Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 15.djvu/214

Rh 196 M A F M A in the varied character of its Gothic architecture bears evidence of the frequency with which it has been restored and altered. The high altar has a Descent from the Cross by Anthony Vandyck. The saint whose name it preserves obtained great reputation in Maestricht by transferring his bishopric thither from Tongres, and his miracle-working relics became the occasion of a great septennial fair which was formerly of great service to the city. The Church of Our Lady (Lieve-Vrouwe-kerk), possibly founded in the 6th century, has two very ancient crypta and an llth century choir of exceptional beauty, but in the nave has suffered severely from a restoration in 1764. St Matthyskerk was founded by the cloth-weavers guild in the 13th century ; and, though the present Gothic building of St Martin s (in Wijk) was erected so late as 1859, the original church was one of the oldest in the city, and is said by tradition to have occupied the site of one of the old heathen temples. The twelve hospitals, the poor- house, the orphanage, and most of the other charitable foundations are Roman Catholic institutions, and neither the administrative bodies nor the educational establish ments are free from ecclesiastical influence. Though Maestricht is no doubt mainly indebted for its commercial prosperity to its position on the river, it did not begin to reap the full advantages of the situation till the removal of the fortifications and the opening of the railways (Aix- la-Chapelle, 1853; Hasselt, 1856; Liege, 1861; Vanlo, 1865, &c.). At first a trade was carried on in wine, colonial wares, alcoholic liquors, and salt ; but now, besides Regout s well-known earthenware, glass, and cr} r stal fac tory, there are establishments for the making of arms, tools, lead, copper, and zinc work, &c., as well as tobacco and cigar factories. The Maestricht beer also is highly esteemed. The population, which was 18,000 in the beginning of the century, was 28,917 on January 1, 1882. Maestricht was taken and plundered by the Normans (881 and 884), by Bishop Henry of Guelders (1267), by Adolpli de la Marck (1334), and by the people of Liege (1407 and 1408). In the war with Spain it was successively besieged by the Spaniards, the prince of Orange, Prince Maurice, and Frederick Henry (1579, 1580, 1594, 1632); and in the struggle between Louis XIV. of France and William III., and again during the French Revolution and the Napoleonic period, it paid the penalty of its frontier position wit ness the sieges of 1673, 1676, 1701, and 1793. During the revolu tion of 1830 it was invested by the Belgians. Among the more peaceful memories of the place is the marriage of Otto IV. with Mary of Brabant. The people of Maestricht have a special dialect of their own ; l but French and Dutch are in use among the upper classes. In the neighbourhood of the town are the great sandstone quarries of Petersberg, one of the most extraordinary labyrinths of subterranean excavation in the world. MAFFEI, FRA.NCESCO SCIPIONE, MARCHESE DI (1675- 1755), Italian archaeologist and man of letters, was born at Verona on June 1, 1675. He studied for five years in Parma at the Jesuit college, and afterwards from 1698 at Rome ; and in 1703-4 he took part as a volunteer in the war of succession, fighting on the Bavarian side at Donauwerth. In 1709 he began at Padua along with Apostolo Zeno and Valisnieri the Giornale dei letterati 1 While the North Limburg dialects, says Professor Gallee of Utrecht, are largely corrupted with Dutch forms and words, the Maestricht or South Limburg dialect (to which those of Hasselt, St Fruiden, and Sittand are nearly akin) has remained comparatively free from such admixture. Its phonology is peculiarly interesting both in itself and because its history can be traced to an early date by authentic documents. The Old Frankish psalms and the Limburg sermons are written in it ; and it was also the original dialect of the St Servatius Legend (ed. by Bormanns) now transcribed in the Belgian Limburg dialect, and of Veldeke s ^Eneid (ed. by Behoghel), now in Middle High German. About these works consult Cosyn, Taal en letterbode iii. , v., vi. ; and in regard to the modern dialect Mone s Anz. fur Kunde der teuischen Vorzeit, 1836 ; Belgisch. Museum, iii. ; Franquinet in Jager s Archief, iii. ; and Winkler s Nederduitsch en Friesck dialecticon i. Specimens will be found in Firmenich s Volkerstimmen and Leopold s Van de Schelde tot de Weichsel. d* Italia, a literary periodical which had but a short career , and subsequently an acquaintance with the actor Riccoboni led him to exert himself for the improvement of dramatic art in Italy. His Merope, a tragedy, appeared in 1713; Teatro Italiano, a small collection of works for presenta tion on the stage, in 1723-25 ; and Le Ceremonie, an original comedy, in 1728. From 1718 he became specially interested in the archaeology of his native town, and his investigations resulted in the valuable Verona Illustrata (1731-32). Maffei afterwards devoted four years to travel in France, England, Holland, and Germany. He died at Verona on February 11, 1755. A list of his very numerous works will be found in the Biographie Generale. A complete edition of them appeared at Venice (28 vols. 8vo) in 1790. MAFRA, a town of Portugal, in the province of Estremadura and district of Lisbon, lies near the Atlantic coast, about 20 miles to the north-west of Lisbon, and had a population in 1878 of 3231. It is remarkable for its cloister-palace, built by John V. in 1717-32, in conse quence of a vow made during a dangerous illness to build a convent for the poorest friary of the kingdom, which proved to be a small Franciscan settlement here. The architect, Ludovici, took the Escorial for his model ; but the imitation is still less successful than the original. The building, which is in the form of a parallelogram measuring upwards of 800 feet from north to south and 700 feet from east to west, is said to contain 866 rooms, and to be lighted by no fewer than 5200 windows. The centre is occupied by the domed church, sumptuously built of marble, and richly adorned with statues and other objects of art. The conventual buildings (which are no longer used as such) contain 300 cells; and the library numbers 30,000 volumes. Adjoining the palace are fine gardens and pleasure grounds. MAGDALA (more correctly Makdala), a natural strong hold in the country to the south of Abyssinia, situated about 200 miles inland from the Gulf of Aden, in 11 22 N. lat. and 39 25 E. long. The basaltic plateau of which it consists rises 9110 feet above the level of the sea, and forms along with the neighbouring height of Salassye (9160 feet), with which it is connected by the ridge of Salamgye (8650 feet), a comparatively small and narrow outrunner of the Amara Seint plateau. It is about three quarters of a mile in length by less than half a mile in breadth, and lies more than a thousand feet higher than the neighbouring plain of Arogye. To the south runs the Kukullo Ravine and to the north and the west the Bashilo and the Wark Waha Ravines, all of which ultimately drain into the Abai, and thus belong to the basin of the Nile. Chosen by King Theodore of Abyssinia as his principal stronghold in the south, Magdala owes its celebrity to the fact that, as the place of imprisonment of the English captives, it became the goal of the great English expedition of 1 868. At the time of its capture it contained huts for a permanent population of about three thousand, a royal residence of the most meagre pretensions, a still more insignificant church, and a large treasure-house stored with arms, ecclesiastical furniture, and vast quantities of Abyssinian manuscripts. The whole rock was burned bare by order of Sir Robert Napier, and on the departure of the English it was seized by Mastwat, queen of the &quot;Wollo Gallas, in whose country it is situated. See Markham, History of the Abyssinian Expedition, 1869 ; and Rassam, British Mission to Theodore, 1869. Both contain plans and views of Magdala. MAGDEBURG, the capital of the Prussian province of Saxony, and one of the strongest fortresses in Germany, is situated in 52 8 N. lat. and 11 40 E. long., mainly on the left bank of the Elbe, which here divides into three branches. It consists of the town proper and of the four suburbs of Friedrichstadt, Neustadt, Sudenburg, and