Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 07.djvu/723

* FIRMAMENT. I,,.; FIBMISTERNIA. firmament (Job xxxvii. 18). The blue ethereal sky was regarded as a solid sphere, to which the Btars were fixed, and which was constantly re- volving, carrying them with it. This sphere or firmament rested on the loftiest mountains as pillars and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament; and the theory of the phenomena of rain, etc., was that there were 'windows in heaven' — i.e. in the firmament — through which, when opened, the waters that were above the firmament descended (Gen. vii. 11; II. Kings vii. 2, 19; Ps. lxxviii. 23 and cxlviii. 4). Simi- larly, under the earth there was another sea, called the 'deep' or 'great dee]).' The view enter- tained by the Greeks and other early nations was essentially the same. It is most probable, at least in the case of the Jews and the Baby- lonians, that both views are traceable to the same original source. In the progress of astro- nomical observations it was found that many of the heavenly bodies had independent motions inconsistent with the notion of their being fixed to one sphere or firmament. Then the number of crystalline spheres was indefinitely increased, each body that was clearly independent of the rest having one assigned to it, till a complex system was introduced capable of being fully understood only by the philosophers who devised it. See Ptolemaic System. FIRMAN, fer'man or fer-man' (Pers. far- man, Skt. pramana, authority, norm, from pra, forth -f ma, to measure). A word used by the Turks to denote any official decree emanating from the Ottoman Porte. Its employment in Per- sia is as old as the time of Darius, who in the Old Persian inscription speaks of his commands or statutes as framana. The right of signing any firman relating to affairs connected with his special department is exercised by every minister and member of the divan, but the office of plac- ing at the head of the firman the thograi — a cipher containing the name of the Sultan in in- terlaced letters, and which alone gives effect to the decree — is committed to the '.ands of a spe- cial minister, who is called nichanji effendi. The name applied to such decrees as have been signed by the Sultan himself is hatti-sherif (q.v.). The name firman may also signify a more formal kind of Turkish passport, which can be granted only by the Sultan or by a pasha. A written permission to trade is also called in India a fir- man. FIRMENICH-RICHARTZ, fer'me-nlK reK'- iirts, Johannes Matthias (1808-89). A German author and Germanic scholar, born in Cologne, and educated at Bonn and Munich. He was dis- tinguished as a playwright and poet. In 1860 he was appointed professor in Berlin, where he published his principal work. Germaniens Volk- erstimmen (3 vols., 1843-66; supplementary vol- ume, 1807). FIRMIAN, fer'me-an. Karl Joseph, Count (1716-82). An Austrian statesman. He was born at Deutschmetz, Tyrol, and was educated at Erthal, Innsbruck. Salzburg, and at the Univer- sity of Leyden. After traveling in France and Italy, he returned to Austria, upon the accession of Francis I. to the Imperial throne of Germany, and was sent by Maria Theresa as Ambassador to Naples, and as Governor-General to Lombardy in 1759, where he did much to encourage science and ih. mi-, lie was a patron of Winckelmann, of Angelica Kauffmann, and of many other scholars ami artists. .Many libraries wen- erected by him, while his own collection of 40,0011 volumes (cata logue in 10 vols., published in 1783 under the title Biblioteca Firmiana) was alwai ble to investigators, and was later in part incorpo- r.i ed with the Brera Library in Milan. FIR'MICTJS MATER'NTJS, .Inns. A Latin author of the fourth century, a native of Sicily, who. about A.f>. 350, wrote eight books on as- trology (Matheseos Libri VIII.), in which he formulated a complete theory of astronomical superstition, in the spirit of the Neo-Platonists. The work was first published in the Astronomid Feteres (140!)), and subsequently by Pruckner (1533 and 1551). Another edition is i hat of Sittl (1894). He has been identified, probably erro- neously, with a Christian controversialist of the same name, who, about a.d. 347, addressed to the sons of Constantine the Great a work entitled De Errore Profanarum Religionum, treating of the false fanaticism of paganism, and counseling its complete annihilation. The latest edition of the latter work is that of Halm, in vol. ii. of the Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latino- rum (Vienna, 1867). FIRMIX'IAN. A dramatic poem by W. E. Aytoun (1854), described as a 'spasmodic trag- edy.' and written in ridicule of the extravagant subjects and mannerisms of Bailey, Dobell, and Alexander Smith. FIR'MIN, Thomas (1632-97). An English philanthropist, born at Ipswich. In 1662 he raised money for the Polish exiles of the Unita- rian belief, and in 1681 for the Polish Calvinists when they shared the same fate. But he was bet- ter known for his charities at home, and espe- cially for the employment he provided (1665) in London to help needy workmen after the plague, and again after the fire. From 1676 he devoted himself entirely to philanthropic schemes of _ va- rious kinds. He built a linen factory, where a little later he employed seventeen hundred workmen, and in 1682 he established a second factory at Ipswich to help the refugees from France, besides making large collections for them. From 1673 to his death he was a governor of Christ's Hospital, save for a break caused by his opposition to James II. In politics he seems to have been Re- publican, but was an ardent admirer of William III. ; and in theology he was an anti-Trinitarian, though he never le'ft the English Church. He wrote Some Proposals for the Imploying of the Poor, especially in and about London, mid for the Prevention of Begging (1678; reprinted in 1681, and in 1787 in Truets Relating to the Poor). FIRMINY, fer'me'ne'. A town in the Depart- ment of Loire. France, 45 miles by rail from Lyons (Map: France. L 6). It is situated in a coal-mining region, and manufactures steel and other metal articles and ribbons. Population, in 1901. 16,903. FIRM ISLAND. In Amadis de Gaul, an en- chanted island, where the marriage of Amadis and Oriana took place. FIR'MISTER'NIA,fer'mi-stPr'ni-a. A division of the tailless Amphibia (Anura). which includes those tongue-possessing frogs ( the families Ranidae and Engystomatidse), in which the two halves of the shoulder-girdle meet in the middle line and