Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 03.djvu/364

LEFT BELLA ROBBIA 312 DELPPIINUS Robinson, were the leaders. They took the name from the Accademia Delia Crusca in Florence. DELLA ROBBIA, LUCA, an Italian sculptor; born in 1400, in Florence, died in 1482. He was distinguished for his work both in marble and bronze, and also for his reliefs in terra-cotta coated with enamel, a kind of work named after him. Other members of the family, distin- guished themselves in the same line, especially Andrea (1435-1525), nephew and pupil of Luca. DSLORME, MARION, a famous trench woman; born Oct. 31, 1613, in or near the town of Blois. She went early in life to Paris, where her great beauty and brilliant wit soon gathered a group of wealthy and high-born lovers round her. Cardinal Richelieu revenged himself for her contempt by causing her to be separated from the ill-fated young Cinq-Mars, her love for whom was the one ennobling passion of her life. Among her lovers were, in succession, the Duke of Buckingham, Saint-Evremond, the Due de Brjssac, the Chevalier de Gram- mont, and Emery, the Superintendent of Finance. During the first disturbances of the Frondeurs, her house was the rallying-point of the chiefs of that party, and in consequence Mazar'i A^as about to fling her into prison, when she sud- denly died in 1650. DELOS, CYNTHUS, or ORTYGIA (now called Sailles, Saylli, Delo, or Deli), is the smallest of the Cyclades, at the N. of Naxos, and was famous throughout antiquity as having been the birthplace of Apollo and Diana. Accord- ing to the legend it was a floating island, but was rendered immovable in order that Latona might give birth in security to these two divinities. It was conse- crated to the worship of Apollo and peopled by lonians; and, in Homer's time, was the central seat of their politi- cal and religious union. Like all ancient temples of celebrity, that of Apollo at Delos was one of the great emporia for trade; and, after the fall of Corinth, the Delians, by wisely declaring their port free, secured that vast commerce be- tween the East and West of which that noble city had been the channel. Its com- mercial importance was further insured by the peculiar sanctity which attached to the island. Even hostile fleets rode quietly at anchor in its sacred harbor. The altar in the temple of Apollo is said to have been a perfect cube, and the doubling of it was a noted mathematical problem with the ancients, which went under the name of the problema Deliacum. The decline of Delos dates from the Mithridatic War, when it was laid waste by one of the generals of Mithridates. DELPHI, or DELPHOS (now Castri). a small town of ancient Phocis, in a valley to the W. of Mount Parnassus, was the seat of the most famous of all the oracles of Apollo. At this place certain exhalations, issuing from a cavern, threw all who approached it into convulsions. The responses were de- livered by a priestess, called Pythia, who sat upon a tripod placed over the mouth of this cavern, and after having inhaled the vapor, gave utterance to the wished- for predictions, which were then inter- preted by the priests. From its favorable position this oracle came to be consulted, not only by the Greeks, but even by the neighboring nations. The oracle con- tinued to utter its responses long after the seat of empire had been transferred from Greece to Rome; and it was only when Constantine the Great removed the sacred tripods to adorn the hippodrome to his new city that the responses ceased to be delivered. DELPHIN CLASSICS, a collection of the Latin classic authors made for the dauphin (Lat. ad tisum Delphini), son of Louis XIV., under the editorship of Bossuet and Huet, with notes and in- terpretations. A similar series based on these was published in London. DELPHINIDiE, one of the families into which the order Cetacea is divided. It comprises such forms as the true dolphins, the fresh-water dolphins of the Ganges and Amazon, the porpoises, the beluga, the orca, and, according to some authors, the narwhal. The members of this group possess considerable diversity in outward form, in skeletal characters, and dentition; and, with the exception of the narwhal they agree in having numerous conical teeth in both jaws. The delpMnidse are found fossil in deposits of Miocene and later date. DELPHINIUM, or LARKSPURS, a genus of plants belonging to the natural order Rayiunculaceae. They are widely spread over the northern temperate zone. They are erect, branching, annual or perennial shrubs, with blue or violet, rarely white, racemose flowers; calyx deciduous, petal-like, and irregular. D. staphisagria, staves-acre, has seeds which are irritant and narcotic, and yield the alkaloid delphinia. D. Cmisolida is a simple astringent. DELPHINUS (del-fi'nus), (the Dol- phin), one of Ptolemy's original 48 con- stellations, situated between Vulpecula, Pegasus, Equuleus, Aquarius, and Aquila. It has no stars brighter than