Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 17.djvu/62

Rh 50 M U R M U R the librarian of the duke of Modena, by whom he was inspired with a taste for historical and antiquarian research, and introduced to the study of MSS. Having taken minor orders in 1 688, Muratori proceeded to his degree of doctor in utroquejure before 1694, in which year he was appointed by Count Carlo Borromeo one of the doctors of the Ambrosian library at Milan. From manuscripts now placed under his charge, and which had been hitherto neglected, he made a selection of materials for several volumes (Anecdota), which he published with critical and explanatory notes. The reputation he in consequence acquired was such that the duke of Modena offered him the situation of keeper of the public archives of the duchy. Muratori hesitated, until the offer of the additional post of librarian, on the resignation of Father Bacchini, determined him in 1700 to return to Modena. The remainder of his life was an almost uninterrupted course of ardent and indefatigable intellectual labour. The preparation of numerous valuable tracts on the history of Italy during the Middle Ages, and of dissertations and discussions on obscure points of his torical and antiquarian interest, as well as the publication of his various philosophical, theological, legal, poetical, and other works absorbed the greater part of his time and attention. These as they successively appeared added to his growing reputation, and brought him into communica tion with the most distinguished scholars of Italy, France, and Germany. But they also exposed him in his later years to the machinations of the envious. His enemies spread abroad the rumour that the pope, Benedict XIV., had discovered in his writings passages strongly savouring of heresy, even of atheism. Muratori appealed to the pope, repudiating the accusation. His Holiness assured him of his protection, and, without expressing his appro bation of the opinions in question of the learned anti quary, freed him from the imputations of his enemies. Muratori died, after a lengthened illness, on 23d January 1750, and was buried with much pomp in the church of Santa Maria di Pomposa, in connexion with which he had laboured as a diligent parish priest for many years. His remains were afterwards, in the year 1774, removed to the church of St Augustin. The most important of the works of Muratori, which amounted altogether to upwards of sixty-four, are : Anecdota ex Ambrosianze Bibliothccss Codd., Milan, 1697, 1698; Padua, 1713, 2 vols. 4to ; Anecdota Greeca, Padua, 1709, 3 vols. 4to ; Antichitd Estcnsi, Modena, 1717, 2 vols. folio ; Rerum Italicarum Scriptores prse- cipui ab anno 500 ad 1500, Milan, 1723-1751, 25 vols. folio ; Antiquitates Italics mcdii wvi, Milan, 1738-1742, 6 vols. folio ; Novus Thesaurus Veterum Inscriptionum, Milan, 1739-1742, 6 vols. folio; Annali $ Italia, Venice, 1744-1749, 12 vols. 4to. His Letters, with a Life prefixed, were published by Lazzari, in 1783, Venice, 2 vols. His nephew, G. F. Muratori, also wrote a Vita del celebre Ludov. Ant. Muratori, Venice, 1756. Muratori s Latin and Italian works were published at Arezzo, 1767-1780, 36 vols. 4to. See further Tiraboschi, Bibliotcca Modencsc, vols. in., iv. ; Fabroni, Vitte Italorum, vol. x. ; Tipaldo, Biogr. dcgli Italiani illustri, vol. vii. MURCHISOX, SIR RODERICK IMPEY (1792-1871), geologist, was descended from a small clan or sept which for many generations lived in the west of Ross-shire, furnish ing factors for some of the greater lairds, occupants of farms among the western sea-lochs, and even occasionally a parish minister. His father, educated as a medical man, acquired a competent fortune in India, and while still in the prime of life returned to Scotland, where, marrying one of the Mackenzies of Fairburn, he purchased the estate of Tarradale in eastern Ross and settled for a few years as a resident Highland landlord. At Tarradale his eldest son, the subject of this notice, was born on 19th February 1792. Young Murchison left the Highlands when only three years old, and at the age of seven was sent to the grammar school of Durham, where during six years he received the only connected general education he ever obtained. He was then placed at the military college, Great Marlow, to be trained for the army. With some difficulty he succeeded in passing the not very stringent examinations of the time, and at the age of fifteen was gazetted ensign in the 36th regiment. A year later (1808) he landed with Wellesley in Galicia, and was present at the actions of Roriga and Vimiera. Subsequently under Sir John Moore he took part in the retreat to Corunna and the final battle there. These six months of active service formed the only part of his military career in which he was exposed to the hardships and dangers of actual warfare. The defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo seeming to close the prospect of advancement in the military pro fession, Murchison, after eight years of service, quitted the army, and married the daughter of General Hugonin, of Nursted House, Hampshire. With her he then spent rather more than two years on the Continent, particularly in Italy, where her cultivated tastes were of signal influence in guiding his pursuits. He threw himself with all the enthusiasm of his character into the study of art and antiquities, and for the first time in his life tasted the pleasures of truly intellectual pursuits. Returning to England in 1818, he sold his paternal property in Ross-shire and settled in England, where, find ing art studies no longer practicable, he took heart and soul to field-sports. He soon became one of the greatest fox-hunters in the northern counties ; but at last, getting weary of such pursuits and meeting Sir Humphrey Davy, who urged him to turn his energy to science, he was in duced to attend lectures at the Royal Institution. This change in the current of his occupations was much helped by the sympathy of his wife, who, besides her artistic acquirements, took much interest in some branches of natural history. Eager and enthusiastic in whatever he undertook, he was soon fascinated by the young science of geology, and threw himself heartily into its prosecution. He joined the Geological Society of London and soon showed himself one of its most active members, having as his colleagues there such men as Sedgwick, Lyell, Buck- land, Herschel, Whewell, and Babbage. Exploring with his wife the geology of the south of England, he devoted special attention to the rocks of the north-west of Sussex and the adjoining parts of Hants and Surrey, on which he wrote his first scientific paper, read to the Society towards the close of 1825. From that early period on to the end of his long life his industry and enthusiasm remained pre eminent. Though he had reached the age of thirty-two before he took any interest in science, he developed his taste and increased his knowledge so rapidly by unwearied dili gence that in the first three years of his scientific career he had explored large parts of England and Scotland, had obtained materials for three important memoirs, as well as for two more written in conjunction with Sedgwick, and from the position of a mere beginner had risen to be a prominent member of the Geological Society and one of its two secretaries. Turning his attention for a little to Continental geology, he explored with Lyell the volcanic region of Auvergne, parts of southern France, northern Italy, Tyrol, and Switzerland. A little later, with Sedgwick as his com panion, he attacked the difficult problem of the geological structure of the Alps, and their joint paper giving the results of their study will always be regarded as one of the classics in the literature of Alpine geology. It was in the year 1831 that Murchison found the field in which the chief work of his life was to be accom plished. Acting on a suggestion made to him by Buck- land he betook himself to the borders of Wales, with the view of endeavouring to discover whether the greywacke rocks underlying the Old Red Sandstone could be grouped