Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 6.djvu/475

Rh circuit, present not only portions of Roman and mediaeval works, but magnificent specimens of the so-callad Cyclopean architecture. The cathedral, a building of the 1 5 th century, but restored by Galilei in the 18th, contains a number of paintings by Luca Signorelli and Pietro Berettini, who were both natives of the town ; the tomb of John Baptist Tommasi, the last grand-master of the Order of Malta ; and a large sarcophagus, adorned with bas-reliefs of the Lapithre and Centaurs, in which, according to the fanciful hypothesis of the local antiquaries, were the remains of the Consul Flaminius, who perished in the battle of Lake Thrasymene against the Carthaginian invader. Among the other churches, which are almost all in posses sion of paintings of interest to connoisseurs, the most important is Santa Marghenta, a fine building of the 13th century by Nicola and Giovanni Pisano, which occupies the top of the hill and is embosomed in cypress trees. The Accademia Etrnsca, founded by Ridolfino Venuti in 172G, has a museum in the palazzo pretorio, which numbers amongst its various treasures a bronze candelabrum of sixteen lights, ranked among the finest specimens of Etruscan art. In the same building is preserved the Bonbucci Library, which contains a fine MS. of Dante and a curious unpublished work called the tfotti Coritane, or lights of Cortona. Outside of the town is an Etruscan tomb of some architectural interest, known as the Grotto of Pythagoras. The population of the commune is upwards of 26,000 ; that of the city is only 3973.

1em  CORUNNA (Spanish, La Coruña; French, La Corogue; English, formerly often The Groyne), a city and seaport of Spain, the capital at one time of Galicia, and now of a province of its own name, is situated on the north-west coast, 43 miles north of Santiago de Com- postelh, in 43 23 N. lat. and 8 27 W. long. It is of first rank both as a fortress and a port, and is the seat of a superior court and a commercial tribunal. There is an upper and a lower town, the former built on the east side of a small peninsula, and the latter on the isthmus connecting the peninsula with the mainland. The upper town is the more ancient, and is still surrounded by walls and bastions and defended by a citadel ; but it has been gradually outgrown by the lower, which, though at first a mere Pescaderia, or fishing-village, is now comparatively well built, and has several broad and handsome streets. There is little remarkable in the public buildings, though they include six churches, of which Santiago dates from the llth and the Colegiata from the 1 3th century, five convents, two hospitals, a palace for the captain-general of Galicia, a theatre, a school of navigation, an arsenal, and barracks. The harbour, though of rather difficult access, is perfectly secure, and it is defended by several forts, of which the most important are San Diego on the east and San Antonio on the west. These fortifications are of little practical importance on the land side, as they are com manded by a hill that overlooks the city. The so-called Tower of Hercules to the north, supposed to have been I originally built by the Piomans, has been raised in modern times to a height of upwards of 3GO feet, and is now crowned with a fine revolving light visible for a distance of twelve miles to sea. English, French, and Belgian steamers call here on their way to South America for mails or emigrants ; and upwards of 300 merchant ships, mostly British, enter the port every year. The trade consists miinly in the export of fat cattle 20,000 of which were sent to England in 1873, eggs, meats, fruits, and sardines; and in the importation of general grocery-goods and manufactured articles. Besides a large Government tobacco-factory, which employs about 3000 women, there are in the city two glass-factories, two cotton-factories, and several steam saw-mills and sardine- curing establishments ; and the herring and pilcliard fisheries give employment to a number of the inhabitants. According to the census of 18G9, the population of the town and suburbs was about 30,000; in i874 it was estimated at 40,000.

1em  CORVEY, a fomons Benedictine abbey in Saxony, situated on the Wcser, in the neighbourhood of Hoxter, with which it communicates by tin avenue about three- quarters of a mile in length. It was founded by Louis the Pious in 813, and received its ncme from the fact that the first body of monks by vshcm it was held came fnm Corbie in Picardy. Raked to the rank of a bifhopric in 1793, it was secularized in 1802, and bestowed on the Nassau Orange family ; and since then it has passed through various hands to those of the present prince of Ratibor, who received it in 1840 by the will of Victor Amadeus of Hesse-Piothenbeig. The abbey, or, as it is now called, the castle of Corvey, possesses a very extensive library, especially rich in old illustrated works ; but the ancient collection clue to the literary enthusiasm of the Benedictines is no longer extant. It at one time preserved the famous manuscript of Tacitus vihich contains the six books of the Annals. Widukind composed his history of the Saxons within the precincts of Corvey; and the Annales Corbejenscs of the monks can still be read in Pertz s Monwnenta Germanics Ilistorica, vol. iii. The Chroniccn Corbejense, published by Week-kind in 1824, has been proved a forgery. (See Wigand, Gesrhichte der Altci Korvey, Hoxter, 1819, and Der KorveiscJie Giitcrbcsitz.)  CORVISART-DESMARETS, ( 1755-1821), French physician, was born at Vouzicrs, in Champagne. His parents intended him for the profes sion of the law, but he turned aside to the study of medi* cine, in which he took an enthusiastic interest. He became parish doctor of S.iint-Sulpice, and then obtained a post in the hospital of L i Charite&quot;, where he founded a flourishing 