123, the harjy or cithara (Psa. Ixxi, 22; cviii, 2; cl, 3). It passed from the East to the Greeks, and they retained the name ndbla, vajiXa ; Lat. na- blium (Ovid, Ars A mat. iii, 327; comp. Athen. iv, 175; Strabo, x, 471). The original form of the instrument is uncertain; it was not, however, a proper harp, but more like the cithara, which, as Josephus says (Ant. vii, 12, 3), had twelve strings, and was played by the hand. But the expression niw'" b23, Jiebel asm; a- nebel or '•instnnnent of ten strings," in Psa. xxxiii, 2; cxliv, 9, seems to make against this view, if we render it thus, with the Sept. {SsKaxopCov), and the number of strings may anciently have been fewer, or even vary- ing. From another meaning of iiebel, leather bottle or sack, some understand the instrument pictured by Nie- buhr {Ttf. xxvi; see Pfeitfer, p. 23), but this is more probably the kinrior, li'Si. If Augustine was right (on Psa. xxxi and xxvi), cithara and psalferinm (nablium) differed in this: that the latter had the sounding-box, to which the strings were fastened, on the upper side; and accordingly Cassiodorus and Isidorns (Orif/. iii, 75) compared it to an inverted A, so that the instrument resembled a vessel enlarging upwards. Such instru- ments are seen sometimes on Egyptian monuments (Wilkinson, ii, 280, 282, 287). On the other hand, the form of the most ancient cithara compared by Thenius (Sachs, exeffet. Stud, i, 100 sq.) has but a remote resem- blance. Cases for the nebel are mentioned in the Mish- na (Chelim, xvi,7). — Winer. See Psaltery.