Sartor Resartus (Oxford World's Classics) (46 page)

Lycurgus,
Spartan lawgiver of the ninth century
BC
.

Maesogothic Ulfila,
see
Ulfila. Magendie, François (1783–1855),
French physiologist, noted for his research on the nervous system.

Maggiore, Lago,
large lake in northern Italy.

Mahmoud, Sultan (1785–1839),
Mahmoud II, Sultan of Turkey 1808–39.

Majendie,
see
Magendie.

Malines,
Belgian town, famous for its lace.

Malthus, Thomas Robert (1766–1834),
English political economist and author of the
Essay on the Principle of Population
(1798), which advocates restraints on population growth through limiting the number of births.

Malzleins,
Malzlein, a suburb of Vienna.

Marchfeld,
plain near Vienna where Ottokar, King of Bohemia, was slain by Rudolph (’Rodolf’) of Hapsburg at the battle of Stillfried in 1278, and where Napoleon defeated Francis I (’Kaiser Franz’) of Austria in 1809.

Melchizedek,
biblical priestking of mysterious origin.

Memnon,
Ethiopian hero, son of Eos, or Aurora, the dawn. His statue at Thebes was supposed to emit a sound like that of a breaking chord when struck by the first rays of the sun.

Merrick,
see
Meyrick
.

Meyrick, Samuel Rush (1783–1848),
his
Critical Inquiry into Ancient Armour
was published in 1824.

Milo,
athlete of Crotona during the sixth century
BC
. Said to have carried a 4-year-old bullock around the stadium at Olympia and afterwards to have eaten it all in a single day.

Minerva,
Latin name for Athena, goddess of wisdom and war, who was said to have sprung, fully armed, from the head of Zeus.

Monmouth Street,
noted in the eighteenth century for its old-clothes shops run largely by Jews.

Montesquieu, Charles Louis, Baron de (1689–1755),
French philosopher and historian; his
Esprit des Lois
appeared in 1748.

Montgolfier,
hot-air balloon, first raised in 1783, named after the French inventors Stephen and Joseph Montgolfier.

Nebuchadnezzar,
biblical king of Babylon, who attempted to burn his foes in a fiery furnace.

New Holland,
Australia.

Newton, Sir Isaac (1642–1727),
English mathematician and astronomer,
who continued the work of Johann Kepler.

Novalis (1722–1801),
pseudonym of Friedrich von Hardenberg, German poet and idealist.

Oken, Lorenz (1779–1851),
German naturalist and philosopher, real name Ockenfuss, founded the controversial journal
Isis
in 1818.

Ormuz,
Persian island, with a large, wealthy market in the late Middle Ages.

Otaheitean,
Tahitian.

Otto, Kaiser,
Otto I of Germany (912–73), who welcomed scholars to his court.

Palais Bourbon,
Chamber of Deputies (French Parliament) in Paris.

Papin, Denis (1647–1712),
French physicist and inventor of a ‘steam digester’ for raising the temperature of boiling water.

Paullini, Christian Franz (1643–1712),
German compiler, author of
Zeit-Kürzende erbauliche Lust
(‘Time-Shortening Uplifting Pleasure’, 1695–1725).

Paullinus,
see
Paullini
.

Philip, King,
Philip II of Spain (1527–98), whose introduction of the Inquisition into the Netherlands was opposed by a group calling themselves the
Gueux
(beggars).

Pierre-Pertuis,
‘Pierced Rock’; a natural passage through a large rock in the Bernese Alps, Switzerland.

Pisgah,
biblical mountain from which the Lord showed Moses the Promised Land.

Pius VII (1742–1823),
Pope from 1800 to 1823.

Pyrrhus (318–272
BC
)
, King of Epirus, who twice defeated but was finally conquered by the Romans.

Richter, Johann Paul Friedrich (1763–1825),
German Romantic humorist, who wrote under the name ‘Jean Paul’.

Rosa, Salvator (1615–73),
Italian painter of the Neapolitan school.

Rossbach
, town in Saxony where Frederick the Great defeated the French in 1757.

Royer-Collard, Pierre (1763–1845),
French philosopher.

Saint-Simon, Claude-Henri, Comte de (1760–1825),
philosopher and founder of socialism in France.

St Sophia,
Mosque of Holy Wisdom at Constantinople.

St Stephen’s,
i.e. the House of Commons in Westminster.

Salamanca University,
Spanish University, famous from the fifteenth to the seventeenth century.

Samarcand,
town in Turkestan; an important seat of learning in the fifteenth century.

Sanconiathon,
legendary Phoenician sage.

Saturn,
Roman god of agriculture;
mistakenly identified with the Greek gods Kronos and Chronos.

Schonbrünn,
Imperial castle near Vienna, where important treaties were concluded during the Napoleonic Wars.

Schreckhorn,
‘peak of terror’; a principal summit of the Bernese Alps in Switzerland.

Schwartz, Berthold,
German monk who discovered the process of granulating gunpowder early in the fourteenth century.

Seneca, Lucius Annaeus (
c
. 4
BC
-
AD
65),
Roman Stoic philosopher and dramatist.

Shinar,
site of the tower of Babel.

Siloa (or Siloam),
river and pool near Jerusalem.

Solon (
c
.638–559
BC
)
, Athenian lawgiver.

Stewart, Dugald (1753–1828),
Scottish philosopher and professor at the University of Edinburgh.

Sybaris,
Greek city in Southern Italy, famous for its luxury (hence ‘sybarite’).

Tadmor (or Palmyra),
Syrian city, destroyed in 273 but leaving splendid ruins.

Tarakwang, Emperor (1781–1850),
Tao Kuang, Emperor of China 1820–50. The ‘White Water-roses’ or Water Lily faction was active during the early part of his reign.

Tattersall,
London horse-market.

Teniers, David (1582–1649),
Dutch painter, as was his son and namesake (1610–90).

Themistocles,
Athenian statesman of the fifth century
BC
.

Tiber
, river in Italy, by Rome.

Tombuctoo,
Timbuctoo: a town on the edge of the Sahara desert, the subject of Tennyson’s poem
Timbuctoo
(1829).

Treisnitz,
Triesnitz; a town near Jena, in Germany, where Schiller and Goethe sometimes met, beginning in 1789.

Trimberg, Hugo von (12601309),
German author and Meistersinger.

Trismegistus, Hermes,
‘thrice-greatest’; name given by the Greeks to Thoth, Egyptian god of speech and letters.

Tubalcain,
the first metalworker, according to Genesis.

Ude, Louis Eustache (1769–1846),
famous French cook, chef to Louis XVI.

Ulfila (or Ulfilas) (
c
.311–83)
, Bishop of the Goths, who translated the Bible into Gothic; the oldest extant writing in the Germanic languages.

Vaucluse,
French village near Avignon; home of Petrarch.

Wagram,
village near Vienna, where Napoleon defeated the Austrians in 1809.

Werner, Abraham Gottlob (1750–1817),
father of German geology.

Wesley, Charles (1708–88),
brother of John Wesley; writer of well-known hymns.

Wesley, John (1703–91),
founder of the Methodists.

William the Silent (1533–84),
Prince of Orange and Count of Nassau, founder of the Dutch Republic; known for his diplomatic silences.

Winnipic, Lake,
Lake Winnipeg in Manitoba.

Zeno,
Greek philosopher of the third century
BC
; founder of the Stoic school.

Zinzendorf, Nikolaus Ludwig, Count von (1700–60),
German religious reformer; reviver of the Moravian Church.

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