Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 17.djvu/185

Rh N A N N A N 173 dence of the dukes of Brittany it became a state prison (Cardinal de Retz, Fouquet, and the duchess of Berri were confined within its walls), and it is now occupied by the artillery headquarters. The chapel in which the marriage of Louis XII. with Anne of Brittany was cele brated was destroyed by an explosion in 1800. Nantes possesses a fine theatre, a court-house, a prefecture, and an exchange, which includes both the tribunal and the chamber of commerce. The town-hall possesses a curious casket in gold and enamel which once, it is said, contained the heart of Anne of Brittany. The public library is in the old corn-market, and the museum of painting and sculpture finds scanty accommodation in the old cloth-market. Apart from the beautiful collection presented to the town by the duke of Feltre, the catalogue includes 1000 pictures and 130 statues. An archaeological museum has its quarters in the old church of the Convent of the Oratory, where Fouche&quot;, afterwards duke of Otranto, taught before the Revolution ; part of the old mint is occupied by the school of science and arts ; and not far off is the museum of natural history, comprising a complete collection of the minerals of the department. The botanic garden consists of a purely scientific portion and a landscape garden which forms one of the finest promenades of its kind. Between 1. Cathedral. -&amp;gt;. Hotel de Villc. Plan of Nantes. 4. Picture Gallery. 5. Bourse. G. Cours St Andre. 7. Cours St Pierre. 8. Place de la Duchesse Anne. the Loire and the Erdre run Cours St Pierre and Cours St Andre&quot;, adorned at the two ends of the line by statues of Anne of Brittany and Arthur III., Du Guescliu and Olivier de Clisson, and separated by the Place Louis XVI., with a statue of that monarch on a column 92 feet high. The Place Royale, the great meeting-place of the principal thoroughfares of the city, contains a monumental foun tain in blue Rennes granite, with a white marble statue of the town of Nantes and bronze statues of the Loire and four of its affluents the Sevre, the Erdre, the Cher, and the Loir. A flight of steps at the west end of the town leads up from the quay to the colossal cast-iron statue of St Anne, whence a splendid view may be obtained over the valley of the Loire. Several old houses of the 15th and 16th centuries, the fish market, the railway station, and the Salorges (a vast granite building now used as a bonded warehouse) are all of interest. Besides two great hospitals St Jacques on the left bank of the Loire, with 1600 beds, and the Hotel-Dieu, recently rebuilt in Gloriette island, with 1200 beds Nantes contains a deaf-mute institute, a secondary school of medicine and pharmacy, a hydrographic school, a drawing school, a branch establish ment of the conservatoire at Paris, and a lyceum. It is the see of a bishop, and the headquarters of the llth corps d armde. As a seat of the sugar manufacture Nantes stands next to Paris and Marseilles. In city or suburbs there are vast establishments for the manufacture of iron, copper, and lead, shipbuilding yards, factories for agri cultural and similar implements, oil-works, soap-works, a national tobacco factory employing 1800 hands, a stained- glass factory, manure works, and granite yards. Food- preserving is a rapidly growing industry in all the three departments of meat, fish, and vegetables (the last largely grown in the neighbourhood). Commercially Nantes does not occupy so high a position as formerly, being now only eleventh in the list of French ports, though its custom house still ranks second in amount of receipts. It imports coal from England (duty free), wood from Scandinavia, colonial wares from the Antilles. Its shipowners, whose vessels are rather more numerous than those of Havre, keep possession of the greater part of the trade of the lower Loire and the coast fisheries. In 1875 they had 745 vessels, of 150,000 tons aggregate burden. The com mercial movement of the port was 235,000 tons; and the value of the exports and imports amounted to 5,000,000. In 1880 the movement was upwards of 400,000 tons. Previous to the Roman occupation, Nantes (Condivicenum) was the chief town of the Nannetes, and under the conquerors it became a great commercial and administrative centre. In the middle of the 3d century Christianity was introduced by St Clair. Clotaire I. got possession of the city in 560, and placed it under the government of St Felix the bishop, who executed enormous works to cause the Loire to flow under the walls of the castle. After being several times subdued by Charlemagne, Brittany revolted under his successors, and Nominee, proclaimed king in 842, ordered the fortifications of Nantes to be razed because it had sided with Charles the Bald. The Normans held the town from 843 to 936. About this time began the rivalry between Nantes and Rennes. Pierre de Dreux, declared duke of Brittany by Philip Augustus, made Nantes his capital, surrounded it with fortifications, aud defended it valiantly against John of England. During the Breton wars of succession Nantes took part first with Montfort, but afterwards with Charles of Blois, and did not open its gates to Montfort till his success was assured and his English allies had retired. In 1560 Francis II. granted Nantes a communal constitution. In the course of the 15th and 16th centuries the city suffered from several epidemics. Averse to Protestantism, it joined the League along with Mercceur, governor of Brittany, who helped to raise the country into an independent duchy ; and it was not till 1598 that it opened its gates to Ilenry IV., who here signed on May 2d of that year the famous edict which until its revocation by Louis XIV. in 1685 was the charter of Huguenot liberties in France (see vol. ix. p. 564, 579, and vol. xii. p. 338-9). It was at Nantes that Count Chalais was punished for plotting against Eichelieu, that Fouipuet was arrested, and that the Cellamare conspirators were executed under the regent. Having warmly embraced the cause of the Revolution in 1789, the city was in 1793 treated with extremest rigour by Carrier, of noyadc fame. Under the empire its foreign commerce was ruined. The duchess of Berri was arrested at Nantes in 1832 while trying to stir up La Vendee against Louis Philippe. Anne of Brittany, Charles Errard, founder of the French Academy at Rome, Generals Cambronne and Lamoricieie, and Jules Verne were born in the city. NANTEUIL, EGBERT (1623-1678), a crayonist, and one of the most eminent of French line engravers, was born about 1623, or, as other authorities state, in 1630, the son of a merchant of Rheims. Having received an excel lent classical education, he studied engraving under his brother-in-law, Nicholas Regnesson ; and, his crayon portraits having attracted attention, he was pensioned by Louis XIV., and appointed designer and engraver of the cabinet to that monarch. It was mainly due to his influ ence that the king granted the edict of 1660, dated from St Jean de Luz, by which engraving was pronounced free and distinct from the mechanical arts, and its practitioners were declared entitled to the privileges of other artists. The plates of Nanteuil, several of them approaching the scale of life, number about three hundred. In his early practice he imitated the technique of his predecessors, working with straight lines, strengthened, but not crossed, in the shadows, in the style of Claude Mellan, and in other
 * ). Palais de Justice 1.