DIECMAN (JOHN), a Lutheran divine, was born June 30, 1647, at Stade in the duchy of Bremen, where his father was also a clergyman. He studied at Giessen, Jena, and Wirtemberg, at which last university he took his master's degree. In 1672 he finished his course of study, and in 1675 was appointed rector of Stade. In 1683 he was raised to the dignity of superintendant of the duchies of Bremen and Ferden, and about that time was honoured with the degree of doctor of divinity by the university of Kiel. In 1712, the war obliging him to leave Stade, he went to Bremen; but after three years returned, and was re-instated in his office at Stade, where he died July 4, 1720. He wrote, 1. "De naturalismo cum aliorum, tum maxime Joannis Bodini, ex opere ejus manuscripto anec. doto, de abditis rerum sublimium arcanis, schediasma," Leipsic, 1684, 12mo. This is a very able answer to the impious freedoms of Bodin (See BODIN). 2. "Specimen glossarii Latino-theodisci." 3. "Dissertationes de sparsione florum." 4. "De dissensu ecclesiæ orientalis et Latinæ circa purgatorium." 5. "Enneades animadversionum in diversa loca annalium cardinalis Baronii," &c, He wrote also various tracts in the German language, collected in a volume, Hamburgh, 1709, 4to. But he is, perhaps, better known as the publisher of an edition of the Stade Bible, which is a revision of Luther's Gernian Bible.'

DIEMEN (ANTHONY VAN), a governor of the Dutch East India settlements, was born at Kuilenburg. He went, in early life, in a low military capacity to India, where he was chiefly employed in writing petitions for the soldiers ; but being afterwards promoted to a post under government, which required some skill in accounts, he became a merchant, and afterwards accountant-general of the Dutch settlements in India. In 1625, he was appointed a member of the supreme council, and in 1631 he returned to Holland as commander of the India fleet. He remained but a few months in Europe, and when he went back to India many important offices devolved on him. In 1642, he sent out two ships to explore the unknown countries to the south, part of which, forming the southern extremity of New Holland, was, in honour of him, distinguished by the appellation of "Van Diemen's Land." He died in

April 1645, having held, with much reputation, the su preme power in India upwards of nine years. Van Diemen's land is an island in the form of an oblong square, about 160 British miles long, by half that breadth, separated by a strait, or rather channel, more than 30 leagues wide, called, in recent maps, Bass's strait, and containing a chain of small islands, running N. and S. from New Holland. From the time it was originally discovered, says capt. Cook, it had escaped all farther notice by European navigators, till captain Furneaux touched at it in March 1773; but he did not know at that time that capt. Marion, after having remained here for some time, sailed from thence on the 10th of March, 1772. It was again visited by captain Cook in January 1777.'

DIEMERBROECK (ISBRAND, DE), was born at Montfort, in the neighbourhood of Utrecht, Dec. 13, 1609. After taking his degree of doctor in medicine at Angers, he went to Nimeguen in 1636, and continued there, through that and the following years, practising during the plague, which all that time raged with great violence. This furnished him with observations on the nature and treatment of that disease, which he published at Amsterdam, in 1644, 4to; but as he pursued the injudicious plan of keeping the patients in close apartments, and gave them heating medi cines, his practice was probably not so successful as his book, which has passed through many editions. In 1642 he went to Utrecht, and was made professor extraordinary in medicine. His lectures in medicine, and in anatomy, procured him great credit, and were no less useful to the university, drawing thither a great conflux of pupils. In 1651, he was made ordinary professor; he was also twice appointed rector of the university, aud continued in high esteem to the time of his death, which happened Nov. 17, 1674, when his funeral oration was pronounced by the learned Grævius. Although an Arminian in his religious tenets, the magistrates dispensed in his case with the laws which excluded persons of that persuasion from attaining academical honours. In 1649 he published "Oratio de reducenda ad Medicinam Chirurgia;" and in 1664, Dispu tationum practicarum pars prima et secunda, de morbis. Capitis et Thoracis," 12mo, in which Haller says, there are some curious and useful observations. His "Anatome

«Cook's Voyages.--Rees's Cyclopedia.

Corporis Humani," which has passed through numerous editions, was first published in 1672, 4to, a compilation, interspersed with some original observations; but the plates are neither very elegant nor very correct. In 1685, his works were collected and published together, at Utrecht, under the title of " Opera Omnia," by his son Timanis de Diemerbroeck, in folio. This was reprinted in two volumes, 4to, and published at Geneva in 1687. It contains, besides the works abote named, "A treatise on the Measles and Small-pox, a century of observations in medicine and surgery, and a third part of disputations containing accounts of diseases of the lower belly."

DIEPENBECK (ABRAHAM VAN), an artist, was born at Bois-le-Duc, in 1607, and was at first a painter on glass, in which he was accounted excellent, and even superior to any of his time; yet he discontinued it, on account of a variety of discouraging accidents that happened to him, in his preparations for that kind of work. He studied for some time in Italy, and found there good employment as a glass painter; but he turned his thoughts entirely to painting in oil; and, to obtain the best knowledge of colouring, entered himself in the school of Rubens, where he improved exceedingly, and was considered as one of the good disciples of that great master; yet, notwithstanding the opportunity he had of refining his national taste, during his residence in Italy, he never altered his original style of design; for all his subsequent compositions were too much loaded, and not very correct. His invention was fertile, and shewed genius, and his execution was full of spirit; but it was no inconsiderable prejudice to him, to have been engaged in such a number of designs as were perpetually thrown in his way, and which he was obliged to strike out in a hurry, without competent time allowed. for judgment to revise, digest, and correct them. Designs for title-pages, for theses, and devotional subjects, engrossed the greatest part of his time and his labour; or designs for the decoration of books; of which kind, that called the "Temple of the Muses," 1663, afforded him great employment, and added much honour to the artist, merely as a designer. His designs, indeed, of the Bellerophon, the Orpheus, the Dioscuri, the Leander, the Ixion, Tantalus, and Sisyphus, have never been excelled by the

Moreri,-Burman's Trajectum Eruditum.-Foppen Bibl. Belg.

conception of the best masters of the best schools. He was one of the few scholars of Rubens that came to England, where he was much employed by William Cavendish, duke of Newcastle, whose managed horses he drew from the life; from whence were engraved the cuts that adorn that nobleman's book of horsemanship. Several of the original pictures are, or very lately were, in the hall at Welbeck. Diepenbeck drew views of the duke's seats in Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire, and portraits of the duke, duchess, and his children, and gave designs for several plates prefixed to the works of both their graces. Cassiobery is the story of Dido and Æneas by him.'

At

DIEST (ABRAHAM VAN), another artist, known in this country, was born at the Hague, in 1655; but spent the greatest part of his life in England, to which he came in his seventeenth year, and where he gradually rose into considerable credit, having been well instructed by his father, who was a skilful painter of sea-pieces. His taste of landscape was formed almost entirely (as he often declared) by designing the lovely views in the western parts of England, and along the coasts. Some of his pictures have great clearness and transparence in the colouring, and a peculiar tenderness in the distances; they are truly fine in the skies, have an uncommon freedom in the clouds, and an agreeable harmony through the whole. But, as he was often obliged to paint for low prices, there is a great disproportion in his works. The narrowness of his circumstances depressed his talent, and rendered him inattentive` to fame, being solely anxious to provide for his family. Had he been so happy as to receive a proper degree of encouragement, it is not improbable that he might have approached near to those of the first rank in his profession. The figures in his landscapes were frequently inserted by the younger Adrian Coloni, his brother-in-law. He be gan to engrave a set of prints, after views from his own designs, but the gout put an end to his life in 1704, in the forty-ninth year of his age. Lord Orford, who has a por trait of him, thinks he was not much encouraged in England, except by Granville earl of Bath, for whom he drew several views and ruins in the West of England.*

DIETERIC (JOHN CONRAD), the son of John Conrad, first minister of the church of Butzbach, and afterwards

1 Pilkington.-Argenville.-Descamps.-Walpole's Anecdotes.

Pilkington.Walpole,

superintendent of Giessen, and nephew of Conrad Dieterie, another learned German divine, was born at Butzbach, Jan. 19, 1612. After having studied at Marpurg, Jena, and Strasburgh, he maintained a thesis, in 1635, under professor Dilher, on the utility of profane authors in the study of the Holy Scriptures. He then went into Holland, where he became acquainted with the learned Vossius, Boxhorn, Barlæus, Heinsius, and other eminent scholars. Thence he travelled into Denmark and Prussia, remaining some time at Konigsberg. On his return, George II. landgrave of Hesse, appointed him professor of Greek and history in 1639. From the observations which he left on the aphorisms of Hippocrates, he appears to have in some early part of his life studied medicine. On certain disputes arising between the princes of the house of Hesse, prince George invited him to his court to arrange the papers and documents preserved in the archives. In 1647, he obtained leave to go to Hamburgh, where he remained until these family-disputes were adjusted. In 1653, when the college of Giessen was founded, which had brought many visitors from Marpurg, he became one of the professors, and remained in this office, with great reputation, until his death in 1669. The letters which John Christian, baron of Boinebourg, wrote to him, and which were printed in 1703, evince the high esteem which that nobleman entertained for him. He was editor of a work written by Henry of Bunau, entitled "Historia imperatorum Germanicorum familia Saxonicæ, Henrici I. Ottonis magni; Ottonis II. Ottonis III. et Henrici II." Giessen, 1666, 4to. His own works are, 1. "Breviarium historicum et geographicum." 2. 2. "Breviarium pontificum." 3." Discursus historico-politicus de perigratione studiorum," Marpurg, 1640, 4to. 4. "Græcia exulans, seu de infelicitate superioris sæculi in Græcarum litterarum ignoratione." 5. "Antiquitates Romanæ." "latræum Hippocraticum," Ulm, 1661, 4to. 7. "Breviarium hæreticorum et conciliorum." 8. "Index in Hesiodum." 9. "Lexicon Etymologico-Græcum." "Antiquitates Biblica, in quibus decreta, prophetiæ, sermones, consuetudines, ritusque ac dicta veteris Testa menti de rebus Judæorum et Gentilium, qua sacris, qua profanis, expenduntur; ex editione Joannis-Justi Pistorii," Giessen, 1671, folio, which, with the following, was posthumous. 11. "Antiquitates Nov. Testamenti, seu illus

6,

10.