Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 9.djvu/429

Rh and colour-grinder to some of the best masters, in order to prosecute bis studies; this lacks confirmation. Only three works are now extant which can safely be assigned to Melozzo. (1)He painted in 1472 the vault of the chief chapel in the church of the Apostoli in Rome, his subject being the Ascension of Christ; the figure of Christ is so boldly and effectively foreshortened that it seemed to “burst through the vaulting”; this fresco was taken down in 1711, and the figure of Christ is now in the Quirinal Palace, not worthy of special admiration save in its perspective quality; while some of the other portions, almost Raphaelesque in merit, are in the sacristy of StPeter’s. (2)Between 1475 and 1480 he executed a fresco, now transferred to canvas, and placed in the Vatican picture-gallery, representing the appointment of Platina by Pope SixtusIV. as librarian of the restored Vatican library, an excellent work of dignified portraiture. (3)In the Collegio at Forlì is a fresco by Melozzo, termed the “Pestapepe,” or Pepper-grinder, originally painted as a grocer’s sign; it is an energetic specimen of rather coarse realism, now so damaged that one can hardly assess its merits. Melozzo also painted the cupola of the Capuchin church at Forlì, destroyed in 1651; and it has been said that he executed at Urbino some of the portraits of great men (Plato, Dante, SixtusIV., &c.) which are now divided between the Barberini Palace and the Campana collection in Paris; this, however, appears to be more than doubtful, and it is even questionable whether Melozzo was ever at Urbino. In Rome he was one of the original members of the academy of StLuke, founded by SixtusIV. He returned to Forlì, probably towards 1480, and died in November 1494. He contributed sensibly to the progress of pictorial art; and, without being remarkable as a colourist, gave well graded lights, with general care and finish, and fine dignified figures. His works bear a certain degree of resemblance to those of his contemporary Mantegna. Marco Palmezzano was his pupil; and the signature “Marcus de Melotius” on some of Palmezzano’s works has, along with the general affinity of style, led to their being ascribed to Melozzo, who has himself been hence incorrectly called “Marco Melozzo.”  FORLIMPOPOLI, a town of Italy, about five miles east of Forlì, with a station on the railway between Bologna and Rimini. It was once a bishop’s seat, and still possesses a cathedral and an ancient castle. The name and the situation identify it with one of the three places that bore the Latin designation of Forum Popilii. Its history is marked by great vicissitudes. Destroyed by the Lombards and restored by the people of Forlì, it was again laid utterly waste in 1370 by Cardinal Egidio, and though twenty years later it was refounded and refortified by Sinbaldo Ordelaffi, it never recovered its former prosperity. Population in 1872 about 5000.  FORMAN, (1552–1611), a physician and astrologer, was born in 1552 at Quidham, a small village near Wilton, Wiltshire. At the age of fourteen he became apprentice to a druggist at Salisbury, but at the end of four years he exchanged this profession for that of a school-master. Shortly afterwards he entered Magdalen College, Oxford, where he studied chiefly medicine and astrology. After continuing the same studies in Holland he commenced practice as a physician in Philpot Lane, London, but as he possessed no diploma, he on this account underwent more than one term of imprisonment. Ultimately, however, he obtained a diploma from Cambridge university, and established himself as a physician and astrologer at Lambeth, where he was consulted, especially as a physician, by many persons of rank, among others by the notorious countess of Essex. He expired suddenly while crossing the Thames in a boat, September 12, 1611.

1em  FORMEY, (1711–1797), a German author, was born of French parentage at Berlin, 31st May 1711. He was educated for the ministry, and at the age of twenty became pastor of the French church at Brandenburg. Having in 1736 accepted the invitation of a congregation in Berlin, he was in the following year chosen professor of rhetoric in the French college of that city, and in 1739 professor of philosophy. On the organization of the academy of Berlin in 1744, he was named a member, and in 1748 became its perpetual secretary. He died at Berlin on the 7th March 1797. His principal works are La Belle Wolfienne, 1741–1753, 6 vols. 8vo, a kind of novel written with the view of enforcing the precepts of the Wolfian philosophy; Bibliothèque Critique ou Mémoires pour servir à l’Histoire Littéraire Ancienne et Moderne, 1746; Le Philosophe Chrétien, 1750; L’Émile Chrétien, 1764, intended as an answer to the Émile of Rousseau; and Souvenirs d’un Citoyen, Berlin, 1789. He also published an immense number of contemporary memoirs in the transactions of the Berlin Academy, and besides founding and editing several periodical publications contributed largely to others. He enjoyed a considerable reputation for ability and learning during his lifetime, but his works, which display a varied but somewhat superficial erudition, are now almost forgotten.  FORMIA (formerly Mola Gaëta or Castelmola), a town of Italy, in the province of Caserta, beautifully situated near the ancient Via Appia, on the innermost recess of the Gulf of Gaëta. The surrounding country is occupied with vineyards, olive plantations, and fruit gardens. Formia occupies the site of the ancient Formiæ, said to have been founded by the Tyrrhenians. At an early period it received the Roman franchise and became a municipium. Villas were built near it by many of the noble Romans; and in the grounds of the Villa Caposele there are ruins which are thought by some to have been the baths of the villa of Cicero. The villa Caposele was at one time one of the residences of the kings of Naples. The vine of the Formian hills produced excellent wine in the time of Horace. Population in 1871, 9151.  FORMOSA, in Chinese Taiwan, a large island in the Pacific lying between what the Chinese call Nan-hai and Tong-hai, or the Southern and the Eastern Sea, and separated from the Chinese mainland by the strait of Fokien, which has a width of about 91 miles in its narrowest part. It extends from 121° 15′ to 122° 5′E. long; Foki, its most northern point, lies in 25° 19′, and its most southern, Lin-hai-shan or South Cape, in 21° 54′N. lat Its area is estimated at 14,978 square miles, or about half the size of Ireland. It forms part of the long line of islands which, in the words of MrBridge, are interposed as a protective fortification between the Asiatic coast and the broad expanse of the Pacific, and produces that happy immunity from the typhoon which is enjoyed by the ports of China from Amoy to the Yellow Sea. A chain of mountains, called simply Ta-shan or Great Mountain by the Chinese People, traverses the island from N. to S., and attains in several of its summits no inconsiderable elevation. The loftiest point is usually said to be Mu Kang-shan or the “Wooded Mountain,” which has been named Mount Morrison by the English, “after the captain of one of the early vessels trading to Taiwanfu,” and is said to be 12,850 feet in height; but it is not improbable that this estimate is too high, and that the range really culminates elsewhere. Towards the north the English maps show a Mount 