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Ghaffir is the name for an Egyptian policeman, guard or watchman.
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Ghaznavides was a dynasty founded in 961 byAlepteghin, originally a slave belonging to the Ameer of Bokhara. Ghazna was the seat of his power, and became, under his successors, the capital of an empire which reached from the Tigris to the Ganges, and from the Sihon to the Indian Ocean. The most brilliant period of the dynasty was that of Sultan Mahmud (999-1030). It became extinct towards the end of the 12th century after having lost most of its possessions.
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Gherardesca were a family of Tuscan origin which played an important part in the history of the Italian republics of the middle ages. Historically the most prominent member of the family is Ugolino, whose death, and that of his two sons and grandsons, by starvation in the 'Tower of Hunger,' is described in one of the celebrated passages of Dante's Divina Commedia. Ugolino had made himself master of Pisa, and had behaved in the most cruel and arbitrary manner for four years, when, in 1288, he was overthrown by a conspiracy.
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The Ghilzai are a Pathan tribe of south-east and north-west Afghanistan. They are a stalwart race of shepherds and farmers. In the retreat from Kabul in 1842 they hovered on the flanks of the British force and almost completed its annihilation.
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Ghirlandaio or Corradi Domenico was one of the older Florentine painters. He was born in 1450 at Florence and died in 1495. He was the son of a goldsmith known as Il Ghirlandaio (the garland-maker), from his skill in malting garlands. He was distinguished by his fertility of invention, a more natural rendering of life, and a more accurate perspective than his predecessors. Amongst his best works are the frescoes in the Sassetti Chapel of the Trinity Church and in the choir of Santa Maria Novella at Florence, and the pictures in the Uffizi and the academy at Florence.
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Giacomo Antonelli was an Italian cardinal. He was born in 1806 and died in 1876. He was educated at the Grand Seminary of Rome, where he attracted the attention of Pope Gregory XVI, who appointed him to several important offices. On the accession of Pius IX in 1846 Giacomo Antonelli was raised to the dignity of cardinal-deacon ; two years later he became president and minister of foreign affairs, and in 1850 was appointed secretary of state. During the sitting of the Ecumenical Council of 1869 - 1870 he was a prominent champion of the papal interest. He strongly opposed the assumption of the united Italian crown by Victor Emanuel.
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Giacomo Carissimi was an Italian composer. He was born in 1604 at Marino and died in 1674. In 1620 he was appointed conductor of the choir at Assisi, and in 1628 moved to Rome where he had a similar appointment at St Apollinaris.
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Giacomo Meyerbeer (real name Jakob Liebmann Beer) was a German composer. He was born in 1791 and died in 1864. When only nine years of age he was considered one of the best pianists in Berlin. He composed a number of operas.
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Giacomo Puccini was an Italian opera composer. He was born in 1858 at Lucca and died in 1924. He studied under local teachers and in 1877 produced a cantata, 'Juno'. He worked at Milan conservatoire from 1880 until 1883 and in 1884 his one-act opera 'Le Villi' was produced at Milan, followed by Edgar in 1889. His first great success was with 'Manon Lescaut', staged at Turin in 1893, and its triumph was outdone by that of 'La Boheme', founded upon Murger's novel, in 1896. In addition he wrote 'La Tosca' in 1900, 'Madame Butterfly' in 1904, 'The Girl of the Golden West' in 1910, 'La Rondine' in 1917 and others.
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Giambatista Casti was an Italian poet. He was born in 1721 at Prato, in the vicinity of Florence and died in 1803. His writings are of a lively and graceful but almost always licentious character. The Novelle Galanti, a series of tales; the Animali Parlanti, an epic poem; and his comic operas are amongst his chief works.
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Giambattista Bodoni was an Italian printer. He was born in 1740 at Saluzzo and died in 1813. In 1758 he went to Rome, and was employed in the printing-office of the Propaganda. He was afterwards at the head of the ducal printing-house in Parma, where he produced works of great beauty. His editions of Greek, Latin, Italian, and French classics are highly prized.
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Giambattista Cipriani was an Italian painter and engraver. He was born in 1732 at Pistoia and died in 1785. He went to England in 1754 and was one of the first fellows of the Royal Academy, the diploma of which he designed. He furnished Bartolozzi with the subjects of some of his finest engravings.
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Giambattista Donati was an Italian astronomer. He was born in 1826 at Pisa and died in 1873. He began his career in the Florence observatory making a study of the spectra of the stars, and in 1858 he discovered a comet now named after him (Donati's Comet).
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Giambattista Moroni was an Italian portrait painter. He was bon in 1525 near Bergamo and died in 1578. In his youth he studied under Moretto, and his early manner shows this influence in reddish flesh tints.
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Gian Giorgio Trissino was an Italian poet. He was born in 1478 at Vicenza and died in 1550.
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Cardinal Giclio Alberoni was an Italian churchman. He was born in 1664 at north Italy and died in 1752. He was educated for the church and sent by the Duke of Parma as his minister to Madrid, where he gained the affection of Philip V. He rose by cunning and intrigue to the station of primeminister, became a cardinal, was all-powerful in Spain after the year 1715, and endeavoured to restore it to its ancient splendour. In pursuance of this object he invaded Sardinia and Sicily, and indeed entertained the idea of stirring up a general war in Europe. The alliance of France and England, however, rendered his schemes abortive, and led to his dismissal and exile in 1720. He wandered about a long time under false names, but on the accession of Pope Innocent XIII. he was restored to all the rights and honours of a cardinal.
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In Jewish legend, Gideon (the name in Hebrew, meaning a destroyer), was the son of Joash, of the tribe of Manasseh, who was supposedly divinely called to deliver the Israelites from the oppression of the Midianites. Having effected their deliverance he was chosen judge of Israel.
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Gideon Granger was an American politician. He was born in 1767 and died in 1822. He served in the Connecticut Legislature, and was one of the originators of the school fund. He was Postmaster-General of the United States from 1801 to 1814 in the Cabinets of Jefferson and Madison, and was a member of the New York Senate from 1819 to 1821 where he advocated an extensive system of internal improvements.
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Gideon J Pillow was an American soldier. He was born in 1806 and died in 1878. He commanded the right wing of the American army at Cerro Gordo and led a division at Churubusco, Molino del Rey and Chapultepec. In 1861 he was appointed brigadier-general in the provisional Confederate army. He commanded under General Polk at Belmont. When the command devolved upon him at Fort Donelson, he gave it over to General Buckner and escaped.
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Gifford Pinchot was an American forestry expert and politician. He was born in 1865 at Simsbury, Connecticut and died in 1946. After graduating from Yale he studied forestry in Europe and in 1893 became a consulting forester. Entering government service he was chief of the forestry department from 1898 until his dismissal in 1910 by president Taft for insubordination in having criticised a presidential decision which had gone against his department. Later he founded the School of Forestry at Yale before becoming a politician and being Republican governor of Pennsylvania from 1931 until 1935.
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Gil Gonzalez D'Avila was a Spanish antiquary and biographer. He was born in 1577 and died in 1658. He made historiographer of Castile in 1612, and of the Indies in 1641. His most valuable works were Teatro de las Grandezas de Madrid, 1623, and Teatro Ecclesiastico, 1645-53.
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Gilbert Abbott a Beckett was an English humorist and playwright. He was born in 1811 and died in 1856. He was a member of the original staff of Punch from 1841; he wrote the Comic History of England in 1848, and the Comic History of Rome in 1852.
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Sir Gilbert Blane was a Scottish physician. He was born in 1749 in Ayrshire and died in 1834. He was educated at Edinburgh University, but took the decree of MD at Glasgow. He was private physician to Admiral Rodney, and then physician to the fleet in the West Indies, in which position he introduced the use of lime-juice and other means of preventing scurvy among sailors. He wrote 'Elements of Medical Logic'.
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Gilbert Burnet was a Scottish prelate and historian. He was born in 1643 at Edinburgh in 1643 and died in 1715. Having studied at Aberdeen, he travelled into Holland in 1664. He was ordained in 1665, was for some years minister of Saltoun parish, and became professor of divinity at Glasgow in 1669. Here he resided more than four years and wrote several works, one of them his Vindication of the Church and State of Scotland. In 1675 he became chaplain to the Rolls Chapel, London.
He was long in great favour at court, but the court favour did not continue, for Gilbert Burnet, dreading the machinations of the Catholic party, joined the opposition, and wrote his History of the Reformation in England, the first volume of which appeared in 1679 (the other two in 1681 and 1714 respectively). His connection with the opposition party afterwards became very intimate, and he published several works in favour of liberty and Protestantism. Eventually he was invited to the Hague by the Prince and Princess of Orange, and had a great share in the councils relative to Britain. He accompanied the Prince of Orange to England as chaplain, and was rewarded for his services with the bishopric of Salisbury. As a prelate Bishop Gilbert Burnet distinguished himself by fervour, assiduity, and charity.
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Gilbert C Walker was an American politician. He was a Republican governor of Virginia from 1869 until 1874.
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Gilbert Keith Chesterton was an English author of essays, verse and novels. He was born in 1874 and died in 1936.
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Gilbert Charles Stuart was an American portrait painter. He was born in 1755 at Narragansett, Rhode Island and died in 1828. He studied under Benjamin West in London, and painted portraits of many distinguished Europeans before returning to America in 1793 where he went on to paint George Washington, John Adams and Jefferson.
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Gilbert-Jospeh Adam was a French mineralogist. He was born in 1795 and died in 1881. He discovered the mineral adamite at Chanarcillo, Chile.
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The Gilbertines were an order of monks founded in England by Gilbert of Sempringham in the 12th century. They followed the Augustinian rule, and their numerous monasteries were suppressed by Henry VIII. There were also Gilbertine nuns.
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Gildas was the first British historian. He was born in 516 and died in 570. He wrote De Excidio Britanniae, one of the few sources of information concerning 5th century Britain.
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Giles Fletcher was an English poet and clergyman. He was born in 1580 and died in 1620. The brother of Phineas Fletcher and cousin to the dramatist John Fletcher he published Christ's Victory and Triumph over Death, in 1620.
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Gioacchino Antonio Rossini was an Italian operatic composer. He was born in 1792 and died in 1868.
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Giordano Bruno was an Italian philosopher. He was born in 1548 at Nola and died in 1600 when he was burned for apostasy, heresy and violation of his monastic vows. He entered the order of Dominicans, but was accused of impiety, and, after enduring much persecution, fled from Rome about 1577 to Geneva. Here he was soon persecuted in turn by the Calvinists, and travelled slowly through southern France to Paris, where he was offered a chair of philosophy, but declined to fulfil its conditions of attendance at mass.
He lectured for some time, however, but in opposition to the antiquated Aristotelianism of the time and in exposition of a logical system based on the Ars Magna of Raymond Lully. In 1583 he went to London, where he published several of his works, and to Oxford, where he taught for a short time. In 1585 he went by way of Paris and Marburg to Wittenberg, and from 1586 to 1588 taught his philosophy there. He next went to Prague and to Helmstedt, where he remained until 1589; thence to Frankfort until 1592; and finally to Padua, where he remained until the inquisition of Venice arrested him and transferred him to Rome.
After an imprisonment of seven years, during which he steadfastly refused to retract his doctrines, he was burned, February 16th, 1600, for apostasy, heresy, and violation of his monastic vows. Most of his works were published between 1584 and 1591, the chief being the Cena de la Ceneri (Ash Wednesday Table-talk, dialogues giving an exposition of the Copernican theory); the Spaccio della Bestia Trionfanfce (Expulsion of the Triumphant Beast, a moral allegory); the Delia Causa, Principio ed Uno; and the Dell Infinito, Universe, e Mondi - all in 1584; the Cabala del Cavallo Pegaseo in 1585; and the three metaphysical works, De triplici Minimo et Mensura; De Monade, Numero et Figura; and De Immense et Innumerabilibus - all in 1591. His doctrines form a more complete Pantheistical system than had been previously exhibited, and represent the highest level of the thought of the period.
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Giorgio Vasari was an Italian art historian, architect and painter. He was born in 1511 and died in 1574. He studied under Michelangelo and Andrea del Sarto. His paintings won him contemporary fame and he had brilliant gifts as an architect, but he is chiefly remembered for his book which is the basis of Italian art history.
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Giorgione (real name Giorgio Barbarelli) was a Venetian painter. He was born in 1478 at Castelfranco and died in 1510. He was one of the most celebrated painters of the Venetian school. In Venice he ornamented the facades of several large buildings with frescoes, which have mostly perished. He found in Titian a formidable rival in this branch of his art. His portraits are reckoned among the finest of the Italian school.
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Giorgiy Malenkov was a Soviet statesman. He was born in 1902 and died in 1988. He was the Soviet premier from 1953 to 1955. He joined the Communist Party in 1920 and was involved in the collectivisation of agriculture and the purges of the 1930s under Stalin. He became a member of the Politburo and deputy premier in 1946, succeeding Stalin as Party first secretary and premier in 1953. In 1955 he resigned as premier, admitting responsibility for the failure of the Soviet agricultural policy, and in 1957 was sent to Kazakhstan as the manager of a hydroelectric plant.
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Giotto de Bondone (real name Ambrogiotto Bondonne) was an Italian painter and architect. He was born in 1267 and died in 1337. As a boy he tended cattle and sheep, but having been seen by Cimabue, as he was drawing figures of his sheep upon a piece of slate, that artist took him to Florence and taught him painting. His natural talent and gracefulness developed so rapidly that he soon surpassed all his contemporaries. He represented human figures with truth and nature, and surpassed all others in the dignity and pleasing arrangement of his figures, and a regard to the proportions and disposition of the drapery. His figures have more life and freedom than those of Cimabue, as he particularly avoided the stiff style. Among his most celebrated pieces is the Navicella (ship), at Rome (a picture of Peter Walking upon the Waves), some fresco paintings at Florence, also the history of St Francis, at Assisi, and several miniatures. He was equally successful as a statuary and architect.
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Giovanni Battista Beccaria was an Italian natural philosopher. He was born in 1716 and died in 1781. He was appointed professor of experimental physics at Turin in 1748 and was the author of a treatise on Natural and Artificial Electricity, Letters on Electricity, etc. He contributed several articles to the Transactions of the Royal Society of London, and was commissioned in 1759 to measure an arc of the meridian in the neighbourhood of Turin.
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Givovanni Battista Belzoni was an Italian traveller. He was in 1778 at Padua in 1778 and died near Benin in 1823. In 1803 he emigrated to England, where, being endowed with an almost gigantic figure and commensurate strength, he for a time gained his living as an athlete. In 1815 he visited Egypt, where he made a hydraulic machine for Mehemet Ali. He then devoted himself to the exploration of the antiquities of the country, being supplied with funds by Mr. Salt, the British consul-general. He succeeded in transporting the bust of Memnon (Rameses II) from Thebes to Alexandria, from whence it came to the British Museum; explored the great temple of Rameses II at Abu-Simbel; opened the tomb of Seti I, from which he obtained the splendid alabaster sarcophagus bought by Sir John Soane for 2000 pounds; and he also succeeded in opening the second (King Chephren's) of the pyramids of Ghizeh. He afterwards visited the coasts of the Red Sea, the city of Berenice, Lake Moeris, the Lesser Oasis, etc. The narrative of his discoveries and excavations in Egypt and Nubia was received with general approbation. He died during a projected journey to Timbuctoo.
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Giovanni Lorenzo Bernini was an Italian painter, sculptor and architect . He was born in 1598 at Naples, Italy and died in 1680.
His marble group, Apollo and Daphne, secured him fame at the age of eighteen, and he was employed by Urban VIII to prepare plans for the embellishment of the Basilica of St Peter's. The belfry and bronze baldachino for the high altar of St Peter's, the front of the College de Propaganda Fide, the church of St. Andrea a Monte Cavallo, the palace Barberini, the model of the monument of the Countess Matilda, and the monument of Urban VIII are among his chief works.
He declined Mazarin's invitation to France in 1644; and though for a short time neglected after the death of his patron Urban VIII, he speedily regained his position under Innocent X and Alexander VII.
In 1665 he accepted the king's invitation to Paris, travelling thither in princely state and with a numerous retinue. After his return to Home he was charged with the decoration of the bridge of St. Angelo, the tomb of Alexander VIL.
He is credited with having created the baroque style of sculpture.
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Giovanni Bologna (real name Jean Boulogne) was an Italian sculptor and architect. He was born in 1524 at Douay and died in 1608. Educated at Rome, he passed most of his life at Florence. His chief works are a marble Rape of the Sabines, and a bronze Mercury.
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Giovanni Ventura Borghese was an Italian painter. He was born in 1640 and died in 1708. He was a pupil of Pietro da Cortona and imitated his rapid, sunny, superficial style, assisted him at Rome and afterwards completed his unfinished work.
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Giovanni Della Casa was an Italian writer. He was born in 1503 in the Mugello valley and died in 1556. Pope Paul III made him archbishop of Benevento and nuncio at Venice in 1544, where he distinguished himself as a violent opponent of the Protestants; and appointed him secretary of state, a post he held until his death.
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Giovanni Domenico Cassini was a French astronomer. He was born in 1625 near Nice and died in 1712. He became professor of astronomy at the University of Bologna, but afterwards settled in France. He discovered four new satellites of Saturn and the zodiacal light, proved that the axis of the moon is not perpendicular to the plane of the ecliptic, and showed the causes of her libration.
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Giovanni Bendetto Castiglione was an Italian artist. He was born in 1616 and died in 1670. He painted scenes and landscapes.
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Giovanni Cimabue was a Florentine painter and mosaic artist. He was born in 1240 and died in 1302.
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Giovanni de Medici was an Italian entrepreneur and banker. he was born in 1360 and died in 1429. He had political influence in Florence as a supporter of the popular party. He was the father of Cosimo de Medici.
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Giovanni de Verrazano was a Florentine navigator. He was born in 1470 and died in 1537. He is said to have visited the north coast of North America in 1508. He engaged in plundering Spanish and Portuguese commerce, and became famous as a pirate. In 1522 he captured a treasure-ship sent from Mexico by Cortes. In 1524 he explored the coast of North America from 30 degrees to 50 degrees, and took possession for the king.
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Giovanni Diodati was an Italian Protestant divine. He was born about 1576 at Lucca and died in 1649. Of a noble Catholic family, he was for some time professor, first of Hebrew, then of theology, at Geneva, and in 1619 represented the Genevan clergy at the Synod of Dort, and aided in drawing up the Belgic confession of faith. He is most celebrated for a translation of the Bible into Italian, which is superior to his translation of it into French.
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Giovanni Battista Guarini was an Italian poet. He was born in 1537 at Ferrara and died in 1612. After having studied at Ferrara, Pisa, and Padua, and lectured in his native city on Aristotle, he entered the service of Duke Alphonso II of Ferrara, who sent him on various important missions. Having lost the favour of the prince he retired into private life, but was recalled in 1585 to the office of secretary of state. Two years after he retired a second time. In 1597 he entered the service of Ferdinand I, grand-duke of Tuscany, a post which he soon resigned. His propensity to litigiousness necessitated his residence at Venice, Padua, and Rome. In 1605 he went as an ambassador of his native city to the court of Rome, to congratulate Paul V on his elevation. Guarini is one of the most elegant authors of Italy, as is especially shown in his Pastor Fido (Faithful Shepherd), a famous pastoral drama.
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Giovanni Lanfranco was an Italian painter. He was born in 1581 at Parma and died in 1647. He studied under Annibale Carracci at Rome, where he assisted his master in the decoration of the Farnese Gallery and the church of Saint Giacomo.
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Giovanni Paisiello was an Italian composer. He was born in 1741 at Taranto and died in 1816. He wrote nearly a hundred operas and a greater number of masses and cantatas.
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Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina was an Italian composer. He was born in 1524 and died in 1594. His works include Marcellus Mass.
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Giovanni Battista Piranesi was an Italian architect. He was born in 1720 in Venice and died in 1778.
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Giovanni Battista de Rossi was an Italian painter and sculptor. He was born in 1494 at Florence and died in 1541. He was commissioned by Francis I of France to undertake the decorations of Fontainebleau Castle in 1530. Among his frescoes are mythological scenes, and other scenes drawn from the life of St Francis.
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Giovanni Segantini was an Italian painter. He was born in 1858 at Arco in the Tyrol and died in 1899.
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Giovanni Battista Tiepolo was a Venetian painter. He was born in 1692 at Venice and died in 1769. He studied under Gregorio Lazzarini, but his work shows signs of more influence by Titian and Veronese. He began his career in Venice, where the bulk of his frescoes and oil paintings, executed for churches and palaces, are preserved. He is famous for the frescoes he painted, including his Antony and Cleopatra series in the Palazzo Labia. From 1750 until 1753 he was at Wurzburg, employed with his sons on the decoration of the archbishop's palace. He also worked at Bergamo and at Madrid, where he died.
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Giovanni Boccaccio was an Italian novelist and poet. He was born in 1313 at Certaldo and died in 1375. The son of a Florentine merchant, he spent some years unprofitably in literary pursuits and the study of the canon law, but in the end devoted himself entirely to literature. He found a congenial atmosphere in Naples, where many men of letters frequented the court of King Robert, among the number being the great Petrarch.
In 1341 Boccaccio fell in love with Maria, an illegitimate daughter of King Robert, who returned his passion with equal ardour, and was immortalized as Fiammetta in many of his best creations. His first work, a romantic love-tale in prose, Filocopo, was written at her command; as was also the Teseide, the first heroic epic in the Italian language, and the first example of the ottava rima.
In 1341 he returned to Florence at his father's command, and during a three years' stay produced three important works, Ameto, L'amorosa Visione, and L'amorosa Fiammetta, all of them connected with his mistress in Naples. In 1344 he returned to Naples, where Giovanna, the granddaughter of Robert, who had succeeded to the throne, received him. with distinction.
Between 1344 and 1350 most of the stories of the Decameron were composed at her desire or at that of Fiammetta. This work, on which his fame rests, consists of 100 tales represented to have been related in equal portions in ten days by a party of ladies and gentlemen at a country house near Florence while the plague was raging in that city. The stories in this wonderful collection range from the highest pathos to the coarsest licentiousness. They are partly the invention of the author, and partly derived from the fabliaux of mediaeval French poets and other sources.
On the death of his father Giovanni Boccaccio returned to Florence, where he was greatly honoured, and was sent on several public embassies. Amongst others he was sent to Padua to communicate to Petrarch the tidings of his recall from exile and the restoration of his property. From this time an intimate friendship grew up between them which continued for life. They both contributed greatly to the revival of the study of classical literature, Giovanni Boccaccio spending much time and money in collecting ancient manuscripts. In 1373 he was chosen by the Florentines to occupy the chair which was established for the exposition of Dante's Divina Commedia. His lectures continued until his death.
Among his other works maybe mentioned Filostrato, a narrative poem; Il Ninfale Fiesolano, a love story; Il Corbaccio, ossia Il Labirinto d'Amore, a coarse satire on a Florentine widow; and several Latin works. The first edition of the Decameron appeared without date or place, but is believed to have been printed at Florence in 1469 or 1470. The first edition with a date is that of Valdarfer, Venice, 1471; what is, perhaps, the only existing perfect copy of this was sold in London in 1812 for 2260 pounds.
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Giraldus Cambrensis was an early English historian. He was born about 1146. His proper name waa Gerald de Barry, and he was son of William de Barry, a Norman noble of Pembrokeshire. He was educated under his uncle, the Bishop of St. David's, and afterwards at the University of Paris. He returned in 1172, and was appointed Archdeacon of St. David's. His uncle dying soon after, Gerald was elected to succeed him, but the king refused to confirm the appointment, and Gerald withdrew to Paris, where he was appointed professor of canon law. In the following year (1180) he returned to England, where he was required to administer the bishopric of St. David's, the proper bishop having proved himself incompetent. He discharged this office for four years, and was then appointed a royal chaplain.
As companion to the king's son, Prince John, he went to Ireland in 1185, where he collected the materials for his Topography of Ireland (Topographia Hibernian). He afterwards drew up a similar work on Wales (Itinerarium Cambriae). After the departure of Richard I for Palestine, Gerald remained to conduct the affairs of the government, but in 1192 retired to Lincoln for purposes of study. He was again elected to the see of St. David's, but Richard I prevented his installation. He now retired from the world, and refused the bishopric when again offered to him. The year of his death is unknown. He was a person of great vanity and ambition, and was also remarkable for his credulity. The De Rebus a se Gestis, which, with others of his minor works, is published in Wharton'a Anglia Sacra, contains the most remarkable instances of the author's vanity and self-esteem.
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Anne Louis Girodet de Roussey was a French historical painter. He was born in 1767 and died in 1824. Among his famous pictures are Endymion, Hippocrates, The Deluge, Atala, Napoleon receiving the keys of Vienna, and St Louis in Egypt.
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Girolamo Savonarola was an Italian religious reformer. He was born in 1452 at Ferrara and died in 1498 when he was hanged for criticising Pope Alexander VI. Amid the degradation and corruption of his time, he was the representative of pure Christianity, and an enlightened precursor of the reformation. As a child his parents wanted him to become a physician, but, sickened by the depravities of the court of D'Estes he secretly left home and entered the monastery of St Dominic at Bologna. In 1481 he was sent to preach at Ferrara, but was recalled in the same year and then sent to Florence where he entered the monastery of St Mark. Realising corruption and a lack of morality, he preached widely, denouncing corruption with a mystical and apocalyptic air, spreading alarm on all sides, which eventually lead to his execution.
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Girolamo Tiraboschi was an Italian literary historian. He was born in 1731 at Bergamo and died in 1794. After being professor of rhetoric at Milan he was appointed librarian to the duke of Modena in 1770. His main work is a standard history of Italian literature down to the beginning of the 18th century.
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The Girondists were one of the great political parties of the first French revolution. The Girondists were republicans, but were more distinguished for visionary ideals than for a well-defined policy; hence they fell an easy prey to the party of the Mountain. Their leaders were three of the deputies of the Gironde - Vergniaud, Guadet, and Gensonne, hence the name. Louis XVI, was obliged, in 1792, to select a ministry from among the Girondists, but it was short lived. In the convention their struggles with the Montagnards forced them into extreme measures which they would otherwise have avoided. They wished to save the king, but many of them, from a mistaken policy, voted for his death. Their fall dates from their unsuccessful impeachment of Marat in 1793, soon after which a large number of them were proscribed, and twenty-one of them were condemned and executed.
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Giulia Grisi was an Italian singer. She was born in 1811 or 1812 at Milan and died in 1869. After having studied music at Bologna, and made her debut in Rossini's Zeimira, she appeared at Milan as Norma. She acquired great celebrity at Paris, in England, and America. She subsequently married Mario, the great tenor singer.
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Giulio Romano or Giulio Pippi was an Italian painter, architect, and engineer, the most distinguished of Raphael's scholars. He was born near the end of the 15th century at Rome and died in 1546. During the lifetime of Raphael he painted with him and under his direction, and many of his productions are quite in his manner. After having finished the fresco-work in the Hall of Constantine in the Vatican at Rome, under Clement VII, he went to Mantua, where he executed a series of remarkable works in architecture, painting, and engineering. The Palazzo del T (palace of the T) was rebuilt and ornamented entirely by him, or under his direction. After the death of San Gallo in 1546 the building of St Peter's was committed to him, but he died the same year. After the death of Raphael he gave himself up to his own imagination, and astonished all by the boldness of his style, by the grandeur of his designs, by the fire of his composition, by the loftiness of his poetical ideas, and his power of expression.
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Giuseppe Maria Crespi was an Italian painter of the Bolognese school. He was born in 1665 at Bologna and died in 1747. He had many scholars, among whom were his two sons Antonio and Luigi Crespi. The latter distinguished himself by his writings on painting. Crespi is also known as an engraver.
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Giuseppe Ferrari was an Italian philosopher. He was born in 1812 at Milan and died in 1876. He studied law at Pavia, but afterwards devoted himself to literature. He first won notice by his edition of Vice's works (published between 1836 and 1837). Having gone to France he was professor of philosophy at Strasburg for a number of years. In 1859 he returned to Italy, becoming successively professor at Turin and Milan. Amongst his principal writings are: Essai sur le Principe et les Limites de la Philosophic de l'Histoire (1847), Filosofia della Rivoluzione (1851), Corso di Lezioni sugli Scrittori Politici Italiani (1862).
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Giuseppe Garibaldi was an Italian patriot and liberator. He was born in 1807 at Nice and died in 1882. His father being a poor fisherman, he received little education, and for a number of years was a sailor on various trading vessels. In 1834 he became a member of the 'Young Italy' party, and being condemned to death for his share in the schemes of Mazzini, escaped to Marseilles, took service in the fleet of the Bey of Tunis, and finally Went to South America. In the service of the Republic of Rio Grande against the Brazilians he became known as a brilliant leader, and with his famous Italian legion he subsequently gave the Monte Videans such effective aid against Buenos Aires as to earn the title of 'hero of Monte Video.'
In 1848 he returned to Italy, raised a band of volunteers, and harassed the Austrians until the cessation of hostilities and re-establishment of Austrian supremacy in Lombardy. He then retired to Switzerland, but in the spring of 1849 proceeded to Rome to support Mazzini's republic.
He was appointed to command the forces, but the odds were overwhelming, and after a desperate defence of thirty days Garibaldi escaped from Rome with 4000 of his followers. In the course of his flight his wife Anita died from fatigue and privations. He reached the United States, and was for some years in command of a merchant vessel. He then purchased a part of the small island of Caprera, off the north coast of Sardinia, and made this his home for the rest of his life. Latterly the subscriptions of his admirers enabled him to become owner of the whole island.
In the war of 1859, in which Sardinia recovered Lombardy, Garibaldi and his Chasseurs of the Alps did splendid service; and on the re volt of the Sicilians in 1860 he crossed to the island, wrested it after a fierce struggle from the King of Naples, re-crossed to the mainland and occupied Naples, where he was proclaimed Dictator of the Two Sicilies. It was now feared that Garibaldi might prove untrue to his motto - Italy and Victor Emmanuel - but he readily acquiesced in the annexation of the Two Sicilies to Italy, and declining all honours retired to his island farm.
In 1862 he endeavoured to force the Roman question to a solution, and entered Calabria with a small following, but was taken prisoner at Aspromonte by the royal troops. He was soon released, however, and returned to Caprera. In 1864 he received an enthusiastic welcome in Britain. In 1866 he commanded a volunteer force against the Austrians in the Italian Tyrol, but failed to accomplish anything of consequence. Next year he attempted the liberation of Rome, but near Montana was defeated by the French and pontifical troops, and was again imprisoned by the Italian government, but soon pardoned and released.
In 1870 he gave his services to the French republican government against the Germans, and with his 20,000 men rendered valuable assistance in the south-east. At the end of the war he was elected a member of the French assembly, but speedily resigned his seat and returned to Caprera. Rome now became the capital of united Italy, and here in January, 1875, Garibaldi took his seat in the Italian parliament. The latter part of his life was spent quietly at Caprera. After 1870 he wrote two or three novels - very mediocre productions.
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Giuseppe Giusti was an Italian satirical and political poet. He was born in 1809 and died in 1850. He is considered by his countrymen as the rival of Beranger in popular lyrical poetry.
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Giuseppe Mazzini was an Italian republican patriot and revolutionary. He was born in 1805 at Genoa and died in 1872.
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Giuseppe Gaspardo Mezzofanti was an Italian cardinal and linguist. He was born in 1774 at Bologna and died in 1849. The son of a carpenter he was ordained a priest in 1797 and appointed professor of Arabic at Bologna, but refused the oath to the Cisalpine Republic. He became professor of oriental languages in 1803 and librarian of Bologna University in 1815 and keeper of the Vatican library in 1833 and a cardinal in 1838. Giuseppe Mezzofanti was acquainted with 114 languages and spoke over fifty languages fluently, composed verses in many languages and had a sound knowledge of the chief literature.
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Giuseppe Piazzi was an Italian astronomer. He was born in 1746 at Ponte and died in 1826. On January the 1st 1801 he discovered a new planet which he named Ceres.
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Giuseppe Tartini was an Italian violinist and composer. He was born in 1692 at Pirano, near Trieste and died in 1770. He took up music as a profession in 1721 when he settled in Padua and soon acquired a reputation as a performer and a teacher and did much to develop the art of violin playing. He composed many pieces, including 'Il Trillo del Diavolo'.
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Giuseppe Verdi was an Italian composer. He was born in 1813 and died in 1901. He is famed for his operas, and achieved great success with Rigoletto in 1851, Il Trovatore in 1853, and La Traviata in 1855. He also wrote Othello in 1887 and Falstaff in 1893.
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Gladiators were combatants who fought at the public games in Rome for the entertainment of the spectators. The first instance known of gladiators being exhibited was in 264 BC, by Marcus and Decimus Pirutus at the funeral of their father. At first gladiators were prisoners, slaves, or condemned criminals; but afterwards freemen fought in the arena, either for hire or from choice; and latterly men of senatorial rank, and even women, fought.
The regular gladiators were instructed in schools known as ludi, and the overseer known as the lanista purchased the gladiators and maintained them. Men of position sometimes kept gladiatorial schools and lanistae of their own. The gladiators fought in the schools with wooden swords. In the public exhibitions, if a vanquished gladiator was not killed in the combat, his fate was sometimes decided by the people. If they wished his death, perhaps because he had not shown sufficient skill or bravery, they held up their thumbs; the opposite motion was the signal to save him. The victor received a branch of palm or a garland.
The gladiators were classified according to their arms and mode of fighting; thus there were retiarii who carried a trident and a net in which they tried to entangle their opponent; Thracians, who were armed with the round Thracian buckler and a short sword; secutores, who were pitted against the retiarii; etc.
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Glappa was king of Bernicia in 567.
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The Glassites were a religious body founded in Scotland in the 18th century by John Glass, a minister of the Established Church. They maintained certain practices, such as weekly communions, love-feasts, washing each other's feet, and mutual exhortations. They disapproved of all games of chance, and of all use of the lot except for sacred purposes.
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A glazier is a person who fits windows and doors with glass.
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Gleemen were itinerant singers in the Anglo-Saxon period of English history. After the Norman conquest they were termed minstrels.
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Alton Glenn Miller was an American composer and band leader. He was born in 1904 and died in 1944. His dance band became one of the most popular in the world.
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Glenni W Scofield was an American politician. He was born in 1817 and died in 1891. He represented Pennsylvania in the US Congress as a Republican from 1863 to 1875. He was Register of the US Treasury from 1878 to 1881, and a Justice of the US Court of Claims from 1881 to 1891.
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A glover is someone who makes or sells gloves.
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Sir Godfrey Kneller (real name Gottfried Kniller) was an Anglo-German artist. He was born in 1646 at Lubeck and died in 1723. He studied in Amsterdam under Ferdinand Bol and received some lessons from Rembrandt. He settled in England in 1674 following the death of his father.
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Godfrey of Bouillon was the leader of the first crusade. He was born in 1061 near Nivelles and died in 1100. The son of Eustace II, count of Boulogne, he distinguished himself while fighting for the Emperor Henry IV in Germany and Italy, and was made Duke of Bouillon. In order to expiate his sin of fighting against the pope, he took the cross for the Holy Land in 1095, and led 80,000 men to the East by way of Constantinople (Istanbul). On the 1st of May, 1097, they crossed the Bosporus, and began their march on Nice (Nicaea), which they took in June. In July the way to Syria was opened by the victory of Dorylgeum (Eski Shehr), in Phrygia, and before the end of 1097 the crusaders encamped before Antioch. The town of Antioch fell into their hands in 1098, and in the following year Godfrey took Jerusalem itself, after a five weeks' siege. The leaders of the army elected him king of the city and the territory; but Godfrey would not wear the crown and contented himself with the title of duke and guardian of the holy sepulchre. The defeat of the Egyptians at Ascalon placed him in possession of all the Holy Land, excepting two or three places. Godfrey now turned his attention to the organization of his newly-established government, and promulgated a code of feudal laws called the Assize of Jerusalem. Godfrey was a favourite subject of mediaeval poetry, and is the central figure of Tasso's 'Jerusalem Delivered.'
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Godfrey of Strasburg was a German poet, who lived about 1200. He was probably born in Strasburg, but at any rate lived there. Besides many lays, we are indebted to him for the great chivalric poem, Tristan und Isolde, derived from the legends of the Round Table.
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Godlove S Orth was an American politician. He was born in 1817 and died in 1882. He was a member of the Indiana Senate from 1842 to 1848. He was prominent in the Peace Conference of 1861. He represented Indiana in the US Congress as a Republican from 1863 to 1871 and from 1873 to 1875. He was active in securing the recognition of the right of expatriation by European governments. He framed the 'Ort bill', which reorganized the diplomatic and consular system. He was Minister to Austria from 1875 to 1877, and again a Congressman from 1879 to 1882.
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Godwin was Earl of the west Saxons (Earl of Wessex). He was born about 990 and died in 1052 or 1053. In 1018 he was created an earl by Canute, and married the king's niece Gytha. During the reign of Edward the Confessor, who married Godwin's daughter, a quarrel arose between Godwin and the king, occasioned by the partiality of Edward for Norman favourites, and Godwin was compelled to quit the kingdom. In 1052, however, he returned with an army, forced Edward to enter into negotiations with him, re-established himself triumphantly in his old supremacy, and caused the expulsion from the kingdom of most of the Norman intruders. He was the father of Harold, the last Anglo-Saxon king.
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The Golden Horde were originally a powerful Mongol tribe, the name however became applied to all followers of Genghis Khan and of his grandson, Batu.
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Goldwin Smith was an English publicist and historian. He was born in 1823 at Reading and died in 1910. Educated at Eton and Magdalen College, Oxford, he won several university prizes and became a fellow of University College in 1847, and though called to the bar in the same year never practised. He was closely identified with the reform of university education at Oxford, and became regius professor of history there in 1858. resigning in 1866, in 1868 he was appointed professor of English and constitutional history at Cornell , USA and in 1871 he settled in Toronto where he married a wealthy Canadian and lived the rest of his life. A renowned reformer, Goldwin Smith spent his whole life engaged in combating clericalism, militarism and imperialism and advocated independence for Canada and subsequently amalgamation with the USA.
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Goliards were a class of educated jesters who specialised in the writing of satirical Latin verse during the 12th and 13th centuries and were to be found in Britain, France and Germany.
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The Gomarites or Gomarists were followers of Francis Gomar, a Dutch disciple of Calvin in the 17th century. The sect, otherwise called Dutch Remonstrants, very strongly opposed the doctrines of Arminius, adhering rigidly to those of Calvin.
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A gombeen man is a money lender, a usurer, a tallyman.
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The Gonds are the aboriginal, non-Aryan, Dravidian inhabitants of the old territorial division of Hindustan, India called Gondwana. After a long period of repression, they attained to a position of great prominence and power, and in the 16th, l7th, and 18th centuries three Gond dynasties simultaneously held almost the whole of Gondwana under their sway. With the rise of the Mahrattas the power of the Gonds declined, and in 1781 the last of their dynasties was overthrown and the independence of the Gonds ceased.
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Gonfalonier or Standard Bearer of Justice, was a subordinate office in Florence instituted in 1292. It became paramount in the 15th century and was suppressed in 1532 when the constitution was changed.
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Maitre Gonin was a famous French clown of the 16th century.
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Hernandez Y Aguilar Gonsalvo de Cordova called the great captain (el gran capitan),was a Spanish soldier. He was born in 1453 at at Montilla, near Cordova and died in 1515 at Granada. He distinguished himself in the Portuguese War which began in 1475, and in the great war with the Moors, which ended with the conquest of Granada in 1492. In 1495 he was sent to assist Ferdinand II, king of Naples, against the French, who occupied the whole of that kingdom. In less than a year Gonsalvo de Cordova drove the French over the Neapolitan frontiers, and returned to Spain, where he was engaged in subjecting the Moors in the Alpujarras, when Louis XII of France renewed the war against Naples. Gonsalvo de Cordova again took the field, and by the victory near Seminara in 1502 obtained possession of both Calabrias. In 1503 he gained a still more important victory near Cerignola, in consequence of which Abruzzo and Apulia submitted, and Gonsalvo de Cordova marched into Naples. He then sat down before Gaeta. As the siege was protracted, he gave up the command to Don Pedro Navarro, and advanced to meet the enemy. He defeated the Marquis of Mantua; and on the Garigliano, with 8000 men, obtained a complete victory over 30,000 French, the consequence of which was the fall of Gaeta. The possession of Naples was now secured. He was viceroy in Italy until 1507, when, through the jealousy of the king and the calumnies of the courtiers, he was deprived of his office, and retired to Granada, where he died.
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The Good Templars were a temperance brotherhood which combined the principles of tee-totalism with certain mystic rites, imitated more or less from freemasonry, having secret signs, passwords, and insignia peculiar to itself. It originated in New York in 1851, and extended to Britain in 1868. The organization consisted of local 'subordinate' lodges, county 'district' lodges, national 'grand' lodges, and an international 'right worthy' grand lodge. A 'juvenile order' was also attached; and the Templars founded an orphanage at Sunbury, near London, at a cost of 10,000 pounds.
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Goodwin J Knight was an American politician. He was a Republican governor of California from 1953 until 1959.
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Gordon Allport was an American psychologist. He was born in 1897 and died in 1967. He developed a theory of personality that emphasised individual uniqueness, and was the editor of the 'Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology' from 1937 to 1949. He wrote 'Personality' in 1937 and 'The Nature of Prejudice' in 1954.
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Gordon Banks is an English Association Football player. He was born in 1937. He played Association Football as a goal keeper for Chesterfield from 1958 to 1959, Leicester City from 1959 to 1967, Stoke City from 1967, being made captain in 1970 and retiring in 1972 following eye injuries sustained in a car accident, and for England, first playing for England in a full international in 1963 against Scotland at Wembley.
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James Gordon Bennett was an American publisher. He was born in 1841 and died in 1918. He is the Gordon Bennett named in the expression 'Gordon Bennett', indicating surprise, incredulity or exasperation.
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Gordon Browning was an American politician. He was a Democratic governor of Tennessee from 1937 until 1939.
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Gordon Granger was an American soldier. He was born in 1821 and died in 1876. He was active in the Mexican War at Vera Cruz, Chapultepec and city of Mexico, fought on the Federal side during the American Civil War at Island No 10, Chattanooga, Missionary Ridge and Mobile, and was
brevetted major-general.
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Gordon Persons was an American politician. He was a Democratic governor of Alabama from 1951 until 1955.
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Gorgias was a Greek orator and sophist. He was born about 480 BC at Leontini in Sicily. When about sixty years of age he was sent as ambassador to Athens where the rest of his life was mostly spent. He was a popular teacher of rhetoric, had many distinguished pupils, and Plato named one of his dialogues after him. He is said to have reached the extraordinary age of 107 or 108 years. Two works attributed to him are extant, The Apology of Palamedes, and the Encomium on Helena, but their genuineness has been questioned.
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Arthur Goring Thomas was a British composer. He was born in1850 near Eastbourne and died in 1892. He studied music in Paris under Durand between 1874 and 1876, and under Sullivan and Prout at the Royal Academy of Music, between 1877 and 1880. His operas include Esmeralda, produced at Covent Garden in 1883; Nadeshda produced in 1885; and the comic opera. The Golden Web, posthumously produced in 1893. His choral ode, The Sun Worshippers, was first performed in 1881, and his lyric gift was well displayed in a number of successful songs. Thomas suffered from melancholia, and committed suicide by throwing himself in front of a train in London on March the 20th 1892. A scholarship bearing his name was founded at the Royal Academy of Music in 1892.
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Gormo The Old was queen of Denmark in 883 and reigned for 53 years.
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Gosling was an old English term for a simpleton, a fool.
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The Gospellers were followers of Wickliffe who attacked the errors of Popery about 1377.
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A Gothamite is a person from Gotham. The term is also used to describe a fool or an American cockney.
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The Goths were an ancient Teutonic tribe occupying when first known to history the region adjacent to the Black Sea north of the lower Danube. A people of similar name is mentioned by Tacitus as dwelling south of the Baltic, and Geats or Gauts are known to us from the Anglo-Saxon poem Beowulf as inhabitants of southern Sweden; but there is no necessary connection between these and the Goths proper. About the middle of the 3rdcentury these began to encroach on the Roman Empire. Having seized the Roman province of Dacia, they were assailed by Decius, whom they twice defeated. In 253 they captured Trebizond, where a large fleet of ships fell into their hands. With this force they sailed down the AEgean and plundered the coasts of Greece and Illyria. They now began to threaten Italy, but in 269 they were defeated with great slaughter by the Emperor Claudius. His successor Aurelian was, notwithstanding, compelled to cede to them the large province of Dacia, after which there was comparative peace between them for many years.
In the 4th century the great Gothic kingdom extended from the Don to the Theiss, and from the Black Sea to the Vistula and the Baltic. About the year 369 internal commotions produced the division of the Gothic kingdom into the kingdom of the Ostrogoths (eastern Goths) and the kingdom of the Visigoths (western Goths). In 396 Alaric, king of the Visigoths, made an irruption into Greece, laid waste the Peloponnesus, and became prefect of Illyria. He invaded Italy and sacked Rome in 409, and a second time in 410. After his death in 410 the Visigoths succeeded in establishing a new kingdom in the southern parts of Gaul and Spain, of which, towards the end of the 5th century, Provence, Languedoc, and Catalonia were the principal provinces, and Toulouse the seat of government. The last king, Roderick, died in 711 in battle against the Moors, who had crossed from Africa, and subsequently conquered the Gothic kingdom.
After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, by the invasion of Odoacer in 476, the Eastern emperor, Zeno, persuaded Theodoric, king of the Ostrogoths, to invade Italy in 489. The Goth became king of Italy in 493, and laid the foundation of a new Ostrogothic kingdom, which, together with Italy, comprised Khastia (a part of Switzerland and the Tyrol), Vindelicia (part of Bavaria and Swabia), Noricum (Saltzburg, Stiria, Carinthia, Austria), Dalmatia, Pannonia (Further Hungary, Slavonia), and Dacia beyond the Danube (Transylvania, Walachia). This kingdom came to an end in 554. Subsequently the Goths both here and in Spain entirely disappeared as a distinct people.
Christianity appears to have taken root early among the Goths settled in Moesia, a Gothic bishop being mentioned as present at the council of Nicaea in 325. Their form of Christianity was Arianism, which was patronized by their protector Valens, and certainly adopted by their bishop, Ulfilas. The introduction of Christianity among the Goths, and the circumstance of their dwelling near, and even among civilized subjects of the Roman Empire, greatly contributed to raising them in civilization above the other German tribes. Bishop Ulfilas, in the 4th century, translated, if not the whole, at least the greater part of the Bible into Moeso-Gothic, using an alphabet which he formed out of those of the Greeks and Romans. Unfortunately only a small portion of this translation has come down to us; but this is quite sufficient to enable us to form an opinion of the language at that time, and is of the highest value from a philological point of view. Besides this translation there exist a few other monuments of the language, which are, however, of minor importance. Gothic was one of the Teutonic tongues, being accordingly a sister of Anglo-Saxon and English, German, Dutch, Danish, etc. Being committed to writing earlier than any other Teutonic language, Gothic exhibits peculiarities entirely its own, and hence its value in the study of Teutonic philology in general. It is richer in inflections than any other of the Teutonic tongues. Swedish is the least like the Gothic of all the Germanic dialects, and notwithstanding the name Gothland there is no evidence to show that the Goths ever formed part of the population of Scandinavia.
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Gottfried Bernhardy was a German classical scholar. He was born in 1800 and died in 1875. He wrote an important history of the literature of Greece and Rome.
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Gottfried August Burger was a German poet. He was born in 1748 and died in 1794. He studied at Halle and Gottingen; and his attention being drawn towards literature, especially the ballad literature of England and Scotland, he was inspired with the idea of winning a reputation in this department where Uhland and Schiller had already preceded him. In 1773 appeared his Lenore, which took the German public by storm, and his poems have continued to be very popular with his countrymen. Scott translated his William and Helen and the Wild Huntsman. Though he wrote odes, elegies, etc, he is more at home in ballads and simple songs than in higher poetry.
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Gottfried Wilhelm Leibnitz was a German philosopher. He was born in 1646 at Leipzig and died in 1716. He wrote Monadology and Principles Of Nature. He discovered calculus and introduced the idea of unconscious mental activity.
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Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz was a German philosopher, mathematician and politician. He was born in 1646 at Leipzig and died in 1716. In 1667 he was appointed councillor to the elector of Mainz, after whose death he became in 1676 aulic councillor and librarian to the duke of Brunswick-Luneburg, and settled at Hanover and started work, but never finished, an elaborate history of the house of Brunswick.
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Gottlieb Daimler was a German engineer. He was born in 1834 at Schorndorf, Wurtemberg and died in 1900. After arriving in England he was employed at the Whitworth works at Manchester. Returning to Germany with Dr Otto of Cologne he perfected the Otto gas engine. From 1882 he devoted himself to experimenting with high power gas and oil engines, and petroleum motors.
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Gotz von Berlichingen (Godfrey von Berlichingen) with the Iron Hand was a German soldier. He was born in 1480 and died in 1562. He took part in various quarrels among the German princes; and having lost his right hand at the siege of Landshut, wore thereafter one made of iron. In constant feud with his baronial neighbours, and even with free cities like Nuremberg, he at last headed the insurgents in the Peasants' War of 1525, and suffered imprisonment on their defeat. After the dissolution of the Suabian League he again fought against the Turks in 1541 and the French in 1544. His autobiography, printed at Nuremberg in 1731, furnished Johann Goethe with the subject of his drama, Goetz von Berlichingen.
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Gouverneur Kemble Warren was an American soldier. He was born in 1830 and died in 1882. Educated at West Point, during the American Civil War he was continuously in the Army of the Potomac. He was a colonel at Big Bethel, commanded a brigade in the Peninsula campaign, Second Bull Run, Antietam and Fredericksburg, was chief engineer of the army at Chancellorsville and Gettysburg; in the latter struggle he seized the important position of Little Round Top. He was distinguished as commander of a corps at Centreville, in October, 1863, and led a corps through the Wilderness, North Anna, Cold Harbor and Petersburg campaign, until at the battle of Five Forks, on April the 1st, 1865, he was removed by Sheridan. In 1879 he reached the grade of lieutenant-colonel in the regular army.
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Gouverneur Morris was an American Statesman. He was born in 1752 and died in 1816. He was a step-brother of Lewis Morris, a signer of the American Declaration of Independence. He was graduated at King's (Columbia) College in 1768, and was admitted to the bar of New York. He was a delegate to the New York Provincial Congress and to the Continental Congress, and was an influential adviser in financial matters. He was assistant to Robert Morris when the latter was Superintendent of Finance; he attended the Federal Convention of 1787 and revised the final
draft of the American Constitution. After passing some time in France, he went as a diplomatic agent to England in 1791, and was Minister to France from 1791 until 1794. For some years he traveled in Europe. Returning to America he was US Senator 1800 to 1803. He was a champion of canals, and chairman of the canal commissioners. Gouverneur Morris was a noted writer of satires and addresses and a prominent Federalist.
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Gove Saulsbury was an American politician. He was a Democratic governor of Delaware from 1865 until 1871.
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When the American colonies were founded, the term 'Governor' was used in two senses in England: to denote the commander of a fortified post, like Hull or Tangier, and to denote the head of a great trading corporation, like the East India Company or the Massachusetts Company. The Governor of an American colony got his name by derivation from both these sources, probably. When the American War of Independence broke out and the royal Governors fled, the new State Constitutions usually made provision for a single executive, called the Governor. At first he was chosen by the Legislatures in most States south of New York, but later by the people. In the colonial period, the Governors of Rhode Island, of Connecticut, and of Massachusetts down to 1691, were chosen by the people; those of royal colonies by the crown.
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Gowlee is the cow-herd caste of people in the Hindu system.
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Francisco Jose de Goya Y Lucientes was a Spanish painter. He was born in 1746 and died in 1828.
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Grace Abbott was an American social reformer and writer. She was born in 1878 at Grand Island, Nebraska and died in 1939. She campaigned against the exploitation of immigrant workers and child labour and was the unofficial American representative to the League of Nations Advisory Committee on Traffic in women and Children from 1922 to 1934.
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Grace Aguilar was an English writer. She was born in 1816 at Hackney and died in 1847. Of Jewish parentage, she at first devoted herself to Jewish subjects, but her fame rests on her novels, 'Home Influence', 'A Mother's Recompense', 'Home Scenes and Heart Studies', etc, most of which were published posthumously under the editorship of her mother.
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Grace Darling was an English heroine. She was born in 1815 at Bamburgh, Northumberland and died in 1842. She was the daughter of a lighthouse keeper at Longstone. On September 7th 1838 the steamer Forfarshire, with forty-one passengers on board besides her crew, became disabled off the Farne Islands during a storm, and was thrown on a rock where she broke into two, part of the crew and passengers being left clinging to the wreck. Next morning William Darling saw them from Longstone, about a mile away, but he considered a rescue attempt too dangerous to reach the wreck through a boiling sea in a boat. His daughter, Grace, however, implored him to make the attempt and let her accompany him. At last he consented, and father and daughter each taking an oar, they reached the wreck and succeeded in rescuing nine sufferers. The news of the heroic deed soon spread, and the brave girl received testimonials from all quarters. A purse of 700 pounds was publicly subscribed and presented to her. Four years afterwards she died of consumption, on the 20th of October, 1842.
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Graham Greene was a British author and playwright. He was born in 1904 at Berkhampsted, Hertfordshire and died in 1991. Educated at Oxford he became a journalist on The Times newspaper and during the Second World War served in the Foreign Office. A religious maniac he was obsessed with morality - which features heavily in his books - and while he was the film critic for the magazine 'Night and Day' was responsible for the magazine's demise after he libelled Twentieth Century Fox, accusing them of 'procuring Shirley Temple for immoral purposes', and they successfully sued the magazine.
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Graham Sutherland is an English painter.
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A Grand Pensionary was formerly an officer of the Dutch Republic, or rather of the Province of Holland. In the great towns of the Dutch Republic the first magistrate was called a pensionary, from the fact of his office being a paid one. The grand pensionary was the secretary of state of the Province of Holland. He held office for five years, and was eligible for re-election. The office was abolished on the formation of the Kingdom of Holland in 1806.
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In Spain, a grandee was a noble of the first rank, which consisted partly of the relatives of the royal house, and partly of such members of the high feudal nobility distinguished for their wealth as had, by the grant of a banner received from the king, the right to enlist soldiers under their own colours. Besides the general prerogatives of the higher nobility, and the priority of claim to the highest offices of state, the grandees possessed the right of covering the head in the presence of the king, with his permission, on all public occasions. The king called each of them 'my cousin' (mi primo), while he addressed the other members of the high nobility only as 'my kinsman' (mi pariente). Under Ferdinand and Isabella and Charles V the independent feudal nobility became a dependent order of court nobles, and their privileges were curtailed.
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The Grangers was the popular name for the 'Patrons of Husbandry', an American secret association devoted to the promotion of agricultural interests, organized in Washington on December the 4th, 1867. By the end of 1875 it numbered 1,500,000 members in every section of the United States. Its organization was somewhat similar to that of the Freemasons, but both men and women were admitted to membership. Though fundamentally non-political, it exerted considerable political influence in its contests with railway corporations for cheaper rates.
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Grant Alien was a Canadian writer on scientific subjects and novelist. He was born in 1848 at Kingston, Canada and died in 1899. His earlier education he received in America, he studied also in France, and he graduated at Oxford with honours in 1870. From 1873 to 1879 he was connected with Queen's College, Jamaica, but latterly resided chiefly in England, and became well known as an exponent of evolutionary science, and as a novelist. His first important work, Physiological AEsthetics, appeared in 1877; his other scientific or semi-scientific works include The Colour Sense; The Evolutionist at Large; Colin Clout's Calendar (the record of a summer); Vignettes from Nature; The Colours of Flowers; Flowers and their Pedigrees; and Force and Energy, a Theory of Dynamics. Other works by him are: Anglo-Saxon Britain; Charles Darwin; and The Evolution of the Idea of God. His novels were of little account.
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Charles Grant Blair Allen was an English writer and scientist. He was born in 1848 at Kingston, Canada and died in 1899. Educated at King Edward's School, Birmingham and Merton College, Oxford, he was professor and principal at Spanish Town, Jamaica from 1873 until 1877. He wrote widely on evolution and biology and also wrote novels including the 1895 'The Woman Who Did'.
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Grant Sawyer was an American politician. He was a Democratic governor of Nevada from 1959 until 1967.
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Grantland Rice was an American journalist. He was born in 1880 and died in 1954.
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Sir Grantley Herbert Adams was premier of Barbados. He was born in 1898 and died in 1971. He was premier of Barbados from 1954 to 1958 and prime minister of the Federation of the West Indies from 1958 to 1962.
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Sir Granville Bantock was an English composer and conductor. He was born in 1868 and died in 1946. He toured the world with the Gaiety Company and conducted at Festivals in Great Britain and Canada before becoming Professor of Music at Birmingham University in 1908, a post he held until 1934.
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Gratian otherwise Gratianus Augustus, was a Roman Emperor. He was born in 359 and died in about 386. The eldest son of the Emperor Valentinian I, when he was only eight years of age he was raised by his father to the rank of Augustus. On the death of Valentinian in 375 the Eastern Empire remained subject to Valens, and Gratian was obliged to share the western part with his half-brother, Valentinian II, then four years old. In 378 he succeeded to the Eastern Empire, which he bestowed on Theodosius I. He was deserted by his soldiers while leading them against Maximus, and put to death at Lyons in the eighth year of his reign.
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The Grazinian (Georgians) are a number of related groups of people which make up the largest ethnic group in Georgia and the surrounding area.
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A Greek is an inhabitant of Greece.
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Green C Smith was an American politician. He was born in 1832 and died in 1895. He commanded a regiment at Lebanon, Tennessee. He represented Kentucky in the US Congress as a Unionist from 1863 to 1866, and was Governor of Montana from 1866 to 1869. In 1876 he was the Presidential candidate of the Prohibition party.
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During the reign of James I a green-man was a man whose job was to let off fireworks.
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Gregory Palast is an American investigative journalist. He was born in Los Angeles. Originally a corporate fraud investigator, Greg Palast moved to journalism working for the BBC, and the Guardian and Observer newspapers, in 'exile' in the United Kingdom.
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Gregor Johann Mendel was an Austrian priest and natural historian. He was born in 1822 at Mahren and died in 1884. His generalities on heredity became known as Mendel's law.
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Gregorio Allegri was an Italian composer. He was born in 1590 at Rome and died in 1652. He composed a Miserere for nine voices which is sung during Holy Week in the Sistine Chapel.
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Gregory was Patriarch of Constantinople. He was born in 1730 and died in 1821. He studied at Mount Athos, lived as a hermit, was made archbishop at Smyrna, and, in 1795, Patriarch of Constantinople. He led an active, tolerant, and benevolent life, promoted schools and the art of printing. In 1798, however, and again in 1806, he was accused of intriguig for the freedom of Greece, and twice banished to Mount Athos, though each time restored to his post after a short interval. But in 1821, when the Greek insurrection broke out in the Morea, his native country, he became once more an object of suspicion to the Porte, and when, shortly after, he allowed the family of Prince Morousi to escape from his guardianship, he was seized as he left the church on the first day of the Easter festival and hanged in his robes of office before the church gate.
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Gregory I, also called Gregory The Great, was a Roman pope. He was born in 540 at Rome and died in 604. He became a member of the senate, and was made prefect of Rome in 573. He expended his inheritance in the foundation of monasteries and charitable institutions, and then took monastic vows himself. Pope Pelagius II sent him on an embassy to Constantinople (Istanbul), and afterwards made him Papal secretary. On the death of Pelagius in 590 he was chosen his successor. He displayed great zeal for the conversion of heretics, sending missionaries to Sicily, Sardinia, Lombardy, England, etc, as well as for the advancement of monachism, and the enforcement of clerical celibacy. The works ascribed to him are very numerous; his genuine writings consist of a treatise on the Pastoral Duty, Letters, Scripture Commentaries, etc
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Gregory of Nazianzus (Gregorius Nazianzenus) was a father of the Greek Church. He was born between 318 and 329 near Nazianzus, in Cappadocia and died in 389 or 390. He studied at Athens, and in 355 and 356 taught rhetoric in that city. He afterwards retired for some time with Basil to the Desert of Pontus. He began to preach in 362, and between 365 and 374 was associated with his father in the bishopric of Nazianzus. He went to Constantinople about 378 or 379 to oppose the Arians, and was appointed bishop of that see by Theodosius in 380, but in the following year retired to his former charge of Nazianzus. His works consist of letters, sermons, and poetry. His eloquence is nearly on a level with that of Basil and Chrysostorn. His festival is on the 9th of May.
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Gregory of Nyssa was a father of the Greek Church. He was born about 332 at Sebaste, Pontus and died about 398. The brother of St Basil, by his brother's influence he was made Bishop of Nyssa, in Cappadocia. Having opposed the Arians, he was banished at their instigation by Valens from 375 to 378. He took a prominent part in the Councils of Constantinople from 381 to 394. His festival is on the 9th of March. His works consist of dogmatic treatises, Scripture commentaries, sermons, letters, etc.
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Gregory of Tours (Gregorius Florentius) was a Gaulish historian. He was born in 539 or 544 at Auvergne and died in 595. He became Bishop of Tours in 573. He had the courage to oppose Chilperic and Fredegonde in their violent courses, and acted the part of a peacemaker in the dynastic quarrels of the period. His Historia Francorum is a valuable chronicle of 6th century events.
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Gregory Alexandrovitch Potemkin was a Russian general. He was born in 1736 and died in 1791. Descended from an ancient Polish family, and early trained as a soldier, he soon attracted the attention of Catherine II after her accession and she appointed him colonel and gentleman of the chamber. In 1783 he suppressed the khanate of the Crimea and annexed it to Russia.
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Gregory Rasputin was a Russian courtier. He was born in 1871 in Siberia and died in 1916 when he was assassinated by members of the Court.
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Gregory VII. (Hilldebrand), was a pope. He was born about 1020 at Soana, in Tuscany and died in 1085. He passed part of his early life in Rome, became a monk at Cluny, and then returned to Rome with Bruno on the election of the latter to the papal chair. He exercised great influence over Leo IX (Bruno) and his successors, Victor II, Nicholas II, and Alexander II; and under Nicholas II he succeeded in depriving the clergy and people of Rome of a voice in the election to the pontificate by giving the power of nomination to the cardinals alone.
On the death of Alexander II in 1073 he was raised to the Papal chair. His chief aim was to found a theocracy in which the pope should be the sovereign ruler, in political as well as ecclesiastical matters. He therefore prohibited simony and the marriage of priests (1074), and abolished lay investiture (1075), the only remaining source of the authority of princes over the clergy of their dominions. The Emperor Henry IV refused to obey this decree, and Gregory VII, after deposing several German bishops who had bought their offices of the emperor, and excommunicating five imperial councillors concerned in this transaction, summoned the emperor before a council at Rome to defend himself against the charges brought against him. Henry then caused a sentence of deposition to be passed against the pope by a council assembled at Worms. The pope, in return, excommunicated the emperor, and Henry, finding himself in difficulties, went to Italy and submitted at Canossa in 1077 to a humiliating penance, and received absolution. After defeating Rodolph of Suabia, however, Henry caused the pope to be deposed by the Council of Brixen, and an anti-pope, Clement III, to be elected in 1080, after which he hastened to Rome and placed the new pope on the throne. Gregory VII passed three years as a prisoner in the castle of St Angelo, and though finally liberated by Robert Guiscard, he was obliged to retire under the protection of Guiscard to Salerno, where he died in 1085.
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Gregory XIII (Ugo Buoncompagno) was a pope. He was born in 1502 at Bologna and died in 1585. he was created a cardinal in 1565 and chosen successor of Pius V in the popedom in 1572. He permitted the Cardinal of Lorraine to make a public thanksgiving for the massacre of St Bartholomew, encouraged plots against Queen Elizabeth I, and incited Philip II to attack her. His foreign policy cost him a lot of money for subsidies to excite enemies to the Turks and heretics, and his financial expedients to fill his exchequer ruined the trade and disturbed the peace of his own dominions. He did much to encourage education, his expenditure for this purpose exceeding two million Roman crowns, out of which many colleges at Rome were endowed. He reformed the Julian calendar.
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A gricer is a railway enthusiast, particularly one who seeks out and photographs unusual trains.
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Grigory Yevseyevich Zinoviev was a Russian communist politician. He was born in 1883 and died in 1936. His name was attached to the forged Zinoviev letter inciting Britain's communists to rise, which helped to topple the Labour government 1924. A prominent Bolshevik, Zinoviev returned to Russia in 1917 with Lenin and played a leading part in the Revolution. He became head of the Communist International in 1919. As one of the 'Old Bolsheviks', he was seen by Stalin as a threat. He was accused of complicity in the murder of the Bolshevik leader Sergei Kirov in 1934, and was tried and shot.
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Grinling Gibbons was a Dutch-born woodcarver. He was born in 1648 at Rotterdam and died in 1720.
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The Griquas were a mixed-race people comprised of the offspring of Dutch settlers and native African women in South Africa.
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A groom-porter was an officer of the British Royal Household, whose duty it was to see that the King's lodging was furnished with tables, chairs, stools and firing, and also to provide playing cards and dice, etc, and to decide disputes at cards, dice and bowling etc. He was allowed to keep an open gaming-table at Christmas. The office was abolished by George III.
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Gros Ventres is a name applied to two Indian tribes of different origin: the Gros Ventres of the Missouri and the Gros Ventres of the prairie. The latter tribe, after wandering east and joining various tribes temporarily, finally settled about 1824 near Milk River with the Blackfeet. Treaties were made bewteen them and the US government in 1851, 1853 and 1865, and the Indians since continued to be friendly to the US. They suffered considerably from hostilities with other tribes and were relocated to a reservation in Montana.
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Grover Cleveland Alexander was an American baseball pitcher who won 373 games. He was born in 1887 and died in 1950.
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Stephen Grover Cleveland was the 22nd president of the USA from 1885 to 1889 and the 24th president of the USA from 1893 to 1897. He was born in 1837 at Caldwell, New York and died in 1908. He studied law and in 1855 he became a clerk at a Buffalo law office and in 1859 was admitted to the bar. He joined the democratic party, along with his law associates and took an active role in the local organisation. With the outbreak of the American Civil War, he didn't enlist and when conscripted took advantage of the commutation provision of the law and hired a substitute, staying behind to support his mother and two teenage sisters. In 1870 he was elected sheriff of Erie County.
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The Guahibo are an indigenous people of Colombia and Venezuela. They are primarily swidden agriculturalists, fishermen and hunters-gatherers. Some Guahibo are nomadic.
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The Guanches were the aboriginal people of the Canary Islands. They became extinct as a separate nation long ago, although Guanche blood probably flows in the veins of many of the present inhabitants. They practised the embalming of the dead. The few words of their language which remain seem cognate to the Berber tongue.
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The Guarani are South American aborigines found in central and south Brazil, Paraguay, Bolivia, Argentina and Uruguay.
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Guardians of the Poor, were, in England, persons elected to manage the affairs of the poor. The guardians had the management of the workhouse, and the maintenance, clothing, and relief of the poor. Under the provisions of the Parish Councils Act of 1894, the district councillors acted as guardians in rural parishes.
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Guebres was a name given to the fire-worshippers of Persia, represented in India by the Parsees. As supreme deity they recognized Ahuramazda, or Ormuzd, the principle of light and source of all that is good; and his opposite and antagonist, the evil principle, the latter called Ahriman. They believed in the existence of heaven and hell, between which stretched the Bridge of the Gatherer or Judge; over this none but the righteous may pass. Among their leading practices were their refusal to contract marriages with those of other creeds; their objection to eat beef or pork, or to partake of anything cooked by one of another religion, etc. They regarded Ahuramazda as the source of light, and in their temples they fed the altars with perpetual fire, and hence their name fire-worshippers;
but they do not revere it except as a symbol of the deity. When, in 651 AD, Yezdegird, the last of the Sassanides, was defeated by the Caliph Omar, the majority of the Persians embraced Islamism. Those who continued Zoroastrians received the name of Guebres or infidels, and were subjected to persecutions so severe that the majority emigrated to India, where they became known as Parsees.
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Guercino (real name Gian-Francesco Barbieri) was an Italian painter. He was born in 1590 at Cento and died in 1666. A painter of the Bolognese school, he is best known for painting 'Aurora' at the Villa Ludovisi in Rome for Pope Gregory XV.
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Gueux was a name given in derision to the allied nobles and other malcontents in the Netherlands, who resisted the despotism of Philip II, in 1566-1567. The Count of Barlaimont having termed the malcontents Gueux, they adopted the name, and a suitable badge called the 'beggar's denier.' They were totally dispersed in 1567.
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Guglielmo Marconi was an Italian scientist. He was born in 1874 at Griffone near to Bologna and died in 1937. In 1895 he started experimenting with wireless telegraphy, and in 1896 he invented the practical wireless set. In 1899 he established a wireless communication across the English Channel and in 1901 he sent a wireless signal between Cornwall and Newfoundland. In 1904 he entered into an agreement with the British post office for the commercial transmission of wireless messages, and in the same year the first ocean daily newspaper was started on ships of the Cunard line using wireless telegraphy, quickly being adopted by the British and Italian navies and soon after by other navies.
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Gui Pierre de Kersaint was a French sailor. He was born in 1742 and died in 1793. He served in Canada in 1762, and during the American War of Independence aided the colonists from 1777 to 1783. He captured two British ships in 1777. He commanded a fleet in Chesapeake Bay in 1783.
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Guido Aretino (also known as Guido D'Arezzo) was an Italian monk of the 11th century, celebrated for his skill in music. He was a native of Arezzo, became a Benedictine monk, and finally prior of Avellana, where he died in 1050. He invented the musical staff of lines and spaces (or at least systematized their use), and he introduced the names of the first six notes of the scale, ut, re, mi, fa, sol,le.
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Guido Reni was an Italian painter. He was born in 1575 at Bologna and died in 1642. Being the son of a musician he devoted gome time to the study of music, but, as painting seemed his true vocation, he was placed under the tuition of Dionysius Calvaert, and subsequently at the age of twenty joined the school of the Caracci.
In 1602 he visited Rome, and having seen the paintings of Caravaggio, he imitated his style. At the request of Cardinal Borghese he painted The Crucifixion of St Peter and the Aurora. He was also employed by Paul V to paint a chapel on Monte Cavallo, and one in Santa Maria-Maggiore.
Guido's paintings are generally considered as belonging to three different periods. His earliest pictures, after the style of Caravaggio and Caracci, display powerful contrasts of light and shade. His second manner exhibits light and agreeable colouring, with little shade. His third period is marked by careless haste. Having quarrelled with Cardinal Spinola, the treasurer of Urban VIII, he left Rome and returned to Bologna, but was subsequently recalled.
In 1622 he moved to Naples, but, after a brief stay, returned once more to Bologna, never to leave it again. Among his most famous works may be mentioned his Aurora, his Magdalene, Michael Vanquishing Satan, Lot and his Daughters, his Fortune, etc. Guido was also celebrated in his own day for his etchings, but his works of this class have now sunk very much in value.
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Lord Duldford Dudley was an English aristocrat. The son of John, duke of Northumberland, he was married in 1553 to Lady Jane Grey, whose claim to the throne the duke intended to assert on the death of Edward VI. On the failure of the plot Lord Guildford was condemned to death, but the sentence was not carried into effect until the insurrection of Wyatt induced Mary to order his immediate execution in 1554.
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Gillaume Bude (Gilliaum Budaeus) was a French scholar. He was born in 1467 at Paris and died in 1540. After a lawless youth he devoted himself to the study of literature. Among his philosophical, philological, and juridical works, his treatise De Asse published in 1514 and his Commentarii Grsecas Linguae are of the greatest importance. By his influence the College Royal de France was founded.
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Guillaume Marie Anne Brune was Marshal of France. He was born in 1763. The son of a lawyer at Brive-la-Gaillarde, in 1793 he joined the army, and afterwards distinguished himself at Arcola and Verona as general of brigade in the Italian army. In 1799 he compelled the British and Russians to evacuate the north of Holland. In 1800 he pacified La Vendee, and, replacing Massena as commander of the Italian army, led his troops over the Mincio, conquered the Austrians, passed the Adige, took possession of Vicenza and Roveredo, and hastened the conclusion of peace.
In 1802 to 1804 he was ambassador at Constantinople (Istanbul), and the latter year was made a marshal. Losing the favour of Napoleon, he remained without employment for some years, but on the return of Napoleon from Elba he received an important command in the south of France, which he was soon after compelled to surrender at the second restoration. He then set out for Paris, but was attacked and brutally killed by the populace at Avignon.
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Guillaume de Salluste du Bartas was a French poet. He was born in 1544 and died in 1590 of wounds received at Ivry. He was termed ' the divine' by contemporary English writers. His principal work was La Sepmaine (The Week), a poem on the creation, translated into English by Sylvester.
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Guillaume Delisle was a French geographer. He was born in 1675 and died in 1726. He published upwards of 130 maps, and reconstructed the system of geography current in Europe in the beginning of the 18th century. Louis XV appointed him Geographer to the King.
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Guillaume Dubois French cardinal. He was born in 1656 at Brives-la-Gaillarde and died in 1723.The son of an apothecary, when he was only thirteen he took the tonsure, being known as the 'Little Abbe.' In 1687 he became tutor to the Duke of Chartres, afterwards Duke of Orleans and regent,, and in 1701 Chartres, then Duke of Orleans, made him his secretary, and when he became regent of France in 1715 made him his chief minister. Dubois maintained his influence by pandering to the vices of his pupil. He became privy-councillor and overseer of the duke's household, and minister for foreign affairs under the regency.
As the best means of thwarting the schemes of Philip V of Spain and his supporters in France in 1716, Guillaume Dubois, on November the 28th, signed a defensive alliance between France and England. Accepted by Holland on January the 4th 1717, this was known as the Triple Alliance. Guillaume Dubois then supported England in opposing the Spanish attempt to conquer Sardinia and Sicily, and in demanding the dismissal of Giclio Alberoni, which he effected, after a short war with Spain, in December 1720.
The archbishopric of Cambrai having become vacant, Guillaume Dubois ventured to request it of the regent, although he was not even a priest. The regent was astonished at his boldness; but he obtained the post, having in one morning received all the clerical orders, and, a few days after, the archbishopric. By his consummate address he obtained a cardinal's hat, and in 1721 was appointed prime-minister.
Guillaume Dubois was an avaricious, lying, licentious creature, yet clever and industrious, and able to make himself very agreeable where it suited his interest.
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Baron Guillaume Dupuytren was a French surgeon and anatomist. He was born in 1777 and died in 1835. In 1803 he became second, and in 1815 first surgeon to the Hotel Dieu, Paris. The professorship of surgery to the medical faculty, conferred upon him in 1813, was exchanged in 1818 for a clinical lectureship fn the above hospital. In 1823 he was appointed first physician to Louis XVIII, and retained the same situation under Charles X. He was considered the first French surgeon of his day; he made important discoveries in morbid anatomy, and invented several useful surgical instruments.
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Guillaume Farel was one of the earliest and most active of the Swiss reformers. He was born in 1489 at Dauphiny and died in 1565. At an early age he was led by his intercourse with the Waldenses to adopt similar views. After preaching in various parts of Switzerland he came to Geneva, where he was so successful at the religious conferences of 1534 and 1535 that the council formally embraced the Reformation. He was instrumental, also, in persuading John Calvin to take up his residence in Geneva. An attempt on the part of the two reformers to enforce too severe ecclesiastical discipline was the cause of their having to leave the city in 1538.
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Guillaume Geefs was a Belgian sculptor. He was born in 1806 at Antwerp and died in 1883. Among his moat important works are the monument to the Victims of the Revolution of 1830 at Brussels; a statue of Rubens in front of Antwerp Cathedral; statues of King Leopold, etc.
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Guise was a distinguished ducal family of France, a branch of the house of Lorraine. The founder was Claude Guise, a son of Rene II, duke of Lorraine, who in 1506 became naturalized in France. In his favour the county of Guise was erected in 1528 by Francis I into a duchy. He died in 1550, leaving behind him five daughters (the eldest of whom, Marie, married James V of Scotland, and was the mother of Mary, queen of Scots) and six sons - Francois, who succeeded him, Charles (Cardinal of Lorraine), Louis (Cardinal of Guise), Claude, Francois, and Rene. The family acquired great political importance on the accession of Francis II, who was married to Mary, queen of Scots. The direct line became extinct in 1675. In 1704 the title was revived for the house of Conde.
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The Gujarati are an Indian people living chiefly in Gujarat.
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Gulian Verplanck was an American writer and politician. He was born in 1786 and died in 1870. He was a member of the New York Legislature from 1820 to 1832. He represented New York in the US Congress as a Democrat from 1825 to 1833, and was a State Senator from 1838 to 1841. He wrote 'The Bucktail Bards', a series of political pamphlets; 'Discourses on American History, Arts and Literature'; 'The American Scholar', and was joint editor of the Talisman.
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The Gullah are a Negro people living on the Sea Islands and in the coastal regions of South Carolina, Georgia, and north-east Florida.
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Gunning Bedford Sr. was an American politician. He was a Federalist governor of Delaware from 1796 until 1797.
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Gurdon Saltonstall was a British colonial governor. He was born in 1666 and died in 1724. He was Governor of Connecticut from 1708 to 1724. He was prominent in the political affairs of the colony, and distinguished for his learning and eloquence.
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The Gurians are a western Georgian tribe of the Grazinian people.
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The Gurindji are an Aboriginal people of north central Australia.
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The Gurkhas are a Hindu mountain people, descended from Brahmins and Rajputs, living chiefly in Nepal, where they achieved dominance after being driven from India by the Muslims. They are a fierce warrior people, many of whom serve in the British army where they are renowned for their bravery, courage and discipline.
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Gustav Freytag was a German poet, dramatist, and novelist. He was born in 1816 and died in 1895. He was editor of the Leipzig Grenzboten from 1848 to 1870, and produced numerous successful plays, tales, and poems. Among his more famous works are Soll und Haben (Debit and Credit); Bilder aus der Deutschen Vergangenheit (Pictures from the German Past); DieVerlorene Handschrift (The Lost Manuscript); and Die Ahnen (Our Ancestors), a series of six romances illustrative of old German life.
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Gustav Froding was a Swedish poet. He was born in 1860 and died in 1911.
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Gustav Holst was an English composer. He was born in 1874 at Cheltenham and died in 1934.
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Gustav Mahler was a Czech-Austrian composer. He was born in 1860 at Kalischt and died in 1911.
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Gustav Moritz, Count of Armfelt, was a Swedish soldier. He was born in 1757 and died in 1814. Though he had been highly favoured and loaded with honours by Gustavus III, he incurred the enmity of the Duke of Sudermania, guardian to the young king, Gustavus IV, and was deprived of all his titles and possessions. He was restored to his fortune and honours in 1799, when Gustavus IV attained his majority, and held several high military posts. Ultimately, however, he entered the Russian service, was made count, chancellor of the University of Abo, president of the department for the affairs of Finland, member of the Russian senate, and served in the campaign against Napoleon in 1812.
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Gustav Richter was a German painter. He was born in 1823 at Berlin and died in 1884. He was a member of the academies of Berlin, Munich and Vienna. He executed frescoes in the Berlin Museum and attracted attention by his ' Raising of Jarius' Daughter' and his 'Building of the Pyramids'.
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Gustav Schwab was a German poet. He was born in 1792 at Stuttgart and died in 1850. He became professor of ancient literature at Stuttgart in 1817 and also held various ecclesiastical appointments.
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Gustave Ador was a Swiss politician. He was born in 1845 at Geneva and died in 1928. He was for some time President of the International Committee of the Red Cross, resigning in 1917. In 1918 he was elected to the Federal Council, and in 1919 was elected President of the Swiss Confederation.
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Peter Gustave (or Gustavus) Toutant Beauregard was an American soldier. He was born in 1818 at Louisiana and died in 1893. Educated at West Point, he was employed in the engineer service of the United States until 1861, when he resigned and entered the service of the seceded States. Placed in command of the defences of Charleston, he opened fire on Fort Sumter on April the 12th 1861. With general J E Johnston he won the victory at the Battle of Bull Run on July the 21st. In the spring of 1862 he was ordered to Tennessee. When general A S Johnston was killed at Shiloh, Gustave Beauregard succeeded him in the command but was forced to retire, and subsequently to evacuate Corinth. From September 1862 until April 1864 he defended Charleston against general Gillmore and admirals Dupont and John Dahlgren. In May 1864 he aided Robert E Lee at Petersburg; in the autumn he aided in the vain attempt of the Confederates to stop Sherman's march through Georgia. He surrendered with Johnston in April 1865. After the American Civil War he was manager of the Louisiana State lottery.
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Gustave Charpentier was a French composer. He was born in 1860 at Dieuze and studied at Lille and at the Paris Conservatoire. He wrote the opera 'Louise' which opened in Paris in 1900 and was a great success.
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Gustave Courbet was a French painter. He was born in 1819 at Ornans and died in 1877. Of peasant stock, he was mainly self-taught, though he studied in Paris. His Burial at Ornans outraged every academic convention and was bitterly attacked.
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Gustave Flaubert was a French novelist. He was born in 1821 at Rouen and died in 1880.
He received his preliminary education at Rouen, afterwards going to Paris to study law; but he soon gave this up and devoted himself to literature. He first became famous in 1857 as the author of Madame Bovary, a realistic study of contemporary life. In 1858 he travelled in Tunisia, and four years later published the historical romance Salammbo, depicting the life and manners of ancient Carthage. L'Education Sentimentale (1869) was a return to the style of Madame Bovary. The phantasmagoria, La Tentation de Saint Antoine, and his play, Le Candidat, appeared in 1874. In 1877 he produced Trois Contes, a set of three historical romances, and was engaged upon another novel, Bouvard et Pecuchet, at his death in 1880. His posthumous works include: Lettres a George Sand (1884); Par les Champs et par les Greves (reminiscences of a tour in Brittany in 1847), etc.
He had an unusual writing style in that he insisted that every word should be the most apt and every phrase exact. This meant it often took him a week to write one page.
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Gustave Flourens was a French socialist. He was born in 1838 at Paris 1838 and died in 1871. In 1863 he was deputy professor in the College of France, and published his lectures under the title of Histoire de 1'Homme. After being engaged in democratic movements in Turkey and Italy he joined the Paris Commune in 1871, and was killed.
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Gustave Adolphe Thuret was a French botanist. He was born in 1817 at Paris and died in 1875. After travelling in Syria and Egypt, he retired to Rentilly in 1851. His great discoveries are in the department of algae, and particularly with regard to sexual fecundation in seaweeds. He established a large botanic garden at Antibes on the Mediterranean.
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Gustavus I (Gustavus Vasa) was a king of Sweden. He was born in 1490 or 1496 at Lindholm, and died in 1560. He was the son of Eric Johansson, a Swedish noble, served under Svante Sture, the administrator of the kingdom, was treacherously carried off with other noble Swedes by the king of Denmark, and kept a prisoner in Jutland for more than a year, but at length escaped, reached, after many dangers, Dalecarlia, where he roused the peasants to resist Danish oppression, defeated the Danes, took Upsala and other towns, and in 1523 was elected king. In 1529 he procured the abolition of the Roman Catholic religion in Sweden, and established Protestantism. During his long reign Sweden made great progress in commerce and civilization.
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Gustavus II (Gustavus Adolphus) was a king of Sweden. He was born in 1594 at Stockholm and died in 1632. He was a son of Charles IX. He ascended the throne in 1611 and his tact and wisdom gradually gained over the wealthy nobles whom his stern father had attempted to crush, and persuaded them to take the chief burdens on their own shoulders. Yet he protected the lower classes from the tyranny of the landowners, reorganised the government and placed it in the hands of a well organised bureaucracy. He built new towns and encouraged commerce, and in 1624 granted a charter to the Swedish West India Company founded by William Usselinx, and pledged himself to subscribe 400,000 daler of the royal treasury to the company's stock.
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Gustavus III was a king of Sweden. He was born in 1746 and died in 1792. He was the eldest son of Adolphus Frederick. He ascended the throne in 1771 and immediately overthrew the oligarchical tyranny of the nobles by the bloodless coup d'etat of August the 19th 1772. During the following twelve years he regenerated Sweden, reforming abuses and promoting commerce and agriculture, replenishing the exchequer and encouraging the arts. However, he maintained a court of extraordinary splendour which became a burden to the people. He declared war on Russia in 1788 without consulting parliament, which caused a mutiny of his officers. The war with Russia was ended in 1790 following the almost complete annihilation of the Russian fleet at the Battle of Svensksund. He was finally assassinated by Ankarstroem, a disbanded officer, at a masquerade at the opera by the nobles.
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Gustavus IV (Adolphus) was a king of Sweden. He was born in 1778 at Stockholm and died in 1837. The son of Gustavus III, succeeded his father, on the 29th of March, 1792. On assuming power Gustavus IV showed that he had inherited his father's hatred of the principles of the French revolution, which he carried to the extent of fanaticism. After the Peace of Tilsit he allied himself to England, lost Finland to the Russians and Stralsund, and Rugen to the French. In 1809 his army and nobles combined in a coup and he was removed from the throne and went into exile in Switzerland, his uncle, the Duke of Sudermania, being proclaimed king under the title of Charles XIII.
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Johann Gutenburg was a German printer. He was born in 1397 at Mainz and died in 1468. In 1454 he published the first bible using metal types.
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Guy B Park was an American politician. He was a Democratic governor of Missouri from 1933 until 1937.
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Guy Francis DeMoncy Burgess was Executive Officer of the British Foreign Office. He defected to the Russians with Donald Maclean in 1951.
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Sir Guy Carleton Carleton was a British soldier. He was born in 1724 and died in 1808. He distinguished himself at the sieges of Louisbourg and Quebec. He was Governor of Quebec from 1766 to 1770 and from 1775 to 1778, and defended it against the Americans under Montgomery in 1775. He commanded the army that invaded New York in 1776, and fought a severe battle with Arnold on Lake Champlain. In 1782 he superseded Sir Henry Clinton as commander-in-chief. From 1786 to 1796, as Lord Dorchester, he was Governor of Canada. He became a lieutenant-general in 1777.
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Sir Guy Dawber was an English architect. He was born in 1861 and died in 1938. He did a lot of work to bring about the restoration of buildings throughout England.
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Henri Renee Albert Guy de Maupassant was a French writer. He was born in 1850 at Fecamp and died in 1893. He primarily wrote short stories.
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Guy Fawkes (Guido Fawkes) was an alleged English terrorist. He was born in 1570 at York and died in 1606. Born a protestant, he converted to Catholicism while at school and was appalled at the state persecution of Catholics within England. Joining the Spanish army, he tried in vain to persuade the King of Spain to invade England and replace the protestant government with a catholic king and government. He was subsequently allegedly recruited by a group of twelve other English catholic terrorists led by Robert Catesby who hired a cellar under the House of Lords and packed it with 36 barrels (between one and three tons) of gunpowder (an act known as the Gunpowder Plot), Guy Fawkes was assigned the task of lighting the fuse on the bomb on the 5th of November when the King and entire English nobility would be in attendance at the House of Lords. However, hours before the planned detonation the authorities, acting on a tip off - an anonymous letter received by Lord Monteagle (brother-in-law of one of the alleged conspirators) advising him not to attend the House of Lords on the day in question, searched the cellars and found and arrested Guy Fawkes who under subsequent torture revealed the names of his co-conspirators and they were executed, without a trial, but on the basis of confessions extracted under torture in 1606. There is serious doubt about the plot - it was for example too conveniently discovered in the nick of time, and the accused were not tried, but all confessed under torture, and it has been suggested that the entire plot was fabricated by the English authorities to discredit the catholic church and the Pope. Certainly following the alleged plot, persecution of the Catholics within Britain continued and increased.
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Guy Hunt was an American politician. He was a Republican governor of Alabama from 1987 until 1993.
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In Ancient Greece, a gymnasiarch was a magistrate or public official who superintended gymnasiums and provided athletes training for the public games with oil and other necessaries out of his own expense.
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Gymnosophists was a name given by the Greeks to certain Indian philosophers given to meditation and ascetic practices, corresponding in some respects with the modern fakirs or naked devotees.
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