David Prashker's Book Of Days: The Merely Mentioneds: U, V

Zunar (Zulkiflee Anwar Ulhaque): arrested for the crime of satire on Sept 27 - his website here

Viktor Ullmann (born January 1 1898; died you-know-where on October 18 1944): among the fellow-prisoners at Terezin on April 1 – bio here

Gui d’Ussel: one of the Troubadours who came under the matronage of Maria de Ventadorn on Jan 13

Isaac Uzziel, fully Isaac ben Abraham Uziel of Fez (and later of Amsterdam), who taught Menasseh ben Israel as well as Isaac Aboab; and in Aboab’s case taught him how to excommunicate a fellow Jew, by doing this to Uriel da Costa (Adam Romes was his pen-name), and not once but twice, da Costa committing suicide after the degradations imposed on him the second time. His crime? Exactly the same as Baruch Spinoza’s. Free thought of an Enlightenment sort, and the invention, though he didn’t call it that, of Bible Criticism: Feb 1

Lazzaro Uzielli (born February 4 1861; died October 8 1943): teaching Erwin Schulhoff in Cologne on April 1

Valentinus: see Feb 14

Jean Valjean: miserable with Victor Hugo on Feb 26; on the barricades with Casanova on April 2

Pietro Vanucci - Perugino was his nom de brosse; chosen because he came from Perugia (born 1446; died 1523): contributing to the Sistine Chapel on Nov 1 (another of the contributors, Raphael, was one of his students) - bio and pictures here

Ilya Vatenberg (1887–1952), with his wife Chaika Vatenburg-Ostrovskaya (1901–1952): two more victims of the so-called “Yiddish writers plot” on Aug 12 – bio and more here

William Vaux (3rd Baron Vaux of Harrowden, 1535-1595): already accused with his brother-in-law Sir Thomas Tresham of harbouring the Jesuit priest Edmund Campion, two decades before the Gunpowder Plot of Nov 5. Wife Anne was also involved, hiding another Jesuit priest, Henry Garnet: “Anne Vaux suspected the existence of the Gunpowder Plot, but she played no direct role in it. She was arrested shortly after the plot was discovered but was released on a bond put up by Lewis Pickering. After her release, she tried unsuccessfully to hide Garnet at the home of Thomas Abington at Hindlip, Worcestershire” - all that from here [and is he the reason for Vaux Hall? odd coincidence of a name if he isn't, given the proximity of Vauxhall to Westminster!]

Titian - Tiziano Vecellio (born circa 1490; died August 27 1576): just one more painting on April 16 - bio here, and many more paintings here

Suzanne Verdal: dancing inspirationally, but platonically, for Leonard Cohen, on Nov 28; their story, told by her, here

Mme Verdurin (as in Proust’s attempt to recover wasted time): hostessing a salon on Feb 5. Pure fiction: but what is interesting, and worth a piece on its own, is the source: Léontine Lippmann (born June 14 1844; died January 12 1910), better known by her married name as Madame Arman, or fully Madame Arman de Caillavet; and not just Proust, but Anatole France as well, entirely enmused by her

Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford: co-authoring Shakespeare’s plays with Francis Bacon on Jan 5, June 29 and Dec 29

Amerigo Vespucci in his native Italian, but remembered as Américo Vespúcio in Portuguese and Spanish; Latinised it becomes Americus, and thence America (born March 9 1454 in Florence; died February 22 1512): bio here; on the blog on May 5

Pèire de Vic, known as “Lo Monge de Montaudon”, The Monk of Montaudon: one of the Troubadours who came under the matronage of Maria de Ventadorn on Jan 13. Complete works here.

Giambattista Vico (born June 23 1668; died January 23 1744): introduced to his Oxford colleagues by Matthew Arnold on Dec 24; but you will also find him mentioned under James Joyce and Sam Beckett – bio here

Paul-Antoine Vidal (born June 16 1863; died April 9 1931): teaching Lili Boulanger composition on Aug 21: bio here

Louis Vigée (father of Élisabeth Louise Vigée-Lebrun) - can’t find anything else about him except this brief entry on Wikipedia, which you are advised to read with caution as they simply troll the web robotically and pick up a lot of duck-feathers and sea-weed with the fishes (and they often get the wrong fishes, and they never check): anyway, here (and now that you’ve looked, a question for you: if he was named Louis Vigée, he can’t have “married Jeanne Vigée”, unless it was incestuous; he must have married someone who changed her name to his... you see the reason for my Caveat...) April 16

Gene Vincent: I think that should be Jean Vinsant on Sept 14 (actually, no, because it was his nom de microphone, not his birthname: Vincent Eugene Craddock (born February 11 1935; died October 12 1971); doesn’t really work for a pop star, does it!

Teobaldo Visconti, Pope Gregory X (1271-76): not quite as eloquent or compelling as Pope Innocent IV’s remarks in the same July 14 timeline, but noteworthy for all that.

Johann Heinrich Voss (or Voß) (born February 20 1751; died March 29 1826). On Feb 8 but not a pseudonym.