Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 20.djvu/282

Rh 2G4 R A M R A M brought home large quantities of gold cannot now be said. Coining home as he did, he had to bear the blame of the attack on the Spanish village, which he had done nothing to avert in his orders to the party going up the river. He was brought before a commission of the privy council. Notes taken of the proceedings have only partially been preserved, but it appears that there was strong evidence that after his failure he had attempted to induce his captains to seize Spanish prizes, or, in other words, to commit what James held to be an act of piracy, though Raleigh, with his views of the rightfulness of fighting Spain in America whatever the Governments in Europe might do, would doubtless have qualified it by another name. At last the commission decided against him, and he was sent to execution formally on his old sentence at Winchester, in reality for having allowed his men to shed Spanish blood after engaging that he would not do so. He was executed on 29th October 1618. His attitude against Spain gave him popularity at a time when the attempt of James to draw closer the bonds between Spain and England was repudiated by the great majority of the nation. (s. R. G.) RAMAH. See SAMUEL. RAMAY.ANA. See SANSKRIT LITERATURE. RAMBAN. R. MOSHEH BEN NAHMAN, or NACHMAN- IDES, was born before 1 200 at Gerona, where he was rabbi and physician, and died between 1268 and 1270 in Pales- tine, probably at Acre. Although a Sepharadi in the later and larger sense of the word, he was the disciple of the greatest Provencal rabbis, and became the most celebrated Talmudist and cabbalist of his age in his own country. 1. Of his extant commentaries on the Bible that on the Penta- teuch is the most valuable. Three editions may be named. (1) Ed. prin., s. Let a., but certainly before 1480. According to oral tradition the compositors set the type in a waggon whilst travel- ling in Italy from place to place for the purpose of selling printed books. (2) Lisbon, 1489. (3) Naples, 1490. This book has been translated at least twice into Latin (Schiller-Szinessy, Catal., i. pp. 174-177). The authorship of the commentary on Job, ascribed to Nachmanides, has been questioned, but without good grounds (op. cit, pp. 211-213). The commentaries, however, generally ascribed to him on Canticles and Ruth are certainly not his. 2. Of his many works on Rabbinic literature we mention only : (1) JlUtJTI, Strictures on MAIMONIDES'S (q.v.) Sepher Hammisvoth (Constantinople, 1510, 4to ; Venice, 1550, folio, the latter in Giustiniani's edition of Maimonides's Mishneh Torah. A cheap edition came out at Warsaw in 1883). (2) 'H JTlr6D, i.e., Remarks against Rabbenu Zerahyah's Moor (both printed now with the Riph) and Hassaba (both in Tcmim Dc'im, 225, 226). (3) fllDTn "ISO, vindication of Al-Phasi against RABAD (q.v. the third) (Vienna, 1805). (4) D^n, D^IH, nit31p6, Decisions, Novelise, and Collectanea ; these are spread over almost the whole Talmud. The Responsa ascribed to him are by his disciple Rashba. (5) riBHI, a sermon on the superiority of the Mosaic Law (best edition by Jellinek, Vienna, 1872, 8vo). (6) Letters (a) on the Maimonidean controversy (cheapest edition, Vilna, 1821, 8vo) ; (b) to his son, on conduct (Lisbon ed. of the Pent, com.) ; (c) Iggereth Hakkodesh, on the ethics of matrimony (latest edition, Berlin, 1793, 8vo) ; MSS. lie in almost every public library in Europe, e.g., Cambridge. (7) DIKil mm, on Sickness, Death, <t-c. (Constantinople, 1518, folio), partly ascetic and contemplative, partly Rabbinic ordi- nances ; its last chapter separately under the title of ^IIMPI "W (Naples, 1490, 4to, and reprints). (8) His anti-Christian contro- versies are chiefly contained in his H131, a Disputation with the convert Pablo Christiani, the teacher of Raymundus Martini, held before Jayme I., king of Aragon ; it is translated into Latin, and will be found, with a mutilated and otherwise corrupt text, in Wag- enseil's Tela ignea Solans, (Altdorf, 1681, 4to), the best and cheapest edition of the text and of the explanation of Isa. lil 13 to liii. 12 being that of Dr Steinschneider (Berlin, 1860, 8vo). (9) Cabbal- stic matter is contained in all Ramban's works (notably, however, in the Pentateuch * and Job) ; he has also a commentary on the Sepher I esirah (Mantua, 1562, 4to, and reprints). (10) Nachmanides was Nachmanides's acuteness and honesty are a sufficient guarantee that the Dahir (Midrash, 15; Ency. Brit., xvi. p. 287), so often quoted in his Pentateuch commentary as a bona fide old book, cannot be a composition of his own time, as some have of late asserted. also a liturgical writer of eminence. There are extant by him a prose prayer for one going on a sea voyage (Yephe A'oph, Venice, 1575, 4to), and a piece of religious poetry (Mclo Chofnajim, Berlin, 1840, 8vo, pp. 39-41) for the Malkhiyyoth (first part of the additional service of New Year) ; the latter is a mosfajdb and betrays a perfect master both in kabbalah and poetry. For a specimen of Aramaic poetry see his introductory poem to Milfunnolh Adonai. (S. M. S.-S. ) RAMBOUILLET, chief town of an arrondissement in the department of Seine-et-Oise, France, 30 miles south- west of Paris on the line to Brest, is a small place of 5186 inhabitants, and derives its whole interest from the associa- tions connected with the ancient chateau, which stands surrounded by a beautiful park of 2965 acres and a wide forest dating from the 14th century. A great machicolated tower and some apartments with good woodwork still remain. The gardens, partly in French, partly in English style, are picturesque, and have an avenue of Louisiana cypress unique in Europe. The park contains the national sheep-farm, where the first flock of merino sheep in France was raised last century. The school of sheep-farming is of recent foundation. Here, too, is the first military school erected for soldiers' children. Originally a royal domain, the lands of Rambouillet passed in the 14th century to the D'Angennes family, who held them for 300 years and built the chateau. Francis I. died there in 1547 ; and Charles IX. and Catherine de' Medici found a refuge in the chateau in the wars of religion, as Henry III. did after them. The famous marquise de Rambouillet is separately noticed below. Created a duchy and peerage in favour of the duke of Toulouse, son of Louis XIV., Rambouillet was subsequently bought and em- bellished by Louis XVI., who erected a model farm, sheep establish- ment, and other buildings. The place was a hunting -seat of Napoleon I. and Charles X., and it was here that in 1830 the latter signed his abdication. RAMBOUILLET, CATHERINE DE VIVONNE, MARQUISE DE (1588-1665), a lady famous in the literary history of France, was born in 1588. She was the daughter and heiress of Jean de Vivonne, marquis of Pisani, and her mother Giulia was of the noble Roman family of Savelli. She was married at twelve years old to Charles d'Angennes, vidarne of Le Mans, and afterwards marquis of Rambouillet. Her celebrity is due to the salon or literary meeting-place which she established as early as 1608 in the Hotel de Rambouillet, or, to give it its proper name, the Hotel Pisani, for M. de Rambouillet had shortly before his marriage sold his family mansion. Madame de Ram- bouillet not merely endeavoured to refine the manners of her guests and gave special attention to literary conversa- tion, but also seems to have taken great trouble to arrange her house for purposes of reception, and is said to have been the first to devise suites of rooms through which visitors could move easily. The hotel was open for more than fifty years, and almost all the more remarkable person- ages in French society and French literature frequented it, especially during the second quarter of the century, when it was at the height of its reputation. The incidents con- nected with the salon of the " incomparable Arthenice " (an anagram for Catherine which is said to have taken two poets of renown, Malherbe and Racan, a whole afternoon to devise) are innumerable, and it would be impossible to recount them in any space here available. Among the more noteworthy are the sonnet war between the Uranistes and the Jobistes partisans of two famous sonnets by Voiture and Benserade and the composition by all the famous poets of the day of the Guirlande de Julie, a collec- tion of poems on different flowers, addressed to Julie d'Angennes, Madame de Rambouillet's eldest daughter. Even more important is the rise of the Precieuses, who owed their existence to Madame de Rambouillet's salon and influence. These ladies who are usually represented in the memory of posterity by Moliere's avowed caricatures and by Mademoiselle de Scudery, but whose name, it must be remembered, Madame de Sevign6 herself was proud to