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ENRICO CATERINO DAVILA (1576-1631)

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Originally appearing in Volume V07, Page 865 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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ENRICO CATERINO See also:

DAVILA (1576-1631)  , See also:Italian historian, was descended from a See also:Spanish See also:noble See also:family . His immediate ancestors had been constables of the See also:kingdom of See also:Cyprus for the Venetian See also:republic since 1464 . But in 1570 the See also:island was taken by the See also:Turks; and See also:Antonio See also:Davila, the See also:father of the historian, had to leave it, despoiled of all he possessed . He travelled into See also:Spain and See also:France, and finally returned to See also:Padua, and at Sacco on the 3oth of See also:October 1576 his youngest son, Enrico Caterino, was See also:born . About 1583 Antonio took this son to France, where he became a See also:page in the service of See also:Catherine de' See also:Medici, wife of See also:King See also:Henry II . In due See also:time he entered the military service, and fought through the See also:civil See also:wars until the See also:peace in 1598 . He then returned to Padua, where, and subsequently at See also:Parma, he led a studious See also:life until, when See also:war See also:broke out, he entered the service of the republic of See also:Venice and served with distinction in the See also:field . But during the whole of this active life, many details of which are very. interesting as illustrative of the life and See also:manners of the time, he never lost sight of a See also:design which he had formed at a very See also:early See also:period, of See also:writing the See also:history of those civil wars in France in which he had See also:borne a See also:part, and during which he had had so many opportunities of closely observing the leading See also:person-ages and events . This See also:work was completed about 1630, and was offered in vain by the author to all the publishers in Venice . At last one Tommaso Baglfoni, who had no work for his presses, undertook to See also:print the See also:manuscript, on See also:condition that he should be See also:free to leave off if more promising work offered itself . The See also:printing of the Istoria delle guerre civili di See also:Francia was, however, completed, and the success and See also:sale of the work were immediate and enormous . Over two See also:hundred See also:editions followed, of which perhaps the best is the one published in See also:Paris in 1644 .

Davila was murdered, while on his way to take See also:

possession of the See also:government of See also:Cremona for Venice in See also:July 1631, by a See also:ruffian, with whom some dispute seems to have arisen concerning the furnishing of the relays of horses ordered for his use by the Venetian government . The Istoria was translated into See also:French by G . Baudouin (Paris, 1642) ; into Spanish by Varen de Seto (See also:Madrid, 1651, and See also:Antwerp, 1686) ; into See also:English by W . See also:Aylesbury (See also:London, 1647), and by See also:Charles Cotterel (London, 1666), and into Latin by Pietro See also:Francesco Cornazzano (See also:Rome, 1745) . The best See also:account of the life of Davila is that by Apostolo See also:Zeno, prefixed to an edition of the history printed at Venice in 2 vols. in 1733 . See also:Peter See also:Bayle is severe on certain See also:historical inaccuracies of Davila, and it is true that Davila must be read with due remembrance of the fact that he was not only a See also:Catholic but the especial protege of Catherine de' Medici, but it is not to be forgotten that Bayle was as strongly See also:Protestant .

End of Article: ENRICO CATERINO DAVILA (1576-1631)
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SIR LOUIS HENRY DAVIES (1845— )
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DAVIS (or DAVYS), JOHN (1550 ?-16o5)

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