277 



MOCHNACKI, MAURYCY. 



MODENA, TOMMASO DA. 



278 



were again driven back over the Arnon by the Assyrians. In common 

 with the other nations on the borders of Palestine, the Moabites were 

 subdued by Nebuchadnezzar, under whom they made war upon 

 Judah. (2 Kings xxiv. 2.) From Jeremiah xxvii. it would appear 

 that near the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah, the Moabites and 

 other neighbouring nations endeavoured to persuade him to revolt 

 from Nebuchadnezzar, but without immediate success, as the rebellion 

 of Zedekiah did not take place till about the ninth year of his reign. 

 (2 Kings xxiv. 20 ; xxv. 1.) According to Josephus, the Moabitts and 

 Ammonites were reduced to subjection by Nebuchadnezzar in the 

 fifth year after the destruction of Jerusalem. (' Antiq.,' x. 9. 7.) This 

 may have been the event referred to in the prophecies of Ezekiel 

 (xxv. 8-11) and Zephauiah (it 8-11). The Moabites are incidentally 

 mentioned in several other passages of the Old Testament, and by 

 Josei hu^. The prophecies contain many threateuiugs against them. 

 Their name ultimately disappeared in that of the Arabians. 



The Moabites were a pastoral people. (2 Kings iii. 4.) Their country 

 was well adapted for rearing cattle, nnd also produced corn and 

 wiue. (Huth i. 1; Is. xvi. 8-10.) It contained many -mountains and 

 fertile valleys, and was well watered by the Arnon, the Zered, and 

 other rivers which fall into tlie Dead Sea. It is called by Josephus 

 MIOO^ITU ('Bell. Jud.,' iii. 3. 3; iv. 8. 2), and corresponds to part of 

 the present district of Kerek. Several cities of Moab are mentioned 

 in the Old Testament. (Is. xv., xvi., &c.) The capital was Ar, or 

 Kabbath-Moab (Deut. ii. 9), afterwards called Areopolis. Its ruins, 

 which still retain the name of Rabba, lie about 25 miles south of the 

 Arnon, near a stream which is now called Beni-Hamed. Jerome 

 states that the city was destroyed by an earthquake in bis youth. The 

 country of Moab was well peopled, as it proved by the numerous ruins 

 found there. The Moabites were governed by kinga, (Numb. xxii. 4; 

 Judges iii. 12; 1 Sam. xxii. 3; Jer. xxvii. 3) and inferior princes 

 (Numb. xxii. 8, 14 ; xxiii. 0). Their religion was the licentious 

 idolatry of Baal-peor and Chemoeh (Numb. xxv. 1-4 ; 2 Kings xxiii. 

 13). In cases of extreme danger they offered human sacrifices. 

 (2 Kings iii. 27.) 



(Ueiandi, Pulalina ; Calmet, Dictionary ; Winer, Biblischet Real- 

 mdrterkodi ; Burckhardt, Travels in Syria.) 



MOCHNA'JKI, MAURYCY, an eminent Polish critic and historian, 

 and also remarkable for the part he took in the insurrection of 1830, 

 ws born on the estate of Bojauiec in Galicia, iu 1804. In 1823 he 

 commenced the stud; of the law at the university of Warsaw, and in 

 18'Ja commenced with Podczaszynaki the publication of the ' Dziennik 

 -iiwski,' or 'Warsaw Journal,' a literary periodical to which 

 Brodziuski, Lelewe), Mickiewicz, and other writers of the first reputa- 

 tion iu Poland, were contributor!. As he was on the point of passing 

 his examination to practise as an advocate, he was arrested on a 

 charge of belonging to secret societies, and afterwards struck off the 

 li-t of students, declared incapable of holding any office under the 

 government, and not only imprisoned in the Carmelite couvt-nt at 

 Warsaw, but it is said condemned to labour in chains as a criminal iu 

 the gardens of the Belvedere, the palace of the Grand-duke Gonstan- 

 tine. lie was released before 13U, and iu that year his reputation 

 was suddenly raised by the appearance of a volume ' O Literuturze 

 Polskiej w wieku dxiwietnastym ' ('On Polish Literature in the 19th 

 century '), in which he advocated the principles of what is called " the 

 romantic school " in poetry, with a spirit of which no other Polish 

 critic had shown an example. The public was at once gained over 

 to his views, and the author of a history of Polish literature pub- 

 lished at Posen in 1815, speaks of Mochuacki as taking decidedly the 

 first place as a writer in prose as Mickiewicz in poetry. 



Of the insurrection against the Russians which broke out on the 

 29th of November 1830, .Mochuacki was one of the leading promoters. 

 The measures of the provisional government which was at first 

 estuuliohed, and which entered into negotiations witli the Archduke 

 Constant me, excited his strong disapprobation, and it has been since 

 generally acknowledged that they were founded on a mistaken policy ; 

 but the measures he adopted against them turned out even more 

 disastrous to the cause of Poland. Already, on the night of the 2nd 

 of December, at the first meeting of the "Patriotic Club," with his 

 friend and former fellow prisoner Xawery Bronikowski iu the chair, 

 he proposed tbat the provisional government should bo called upon 

 to retain the Archduke Constantino as a prisoner and hostage, and 

 that in case of their refusal they should be compelled to admit into 

 their body additional members nominated by the Club. A deputation 

 of the club proceeded, escoiU-d by a mob, to the Bank, in which the 

 government was assembled, and entered the room of council with 

 arms in hand. The result of a strong discussion, in which Mochuacki 

 made his demands, and Niemcewicz, the poet, an aged member of the 

 provisional government, bared his breast to endure death rather than 

 yieM to the demands of a mob, was that the government gave way, 

 and the two delegates Bromkowaki and Mocunacki were admitted 

 members. Chlouicki, who was soon afterwards named dictator, was 

 an object of suspicion to Mochuacki, who, in a meeting of the club 

 a few davs after, declared that the dictator was betraying the revolu- 

 tion. Amid a tremendous uproar, Brouikowski was required to say on 

 his word of honour if he shared the suspicions of his colleague, and he 

 replied in the negative. Mochuacki, assailed with cries of " Down 

 with tlio slanderer, down with the Polish Robespierre," owed it to 



good fortune that he escaped from the hall alive. He attributed the 

 defeat of his proposal to the machinations of the Prince Lubecki, 

 one of the principal members of the provisional government, and ou 

 the next day by a fiery speech on horseback to the school of ensigns, 

 a body of young officers who had commenced the insurrection, he 

 induced them to follow him to an attack on the Bank, with the 

 intention of destroying the prince. On their way they were met by 

 one of their officers, Wysocki, an intimate friend of Mochnacki, to 

 whom he whispered his purpose ; on which Wysocki, planting him- 

 self in their way, declared that they should only pass over his body. 

 The ensigns wavered and dispersed. Mochnacki, detested as an 

 incendiary, was sought in the course of the day by an infuriated mob, 

 eager to consign him to the gibbet, and to save his life was allowed 

 to conceal himself in the house of Prince Lubecki, who reasoned 

 calmly with him on the injury his rashness was doing to the cause. 

 All this is related by Mochnacki himself. 



The growing unpopularity of the dictator soon permitted Mochnacki 

 to make his reappearance in public and to receive congratulations on 

 the sagacity which had enabled him to descry the danger of relyiug on 

 Culopicki's fidelity to the cause. He joined the army, first as a common 

 soldier, then as an officer, and gained so remarkable an influence, that, 

 according to the testimony of Mieroslawski, though nominally a lieu- 

 tenant, he in reality directed the sentiments of a large portion of the 

 soldiery. He fought with distinction at Grochow and Ostrolenka, 

 receiving at the latter battle a wound, to recover from which he was 

 removed to Warsaw, where he wrote articles in the newspapers, which 

 produced a strong sensatiou. The influence he exerted towards tho 

 conclusion of the war app.-ars to have been in favour of that sanguiuury 

 violence which alienated from tho cause of the revolution many, iu 

 England and elsewhere, whose wishes had been at first the most ardent 

 for its success. Mocunacki, after the capture of Warsaw by the 

 Russians, found his way to France, where he occupied himself with 

 writing the history of the insurrection; the first two volumes of 

 which, from his pen, are accompanied by a preface, bearing date 

 " Marly-le-Roy, 21st November 1833." They appeared in 1834 ; and 

 on the 20th of December 1834 the author died at Auxerre, where his 

 remains are honoured with a fine monument. 



The most important work of Mochuacki is the ' Powstanie Narodu 

 Polskiego ' (' Insurrection of the Polish Nation'), which it is a loss 

 to the history of the 1 9th century that he. did not live to complete. 

 It is a vivid, lucid, and apparently candid narrative, iu which the 

 writer certainly relates things of himself which he could hardly expect 

 to gain for him the sympathies of the reader. The account we have 

 given of his violent course of conduct at the outset of the revolution 

 is taken from this book. The book does not appear to have ever been 

 translated throughout in any language, but in a volume on the 

 ' Insurrection in Poland,' by 8. B. Giiorowski, published at London iu 

 1S39, and dedicated to Campbell, some of the most spirited passages 

 are appropriated from Mochuacki without acknowledgment. In 1854 

 a parnpblet, on the designs of Russia, entitled ' Faut-il une Pologuo,' 

 was issued at Paris, consisting of several chapters, avowedly taken 

 from the introduction to this history. A new edition of it in five 

 volumes was published at Breslau in 1850. A volume of Moohnacki's 

 shorter pieces and contributions to periodicals appeared at Paris 

 in 1838, under the title of ' Pisma Rozinaite ' (' Miscellaneous 

 Writings '). 



Mu'DKtfA or MU'TINA, TOMMA'SO DA, a painter of Modena, 

 of the 14th century, who has been claimed by some German writers, 

 without any better foundation than the possession of some of his 

 works, for Bohemia. He appears to have been at Prague iu the time 

 of the Emperor Charles IV., who was a patron of the arts ; but it is 

 also quite possible that the emperor bespoke the works in his posses- 

 sion of the painter at Modena. The name of Tommaso da Modena 

 is of more importance than it otherwise would have been on account 

 of various pretensions which his works have given rise to. The altar- 

 piece, in three compartments, of the ' Virgin and Child,* with Saints 

 Weuceslas and Palmatius, patrons of Bohemia, formerly at Carlsteiu, 

 but now in the gallery of the Belvedere at Vienna, was said to be 

 an oil-painting, and, in Von Mechel's catalogue, to have been painted 

 in 1297; it was therefore eagerly caught at by writers of Germany 

 and Italy, to confute Vasari, to vindicate the title of their respective 

 countries in opposition to the Flemish claim. This picture however 

 bears no date, and mo>re receut chemical analysis has shown that it is 

 a ' tempera,' and not an oil-painting. The figures are half-length, 

 about half the size of life, and are painted upon a gold ground ; and 

 the picture bears the following inscription : 



Quis opus hoc finxit 1 Thomas do Mutina pinxit, 

 Qualc viues lector Variainl filius auctor. 



Von Mechel read Rarisini, but some documents mentioned by Fede- 

 rici, Tiraboschi, and Lauzi show that Barisini should be the reading; 

 Barisino being the name of Tommaso's father, and his. own full. name 

 accordingly Tommaso di Barisino da Modena. 



There is an extensive work, a series of many portraits, in the 

 chapter-house of the Dominicans at Trevigi, which Fra Federici, a 

 Domiuican, has had engraved for his account of the antiquities of 

 Trevigi' Memorie Trevigiane su le Opere di Disegno.' They were 

 painted in 1352, and are accompanied by the following inscription : 



