Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 17.djvu/576

Rh 532 N L N O L in good repair. It was not till about 1766 that people found they could walk across to the island, which lies from north-north-west to south-south-east, and is 11 miles long, its breadth varying from 1 mile in the south part to 3 or 4 miles in the north. It appears to be formed of alluvial deposits gradually accumulated round a rock of no great size situated at the meeting -place of the Gascony and Brittany currents. The area now amounts to 1 8 square miles, of which about a sixth part is occupied by dunes. The total population was 7726 in 1881. There are two communes : Noirmoutier and Barbatre. The former has about 2029 of its 5908 inhabitants gathered together in a little town with narrow and winding streets. Its castle was once the residence of the abbot of Her. In the church there is a crypt of the llth century. A mile to the north of the town lies a pleasant watering-place, rendered pictur esque by the La Chaise woods (evergreen oaks and pines), and a grand confusion of rocks, among which the sea has scooped out many a delightful little beach. A dolmen, several menhirs, and the ruins of a Gallo- Roman villa with its hot baths show that the island must have been occu pied at an early date ; but the first fact in its recorded history is the foundation of the Benedictine monastery of Her by St Philibert about 680. From this monastery the name Noirmoutier (Moustier) is derived. It had already attained to great prosperity when it was pillaged by the Normans in 825 and 843. In 1205 the abbey of Notre Dame la Blanche was built at the north extremity of the j^sland to take the place of a Cistercian convent established in the lie du Pilier, at that time attached to Noirmoutier by a dyke. This abbey was ruined by the Protestants in 1562. In 1676 the island was captured by the Dutch. Having been seized by Charette dur ing the war of Vendee, it was recovered by the republican general, Haxo, who caused the Yendean leader, d Elbee, to be shot. NOLA, a city of Italy in the province of Caserta (Terra di Lavoro), is pleasantly situated on the plain between Mount Vesuvius and the Apennines, 14 miles east-north east of Naples on the road to Avellino, and 20^- miles south-west of Cancello on the railway to the same town. The more conspicuous buildings are the ancient Gothic cathedral (restored in 1866), with its lofty tower rebuilt since the fire of 1860, the cavalry barracks, the ex-convent of the Capuchins at a little distance from the city, and the seminary in which is preserved the famous Oscan inscrip tion known as the Cippus Abellanus (from Abella). Two fairs are held in Nola, on 14th June and 12th November; and the 26th of July is devoted to a great festival in honour of St Paulinus, one of the early bishops of the city. The population of the city was 10,771 in 1871, and 8489 in 1881 ; that of the commune 11,395 in 1871, and 11,931 in 1881. Nola (NwXo) was one of the oldest cities of Campania. At the time when it sent assistance to Neapolis against the Roman inva sion (328 B.C. ) it was probably occupied by Oscans in alliance with the Samnites ; but it had evidently passed through an Etruscan period, and had possibly received a Greek colony from Chalcis. The Romans made themselves masters of Nola in 313 B.C. In the Second Punic War it thrice bade defiance to Hannibal ; but in the Social War it was betrayed into the hands of the Samnites, who kept possession till Marius, with whom they had sided, was defeated by Sulla. Whatever punishment Sulla may have inflicted, Nola &quot;remained a municipium, with its own institutions and the use of the Oscan language.&quot; At a later date it became a Roman colony. Marcus Agrippa and Augustus died at Nola. Sacked by Genseric in 455, and by the Saracens in 806 and 904, captured by Manfred in the 13th century, and damaged by earthquakes in the 15th and 16th, Nola lost much of its importance. The remains of two great amphitheatres described by Ambrosio Leone in the first part of the 16th century were used by Carlo Caraffa and Orso Orsini in 1664 to build their palaces in Naples and Nola. Giordano Kruno and the sculptor Giovanni Marliano were natives of the city ; and some of the latter s works are preserved in the cathedral. NOLLEKENS, JOSEPH (1737-1823), sculptor, was born llth August 1737 in London, where his father, a native of Antwerp, the &quot; old Nollekens &quot; of Horace Walpole, was a painter of some repute. In his thirteenth year he entered the studio of the sculptor Scheemakers, and practised drawing and modelling with great assiduity, ultimately gaining various prizes offered by the Society of Arts. In 1760 he went to Rome, and he executed a marble bas- relief, Timoclea before Alexander, which obtained a prize of fifty guineas from that society in 1762. Remunerative commissions began to come in, Garrick and Sterne being among the first English visitors who sat to him for busts ; among his larger pieces belonging to this early period perhaps the most important is the Mercury and Venus chiding Cupid. Having returned to England in 1770, he was admitted an associate of the Royal Academy in 1771, and elected a member in the following year. By this time he had become known to George III., whose bust he shortly afterwards executed, and henceforward, until about 1816, he was continually and very profitably employed as the most fashionable portrait sculptor of his day. His busts were on all hands acknowledged to be excellent likenesses, and there was generally a softness in the expression and a gracefulness in the handling which never failed to please. He himself thought highly of his early portrait of Sterne. Among many others may be specially named those of Pitt, Fox, the prince of Wales (afterwards George IV.), Canning, Perceval, Benjamin West, and Lords Castlereagh, Aberdeen, Erskine, Egre- mont, and Liverpool. He also found leisure to elaborate a number of marble groups and statues, amongst which may be mentioned those of Bacchus, Venus taking off her Sandal, Hope leaning on an Urn, Juno, Paetus and Arria, Cupid and Psyche, and (his own favourite performance) Venus anointing Herself ; all, however, although remarkable for delicacy of workmanship, are deficient in vigour and originality, and the drapery is peculiarly weak. The most prominent personal character istic of Nollekens seems to have been his frugality, which ultimately developed into absolute miserliness. He died in London on 23d April 1823, leaving, it is said, a fortune of some 200,000. NOLLE PROSEQUI (sometimes shortened into nol. pros.} is a technical term of English law, the meaning of which varies as it is used with reference to civil or criminal cases. In civil cases it applies only to actions in the Queen s Bench Division, and there signifies a formal under taking by the plaintiff that he will proceed no further with the action (se ulterius nolle prosequ i). The more modern practice in such cases is to proceed by way of discontinuance. In proceedings either by indictment or by information, a nolle prosequi or stay of proceedings may be entered by the attorney-general. The nolle prosequi is a matter purely for his discretion, and will not be granted unless very good ground be shown for his interference. The object of it generally is to obtain a stay of proceedings against an accomplice in order to procure his evidence. This object is, however, more usually effected by the prosecution offer ing no evidence and the judge directing an acquittal. In America the term bears the same meaning as in England, with one exception. The attorney-general has not the same discretion with which English law invests him. Although in some States the prosecuting officer may enter a nolle prosequi at his discretion, in others the leave of the court must be obtained. NOLLET, JEAN ANTOIXE, French physicist, was bom at Pimprez (now in Oise) on 19th November 1700, and died at Paris in 1770. He was of peasant origin, and was educated for the church, entering holy orders and ulti mately attaining the rank of abbe ; but his tastes all lay in the direction of experimental research, especially on the subject of electricity (see vol. viii. p. 6). In 1734 he was admitted a member of the London Royal Society, four years later he entered the Academy of Sciences at Paris, and in 1753 he was appointed to the newly -instituted