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 DUKANTE ft. above the sea, was founded about 1560 by Alonso Pacheco as a military station, and soon after was made an episcopal see. Its original name Avas Guadiana, and it is now sometimes called Victoria. The streets are regular, but the houses are generally poor. The only buildings worthy of note are the government house, the cathedral, ten parish churches, and a spacious hospital. There are three small prisons, a penitentiary, a state prison, a coliseum, an arena for bull fights, and a cock pit whose main building presents a sumptuous appearance. There are public gardens, three public squares, and nine public baths. Thermal springs supply water, which runs in open streams through the streets. The inhabitants are remarkable for cleanliness. The climate is temperate, and the thermometer seldom rises above 78 F. There are manufactures of cotton and woollen goods, leather, iron, glass, and tobacco. The mint from 1811 to 1845 coined $27,962,668. There is an institute in which jurisprudence, languages, and the sciences are taught, a semi- nary, and several minor schools. DURANTE, Francesco, an Italian composer, born at Frattamaggiore, near Naples, about 1690, died Aug. 13, 1755. His parents were poor, and he was educated at a charity school. He was instructed in music by Scarlatti, and devoted himself to teaching and composition. In 1742, on the departure of Porpora to Ger- many, Durante was made master of the con- servatory of Loretto. His works are 62 in number, mainly ecclesiastical. He was not fertile in melodic ideas, but his harmonies were fine in invention and pure in style. Robert Franz has given to some of this composer's works full modern orchestral accompaniment, and they have been recently revived both in Europe and in this country. JURA/70 (anc. Epidamnus or Dyrrliachi- nm ; Turkish, Dratch ; Slav. Durtz), a town of Albania, Turkey, on the E. coast of the Adri- atic, 50 m. S. by W. of Scutari ; pop. about 10,000. It is strongly fortified, has a safe and commodious harbor, and carries on a consider- able trade in corn, tobacco, oil, wood, and British manufactured goods, which are import- ed from Trieste. It is the seat of a Roman Catholic archbishop. (See DYKRHACHIUM.) DURBIN, John Price, D. D., an American .cler- gyman, born in Bourbon co., Ky., in 1800. At the age of 14 he was apprenticed to a cabinet maker, and a few years later entered the itine- rant ministry of the Methodist church. He studied at Miami university while preaching at Hamilton, Ohio, graduated at Cincinnati col- lege, and soon afterward was appointed pro- fessor of languages in Augusta college, Ky. In 1831 he was elected chaplain of the United States senate, and in 1832 became editor of the " Christian Advocate and Journal." In 1834 he was elected president of Dickinson college at Carlisle, Pa., and during his incum- bency made an extensive tour of observation in Europe and the East. As member of the DURER 327 general conference of 1844 he was a prominent actor in the great contest on slavery which divided the church. Retiring from his office in 1845, he was pastor of churches in Phila- delphia, and was also presiding elder of the Philadelphia district. He was secretary of the missionary society from 1850 to 1872, when he retired in consequence of physical infirmity. To his labors is largely due the establishment of missions in India, Bulgaria, western and northern Europe, and many parts of the Uni- ted States, and the reinvigoration of those in China and elsewhere ; while through his plans the annual contributions have increased from $100,000 to $600,000. In 1867 he again visit- ed Europe in the interest of missions. Be- sides numerous contributions to periodical lit- erature, Dr. Durbin has published "Obser- vations in Europe, principally in France and Great Britain " (2 vols. 12mo, New York, 1844), and "Observations in Egypt, Palestine, Syria, and Asia Minor" (2 vols. 12mo, 1845). DUREN, a town of Rhenish Prussia, on the river Roer, 18 m. E. of Aix-la-Chapelle ; pop. in 1871, 12,850. It has an asylum for the blind, and considerable manufactures of cloth, carpets, steel and iron ware, and paper. Under the Carlovingians Duren was a town of im- portance, and councils were held there in 761 and 779. Charles V. captured and burned the town in 1543. DURER, Albrecht, or Albert, a German painter and engraver, born in Nuremberg, May 20, 1471, died there, April 6, 1528. His father was a Hungarian goldsmith settled in that town. When 15 years old he was placed with Michael Wohlgemuth, the leading painter of Nurem- berg. With him he remained four years, after which he travelled through Germany and the Low Countries, employing several years in the study not merely of his own art but of the most important collateral branches. He re- turned to Nuremberg in 1494, and soon after contracted a marriage which, according to the received tradition, was very unhappy. His earliest well authenticated picture bears the date of 1498, and is a portrait of himself. A similar portrait, dated 1500, and now in the Pinakothek at Munich, represents a man in the prime of life, standing in a digaified attitude, his hair falling over his shoulders. In his last portrait, a woodcut of the year 1527, the face is marked by lines of care, and the head is shorn of the flowing locks in which the artist was wont to take a complacent pride. In 1498 appeared his first great series of wood- cuts, illustrating the Revelation of St. John ; a work of singular power, in which the artist's imagination, however, is controlled by the fan- tastic element which then pervaded German art. At the close of 1505, by the aid of his friend Wilibald Pirkheimer, Dtirer made a journey to northern Italy, and remained a considerable time at Venice, Bologna, and other places; but so firmly was he grounded in his peculiar style, that the graceful productions of the