Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 5.djvu/427

 EEKEHARD

371

ELBA

Ekkehard o£ Aura (Uraugiensis), Benedictine monk and chronicler, b. about 1050; d. after 1125. Very little is known of his life. About 1101 he went on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, and in 1106 took part in the CouncU of Guastalla. Apparently he be- longed at first to the monastery of St. Michael at Bam- berg, and later (1108 or 1113) was abbot of the monas- tery of Aura, founded by Bishop Otto of Bamberg, on the Franconian

>iale.

Pope Paschal II Givim: Imperial

Insignla to Henrv V Miniature from the Chronicle of Ekke- hard of Aura, Bk. V, MS. at Cambridge

near Kis- smgen, Bavaria ; this monastery followed the Rule of Hirschau. The " Chronicon uni- TitfwBi versale", ^^^R.1 ealled after ^' _^ Ekkehard, O.UINt' is the chief source for the his- tory of Germany during the years 1080-1125. In its present form it is divided into five books : the first contains ancient history from the C reation to the building of the city of Rome ; the second extends to the birth of Christ ; the third reaches the time of Charle- magne; the fourth goes to the open- ing of the reign of Emperor Henry V; the fifth con- tains an account of the reign of this ruler. No other medieval general chronicle covers .so much ground ; in the manuscripts now extant it is evidently not the work of one man but represents rather a fusion of various recensions and continuations. Bresslau, in his acute investigation of the subject (Neues Archiv filr altere deutsche Geschichtskunde, VII), traces these changes, for the most part, to Frutolf, prior of St. Michael's (d. 17 Feb., 1103). It is now believed that Ekkehard simply rewrote the greater part of the chronicle, and that his original contribution is the ac- count of the reign of Emperor Henry V. The chronicle, taken as a whole, is a very skilful compilation, and shows in the selection and arrangement of the matter a sound understanding and mastery of the material at hand. The language is good and simple, and the presentation clear and well summarized. Continua- tions were written by various chroniclers, among whom may be mentioned Conrad of Lichtenau and Albert of Stade. Ekkehard's chronicle has been published several times (Mon. Germ. Hist., Script., VI, 13-265; Migne, P. L.,CLIV, 459-1060). A German translation was issued by Pfiiiger (Leipzig, 1893), as vol. LI of the series " Geschichtsschreiber der deut- schen Vorzeit".

Buchholz, Ekkehard von Aura (Leipzig, 1888); "Watten- BACH, Deutschlands Gesckichtsquellen (Berlin, 1893), II, 169.

Patricius Schlager.

Elsea, a titular see of Asia Minor. Elaea, said to have been founded by Menestheus, was situated at a distance of twelve stadia from the mouth of the Caicus, one hundred and twenty stadia from Perga- mus. It appears in history about 450 B. c, at the time of the .\thcnian naval league. It belonged to Alexander, then to the kings of Pergamus, and was the port of the latter. In 190 B. c. it was besieged by Antiochus rif Syria, in 156 by Prusias, who ravaged all the country. It was partly destroyed in a. d. 90 by an

earthquake. In its Roman period it struck coins. As a suffragan of Ephesus Elaea is mentioned by most "Notitiae episcopatuum" as late as the twelfth or the thirteenth century. We know only three of its bishops: Isaias in 451, Olbianus in 787, Theodulus in the twelfth century (Lequien, Or. Christ., I, 699). In the tenth century St. Paul the Younger, a monk of Mount Latros, was born there (Analecta BoUandiana, XI, 1-74, 13(3-182). The city must have been de- stroyed either by the Mongols or by the Turks. The ruins stand about three kilometres south of ICilisse Keui in the vilayet of Smyrna. The Greek Church also gives the title of Elsa to auxiliary bishops.

S. PETRinibs.

Elba, the largest island of the Tuscan Archipelago, is to-day a part of the Italian province of Leghorn and is separated from the mainland by the Channel of Piombino. The island is traversed throughout by tree- less mountain ranges, the highest peak being Monte Capanne (about 3343 feet) ; its area is 86 square miles; according to the census of 1901 it had 25,556 inhabi- tants, mostly Catholics. Politically the island foi-rns the district of. Porto Ferrajo; the chief town is Porto Ferrajo on the north coast, a place with 3940 inhabitants; the commune contains 6701 in- habitants. Outside of Porto Ferrajo the ])rincipal towns of the island are Orte Rio, with 2478 in- habitants, and the strongly fortified Porto Longone, which has a good harbour and a population of 4761. Ecclesiastically Elba belongs to the Diocese of Massa Marittima (see Massa Marittima) and contains eleven parishes: Porto Ferrajo, Porto Longone, Marciana, Marciana Marina, Poggio, Capoliveri, Rio, Rio Marina, Marina Campo, Sant' Ilario in Campo, and San Pietro in Campo. The Sisters of Mercy of St. Vincent de Paul have a house at Porto Longone, and the Sisters of St. Vincent, or Ladies of Christian Love, founded by the Venerable Cottolengo, have one at Porto Ferrajo; these are the only houses of religious on the island. The chief industry of Elba is the mining of the rich iron ore which was famous even in antiquity, but which, on account of lack of fuel, is generally smelted on the opposite coast of the mainland (the Maremma). The agricultural products are wheat, maize, wine, and semi-tropical fruits, and there are very profitable tunny and anchovy fisheries. The commerce is car- ried on through five ports, which were visited in 1900 by 2549 mercliant vessels with a total of 492,418 tons burden. The smaller surrounding islands of Capraja, Pianosa, Palmaola, and Monte Cristo are connected in government with the island of Elba. Concerning the famous monastery of San Mamiliano, now in ruins, on the island of Monte Cristo, see Angclli, "L'Abbazia e ITsola di Montecristo" (Florence, 1903), and for other information Kehr, "Regesta Pontificum Romanorum; Italia Pontificia" (Berlin, 1908), III, 276-78.

In the tenth century Elba came into the power of Pisa, from which it was WTested in 1290 by the city of Genoa. In 1399 Gian Galeazzo Visconti gave the island and the principality of Piombino to Gherardo Appiano in exchange for the lord- ship of Pisa. After that the island belonged as a Spanish fief to the Dukes of Sora and the Princes of Piombino. The Emperor Charles V gave a part of Elba to the Grand Duke Cosimo I of Tuscany, who built the citadel of Cosmopoli and thus laid the foundation of the later Porto Ferrajo, the chief town of the island; another district including Porto Long- one came into the power of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. In 1736 the whole of Elba with the principal- ity of Piombino passed under the jurisdiction of .the Kingdom of Naples; in 1801 the Peace of Luneville gave it to the Kingdom of Etruria, and in the following year, by the Peace of Amiens, it was transferred to France. After the first abdication of Napoleon Elba was made over to him as a sovereign principality. He