RANKE, LEOPOLD. 



RAOUL-ROCHETTE, DESIR& 



by Giglio Oiraldi, aud also by Vida, in his second book, ' De Arte 

 Poetica/ Costanza Rangone, sister of the preceding, took for her 

 second husband Cesare Fregoso, a well-known Genoese emigrant in 

 the service of Francis I., who was murdered in 1541 by the emissaries 

 of the Marquis del Vasto, governor of Milan for Charles V. She then 

 retired to France, together with Bandello, the celebrated novelist, who 

 wrote many of his tales for her entertainment. Ginevra Rangone, 

 sister of Costanza, married first a nobleman of the Correggio family, 

 and afterwards Luigi Gonzaga, marquis of Castiglione. She has been 

 praised by Scalitrero for her intellectual accomplishments. Her 

 nephew, Count Fulvio Rangone, a pupil of Carlo Sigonio, was 

 employed by Alfonso II. of Este in a diplomatic capacity ; aud his 

 sister Claudia fixed her residence at Rome, where she enjoyed con- 

 siderable interest at the Papal court, and was even consulted on 

 matters of state. 



* RANKE, LEOPOLD, one of the most distinguished of the 

 historians produced in modern times by Germany, was born on 

 December 21, 1795, at Wiehe, on the Unstrutt, near Naumburg in 

 Prussian-Saxony. Early in life he became a teacher, and in 1818 was 

 appointed upper-master of the gymnasium at Frankfurt-on-the-Oder, 

 but devoted all his leisure to the study of history. The first fruits of 

 his labours were a ' History of the Roman and German People, from 

 1494 to 1535,' and a 'Critique on modern Historical Writers,' both 

 published in 1824. These, especially the latter, a clear and discri- 

 minating essay on the qualities to be desired in a historian, attracted 

 so much attention that he was appointed professor extraordinary of 

 history in the University of Berlin in 1825. Soon after entering on 

 the duties of his new office, he visited, at the expense of the govern- 

 ment, Vienna, Venice, and Rome, where he found abundant materials 

 both in public and private collections, among which the ambassadorial 

 despatches to the Venetian senate were of peculiar value. From those 

 materials he produced in 1827 ' Fiirsten und Volker von Siid-Europa 

 im 16 und 17 Jahrhundert ' ('Princes and Nations of South-Europe 

 in the 16th and 17th Centuries'); and the ' Verschwbrung gegen 

 Venedig im Jahr 1688' ('the Conspiracy against Venice in 1688') 

 published in 1831. Both works were of distinguished excellence, con- 

 taining the results of zealous industry, much of novelty in the relations 

 of the Spanish and Turkish governments with the affairs of Italy, a 

 remarkable and original talent for the development of individual 

 character and for the grouping of events, an integrity that could be 

 thoroughly relied upon, and a lucid and easy style. His reputation 

 was even increased by his next work, ' The Popes of Rome ; their 

 Church and State,' which was published in 3 vols. in 1834-36; more 

 than half of the last volume consisting of original documents. Of this 

 work an excellent translation has been given to the English public by 

 Mrs. Austin, in 1840, another by E. Foster, in 1848, and a third by 

 Mr. Scott, with an introductory essay by Merle d'Aubigne", in a less 

 impartial spirit than that in which the author writes, appeared in 1846, 

 as "more adapted for extensive circulation." In 1832 he had com- 

 menced as editor the ' Historical and Political Gazette,' (' Historische- 

 Politische Zeitschrift '), which, as containing too liberal views of the 

 necessity of continued progress, he was forced to discontinue in 1836, 

 when only two volumes had been completed. In 1837 he read and 

 afterwards published a discourse to the Royal Scientific Academy at 

 Berlin on the History of Italian Poetry. Between 1837 and 1840 he 

 published three volumes of ' Annals of the German Monarchy under 

 the House of Saxony.' In 1834 he had been promoted to be ordinary 

 professor of history in the University of Berlin, and in 1841 he was 

 created historiographer of Prussia. He has since issued ' Neun Bucher 

 Preussische Geschichte,' which has been translated by Sir A. and Lady 

 Duff Gordon, under the title of ' Memoirs of the house of Brandenburg, 

 and History of Prussia during the 17th and 18th Century," as have like- 

 wise a ' History of Servia and the Servian Revolution, with a Sketch 

 of the Insurrection in Bosnia/ ('Die letzten Unruhen in Bosnien') 

 ' Civil Wars and Monarchy in the 16th and 17th Centuries; a History 

 of France principally during that period ;' ' Ferdinand I. and Maximi- 

 lian II. of Austria ; an essay on the political and religious state of 

 Germany, immediately after the Reformation,' this last being a short 

 essay, published in the ' Zeitschrift/ and ' the Ottoman and the 

 Spanish Empires,' which formed a part of the ' Princes and Nations of 

 South-Europe.' In Germany the work most highly praised is however 

 his ' Deutsche Geschichte im Zeitalter der Reformation/ of which 

 three volumes were issued between 1839 and 1843, and which have 

 been translated by Mrs. Austin, under the title of ' History of Germany 

 during the Reformation/ 



RANZANI, CAMILLO, ABBATE, an eminent naturalist, was born 

 at Bologna, June 22, 1775. Being of a very humble family, he received 

 his first education in the charity-school of the Brethren of the Scuole 

 Pie in that city, where his talents attracted the notice of a benevolent 

 priest of the Oratory, Father Respighi, to whom literature owes a 

 similar debt for the discovery and patronage of the youthful linguist, 

 Mezzofanti. Ranzani having through the assistance of 'Respighi 

 entered the University of his native city, distinguished himself so 

 much in his philosophical course that, even before he had completed 

 bis studies, he was occasionally employed by the professor Giuseppe 

 Vogli as his substitute ; and when he was but twenty-two years of age 

 he was selected to fill the chair of philosophy at Fano. There, having 

 received holy orders, he taught with reputation until in 1798 the 



political disturbances of the Legations compelled him to return to 

 Bologna, where ho was appointed keeper of the botanical gardens of 

 that city. Some of his papers on botany, which were read at the 

 Institute, having attracted notice, he was named professor of natural 

 history in the university in 1803. He himself confessed that, at the 

 time of his appointment, his general attainments in natural history 

 were far from complete ; but from that moment he devoted himself 

 to the study with so much zeal and assiduity that Baron Cuvier, 

 during a visit to Bologna ill 1810, was so struck by his ability in that 

 branch of science as to procure for him, on his return to Paris, an 

 authorisation to repair to Paris for the purpose of enjoying the advan- 

 tages for study, and for the acquisition of specimens, presented by the 

 matchless collections of that city. After a residence of somewhat 

 more than a year, Ranzani returned to Bologna with a considerable 

 collection of books, minerals, fossils, and other appliances of natural 

 history. During the early part of his professorship he had been a 

 frequent contributor to the scientific journals of Italy, France, and 

 Germany, and taken an active part in the proceedings of most of the 

 Italian scientific and literary societies ; but it was not till 1819 that he 

 commenced the publication of his great work, ' Element! di Zoologia/ 

 The first volume, published in that year, contains the general intro- 

 duction to zoology ; the second, on the mammiferous animals, was 

 published in 1820; and was followed in 1821 and the succeeding 

 years by the successive volumes as far as the tenth, at which unhappily 

 the work was interrupted, partly by the ill-health of the author, partly 

 by his occupations as rector of the university, to which office he was 

 named in 1824 by the pope, Leo XII. Though he had already pre- 

 pared great part of the materials necessary for its completion, and 

 although the many articles contributed by him to various journals of 

 natural history amply demonstrate the extent and accuracy of his 

 knowledge, the work has unfortunately been left in the same incomplete 

 state. In 1836 Ranzaui undertook a course of Lectures on Geology, 

 a science which up to that time was regarded with much suspicion in 

 the Italian universities. He had the honour of first introducing to 

 his countrymen the discoveries of Buckland, Lyell, De la Beche, and 

 the other members of the English school ; and as he had early made 

 himself familiar with the study of comparative anatomy, he was able 

 to speak, upon the questions which most interested the students of 

 biblical geology, with a degree of authority which a lecturer unac- 

 quainted with that subject would not have ventured to assume. His 

 ability in this branch of science had been recognised even at an early 

 period by Cuvier, who freely confessed his obligations to Ranzani for 

 some important information of which he availed himself in his great 

 work, and Ranzani was engaged in preparing for the press a treatise 

 on geology, containing the substance of his lectures during the five 

 years from 1836 till 1841, when he was unexpectedly carried off by 

 illness, April 23, 1841, in the sixty-sixth year of his age. A catalogue 

 of his miscellaneous essays, lectures, dissertations, and contributions 

 to periodical literature, will be found in the 'Memorie di Religione, 

 di Morale, e di Litteratura/ published at Modena, 1843. (Continua- 

 zione, vol. xv., pp. 401, 402.) 



R AOUL-RUCHETTE, DESIR^, an eminent French archaeologist, was 

 born at St. Arnaud in the department of Cher, on the 9th of March, 

 1789. Educated at Bourges, he was called to Paris when little more 

 than twenty-two, to fill the chair of history in the Lyceum ; and in 

 1815 he supplied the place of Guizot as lecturer on Modern History 

 in the University of Paris. In 1815 appeared the work which first 

 gained him a more than local celebrity, ' Histoire Critique de 1'dtab- 

 lissement des Colonies Grecques,' 4 vols. 8vo. The following year he 

 was made member of the Academic des Inscriptions, and one of the 

 editors of the 'Journal des Savants;' and in 1818 he was appointed 

 keeper of the medals, &c., in the Royal Library. His attention having 

 been directed to modern Swiss history he, during the following years, 

 made several exploratory journeys in Switzerland, of which he pub- 

 lished ample particulars under the title of 'Lettres sur la Suisse 

 (Sorites en 1819-21,' 3 vols. 8vo, Paris, 1823-26, and 'Voyage Pitto- 

 resque dans la Valle"e de Chamouni et autour du Mont Blanc/ 4to, 

 1826. His 'Histoire de la Revolution Helvdtique de 1797 a 1803,' 

 appeared in 1823. But whilst thus engaged on topography and 

 modern history, he was still diligently prosecuting the study of 

 classical antiquity, to which he thenceforward devoted himself, 

 making various journeys to Greece and Sicily, Italy, Germany, Holland, 

 &c., in order to familiarise himself with particular localities and to 

 examine the treasures collected in museums. In 1822 appeared his 

 'Antiquitds Grecques du Bosphore Cimme'rien/ He had already 

 come to be looked upon as the legitimate successor of Quatremere de 

 Quincy, before the delivery of his lectures in 1826 on his appointment 

 as professor of archaeology, which considerably added to his celebrity. 

 These lectures were published in 1828, under the title of 'Cours 

 d'Archdologie/ and again in 1836. 



From this time M. Raoul-Rochette was one of the most active and 

 most widely known of the French writers on ancient art, communi- 

 cating numerous papers to the Memoirs of the Acacle'mie, as well as 

 to the journals of other learned societies, and frequently appearing 

 before the public in distinct works. In 1828 he published ' Monu- 

 ments inddits d'Antiquitd figure'es Grecques, Etrusques, et Romaines/ 

 2 vols. fol. His ' Peintures Antiques ine"dites' appeared in 1836. In 

 1839 he was appointed perpetual secretary to the Academic des Beaux 



