MARCUS ANTONIUS DE, an Italian theologian and natural philosopher, was born in 1566, of an ancient family, at Arba, on the coast of Dalmatia ; and, having been educated in a college of the Jesuits at Loretto, he completed his studies at the University of Padua. The progress which ho made in the sciences was eo satis factory that the poraons iu authority at the university used their influcuco to induce him to cuter the order of Jesuits : to this he appears to have consented ; and, while passing his novitiate, he gave instruction in mathematics, physics, and eloquence. At the same time he employed his leisure iu the study of theology; and it was then that lie composed his work entitled 'Do Mathis Vista et Lucia in Vitris perspectivia of hide,' which was published at Venice by one of his pupils in 1611.
The routine of a oolloge life not suiting his taste, De Dominic quitted l'adua ; and, on the recommendation of the Emperor ltodolphus, he was appointed bishop of Segal Two years after wards he was made archbishop of SpaIntro ; but, while holding this dignity, he became embroiled with the pope (Paul V.) by taking a part in the disputes between that pontiff and the Venetia's:3 respecting the endowment of ecclesiastical establishments. On this occasion he threw out n cenenro on the conduct of the pope; and he further gave offence by entering upon the important but personally dangerous subject of reforming the manners of the clergy.
Jteing suspected of an inclination in favour of the reformed religion, he found it convenient to consult his safety by resigning his arch bishopric and rotiriog to Venice; this was in the year 1015, and in the following year ho came to England, where ho experienced a favourable reception from James I. The king appointed him to the deanery of Windsor; and at this time he composed hie work entitled Do Republics Ecclesiastical,' the object of which is to show that the pope has no supremacy over other bishops; it is in two parts, of which one was published in 1617, and the other in 1620, both in London. The work was much esteemed at the time, but is now
scarcely remembered. He also published a sermon, which be preached in 1617, in the chapel belonging to the Mercers' Company; and, in the following year, a work entitled `Scogli del Cristiana Naufragio quail va scopendo is Santa Chiesa.' De Dominis appears to have been restless and inconstant; for after a few years he expressed a wish to return to the bosom of the Catholic Church, and having received from the pope (Gregory XV.) a promise of pardon, he set out for Rome. Soon after his arrival, some intercepted letters gave indications that his repentance was not sincere, and he was in consequence committed to the castle of St. Angelo, where, after an imprisonment of a few months, he died, September 1624. Being convicted after his death of heresy, his body was disinterred and burnt.
De Dominis has the merit of being the first who assumed that the rainbow was produced by two refractions of light in each drop of rain, with an intermediate reflection from the back part of the drop; and he verified the hypothesis by receiving the ray of light from a globe of glass exposed to the sun in the same manner as the drops of rain are supposed to be situated with respect to that luminary. He knew nothing of the different refrtungibilities of the rays of light ; and he conceived that the colours were produced by the different forces with which the rays strike the eye in consequence of the different lengths of path described within the drop, by which it was supposed that they retain moro or less of the original impulsive force. He erred also in supposing that the rays which formed one of the bows came from the upper part of the sun's disc, and those which formed the other from the lower.