Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 16.djvu/851

Rh M O R M O R state of the country, and its manufactures are limited to the production, on a small scale, of cotton, woollen, and silk goods. A certain delicate sweetmeat called guayabate is a regular article of commerce to Mexico. In 1750 the city had about 18,000 inhabitants, in 1873 the municipality had 36,940 and the city proper about 30,000, and in 1880 the number is stated at 20,400. In 1541 Mendoza chose the Guayangareo valley as the new site for the city of Michoacan, and in 1545 the place received the name of Valladolid. Iturbide and Morelos were both born within its precincts ; and in 1828 the Government did this latter patriot the honour of renaming the city Morelia. In 1863 it was made the seat of an archbishop. See Bol. Soc. de gcogr. de la Rep. Mex. , Mex. ,1873. MORELLET, ANDRE (1727-1819), economist and miscel laneous writer, was born at Lyons on the 7th of March 1727. He was long regarded as almost the last survivor of the Philosophe school ; and in this character he figures in many memoirs, for instance in Madame de Remusat s. He was educated by the Jesuits in his native town, then at a seminary in Paris, and finally at the Sorbonne; and he took holy orders, but his designation of abb6 was the chief thing clerical about him. He early joined the Philosophe party, and was a frequenter of most of their salons, being something of a butt (especially to his fellow-abbe and rival in political economy, Galiani), but having the credit of a ready and biting pen. Voltaire called him &quot;L Abbe Mord-les.&quot; His work was chiefly occasional, and the most notable parts of it were a smart pamphlet in answer to Palissot s scurrilous play Les Philosophes (which procured him a short sojourn in the Bastille for an alleged libel on Palissot s patroness, the princesse de Robeck), and a reply to Galiani s Commerce dts Bles (1770). Later, he made himself useful in quasi-diplomatic communications with English statesmen, and was pensioned, being, moreover, elected a member of the Academy in 1785. The outbreak of the Revolution (soon after which he was engaged in a con troversy with Chamfort on the question of the advantages and deserts of the Academy) did not, as it did with many of his friends, drive him from the country or put his life in danger, but it put him in considerable straits of fortune. He maintained a kind of moderate liberal tone, and the return of something like order under the Consulate and the Empire restored him to prosperity and pensions. A year before his death, at the great age of ninety-two, on the 12th of January 1819 at Paris, he brought out a series of Melanges, composed chiefly of selections from his former publications ; and after his death appeared his memoirs, which are of value for the Philosophe period. Morellet, though not a man of extraordinary ability or of specially amiable or estimable character, was in both respects a fair specimen of the man of letters of all work of the time. He was, in fact, a journalist with a special turn for econo mical subjects. MORERI, Louis. See ENCYCLOPEDIA, vol. viii. p. 194. MORETO, AGUSTIN (1618-1669), Spanish dramatist and playwright, was born at Madrid in 1618. Of his personal and even of his literary history little is known. He studied at Alcala between 1634 and 1639, and after wards removed to Toledo, where he entered the household of the cardinal -archbishop and took holy orders. Ulti mately he withdrew altogether from the world, and died a member of an ascetic religious brotherhood in 1669. Moreto in his younger years was a prolific writer for the stage, and almost rivalled Calderon in popularity. Three volumes of his plays were printed between 1654 and 1681, and many dramas besides are attributed in whole or in part to him. He employed all the dramatic forms then in vogue. Of his religious plays, Los mas Dichosos Hcrmanos (The Most Fortunate Brothers), embody ing the legend of the seven sleepers, may be mentioned as the least bombastic and absurd. Others are El Rosario Pcrscguido, turning on the persecutions connected with the introduction of the rosary into Spain, and Maria Eyypciaca, a curious representation of the extraordinary legend of St Mary of Egypt. His heroic drama, El 821 Valiente Justicicro (The Brave Justiciary), a story of the times of Pedro the Cruel, is one of considerable power. His &quot;comedias de figuron,&quot; or &quot;character comedies,&quot; as they are called (compare vol. vii. p. 422), include El Undo Don Diego (The Handsome Don Diego) and El Desdcn con el Desden (Disdain met with Disdain), the latter partly borrowed from Lope de Vega s Milagros d Elide), by Carlo Gozzi (Prindpema Filosofa), and by Schreyvogel (Donna Diana). The Comedias Escoyidas de Don Agustin Moreto y Cabana form the 39th volume of the Biblioteca de Autores Esua- nolcs (Madrid, 1856). MORETTO, IL (&quot;The Blackamoor,&quot; a term which has not been particularly accounted for), is the name currently bestowed upon ALESSANDRO BONVICINO ( 1 498-c. 1 560), a cele brated painter of Brescia, Venetian school. He was born at Rovato in the Brescian territory in 1498, and studied first under Fioravante Ferramola of Brescia, afterwards, still youthful, with Titian in Venice. His own earlier method, specially distinguished by excellent portrait-paint ing, was naturally modelled on that of Titian. Afterwards he conceived a great enthusiasm for Raphael (though he does not appear to have ever gone to Rome), and his style became partially Raphaelesque. It was, however, novel in its combination of diverse elements, and highly attractive, with fine pencilling, a rich yet not lavish use of perspective and decorative effects, and an elegant opposition of light and shade. The human figure is somewhat slender in Bonvicino s paintings, the expression earnestly religious, the flesh-tints varied, more so than was common in the Venetian school. The backgrounds are generally luminous, and the draperies well modified in red and yellow tints with little intermixture of blue. The depth of Bonvicino s talent, however, was hardly in proportion to its vigour and vivacity ; and he excelled more in sedate altar-pieces than in subjects of action, and more in oil-painting than in fresco, although some fine series of his frescos remain, especially that in the villa Martinengo at Novarino, near Brescia. Among his celebrated works in the city are in the church of S. Clemente, the Five Virgin Martyrs, and the Assumption of the Madonna (this latter may count as his masterpiece) ; in S. Nazaro e Celso, the Coronation of the Madonna ; in S. Maria delle Grazie, St Joseph ; in S. Maria de Miracoli, St Nicholas of Bari. In the Vienna Gallery is a St Justina (once ascribed to Pordenone) ; in the Stadel Institute, Frankfort, the Madonna enthroned between Sts Anthony and Sebastian ; in the Berlin Museum, a colossal Adoration of the Shepherds, and a large votive picture (one of the master s best) of the Madonna and Child, with infant angels and other figures above the clouds, and below, amid a rich landscape, two priests ; in the London National Gallery, St Bernardin and other saints, and two impressive portraits. II Moretto is stated to have been a man of childlike personal piety, preparing himself by prayer and fasting for any great act of sacred art, such as the painting of the Virgin-mother. His dated works extend from 1524 to 1554, and he was the master of the pre-eminent portrait-painter Moroni. His death took place towards 1560. MORGAGNI, GIOVANNI BATTISTA (1682-1771), the founder of pathological anatomy, was born 25th February 1682 at Forli, an ancient and important town on the -^Eniilian road southwards from Bologna. 1 His parents were in comfortable circumstances, but not of the nobility; it appears from his letters to Lancisi that Morgagni was ambitious of gaining admission into that rank, and it may be inferred that he succeeded from the fact that he is described on a memorial tablet at Padua as &quot;nobilis Forolensis.&quot; At school he was conspicuous for his talents, and he was especially noted for his readiness in classical epigram. At the age of sixteen he went to Bologna to 1 A statue of the illustrious citizen was erected at Forll in 1875, and the town library preserves fourteen MS. volumes of bis writings.
 * , ^sprccio, and in turn imitated by Moliere (in his Princesse