Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 20.djvu/693

WIRNT VON GRAFENBERG. WIRNT VON GRAFENBERG, A Middle High German poet of the thirteenth century. He was a Bavarian nobleman who between 1202 and 1205 wrote an epic, entitled Wigalois, which describes the adventures of Gawain's son, the name being a corruption of Guinglain le Galois. Wirnt took his material from the French romance Le bel inconnu of Renaud de Beaujeu, and used it with great freedom. Though extravagant and didactic, the poem is one of the best romances of the Arthurian cycle written in Germany, apart from the work of Wolfram von Eschenbach and Hartmann von Aue. A prose version was made toward the close of the fifteenth century and printed at Augsburg in 1493. Wigalois was edited by F. Pfeiffer (Leipzig, 1847). Consult F. Saran, Beiträge zur Geschichte der deutschen Sprache und Litteratur, vol. xxi. (Halle, 1896).  WIRT,, (1772-1834). An American lawyer, statesman, and author, born at Bladensburg, Md. He obtained a grammar school education, served as a tutor, studied law, and, moving to Virginia, practiced his profession and held office. In 1803 he printed his Letters of a British Spy, containing sketches of popular speakers, which were Addisonian in style and highly popular. A second series of essays, entitled The Rainbow, appeared later in the Richmond Enquirer, but was not so successful. The Old Bachelor (1812), first published in the same paper by Wirt and some of his friends, was more popular, but as an author Wirt achieved more fame by his readable though not very accurate Life of Patrick Henry (1817). Meanwhile he had settled in Richmond in 1806 and gained a high reputation by his speech in prosecution of Aaron Burr. He supported Jefferson in politics, and became a member of the Virginia Legislature (1807-08), and United States District Attorney (1816) and Attorney-General of the United States during the administrations of Monroe and J. Q. Adams (1817-29). On retiring he settled in Baltimore, and in 1832 accepted the Anti-Masonic nomination for the Presidency. He was an able and amiable man, a good speaker, an effective though somewhat florid writer, and a lawyer and statesman of tried integrity and success. Consult the Memoir by J. P. Kennedy (Philadelphia, 1849); also “English Culture in Virginia,” by W. P. Trent, in Johns Hopkins University Studies.  WISBECH, or, or WISBEACH. A river-port in the Isle of Ely, Cambridgeshire, England, on the Nene, 12 miles above its mouth in the Wash (North Sea), and 40 miles north of Cambridge (Map:, G 4). One of the principal buildings is the restored Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul. Vessels of upward of 500 tons can reach the town. There are manufactures of rope. Wisbech is mentioned in 664; became noted for its extensive fisheries; in 1190 it received privileges from Richard I., and in 1549 was incorporated bv Edward VI. Population, in 1901, 9831.  WIS′BY or VISBY. The capital of the Swedish island and län of Gotland, on the western coast of the island, about 44 miles from the mainland of Sweden (Map:, H 8). The town is imposingly situated amid gardens on and at the foot of a rugged cliff. It has greatly declined,

as is attested by the half-vacant area inclosed within the interesting mediæval walls with their thirty-eight ancient towers. The many houses dating back to the period from the thirteenth to the seventeenth century give the place a quaint appearance. Of the many churches, only one, the Cathedral of Saint Mary, at the foot of the cliff, now remains in service. It was erected by the Germans and was completed in 1225. The interesting ruined Church of Saint Nicholas, partly Romanesque and partly Gothic, has two beautiful rose windows, supposed to have contained the two carbuncles which, tradition says, now lie at the bottom of the sea with the bones of Valdemar. The charming Gothic Saint Catharine Church dates from about 1230. Near the southeast corner of the walls is a monolithic cross marking the sepulchre of the defenders of the city in 1361. The Gotland Museum, rich in antiquities, the high school with a museum, the chemical station, and the library are the principal public buildings. The little modern harbor, south of the old Hanseatic harbor, which has disappeared, has two basins to accommodate the present traffic. Population, in 1900, 8376.

The history of Wisby is that of (q.v.). The town was probably a place of human sacrifice and a trading place of some importance in pagan times. In the Middle Ages, when it was a member of the Hansa, it was a great distributing centre for the commerce between the Orient and the Baltic countries. A famous maritime code bore its name. Valdemar IV. of Denmark practically destroyed the town in 1361, and it never regained its supremacy.  WISBY,. A collection of mercantile customs and regulations, dating from the last years of the thirteenth century and taking its name from the celebrated trading town in Gotland, Sweden. The laws of Wisby were in force throughout the Baltic Sea and were made the basis of the ordinances of the Hanseatic League. They were an important factor in the development of the modern system of maritime law. Scandinavian legists claim for the Wisby code an antiquity antedating that of the celebrated laws of Oleron, but the evidence is greatly against so early an origin.  WISCON′SIN. A north central State of the United States, popularly called the ‘Badger State.’ It is bounded on the north by Lake Superior and upper Michigan, on the east by Lake Michigan, on the south by Illinois, and on the west by Iowa and Minnesota, the greater part of the western boundary being formed by the Mississippi River. Its greatest length, between latitudes 42° 30′ and 47° 3′ N., is 315 miles, and its greatest breadth, between longitudes 86° 49′ and 92° 54′ W., 294 miles. These dimensions include the Apostle Islands, in Lake Superior, and the islands at the entrance to Green Bay, in Lake Michigan. Wisconsin has an area of 56,040 square miles, including 1590 square miles of water, and it ranks twenty-first in size among the States.

. The surface of Wisconsin is a nearly level plain or undulating plateau with three faces or slopes, divided by a T-shaped ridge or line of highest elevation. The longitudinal arm of this ridge runs southward through the