Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 16.djvu/816

Rh 786 M O N M Ingegneri as &quot;maestro di capella;&quot; and in 1607 he produced, for the marriage of Francesco Gonzaga, his first opera, Ariana, in which he employed the newly-discovered dis cords with irresistible effect. Though he did not invent the lyric drama Peri s Euridice having been produced at Florence in 1600 he raised it to a level which distanced all contemporary competition. His second opera, Orfeo, composed in 1608, was even more successful than Ariana, and was based upon a principle which is held by some modern critics to embody the only law to which the dramatic composer owes obedience that of accommodating the music to the exigencies of the scene. In 1613 Monte- verde was invited to Venice, as &quot; maestro di capella &quot; at St Mark s. Here he composed much sacred music, the greater part of which is lost, a circumstance the less to be regretted, since his Vesjwrs and Masses bear no comparison with those produced by his predecessors in office. In 1630 he wrote another grand opera, Proserpina rapita. In 1639 he pro duced L A done, and in 1641 Le Nozze di Enea and II ritorno (f Ulisse. These later works show him still greatly in advance of his age, notwithstanding the progress made by other composers since the production of Orfeo. Monteverde was ordained priest in 1633; and he died in 1643, uni versally respected. Though his free employment of the dominant seventh and other unprepared discords put an end to the school of Palestrina, it led the way to the greatest achievements of modern music. MONTEVIDEO, SAN FELIPE Y SANTIAGO DE, the capital of the republic of Uruguay (Banda Oriental) in South America, lies on the eastern side of a nearly semicircular bay on the northern shore of the estuary of the La Plata, 120 miles from Buenos Ayres, with which communication is maintained by a daily service of steamers. The small peninsula on which the city is built does not rise more than 95 feet above the level of the sea ; but the headland of Cerro, 505 feet high, which forms the western side of the bay, is notable enough on that low-lying coast to justify the name Montevideo ; it is crowned by a lighthouse, and by an old Spanish fort, once of considerable strength. About 620 acres is the area occupied by the city proper; the suburbs stretch for miles into the country. The plan both of the old and the new town is regular ; they are separated by the Calle de la Ciudadela on the line of the old ramparts. A somewhat Oriental appearance is produced by the low houses with their flat terraced roofs and miradors or watch- towers, from which the merchants look out for ships. As a whole, the city is overbuilt, and immense wealth has been squandered in Italian marbles and other forms of archi tectural decoration. The streets are for the most part well paved, and there is an extensive tramway system. Mare s grease was for some time employed to make gas for light ing ; but an epidemic having commenced at the gas-yard the works were for a time closed, and when they were re opened coal-gas was substituted. Previous to 1870, when water was introduced from a distance of 40 miles, the whole supply was dependent on the rainfall. In the old town the principal square is the Plaza de la Constitucion, the south side of which contains the &quot; cathedral,&quot; and the north side the cabildo (law-courts, senate-house, and prison). The cathedral (as it is usually called, though the bishop is a bishop in partibus, and takes his title from Megsera in Asia Minor) is a somewhat imposing building, consecrated 21st October 1804, with a dome and two side towers 133 feet high, which form one of the best landmarks of the bay. In the line of the old ramparts formerly stood the old Spanish citadel, which was built by the seven years forced labour of 2000 Guarani Indians. From 1835 to 1868 it served as the principal market in the city; in 1877 it was removed and the area united with the fine Plaza de la Independencia at the south-western end of the Calle del 18 Julio, a broad street which runs in a straight line right through the new town. The new market, covering 2 acres, was built in 1867 at a cost of 86,000, and there are besides the Port market (cost 55,320) and the Mercado Chico. The ex change, constructed after the style of the house at Bordeaux, dates from 1864, and cost 32,000. Of note also are the custom-house, the post office (1866), the museum, the public library (founded in 1830 by I)r J. M. Perez Castellano), the university (dating from 1849), the Solis theatre (1856), the British hospital (established in 1857, present building 1867), the Hospital de Caridad (founded by Francisco A. Macil in 1825), having an average of 300 patients, the new lunatic asylum (1877), the Basque church (1858), and the English church (1845), built on the site of a battery taken in 1807 by Sir Samuel Auchmuty s forces. Since the beginning of Map of Montevideo. the century the depth of water in the bay has been allowed to diminish 5 feet, and the area has been reduced by the construction (1868) of an embankment to carry the railway across it. Dredging has been tried from time to time, but on too limited a scale. The so-called harbour is a space of less than half a mile square off the north-west face of the town; in 1870 it was reported to be yearly becoming smaller and less safe, and vessels are now obliged to anchor farther out. Among modern improvements in the port the most noteworthy are the Maua dry docks, opened in 1873, and the larger docks, erected in 1877 at a cost of 2,000,000 dollars, at the foot of the Cerro on the other side of the bay. The trade of Montevideo consists mainly in the ex port of the raw products of the slaughter-house (horns, hides, hair, tallow, wool, bones), with a certain quantity of live stock and preserved meat, and in the import of European manufactures. During the five years 1877-1881 the average value of the exports was 2,303,061, and that of the imports 3,469,997. Of the 1044 vessels (tonnage 780,870) which entered in 1879, 285 were English, 157 Spanish, 145 Italian, 112 German, and 99 French. The population is largely of foreign origin, Italian, Spanish, Basque, and French. In 1874 the Italians, who had rapidly increased after the siege, were about 40,000 strong, and in several quarters of the city nothing was to be heard save North-Italian dialects. Even in 1880, after the exodus caused by the confiscations of 1875, they numbered 36,300. The greater proportion are engaged as petty traders. In 1879 the total population of the town was 73,879 ; it had been 92,260 in 1878, and 105,296 in 1871, and now (1883), including the environs, is 110,167. Montevideo owes its origin not to the commercial advantages of its position but to the jealousy of the Spaniards towards the- Portuguese, which led Zabala, viceroy of Buenos Ayres, to erect a fort at this point in 1717. In 1726 the first settlers were intro duced from the Canary Islands and Andalusia, and more than fifty