Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 16.djvu/868

Rh 836 M O R M R Tasheffn. Before it was more than a hundred years old it is said to have had 700,000 inhabitants, but at present the total number probably does not exceed 50,000 or 60,000. See Leo Africanus ; Lambert s detailed description in Bui. de la Soc. de geogr., Paris, 1865; and Dr Leared s rifacimento of Lam bert. Lambert s plan of Morocco is reproduced with some additions by Dr Leared; and another may be found in Gatell. (H. A. W.) MORON, or MORON DE LA FRONTERA, a town of Spain, in the province of Seville, about 32 miles to the south east of that city, occupies an irregular site upon broken chalk hillocks at a distance of a mile and a half from the right bank of the Guadaira. It is connected by rail with Utrera on the Cadiz and Seville line. On the highest elevation to the eastward are the ruins of the ancient castle, of considerable importance during the Moorish period, and afterwards used as a palace by the counts of Urefia. In 1810-11 it was fortified by the French, but blown up by them in the following year. The chief public building of Moron is the large parish church, which dates from the 16th century, but presents no noteworthy features. The fine district between Moron and the Serrania de Honda is largely occupied by olive plantations, and the trade in oil and other agricultural produce forms the chief industry of the town. Moron is also famous throughout Spain for its chalk (cal de Moron), from which the white wash extensively used in the Peninsula is derived. The population of the town was 14,879 in 1878. MORONI, GIAMBATTISTA (c. 1510-1578), an eminent portrait-painter of the Venetian school, was born at Albino near Bergamo about 1510, and became a pupil of Bonvicino named II Moretto. Beyond the record of his works very few particulars regarding him have reached us. Titian, under whom also Moroni, while still very young, is said to have studied (but this appears hardly probable), had at any rate a high opinion of his powers ; he said that Moroni made his portraits &quot; living &quot; or &quot; actual &quot; (veri). And if the magnates of Bergamo came to the great Vene tian for their likenesses he advised them to go to their own countryman. In truthful and animated portraiture Moroni ranks near Titian himself. His portraits do not indeed attain to a majestic monumental character ; but they are full of straightforward life and individuality, with genuine unforced choice of attitude, and excellent texture and arrangement of draperies. There is a certain tendency to a violet tint in the flesh, and the drawing and action of the hands are not first-rate. As leading samples of his portraits may be mentioned in the Uffizi Gallery, Florence, the Nobleman pointing to a Flame, in scribed &quot; Et quid volo nisi ut ardeat ? &quot; ; in the National Gallery, London, the portraits of a Tailor, a member of the Fenaroli family, Canon Ludovico de Terzi, and others ; in the Berlin Gallery, his own portrait ; and in Stafford House, the seated half-figure of the Jesuit Ercole Tasso, currently termed &quot; Titian s Schoolmaster &quot; not as indicat ing any real connexion between the sitter and Titian, but only the consummate excellence of the work. Besides his portraits, Moroni painted, from youth to his latest days, the ordinary round of sacred compositions ; but in these he falls below his master II Moretto, and his design, which partakes more of the Lombard or Milanese style than of the Venetian, has at times some of the dryness of the quattrocento. One of the best is the Coronation of the Virgin in S. Alessandro della Croce, Bergamo; also in the Cathedral of Verona, Sts Peter and Paul, and in the Brera of Milan, the Assumption of the Virgin. Moroni was engaged upon a Last Judgment in the church of Corlago when he died on 5th February 1578. MOROSINI, the name of a noble Venetian family. According to the best authorities, Cappellari and Bar- baro, there would seem to have been two families of that name, distinguishing themselves by the variation of their shield. The one came from Mantua at the time of Attila s invasion, and bore or, a fess azure. The other came from Illyria in the 7th century ; they bore or, a bend azure. However that may be, nothing authentic is known of the Morosini till we find them settled as one family in Venice during the 8th century. The Morosini belong to the Case Vecchie, or twenty-four families of Venetian nobility who were descended from the tribunes of the confederate islands before Venice became united in one centre at Rialto. The 10th century was a period of danger for the family. They became involved in a blood feud with another noble house, the Caloprini, who were Ghibelline in politics, and relied upon the emperor Otto for support. The Morosini, how ever, proved the stronger, thanks to their popularity ; and the year 991 saw them victorious through the deposition of the doge Memo, who had favoured their enemies. The Morosini engaged in commerce with the East, and in the 14th century two brothers of the family, Alban and Marco, founded a house at Aleppo with branches in Damascus, Beyrut, and elsewhere in Syria. The wealth and importance of the family may be gathered from the fact that in 1379 no less than fifty-nine Morosini subscribed towards the fund for carrying on the war of Chioggia. The house of Morosini gave four doges to Venice, and numbered among its honours two royal marriages, two cardinals, twenty-four procurators of St Mark, besides numerous generals of the republic. The Morosini continued to flourish till the opening of the last century, when the family began to decline ; it is now represented by one sur viving member. Among the more distinguished members of the house must be mentioned : Giovanni, who in 982 founded the monastic establishment on S. Giorgio Maggiore after the order of St Benedict; Domenico, doge 1148-1156 in the third year of his reign Pola and Istria, which had rebelled, were reconquered; Marino, doge 1249-1252, during whose reign the Inquisition, in a modified form and under the surveillance of Venetian officers, was introduced into Venice for the first time. In this same century (1290) Tommasina Morosini, the sister of Albertino il Grande, married Stephen, prince of Hungary. Their son Andrew succeeded to the throne, and was directed in his govern ment by his uncle Albertino, on whom he conferred the dukedom of Slavonia and the county of Morlacchia. A cousin of Tommasina, Costanza, married Ladislaus, king of Servia. In 1382 Michele Morosini was elected doge. He had acquired a large fortune and a reputation for astuteness by buying Venetian property while the Genoese were still in Chioggia ; and much was expected of him in the restoration of his country s finance when that war came to an end. But he died the year of his election. Andrea Morosini the historian was born in 1558. He studied at Padua, and on coming of age embarked on public life. He passed through the various offices of state, till in 1618 he was a candidate for the dogeship, but failed to secure it, and died the same year. On the death of the official historian Paolo Paruta, in 1598, Andrea was commissioned by the Council of Ten to con tinue his work, and received authority to consult the state papers down to 1594. He wrote his history in Latin. It covers from 1521 to 1615, and was first published in Venice, 1623. Andrea s other works, of which only the firsthas been edited, are: (1) L imprese ed espcditioni di Terra Santa e Vacquisto fatto dell Impcrio di Costantinopoli dalla Serenissima licpublica di Venctia, Venice, 1627 ; (2) Deiisqux, Vcncta Rcspublica ad Istriaz eras gcssit advcrsus Othoncm Federici Impcratoris jilium, in the Corner-Duodo collection of MSS. ; (3) Defortna rcipullicM Vtnetse, in the National Library, Paris; (4) Raccolta dcllc Lcggi del Cons. X., in the Archivio Generale at the Frari, Venice ; (5) De rebus gcstis ac nece