Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 9.djvu/823

 F R I F R I 787 FRIST, PAOLO (1728-1784), a celebrated mathematician and astronomer, was born at Milan, April 13, 1728. At the age of fifteen he entered the monastery of the Barnabite friars, where, by self-instruction, he acquired a considerable knowledge of geometry. Under Professor Olivetano, at the university of Padua, he continued his mathematical studies. After a time he was sent to Lodi to give lectures on philo sophy. When twenty-one years of age he composed a treatise on the figure of the earth, and the reputation which he soon acquired led to his appointment by the king of Sardinia to the professorship of philosophy in the college of Casale. His friendship with lladicati, a man of liberal opinions, occasioned Frisi s removal by his clerical superiors to Novara, where he was compelled to do duty as a preacher. In 1753 he was elected a corresponding member of the Paris Academy of Sciences, and shortly afterwards he became professor of philosophy in the Barnabite College of St Alexander at Milan. An acrimonious attack by a young Jesuit, about this time, upon his dissertation on the figure of the earth laid the foundation of his animosity against the Jesuits, with whose enemies, including D Alembert, Condorcet, and other Encyclopedists, he later closely associated himself. In 1756 he was appointed by Leopold, grand-duke of Tuscany, to the professorship of mathematics in the university of Padua, a post which he held for eight years. He was made in 1757 an associate of the Imperial Academy of St Petersburg, and a foreign member of the Iloyal Society of London, and in 1758 a member of the Academy of Berlin, in 1766 of that of Stockholm, and in 1770 of the Academies of Copenhngen and of Bern. From several European crowned heads he received, at various times, marks of special distinction, and the empress Maria Theresa granted him a yearly pension of 100 sequins (50). In 1764 he was created professor of mathematics in the Palatine Schools at Milan, and obtained from Pope Pius VI. release from ecclesiastical jurisdiction, and authority to become a secular priest. In 1766 he visited France and England, and in 1768 Vienna, and thus formed the acquaintance of the leading men of science of his day. Frisi was in 1777 made director of a school of architecture at Milan. His knowledge of hydrau lics caused him to be frequently consulted with respect to the management of canals and other water-courses in various parts of Europe. It was through his means that lightning-conductors were first introduced into Italy for the protection of buildings. He was a man not only of exten sive learning, but, of wide views and fearless spirit, and by his lectures did much to dispel the popular superstitions of his fellow-countrymen concerning magic and witchcraft. He died November 22, 1784. He wrote Disquisitio mnthcmntica in caitsam physicam figurcc ct magnitu- dinis tcrrcc, Milan, 3751; Saggio dclla morale filosofia, Lugano, 1753; Nova elcctricitatis thtoria, Milan, 1755; Dissertatio de motu dinrno tcrrce, Pisa, 1758; Dissertationes varice, 2 vols. 4to, Lucca, 1759, 1761; Del modo di regolarc ifiumi e i torrenti, Lucca, 1762; Cosmoyraphia ])hysica ct mathcmdtica, Milan, 1774, 1775, 2 vols. 4to, his chief work ; Dell architcxtura, statica e idraulica, Milan, 1777; and other treatises. See Verri, Mcmorie . . . del signor dom Paolo Frisi, Milan, 1787, 4to ; Fabbroni, Eloyj d illustri Italiani Atti di Milano, vol. ii. FRISIANS, in classical Latin Frisii, in mediaeval Latin Frisones or Frisiones, and on inscriptions of the later empire sometimes Friscevones, a people of Teutonic stock, who, at their first appearance in history, are found in possession of the same district of Europe which they still, at least partially, occupy. So far as can be judged they have never been of an aggressive disposition, and it is not improbable that at one time they may have possessed a much wider territory than history usually assigns them. The bound aries of Frisia proper are the Scheldt towards the west, and the Weser towards the east, and it never extended far inland from the coast of the German Ocean. But there is also a district of Schleswig in Denmark, extending along the west coast from the Eider northwards to Tondern, in which the common language still gives evidence of a Frisian popula tion ; the same may be said of the neighbouring islands of For, Silt, Heligoland, &c.; and it is no improbable supposi tion that not only the Ditmarsch district to the south of the Eider, but also the whole maritime country westward to the Weser, was at an earlier period in the hands of distinctly Frisian tribes. If the presence of geographical names end ing in urn, the Frisian equivalent to the German htim and the Saxon ham, may be taken as sufficient evidence of Frisian occupation, Dr Latham, in his notes to the Go-mania of Tacitus, has elaborately shown that there have been Frisian settlements as far north in Denmark as the Lijmfiord, and as far east as the islands of Funen and Zealand. By the older historians of Denmark and the countries of Lower Germany, the Frisian district in Denmark is frequently called Frisia Minor or Lesser Frisia, which, however, must not be confounded with the unex plained distinction which Tacitus makes between Frisii Majores and Frisii Minores. The history of the Frisians, in spite of the labours of a few investigators like Wiarda and Richthofen, has hitherto been left in many respects in a very fragmentary and un trustworthy condition; and rash assertions of uncritical chroniclers have undisputed currency. For this neglect the principal reason is undoubtedly the fact that the people have, at least in modern times, displayed no strong political individuality, but have allowed themselves peacefully to be merged in more powerful nationalities. The reader who wishes may find the legendary history of the Frisian heroes traced from the 4th century B.C. in Furniius s Annalinm Phrisicorum Libri Tres, Franeker, 1699, or in the quaintly- illustrated volumes of Westphal s Scriptores rerum Dani- carum, which comprise Petrus Sax De pn.cipiiis rebus ycstis Frisiorum septentrionalium breviter descriptis et iconice adumbratis libri sex ; Suffriflus Petri De antiq. et orig. Frisiorum ; Antonius Heimreich, Svpplementa ad Chronicon Frisiae septentr., kc. The Frisians were so far rendered tributary by Drusus that they continued to pay to the Romans a tax of ox hides until the foolish exactions of Olennius, who demanded that all the hides should be of a certain superlative quality drove them to revolt in 28 A.D. They defeated the Roman forces under Lucius Apronius, and though Corbulo obtained hostages for their future loyalty, and &quot; gave them a senate, magistrates, and a constitution &quot; (Tacitus, Ann. xi. 20), their subjugation was little more than nominal. About 57 A.D. a body of Frisians took possession of lands reserved for the Roman soldiers ; and, instead of removing at the threat of the Roman governor, they sent their chiefs to Rome to obtain imperial sanction for their occupancy. In the 13th book of his Annals, Tacitus tells how the chiefs, Verritus and Malorix, as he calls them, excited the amusement and admiration of the people by taking, unasked, their seat among the senators in Pompey s theatre, when they heard that strangers from nations distinguished by their bravery and friendship to the Romans were advanced to that honourable position. Nero gave them both the Roman franchise, but refused to sanction the presumption of their tribe, who were afterwards expelled from the district which they had sought to colonize. It is not till the new power of the Franks was begin ning to lay the foundations of its empire that the Frisians again come prominently into notice ; but it appears probable that in the meantime they had shared with their neighbours, the Angles and the Saxons, in the con quest of England and Scotland, though to what extent it is impossible to ascertain. The Frankish king, Dagobert