Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 10.djvu/638

620 leather, and as strings for their musical instruments; while its leg bones, which differ from those of other ruminants in being solid, are largely used in England in the manufacture of buttons and other articles of bone.  GIRALDI, (–), or Lilius Gregorius Gyraldus, one of the scholars and poets of the golden age of Italian literature, was born June 14, , at Ferrara, where he early distinguished himself by his talents and acquirements. On the completion of his literary course he removed to Naples, where he lived on familiar terms with I’ontano and Sannazaro 3 and subsequently to Lombardy, where he enjoyed the favour of the Mirandola family. At Milan in he studied Greek under Chalcondylas 3 and shortly afterwards, at Modena, he became tutor to ErColc (afterwards Cardinal) Rangone. About  he removed to Rome, where, under Clement VII, he held the office of apostolic ]_)r0tonota1'y3 but having in the sack of that city, which almost coincided with the death of Cardinal Rangone his most powerful patron, lost all his property, he returned in poverty once more to )Iimndola, whence again he was driven by the troubles consequent on the assassination of the reigning prince in . The rest of his life was one long struggle with ill health, poverty, and neglect3 and he is alluded to with. sorrowful regret by Montaigne in one of his Essaz's (i. 31), as having, like Sebastian Castalio, ended his days in utter destitution. He died at Ferrara in February 3 and his epitaph makes touching and graceful allusion to the sadness of his end. Giraldi was a man of very extensive erudition 3 and numerous testimonies to his profundity and accuracy have been given both by contemporary and by later scholars. His IIisloria (1e Diis Gentium marked a distinctly forward step in the systematic study of classical mythology 3 and by his treatises De Anne's et Illcnsz'bus, and on the Calcmlarium Roma)an et Grcecmn, he contributed to bring about the reform of the calendar, which was ulti- mately effected by Pope Gregory XIII. His I’roﬂqymnasma adverts-us Lz'tcras et Literatos deserves mention at least among the curiosities of literature 3 and among his other works to which reference is still occasionally made are His— toricc Poetarmn Grcecorum ac Lat'z'normn 3 De Poetis suoram temporum; and De Sqmltm'a ac maria sepeliemli rim. Jiraldi was also an elegant Latin poet. His Opera Omnz'a were published at Leyden in 1696.  GIRALDI, (–), surnamed,, or , Italian novelist and poet, born at Ferrara in November, was educated at the university of his native town, where in he became professor of natural philosophy, and where,, he succeeded Celio Calcagnini in the chair of belles- lettres. Between and  he acted as private secretary, ﬁrst to Ercole II. and afterwards to Alphonso II. of Este; but having, in connexion with a literary quarrel in which he had got involved, lost the favour of his patron in the, he removed to Mondovi, where he remained as a teacher of literature till. Subsequently, on the invitation of the senate of Milan, he occupied the chair of rhetoric at Pavia till, when, in search of health, he returned to his native town, where on the 30th of December he died. Besides an epic entitled Ercole , in twenty-six cantos, Giraldi wrote nine tragedies, the best known of which, Orbecc/ze, was produced in. The sanguinary and disgusting character of the plot of this play, and the general poverty of its style, are, in the opinion of many of its critics, almost fully redeemed by occasional bursts of genuine and impassioned poetry 3 of one scene in the third act in particular it has even been afﬁrmed that, if it alone were sufﬁcient to decide the question, the Orbccc/ze Would be the ﬁnest play in the world. Of the prose works of Giraldi the most important is the IIecalommz'llzi or Ecutomz'li, a collection of tales told somewhat after the manner of Boccaccio, but still more closely resembling the novels of Giraldi’s contemporary Bandello, only much inferior in workmanship to the productions of either author in vigour, liveliness, and local colour. Something, but not much, however, may be said in favour of their professed claim to represent a higher standard of morality. Originally published at Monteregale, Sicily, in, they were frequently reprinted in Italy, while a French translation by Chappuys appeared in, and one in Spanish in. They have a peculiar interest to students of English literature, as having furnished, whether directly or indirectly, the plots of JIeasare for dleasurc and Othello. That of the latter, which is to be found in the IIecatommiMi (iii. 7), is conjectured to have reached Shakespeare through the French translation 3 while that of the former (117011., viii. 5) is probably to be traced to Wheatstone’s Promos um] Cassandra, an adaptation of Cinthio’s story, and to his Ileptamerone , which contains a direct English translation. To Giraldi also must be attributed the plot of Beaumont and Fletcher’s Custom of the Country.  GIRALDUS CAMBRENSIS. See.  GIRARD, (1775–1845), a celebrated French mechanician, was born at Lourmarin, in the department of Vaucluse, 1st February 1775. In his early life he manifested a strong aptitude for mechanical invention, and he also at that time devoted his attention to botany, painting, and literature. When at the Revolution his family took refuge in Italy he supported himself there for some. time by painting, but afterwards, at the age of eighteen, he established a soap manufactory at Leghorn. Ieturning to France after the fall of Robespierre, he began to conduct a chemical work at Marseilles, but soon afterwards judged it prudent to go to Nice, where he obtained the professorship of chemistry and of natural history. Returning to Marseilles about 1800, he afterwards went to Paris, where, in company with his brother Frederick, he established a soap manufactory. In 1804 he and his brother took out a patent for what is known as the fountain lamp 3 and at the “ Exposition” of 1806 he was awarded a gold medal for his one-cylindered direct acting steam engine. Napoleon having in 1810 decreed a reward of one million francs to whoever should invent a machine for the spinning of ﬂax equally successful with those in use for the spinning of hemp, Girard, after a course of experiments, invented and patented a ﬂax—spinning machine. In 1813 he established a flax mill at Paris and another at Charonne, in both of which he made use of his machine 3 but although he was declared to have earned the reward offered for the invention the fall of Napoleon in 1815 left the decree unfulfilled. Girard, who expected that the expenses connected with his experiments would be met by the promised premium, now got into serious money difﬁculties, and had to leave France for Austria, where, besides establishing a ﬂax mill at IIirtenberg, he built the ﬁrst line of steam ships on the Danube. In 1825, at the invitation of the emperor Alexander I. of Russia, he went to Poland, where he erected a ﬂax manufactory, round which grew up a village which received the name of Girardow. He was also appointed chief engineer of the mines of Poland. In 1841 he re- turned to Paris, and exhibited at the Exposition a large number of inventions, including a machine for combing ﬂax, a machine for making gunlocks, several new improvements in guns, a piano of double octaves, and a new instrument called the Tremoloplwm. For his inventions connected with the manufacture of flax a gold medal was decreed to him by the jury; and in 1845 the Society of In- ventions awarded him a sum which raised the pension he received from the Russian Government to 6000 francs. Besides the inventions already mentioned, Girard was the