Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 13.djvu/633

* MINNEWAUKON. 565 MINOK. situated in tlio iioi tlu'a>ti'rii pan of tlio State (.Map: North Dakota, G 1). It is 40 miles long, and from two to twelve miles broad. It receives the Coulee Creek, but has no outlet, and its water is brackish. MINNOW (ME. menow, from AS. myiie, luinnow, probably from AS. «ij;i, leel. miiiiir, Goth, minnha, OHG. niinniro, Ger. minder, Lat. minor, less, Gk. luvivduv, miiiynlhciii, to lessen, Skt. nil, to diminish). The name iiopularly ap- plied to almost any small tish. More technically it applies to members of the family Cyprinidoe, which includes the roach, dace, carp, etc.; spe- cilically, in England, Leuci»cus phojcimis. This is a small fish about three inches long, abundant in gravelly bottomed streams. It is, of course, unimportant as food except for larger fishes. In the United States the name usually belongs to various small cyprinodonts, mainly of the largo genvis Xotropis, living in the lesser streams, and frequently called "shiners." The largest and best known of these is the golden shiner (Xotropis Uiidsoniiis). which has a very small head, but is sometimes a foot in length. (See Dace.) These fishes are mostly bottom-feeders, are oviparous, carnivorous, and devour much spawn of their own and other kinds of fishes. The 'top-minnows' are of a different group, being killifishes (q.v.) of the genus Gambusia, and take their name from their surface-feeding habits. Along the eastern and southern coast the common 'minnow' of brackish water is the mummichog fq.v.). Con- sult Jordan, Manual of the 'crtel)rfites of the Xortliern United States (Chicago, 5th ed. 1890). See Plates of Dace and Minnows; Killifishes AND Top-Minnows. MINO, or in Portuguese MINHO, me'nyo (I.at. Minius). The principal river of Galicia. in the northwestern part of Spain (ilap: Spain, B 1 ). It rises in the mountains of the Province of Lugo, and flows in a southern and southwestern direction, forming a part of the boundary be- tween Spain and Portugal, until it enters the Atlantic through a wide estuary. Its total length is 211 miles, for the last 25 of which it is navigable for small vessels, but it is much ob- structed by reefs, islands, and shifting sand banks. MINO DA FIESOLE, me'no da fy.-i'zA-la (1431-84). A Florentine sculptor of the Early Renaissance. He was born at Poppi in the Casentino Valley. While employed as a stone- mason at Florence he became the friend and pupil of Desiderio da Settignano. His home was at Florence, but there is documentary evidence to show that he was employed at Rome in 1454, 1463. and 1404. From 1475 till 1480 he was employed upon the monument to Pope Sixtus IV.. of which there are fragments in the Grotte Vaticane. under Saint Peter's Church. He died at Florence. .Tuly 11. 1484. His work possesses beauty and delicate finish, but is lacking in originality. Its high reputation is due to rich decoration and to a certain naivete of expression, especially in his numerous portrait busts, which are his best work. His chief works are in the churches of Florence. Fiesole. and Rome. His most important achievements in Florence are in the Church of La Hadia : the nionuinents of Bernardo Giugni (14(il!) and of the Margrave Hugo of Tuscany (1481). In the Museo Xazionale at Florence are busts of Piero de' Medici i M.>i). (iiuliano de' Medici, and Kiualdo della Luna (14(J1). One of his best, if not his most important work, belongs to his early i)eriod: the monument of Leonardo Salutate, Bishop of Fiesole (d. 14l)(i), in the cathedral of that city; it is surmounted by a fine bust. A beautiful piece of Rcnais.sance decora- tion is the Tabernacle at Santa Maria in Traste- vcre, Rome, in which city is also his monument of Cardinal Fontegucrra in Santa Cecilia. His oilier works include busts of Niccolo Strozzi, in the Museum of Berlin; San Giovannino, in the Louvre; and five reliefs in South Kensington iluseum. Consult Semi)er and Barth, UervoiTa- gende Bildhauer-Architekten der Renaissance (Dresden, 1880). MINOKIES, The. A London pari.sh and street leading northward from the Tower to Aid- gate, now forming with Houndsditcli the Jewish quarter of the city. The name is derived from the nuns of Saint Clare, called Sororos Minores, or Jlinoresses. The Church of the Trinity, once belonging to a nunnery of the Order, still exists in the Minories. MINOR (Lat., less). A term in music ap- plied to intervals and modes. ( 1 ) The interval between any note and another is named according to the number of degrees between them on the scale, both notes included. The interval between C and E is called a third; that between E and G is also a third ; but these intervals are unequal, the one consisting of four semitones, the other of three; the former is therefore distinguished as a major, the latter as a minor interval. (2) There are two modes in which a musical jiassage nuxy be composed. Whereas the major mode makes use of but one form of scale, which is the same whether aseending or deseending. the minor mode recognizes two forms of scale, the harmonic and melodic. ]Iodern music conceives a mode as a system of three fundamental chords, which con- tain all the tones proper to the scale of that mode. These chords are the tonic, dominant, and subdominant. Arranging the tones of the pure minor scale as elements of these three chords we have the following: tonic d — f — a 1 1 1 — c — e — g — 6, 1 1 subdom. dom. where all three chords present themselves as minor (because having the minor third), just as the corresponding cliords are major in the major mode. (See Ma.ior. ) Arranging these tones in this diatonic order as a descending scale, begin- ning with the highest tone of the tonic chord (e), the following results: e, d, c, b, a, g. f. e. Here we have a pure minor scale which is iden- tical with the Dorian mode of the Greeks. (See Greek Mi'SIC. ) Comparing this deseending minor with the ascending major scale, we find each to be the exact opposite of the other, thus establishing the polarity of major and minor already known to Zarlino and Tartini. but fully developed only in 1S.53 by Hauptmann. Where the ascending major has the major third (on third degree) and semisteps (3-4. 7-8) the de- scending minor has the same in the same place: e, d, e,'~f, g. a. b, e. e, d, c, b. a. g. f. e.