Andreas Hofer was a Tyrolese patriot. He was born in 1767 and died in 1810. In 1796 he led a rifle company against the French on Lake Garda, and after the Peace of Luneville took a prominent part in the organization of the Tyrol militia. In 1809 he took the lead in an insurrection of the Tyrolese for shaking off the yoke of Bavaria, to which their country had been transferred by the Treaty of Presburg. In a short time, with intermittent assistance from the Austrians, he defeated the French and Bavarian troops, and nearly the whole country was liberated. Andreas Hofer then carried on the military and civil administration, under the most singular circumstances, until the Peace of Vienna was proclaimed. Misled by false reports he commenced hostilities anew, and thus forfeited the protection of the amnesty. He remained concealed for some time, but was at last betrayed to the French, and carried to Mantua, where he was tried by a court-martial and shot, on February the 20th, 1810. His family was indemnified for the loss of their property by the Emperor of Austria in 1819, and his son ennobled. Research Andreas Hofer
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 RioGrande 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 revolt 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. Research Giuseppe Garibaldi
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 poemBeowulf 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 invadeItaly 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 Teutonicphilology 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. Research Goths
Augite is an important rock forming mineral of the pyroxene group. Chiefly found in dark coloured igneous rocks, especially those whose magmas were rich in iron, calcium and magnesium. Seldom found in rocks that contain much quartz. A common member of the pyroxene group. Told from the amphibole group by cleavage. It has the formulae (Ca,Na) (Mg,Fe,Al,Ti)(Si,Al)2O6 and a relative hardness of 6. When crystallized it assumes the form of short, slightly rhombic prisms, with their lateral edges replaced, and terminated at one or both extremities by numerous planes. A transparent green variety found at Zillerthal, in the Tyrol, is used in jewelry. Research Augite
Droggn is a Tarock game for three players that comes from the Tyrol. Droggn is the local dialect form of the word Tarock. In recent times, as far as we know, it has only been played in the Stubai valley, south west of Innsbruck - mainly in Fulpmes and Telfes. It is unlike other Austrian Tarock games such as Konigrufen, Zwanzigerrufen, Point Tarock and Strohmandeln. Those games developed in the eastern parts of Austria, but have never been well known in the Tyrol. Research Droggn
Abbreviations
Research Andreas Hofer
