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 304 GUIDO RENI GUIDO RENI, an Italian painter, of the Bo- lognese school, born near Bologna in 1575, died there in 1642. He studied under Denys Calvaert and Ludovico Carracci, and went tt> Rome, where his " Martyrdom of St. Cecilia " was very successful. He received an order from the pope to decorate the private chapel of the palace of Monte Cavallo, but became disgusted with the parsimony of the papal treasurer and returned to Bologna, where he painted the " Massacre of the Innocents." Re- called by the pope to Rome, he executed a number of important works, including his fres- coes of the "Aurora" in the Rospigliosi pal- ace, the "Concert of Angels" in the apsis of the Capella Sta. Silvia, the " St. Andrew " in the chapel of that name, and the painting of " Fortune " in the gallery of the capitol. He was invited to Naples, and had nearly finished the "Nativity," now in the- choir of San Mar- tino, when he was driven away by the jealousy of the Neapolitan artists. The remainder of his life was passed at Bologna. At this period he gave himself up to play, and painted rapidly and carelessly. Many of his later works are unfinished, and some which bear his name are by his pupils. The best of this period are his "Assumption," in the gallery at Munich, and the Madonna with angels, now in Bologna. GD1ENNE, an ancient province in S. W. France, a part of the old kingdom of Aquitaine, bound- ed N. by Saintonge, Angoumois, Limousin, and Auvergne, E. by Languedoc, S. by Languedoc and Gascony, and W. by the bay of Biscay. In 1152 the duchy passed to Henry Plantagenet (afterward Henry II. of England) through his marriage with Eleanor, niece of William X. of Aquitaine. The kings of England maintained their possession of it with some interruption till 1451, when it was conquered by the army of Charles VII., under Dunois. Out of the ter- ritory of Guienne the departments of Gironde, Lot, Lot-et-Garonne, Dordogne, Aveyron, and part of those of Landes and Tarn-et-Garonne, have been formed. GCIGNES. I. Joseph de, a French orientalist, born in Pontoise, Oct. 19, 1721, died in Paris in March, 1800. When only 20 years old he was an extraordinary sinologue. In 1752 the royal society of London elected him a member, and in 1754 the French academy of inscrip- tions did the same. His principal work was Histoire generale des Huns, des Turcs, des Mo- gols et des autres Tartares occidentaux, want et depui* J. C. jusqu^d present (5 vols. 4to, 1756- '8). He was appointed in 1757 professor of Syriac in the college de France, and in 1769 keeper of the antiquities in the Louvre. He wrote several essays and papers, among which was a curious memoire in which he contends that the Chinese are but an Egyptian colony. II. Chretien Lools Joseph, son of the preceding, born in Paris, Aug. 25, 1759, died March 9, 1846. For 17 years he was French resident and consul at Canton. He published, besides several other papers, Voyages d Peking, Manille GUILD et rile de France (3 vols. 4to, 1808), and ed- ited under his own name in 1813 a Diction- naive chinois,francais et latin, which was really only the Han-tse-sy-y of Bafeilius de Glemona revised and enlarged. GUILD, or Gild (Sax. gildam, to pay), a name given in England and France to societies or- ganized for mutual aid and protection, as well as to confraternities whose chief object is piety or beneficence. The denomination of confra- ternity (confrerie) was formerly bestowed in France on lay brotherhoods united for secular as well as for religious purposes ; it is now re- stricted to pious and charitable organizations. Before the reformation the term guild was used in England indifferently for both, and it is often so applied at present. I. SEOULAE GUILDS. Societies of artisans were organized in Rome at a very early period, and, together with mer- chants' corporations, continued to increase in numbers and importance until the fall of the republic. Their turbulence caused them to be suppressed in the consulship of L. Caecilius and J. Martius ; but they were restored by Clodius. Incorporated with fixed statutes under the last Caesars, they spread all over the empire. The Christian religion found them among the labor- ing classes in the East and West, infused into them its active spirit of brotherly charity, and thus the old pagan corporation (collegium) be- came the Christian guild. In 364 Valentinian I. confirmed the privileges granted by prece- ding emperors to the trades' corporations, and about this epoch each trade became a separate guild, whose members, as well as their off- spring, could embrace no other calling. As a compensation, the guilds were empowered to accept donations and legacies, and to inherit the property of intestate members. They were also bound to provide for the requirements of the public service, and in return obtained in many instances most lucrative monopolies. Throughout the West these societies are called by early Christian writers collegia opificum, companies of craftsmen. In Piedmont some charters of guilds date from the year 707. The records of Ravenna mention a guild of fisher- men in 943, one of merchants in 953, and " a provost of the guild of butchers in 1001." In southern Gaul the municipalities from time im- memorial had their confraternities of trades- men, forming the great body of free citizens, and their consuls, as the chief magistrates were called. Nor was it otherwise in northern Gaul, when the invasion of the Franks came to disturb the social growth of centuries. The annals of the Merovingian kings mention a col- lege or guild of jewellers or workers in gold and silver ; and the edicts of Dagobert desig- nate a guild of bakers. In 1061 Philip I. granted privileges to the master chandlers. Louis VII. in 1162 speaks of "the ancient cus- toms of the guild of butchers," and granted ^to the widow of one Ives Laccobre and her heirs the right of collecting the moneys due to the royal treasury by the guilds of leather dressers,