commentaries exist only for the Posterior Analytics, Physics, De Ccelo, De Anima, and Metaphysics. On the History of Animals no commentary at all exists, and Plato s Republic is substituted for the then inaccessible Politics. The Latin editions of these works between 1480 and 1580 number about 100. The first appeared at Padua, 1472 ; about fifty were published at Venice, the best known being that by the Juntas (1552-3), in ten volumes folio. See Renan, Averroes et I Averroisme ; Munk, MUanges, 418-458; Miiller s German translation, Philosophic und Thcologie, Miinchen, 1875; Stbckl, Phil. d. Mittelalters, ii. 67-124; Averroes (Vaterund Sohn), Drei Abhandl. iiber d. Conjunction d. separaten Intellects mit d Menschen, translated into German from the Arabic version of Sam. ibn-Tibbon, by Dr J. Hercz, Berlin, 1869. (W. W.)
AVERSA, a town of Italy, province of Terra di Lavoro, situated in a beautiful plain covered with orange-groves and vineyards, about midway between Naples and Capua. It is the seat of a wealthy bishopric, and its foundling hospital and lunatic asylum, the latter founded by Murat, are very celebrated. Aversa owed its origin to the Normans, and dates from 1030, the people of the ancient city of Atella being transported thither. Population, 21,176.
AVESNES, a town of France, in the department of
Nord, situated in a fertile district on the Greater Helpe.
It is generally well built, and is fortified on Vauban s
system. Its principal building is the cathedral, surmounted
by a tower 330 feet high, which is raised on four columns,
and has a fine chime. It is the seat of a sub-prefect, and
has a tribunal of primary jurisdiction, an agricultural
society, and a communal college. The principal manu
factures are hosiery, coarse serge, and soap ; there are also
breweries, tanneries, salt-refineries, and brick and marble
works. A great part of the town was destroyed by the
explosion of a powder-magazine during the siege by the
Prussians in July 1815, but was soon afterwards rebuilt.
Population, 3737.
AVEYRON, a department in the S. of France, bounded
on the N. by Cantal, E. by Lozere, S. by He rault and
Tarn, and W. by Tarn et-Garonne and Lot, containing an
area of 3429 square miles. It corresponds to a large por
tion of the ancient district of Rouergue in Guienne, which
formerly gave its name to a family of counts. Its earliest
inhabitants known to us were the Rutheni, whose capital
- was Segodunum, identified with the modern Rodez. The
department is rich in prehistoric antiquities, such as the dolmens at Taurines, Laumieres, Grailhe, &c. (see paper by M. E. Cartailhac in Norwich vol. of Internat. Cong, of Prehist. Arch., 1868). A large portion of Aveyron is occupied by offshoots of the Cevennes, the highest summit beiug Cham-de-la-Roche, 4350 feet above the level of the sea. About half the area is under cultivation, nearly one-fourth ia heath, one-tenth woods and forests, and rather more than an eighth part meadow land. Vineyards -occupy about one-twelfth part of the cultivated land. The department has mines of copper, lead, silver, iron, zinc, alum, and antimony, and extensive coal-fields of great value. Rather more than three-fourths of the inhabitants are engaged in agricultural pursuits of one kind or another, mainly in the rearing of cattle, sheep, and swine ; and there are manufactures of paper, woollen and cotton goods, silk, and leather, to which water-power is skilfully applied. Aveyron exports chestnuts, almonds, hemp, wool, wax, the famous Roquefort cheese, timber, and cattle. Among the numerous men of mark belonging to the department may be mentioned Jean de la Valette, the defender of Malta, Raynal, Bonald, and Louis Blanc. The capital is Rodez, and the arrondissements are Rodez, Espalion, Milhau, Saint- Affrique, and Villefranche. Popu lation in 1872, 402,474. For investigations into the races represented in the department see Bulletins de la Soc. d Anthrop. vol. iv.
AVEZZANO, a town of Italy, in Abruzzo Ulteriore II.,
containing a castle, which was built in 1499 by Virgilio
Orsini, afterwards belonged to the family of the Colonnas,
and is now in the possession of the Barberinis. Population
about 5900. Long. 13° 32' E., lat. 41° 58' N.
AVICEBRON. The writer referred to by the Scholas
tics of the 13th century under this name was sup
posed by them to be an Arabian philosopher, and was
accordingly classed along with Avempace, Abubacer, and
others. Recent researches have shown that this is an
error, and that this author, about whom so little was
known, is identical with Salomon ben Gebirol, a Jewish
writer, several of whose religious poems are still celebrated
among the Jews. Few details are known regarding the
life of Gebirol. He was born at Malaga, and received his
education at Saragossa, where, in 1045, he wrote a small
treatise on morals, which has been several times reprinted.
His death is said to have taken place in 1070 at Valencia.
Among the Jews he is known only through his poems,
and, with a few unimportant exceptions, no Jewish writer
refers to his philosophical speculations. The Christian
Schoolmen, about the middle of the 12th century, became
acquainted with Gundisalvi s Latin translation of a work
called Fons Vitce or Sapientice, which exercised a powerful
influence on their metaphysical discussions. The author
was called by them Avicebron, or Avicembron, or Avence-
brol, and nothing was known regarding him till M. Munk
discovered a Hebrew abridgment, by Ibn Falaque ra, of
Rabbi S. ben Gebirol s treatise on the source of life. He
readily identified this with the work of the unknown
Avicebron, and the discovery of two Latin MSS. of the
Fons has placed the identification beyond doubt. The
extracts of Falaque ra give a fair idea of the work, and
enable us to understand the peculiar influence it exercised.
The objects of metaphysics according to it are three in
number, the knowledge of matter and form, of the divine
will or creative word, and of the supreme unity of God.
God, as infinite, cannot be known by intelligence which is
finite, for all knowledge involves comprehension, or requires
that the known be contained in the knowing. God works
through the divine will, which is intermediate between the
supreme unity and the world. All things in the world
possess both matter and form ; all the various species of
matter are but variations of one universal matter ; and
similarly all forms are contained in one universal form.
This unity of matter applies to the soul and mind as well
as to material things, and it is against this proposition that
the orthodox Schoolmen, as Albertus and Thomas, princi
pally argue. The matter and form in the universe is dis
posed in successive stages, and rising above the lowest grade
or corporal matter there are certain intermediate substances
uniting it with the divine will, without which there is no
motion. These intermediate substances, taken in order, are
the universal intellect, the rational soul, the vital soul, the
vegetative soul, and nature, or the principle of motion in
material things. Activity is transmitted from the divine will
through these stages, each of which causes the one next
below itself to pass from potentiality into actuality. The
materials of Avicebron s philosophy are due mainly to the
Alexandrian speculations concealed in the pseudo- Aristote
lian Theology. The position of the divine will, somewhat
enigmatical in a philosophical point of view, is probably a
concession to Jewish orthodoxy. For a full account of ail
that is known regarding Avicebron s life and philosophy,
with translation of Falaque"ra s extracts, see Munk s
Melanges de Phil. Juive et Arabe, pp. 1-306; for his
poems see Sachs s Die Religiose Poesie der Juden in
Spanien, and Geiger s S. ben Gabirol und seine Dichtungen.
AVICENNA (in Arabic, Abu Ali el-Hosein Ibn-Abdallah
IBN-SINA) was born about the year 980 A.D at Afshena,
one of the many hamlets in the district of Bokhara. His
mother was a native of the place ; his father, a Persian
