Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 11.djvu/224

Rh  (H. R. L.)

 GROSSETO, a town of Italy, at the head of the province of the same name, is situated in the Maremma district, near the right bank of the Oinbrone-Senese, with a station on the railway between Florence and Rome. It is well built and surrounded with solid walls about 2 miles in circuit, and among its public edifices is a spacious cathedral with a marble facade ; but the principal interest of the place results from the great hydraulic labours by which the surrounding swamp the Lacus Prelius of Cicero has gradually been drained and rendered capable of tillage. Drinking water, of which the town was formerly almost destitute, has been supplied by an artesian well of enor mous depth, bored since 1833. About 3^- miles to the N.E. lie the sulphurous baths of Roselle (Aquae Ihisel- lamm), and about 2 miles further off are the ruins of the ancient Etruscan city of Rusellie, the walls of which are about 2 miles in circumference. Roselle continued to be inhabited till the close of the 1 3th century, but its unhealthi- ness gradually constrained the inhabitants to remove to Grosseto, which is first distinctly mentioned in 830 in a document of Louis L, and became a bishop s see in 1138. For some time Grosseto was under the sway of the Aldo- brandini family, and it was afterwards subject to the republic of Siena, which treated it badly. Francis I. furnished it with a fortress and walls, and Ferdinand I. made it a regular place of arms. At present the climate is so unhealthy in summer that the provincial authorities remove to Scansano. The population of Grosseto in 1871 was 3290 in the town proper, 4151 including the suburbs, and 6316 in the commune.

 GROSSI, (1791-1853), Lombard poet and novelist, was born at Bellano, on the Lake of Como, January 20, 1791. He took his degree in law at Pavia in 1810, and proceeded thence to Milan to exercise his profession ; but the Austrian Government, suspecting the young bar rister s loyalty, interfered with his prospects, and thus it happened that Grossi was a simple notary all his life. That the suspicion was well grounded he soon showed by writing in the Milanese dialect the battle poem La Prineide, in which he described with vivid colours the tragical death of Prina, chief treasurer during the empire, whom the people of Milan, instigated by Austrian agi tators, had torn to pieces and dragged through the streets of the town (1814). The poem, being anonymous, was first attributed to the celebrated Porta, but Grossi of his own accord acknowledged himself the author. In 1816 he published other two poems, written likewise in Milanese The Golden Rain (La Pioggia d Oro) and The Fugitive (La Fuggitiva). These compositions secured him the friendship of Porta and Manzoni, and the three poets came to form a sort of romantic literary triumvirate. Grossi took advantage of the popularity of his Milanese poems to try Italian verse, into which he sought to introduce the moving realism which had given such satisfaction in his earliest compositions ; and in this he was entirely successful with his poem Ildegonda (1814). He next set about writing an epic poem, entitled The Lombards in the First Crusade, a work of which Manzoni makes honourable mention in his Betrotlied. This composition, which was published by subscription (1826), attained a success that has not been equalled by that of any other Italian poem within the century. The example of Manzoni, who had meanwhile published The Betrothed (1827), induced his friend Grossi to enter the same arena with an historical novel entitled Marco Visconti (1834) a work which contains passages of fine description and deep pathos. A little later Grossi published a tale in verse, Ulrico and Lida, but with this publication his poetical activity ceased. After his marriage in 1838 he continued to employ himself as a notary in Milan till his death on December 10, 1853.

 GROSSWARDEIN (Hungarian, Nagy-Várad), a royal free city, and capital of the county of Bihar in the Trans-Tibiscan circle, Hungary, is situated in a beautiful plain on the banks of the river Sebeskoros, 47 3 N. lat., 21 53 E. long. It is the seat of a Roman Catholic and of a Greek (Old-United) bishopric, of a royal court of justice, of the county assizes, and of a board of assessment, and is the headquarters of the divisional regiments and militia(AoHZ &amp;lt;?(/). The town consists of Nagy-V&rad proper, with Vdrad-Olaszi, Vdrad-Velencze, and V&rad-VAralja. The streets and squares are well laid out, and adorned with many fine public and private buildings. Among these are sixteen Roman Catholic churches, of which the most striking is the cathedral ; two Calvinist, one Lutheran, one Old-United and two Orthodox Greek churches, and a Jews synagogue. The other noteworthy edifices comprise the county and town halls, two episcopal palaces, chapter and clergy houses, hospitals, cloisters belonging to the Compassionate Brothers, and a convent for Ursula nuns, several manu factories, a large and handsome railway station, a prison, and barracks. Among the educational establishments are the royal law academy, a Roman Catholic gymnasium and seminary for the education of priests, a Calvinist school, and a gymnasium for adherents of the Old-United or Catholic Greek confession, two institutes for training teachers, a military academy, a real-school, and an orphan asylum. The inhabitants are chiefly employed in industrial and commercial pursuits ; and the neighbourhood yields a good supply of wine, fruit, and agricultural produce. The great fairs periodically held in the town attract strangers from a considerable distance. Grosswardein is the point of junction of the Alfold-Fiume, Tibiscan, and Hungarian Eastern railroads. Not far from the town are the much- frequented warm springs of Piispokfiirdo (Bishop s-bath). In 1870 the population was 28,700, of whom the majority were native Magyars, the rest chiefly Germans and Wallachs.

 GROTE, (1794-1871), the historian of Greece, eminent also as a philosopher, a politician, and a labourer in the advancement of university education, was born on the 17th of November 1794, at Clay Hill, near Beckenham in Kent. He drew his lineage from a Dutch, or, more strictly speaking, a Low German family. The name (Groot, 