Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XI.djvu/147

 MANZONI MAP 135 luced a treatise on Latin orthography, 'thographice Ratio, founded on inscriptions, idols, and manuscripts. Notwithstanding lese evidences of precocity, his mental capa- ity and attainments were inferior to those of is father or grandfather ; and in consequence his neglect to employ competent persons, publications are the least valuable of all lanating from the Aldine press. He re- jned his press in 1584 to one of his workmen, id during the remainder of his life was pro- of belles-lettres successively in Bologna, isa, and Rome. He published works in Lat- and Italian, besides commentaries on Hor- 3, Cicero, &c. (See ALDINE EDITIONS.) MAX /ONI, Alessandro, count, an Italian novel- ';, born in Milan, March 8, 1784, died there, ay 22, 1873. His father possessed little cul- ivation ; his mother was a daughter of the stinguished philosophical economist Becca- i. He studied first at Milan and afterward at Pavia, where he was an enthusiast for Al- fieri, Monti, and Foscolo. In 1805 he went with his mother to Paris. The sudden death of a friend furnished the subject of his first poem, in blank verse, entitled In morte di Car- lo Imbonati (Paris, 1806). Returning to Milan in 1807, he married in the following year the daughter of a banker of Geneva, and published in 1809 his mythological poem Urania. His education and residence in Paris had led him to imbibe skeptical opinions, and his wife belonged to the Calvinistic church; but both now became devout Roman Catholics. The change was announced by his Inni sacri (Milan, 1810), a collection of religious lyrics. In 1820 appeared his romantic tragedy II conte di Car- magnola, dedicated to Fauriel, which violated the unities of time and place, but was remark- able for its simplicity of plot and purity of style. It attracted attention throughout Eu- rope, was severely criticised, was admired by Goethe, and was defended by the author in a letter written in French Sur Vunite de temps et de lieu. It was followed in 1823 by another tragedy, Adelchi; and on occasion of the death of Napoleon, he published an ode, II cinque Maggio (1821), one of the finest modern Italian lyrics, in which he highly extolled the empe- ror. His greatest success was achieved by the novel I promessi sposi (3 vols., 1827), a Milan- ese story of the 17th century, which was trans- lated into the principal languages of Europe, and was republished in America under the title of " The Betrothed Lovers." In an illustrated edition (1842), he added to the original text a Storia della colonna infame, in which he gives an account of the executions caused by the pop- ular superstition during the plague of 1630, and touches upon some of the highest ques- tions of social economy. In 1834 he wrote Os- servazioni sulla morale cattolica (Florence), in reply to Sismondi's depreciation of the moral influence of the Catholic church in the middle ages ; it was translated into English (London, 1836). He married a second time in 1833, and was afflicted by the death of all his children (in- cluding a daughter married to Massimo d'Aze- glio), the last dying a few weeks before him. In February, 1860, he was named senator of Italy. His 80th birthday was celebrated with much enthusiasm by his countrymen in 1864. In 1868, with R. Bonghi, he prepared a report on the means of establishing the unity of the Italian language on the basis of the Florentine dialect. Almost to the day of his death he was engaged in the preparation of a " History of the French Revolution." At his funeral the highest honors were paid to his memory, and the royal princes were among. his pall- bearers. The chapter of the Prussian order pour le merite which had been conferred upon Manzoni was in 1874 given to Carlyle. MAORI. See NEW ZEALAND. MAP (Lat. mappa), a representation of a por- tion of the earth's surface, or of the celestial sphere, upon a plane. Its object is to present to the eye the bearings of objects upon the surface from each other, and their relative dis- tances apart, as nearly correct as may be. But this can be done with accuracy only upon a globe, the surface of which is similar to that of the earth itself. Various plans, however, have been devised by which in the more con- venient form of plane sheets true delineations of the surface are presented, reference being had to the principles upon which these maps are constructed. By the method called pro- jection, the rules of perspective are applied to the delineation of objects upon the surface according to four principal modes. In the method of projection called orthographic, the eye is supposed to be at an infinite distance from the sphere, so that the rays of light coming from every point of the hemisphere opposite to it may be considered as parallel to one another. The sphere is intersected through its centre by a plane perpendicular to these rays, and it is upon this plane that the objects are projected, as their shadows might be cast upon it from the sun through a transparent medium. Objects near the centre of the plane would by this method be delineated in nearly correct proportions ; but in receding from this, as the rays strike more obliquely upon the sur- face of the sphere, their projection becomes more and more distorted, and the parallels of latitude or meridians of longitude (as the eye is placed opposite the pole or the equator) are drawn more and more closely together. In the stereographic projection, the eye is sup- posed to be placed at the surface of the sphere, and the surface to be delineated is the opposite hemisphere or a portion of it, of which the inner or concave side is presented to the eye. The plane upon which the objects are project- ed is supposed to be transparent, and placed so as to pass through the centre of the earth, its surface perpendicular to the line passing from the eye to the centre. In this method the meridians and parallels intersect each other as they do upon the globe ; and though there is