Part 199 (1/2)
FERRARA, a broadsword bearing the name of Andrea Ferrara, one of an Italian family famous in the 16th and 17th centuries for the quality of their swords.
FERRARA (31), a fortified and walled Italian city, capital of the province of the name, situated on a low and marshy plain between the dividing branches of the Po, 30 m. from the Adriatic; it has many fine ecclesiastical buildings and a university founded in 1264, with a library of 100,000 vols., but now a mere handful of students; a fine old Gothic castle, the residence of the Estes (q. v.), still stands; it was the birthplace of Savonarola, and the sometime dwelling-place of Ta.s.so and Ariosto; once populous and prosperous, it has now fallen into decay.
FERRARI, GAUDENZIO, Italian painter and sculptor, born at Valduggia, in Piedmont; studied at Rome under Raphael; many of his paintings and frescoes are to be found in the Lombard galleries, and princ.i.p.ally in Milan; his work is characterised by bold and accurate drawing, inventiveness, and strong colouring, but it somewhat lacks the softer qualities of his art (1484-1550).
FERRARI, PAOLO, Italian dramatist, born at Modena; produced his first play at the age of 25; his numerous works, chiefly comedies, and all marked by a fresh and piquant style, are the finest product of the modern Italian drama; in 1860 he was appointed professor of History at Modena and afterwards at Milan; his dramatic works have been published in 14 vols. (1822-1889).
FERRIER, DAVID, a distinguished medical scientist, born at Woodside, Aberdeen; graduated in arts there; studied at Heidelberg, and coming to Edinburgh graduated in medicine with high distinction in 1868; in 1872 became professor of Forensic Medicine at King's College, London, and afterwards physician to the National Hospital for the Paralysed and Epileptic; his most notable work has been done in connection with the brain, and his many experiments on the brains of living animals have resulted in much valuable information, embodied in his various writings; is editor and co-founder of the periodical _Brain_; _b_. 1843.
FERRIER, JAMES FREDERICK, a metaphysician of singular ability and originality, born at Edinburgh; after graduating at Oxford was called to the Scotch bar in 1832; but under the influence of Sir W. Hamilton, metaphysics became his dominant interest, and he found an outlet for his views in the pages of _Blackwood_ by a paper on ”Consciousness,” which attracted the attention of Emerson; in 1842 was appointed professor of History in Edinburgh University, and three years later of Moral Philosophy in St. Andrews; published the ”Inst.i.tutes of Metaphysics,” a lucid exposition of the Berkleian philosophy, and ”Lectures on Greek Philosophy,” and edited the works of his uncle and father-in-law, Christopher North; ”he belongs,” says Dr. Stirling, ”to an era of thought that was inaugurated by Thomas Carlyle” (1808-1864).
FERRIER, SUSAN EDMONSTON, a Scottish novelist, aunt of the preceding, born in Edinburgh, where her life was chiefly spent, her father being Clerk in the Court of Session, and a colleague of Sir Walter Scott; her novels, ”Marriage,” ”The Inheritance,” and ”Destiny,” &c., are rich in humour and faithful in their pictures of Scottish life and character; Scott held her in high esteem, and kept up a warm friends.h.i.+p with her till his death (1782-1854).
FERROL (26), a strongly fortified seaport in Galicia, Spain, 10 m.
NE. of Coruna, on a narrow inlet of the sea which forms a splendid harbourage, narrow at the entrance and capacious within, and defended by two forts; it possesses one of the largest Spanish naval a.r.s.enals; manufactures linen and cotton, and exports corn, brandy, and sardines.
FERRY, JULES FRANcOIS CAMILLE, a distinguished French statesman, born at Saint Die, in the Vosges; called to the Paris bar in 1854, he speedily plunged into the politics of the time, and offered uncompromising opposition to the party of Louis Napoleon; as a member of the _Corps Legislatif_ he opposed the war with Prussia, but as central mayor of Paris rendered signal service during the siege by the Germans; during his tenure of office as Minister of Public Instruction in 1879 was instrumental in bringing about the expulsion of the Jesuits; as Prime Minister in 1880 and again in 1883-85 he inaugurated a spirited colonial policy, which involved France in war in Madagascar, and brought about his own downfall (1832-1893).
FESCH, JOSEPH, an eminent French ecclesiastic, born at Ajaccio, the half-brother of Napoleon's mother; was educated for the Church, but, on the outbreak of the Revolution, joined the revolutionaries as a storekeeper; co-operated with his ill.u.s.trious nephew in restoring Catholicism in France, and became in 1802 archbishop of Lyons, and a cardinal in 1803; as amba.s.sador at Rome in 1804 he won the Pope's favour, and brought about a more friendly understanding between him and Napoleon; later he lost favour with the emperor, and retired to Lyons, whence in 1814 he fled to Rome, there to end his life; was a lover of art, and left a magnificent collection of pictures (1763-1839).
FESTUS, the name of a poem by Philip James Bailey (q. v.), first published in 1839, but extended to three times its length since, a poem that on its first production produced no small sensation.
FESTUS, s.e.xTUS POMPEIUS, a Latin grammarian of probably the 3rd century; noted for an epitome of a great work by Verrius Flaccus on the meaning and derivation of Latin words, which, although only a portion of it exists, is regarded as an invaluable doc.u.ment, and is preserved at Naples.
FETICHISM, the wors.h.i.+p of a fetich, an object superst.i.tiously invested with divine or demonic power, and as such regarded with awe and wors.h.i.+pped.
FEUDALISM, or the Feudal system, that system which prevailed in Europe during the Middle Ages and in England from the Norman Conquest, by which va.s.sals held their lands from the lord-superior on condition of military service when required, for ”the extreme unction day” of which see CARLYLE'S ”FRENCH REVOLUTION,” VOL. I. BK. 4.
FEUERBACH, LUDWIG ANDREAS, German philosopher, son of the succeeding, born at Landshut; studied theology at Hiedelberg, but coming under the influence of Hegel went to Berlin and devoted himself to philosophy; after failing in an attempt to support himself by lecturing in Erlangen, he was fortunate in his marriage, and upon his wife's means lived a retired and studious life at Bruckberg; in his philosophy, which is a degeneracy and finally total departure from Hegel, he declines to find a higher sanction for morality than man's own conception of right and wrong as based on a doctrine of Hedonism (q. v.); his chief work, on the nature of Christianity, which was translated into English by George Eliot, is extravagant in its departure from orthodox lines of thought; his influence has been trifling outside his own country; he began with Hegel, but ”descended at last from Hegel's logical idea to naked sense,” and what guidance for life might be involved in it (1804-1872).
FEUERBACH, PAUL JOHANN ANSELM VON, a highly distinguished criminal jurist, born at Jena, where he studied philosophy and law; at 23 came into prominence by a vigorous criticism of Hobbes's theory on civil power; and soon afterwards, in lectures on criminal jurisprudence he set forth his famous theory, that in administering justice judges should be strictly limited in their decisions by the penal code; this new doctrine gave rise to a party called ”Rigorists,” who supported his theory; he held professors.h.i.+ps in Jena and in Kiel, and in 1804 was appointed to an official post in Munich; in 1814 he became president of the Court of Appeal at Ans.p.a.ch; his chief work was the framing of a penal code for Bavaria, which became a model for several other countries (1775-1833).
FEUILLANS, a reformed brotherhood of Cistercian monks, founded in 1577 by Jean de la Barriere, abbot of the Cistercian monastery at Feuillans, in Languedoc. The movement thus organised was a protest against the laxity which had crept into the Church, and probably received some stimulus from the Reformation, which was then in progress. The Feuillans settled in a convent in the Rue St. Honore, Paris, which in after years became the meeting-place of a revolutionary club, which took the name of Feuillans; founded in 1790 by Lafayette, La Rochefoucauld, &c., and which consisted of members of the respectable property cla.s.ses, whose views were more moderate than those of the Jacobins. They could not hold out against the flood of revolutionary violence, and on March 28, 1791, a mob burst into their place of meeting and dispersed them.