GREGAN, JOHN EDGAR, architect, claims notice as one of thee who have contributed by their works to the architectural improvemen of the city of Manchester, where great progress in art has been man fasted during the last twenty years. Gregan was born in 1813 i Scotland ; it is believed at Dumfries. He received an excellent geners education at Edinburgh, and acquired his first professional knowledg of Mr. Walter Newell, architect, at Dumfries. About the year 183 or 1837 he went to Manchester, where he was for some time a assistant to Mr. T. W. Atkinson, an architect who may be said t have commenced the improvement which has been referred to. M Atkinson left. Manchester in the year 1840, when Gregan commence practice on his own account, and wholly by merit and exertion raise himself into a prominent position. His works include several church( and schools in the neighbourhoods of Manchester, Bolton, and Presto] and the chapel of the Diocesan Training School at Chester,—these bein in the mediaeval styles ; the church of St. John at Miles-Platting, an the Presbyterian churches at Green-Heys and Ancoats, schools to tl latter, and the Jews' School at Cheetham Hill—all in the style Northern Italy; several private houses at Manchester and neighbourir towns; warehouses (tbo class of buildings through which the chi architectural character of Manchester is expressed); the lodges to tl public parks of the same city, and other buildings. His best wire however, and it is of great merit, is the bank of Sir Benjamin lieywoo Bart., and Co., of which an illustrated account may be found in ti ' Builder' (vol. vii.), where also is a view, or an elevation, of one of h warehouses (vol. vlii.). The bank Is designed in an adaptation of tl 1 enetian Italian style,—with careful attention to beauty of detail. Ti now Mechanics' Institution at Manchester, from hie designs, has Imo mainly carried out under Mr. Corson's superintendence, since the dew of the original designer. Gregan died suddenly, after a short illne rought on by over-exertion, on the 29th of April 1855. He was a allow of the Institute of British Architects, Honorary Secretary to is Manchester Royal Institution, and took great interest in the local :hod of Design, the establishment of the Free Library, and other latitutions. He possessed a cultivated taste in general art, was ready ith pencil and brush, and was a skilful performer on one or two ivaical instruments.
aitEcosnio, ROSA'RIO, born in 1753, studied at Palermo, became priest, and was made a canon of the cathedral of that city. lie made itneelf known by his historical and antiquarian learning, which he pplied especially to illustrate the history of his native country. Iu 789 he was appointed Professor of Law iu the University of Palermo. in was one of the first to suspect the Imposture of the Haltom) dventurcr Vella, who had forged a pretended Arabic diplomatio code f the period of the Saracenic dominion in Sicily, and had succeeded deceiving some men of learning, among others the Prelate Airoldi, rho for a time patronised him. Gregorio having a strong suspicion of be imposture, applied himself to the study of Arabic, in order to ho ble to sift the whole matter ; and the result was that he became onvinced, and convinced others, of Vella's fraud, which was after ;ards clearly exposed by the learned Hager, of Vienna, in a journey Hach he made to Sicily in 1794. An account of this curious centre eray is found in the des Orients.' In 1790 Gregorio ,ublished a collection of Arabic historical works and documents con eruing the history of Sicily, 'llerum Arabicarum queer ad Ilistoriam liculam spectant ample Collectio,' 1 vol. folio, which he dedicated to (lug Ferdinand. It contains, 1, Novairi's History of Sicily; 2, an nonymous 'Chronicle of Sicily,' from a manuscript in the Library of he University of Cambridge ; 3, Sheaboddin's 'History of Sicily ;' 4, Extracts from Abulfeda's Annala which relate to the History of ;icily ;' 5, Al Khattib's Chronological Series of the Dynasties of the tglabides and Fatimitee who ruled over Sicily ;' 6, 'Historical 'arallels of the Rulers of Sicily during the Saracenic Period ;' 7, A )escription of Sicily from Edrisi's Geography ;' 8, 'Illustrations of ieveral Inscriptions in the Cufio Character found in Sicily; 9, A )issertation on the Calendar used in Sicily under the Arabs ;' 10, A iketch of the Geography of Sicily during the same period;' 11, Biographical Notices of Arabian Writers, natives of Sicily.' The
krabio text of the original historical works and documents is given Kith a Latin version, to which are appended copious notes by Gregorio. ionic of the historical works had been previously published by Caruso n his 'Bibliotheca Hietorica Regni Sicilia,: but in a very imperfect end incorrect state, owing to Caruso's want of knowledge of Arabic. Having thus illustrated the Saracenic period, Gregorio undertook to illustrate also that of the Aragonese dynasty in Sicily, thus affording continuation to Caruso's work above quoted, which extended through the Norman and Suabian periods, 'Bibliotheca Scriptorum qtti Ites in Sicilia gestas sub Aragonum Imperio retulere. Eam uti Accessiouem ad Historicam Bibliothecam Carusii instruxit, adornavit, atque edidit Itosarius Gregorio, S. Panormitanm Ecelmite Canonicus et Regius Juris publici Siculi Professor,' 2 vols. folio, 1791-92. This collection con tains the Historia Sicula' of B. de Neocastro; an anonymous account of the famous conspiracy of Procida, written in the vernacular Sicilian dialect; a narration, likewise in the Sicilian dialect, of the arrival at Catania of King Jayme of Aragon; the Historia Sicula ab a. 1282 ad 1337' of Speciale, and its continuation to the year 1361 by Michael Platiensis, an auonymoue history of Sicily from 1337 to 1412, written in Sicilian ; the chronicle of Simone di Lentini, and other chronicles; besides an ample collection of diplomatic documents of the Aragonese period, illustrating the laws and customs of that age. In 1794 Gregorio published his ' Introduzione allo Studio del Dritto Pubblico in which he examines the sources of the law of Sicily, the various constitutions of the Normana, Suabiana, and Aragonese, the consue tudines 'of Sicily, and the proper method for studying and expounding the same. In 1806 he published the first volume of his Considera zioni sulla Storia di Sicilia dai Tempi Normanni sine lei preeenti,' a work which was afterwards extended to six volumes, the last two being published after the author's death, and which supplies an excel lent commentary on the history of Sicily. He also wrote 'Discorsi intorno ally Storia di Sicilia,' which have been likewise published after his death, and in which he discards the fabulous stories of those who claimed for Sicily a remote civilisation and literature of Phemiciau or Asiatic origin, anterior to Greek colonisation. Gregorio assumed to prove that the earliest colonies in Sicily came from the west, and not from the east—from Iberia, Liguria, and Latium, and not from Syria.
Gregorio filled several offices under the government. He was made revisore or book-censor, judge of the ecclesiaatical court, and Regio Economo Eccleaiastico, or auditor of church property ; but his emolu ments continued to be scanty until a short time before his death, when he was presented to the abbacy of Santa Maria di Roccadia. He died in 1809. He is one of the writers who have done most for elucidating the history of Sicily : he was one of those single-minded studious men who are to be met here and there amidst the vortex of Neapolitan and Sicilian dissipation and sensuality, and who live as it were in a world of their own, retaining a kind of primitive simplicity which contrasts strangely with everything around them.
(Seind, Prorpetto della Scoria lelleraria di Sicilia nel Secoio XVIII., Palermo, 1824.27.)