Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 10.djvu/622

604 sununit showing the former attachment of a leafy stem. ' The colour, when not whitewashed, is a pale buff; it is somewhat rough or ﬁbrous, breaking with a short mealy fracture, and presenting on the surfaces of the broken parts numerous short bristly ﬁbres.

The British market derives its supply of ginger from various parts of the world. The principal sorts, however, or those most commonly found in commerce, are Jamaica, Cochin, Bengal, and African, though each of these in its turn has its several varieties and qualities. The best or I most valued kind of all is the Jamaica, and next to it the Cochin. For ordinary purposes uncoated ginger is 0011- l sidered the best 5 the largest and ﬁnest pieces, of a pale buff colour both outside and inside, and cutting softly and evenly, are considered the most valuable. The chief sources of supply are the East and West Indies, Sierra Leone, and Egypt.

1em  GINGHAM is a woven cotton fabric, of a close stoutish texture, the distinguishing characteristics of which are that it is a plain (i.e., untwilled) cloth, woven into yarn-dyed stripes or checks of two or more Colours. In some cases as many as seven or eight colours are introduced in the warp and weft of a gingham; but no patterns are made that cannot be woven in a common plain loom. Gingham was originally an Indian product, but its manufacture was early introduced into the Lancashire and Glasgow districts ; and during the ﬁrst half of the present century the trade formed an important feature in the textile industries of the latter locality—the demand for the fabric coming chiefly from the United States and the West Indies. The trade distinction of gingham is now to a large extent superseded by other terms.  GINGUENÉ, (1748–1815), the author of the IIistoire littc'raire d’Italie, was born on 25th April 1748 at Bennes in Brittany. He was educated at a Jesuit college in his native town, but he owed most of his literary tastes and accomplishments to his father, who early imbued him with a love of music and the languages of England and Italy. His first literary effort, a poetical piece entitled ("onfession (le Zul-mé, brought him into notice among the literary coteries of Paris, from the circumstance that, when published at ﬁrst anonymously, it was claimed by six or seven different authors. Though the value of the piece is not very great, it is Ginguené’s poetical chef cl’aeuvre. The part he took as a defender of Piccini against the partisans of Gluck made him still more widely known ; and the reputa- tion he acquired as a promising political writer secured em- ployment for him in the public service in 1780. Ile hailed, however, the ﬁrst symptoms of the Revolution, joined Babaut, St Etienne, and Cerutti in producing the Feuz'lle I'illageoz'sc, and celebrated in an indifferent ode the opening of the states-general. A more creditable effort was his Lettres sur les Confessions ([6 J. J. Rousseau, 1791, in which he defended to the uttermost the life and principles of his author. Refusing to countenance the excesses of the J Revolution, he was thrown into prison, whence he only I escaped with life by the downfall of Robespicrre. Some time after his liberation he assisted, as director-general of l the “commission executive de l‘instruction publique," in reorganizing the system of public instruction. When the Institute was established in 1796, he was elected a member of the division called the academy of moral and political sciences. In 1798 the directory appointed him minister plenipotentiary to the king of Sardinia, whose ruin, begun by force of arms, they had determined to complete by treachery. A less promising tool could not have been found for carrying out their design. After fulfilling his duties for seven months, very little to the satisfaction of his employers, Ginguené retired to his country house of St Prix, in the valleyof Montmorcncy, and there he prose- cuted his literary labours till the Revolution of the 18th Brmnaire called him once more before the world. He was appointed a member of the tribunate, which made a show of maintaining democratic opposition to the ﬁrst Consul , but Napoleon, ﬁnding that he was not sufﬁciently tractable, had him expelled at the ﬁrst “purge,” and Gingucnc once more joyfully returned to his favourite pursuits. These were now more than ever a necessity of life to him, as his only other source of income was the small endow- ment attached to his seat in the Institute. Fortunately he was nominated one of the commission charged to con- tinue theliterary history of France, which had been brought down by the Benedictines to about the ; and the three volumes of this series which ap- peared in 1814, 1817, and 1820 are for the most part the result of his labours. But the work by which Ginguené will be longest remembered is his I/z'stoire liltéruire (1'1 laiie (9 vols. Svo, 1811—1819), to which he was putting the finishing touches when he was cut off by a painful disease, November 16, 1815. The ﬁrst six volumes appeared before their author’s death; the seventh is entirely his except a few pages, and of the eighth and ninth he wrote about a half, the other half being Composed by Salﬁ, and revised by Daunou. The success of the history in Italy was astonishing: editions were published in various parts of the peninsula, with notes and comments by the best scholars, and three translations appeared respectively at Milan, Naples, and Venice. Ginguené was originally led to make Italian literature his special study by ﬁnding how ill that subject was under- stood, and how little it was appreciated, by his countrymen. In the composition of his history he was guided for the most part by the great work of the Jesuit 'l‘iraboschi, but he avoids the prejudices and party views of his model. His own style, though occasionally forcible and eloquent, is net unfrequently too tame for the subject, and he often tres- passes on his reader’s patience by over-minutcuess of detail; but these faults are more than atmed for by ﬁne critical discernment, impartiality, and freedom. On the some of accuracy, indeed, Ginguené sometimes offends, but seldom in matters of great moment ; and his slips are such as are almost inevitable to a foreigner, who could hardly be said to have even seen the country whose literary history he relates. The Italians felt grateful to him for having placed their literature in its proper light, and readily forgave the excessive eulogies which he passed on many of their writers, whose very names had been forgotten in their own country.

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