77 



RICH, CLAUDIUS JAME3. 



RICHARD I. 



length upon those which, it has been imagined, will immediately 

 precede the end of the world. 



In 1661 Riccioli published a work on geography and hydrography, 

 in which is given an account of the operations which, in conjunction 

 with T. Grimaldi, be had carried on in order to determine the length 

 of a degree of the terrestrial meridian. For this purpose a base-line 

 was measured near Bologna, and a triangulatiou was formed between 

 that city and Modena ; the stations appear however to have been 

 improperly chosen, for the angles between them are often less than 

 eight degrees, aud only two were observed in each triangle. The 

 instrument employed for obtaining the terrestrial angles was similar to 

 the parallactic rulers of Ptolomteus; and, in reducing the distances 

 between the stations to one spherical surface, Riccioli assumed the 

 refraction as constant, and equal to thirty minutes, as it had been 

 determined by Tycho Brahe" for celestial bodies in the horizon. The 

 latitudes of the stations were determined by the sun and certain stars, 

 their altitudes being observed with a quadrant whose radius was eight 

 feet ; but the declinations were taken from the catalogue of the astro- 

 nomer just mentioned, and consequently were liable to errors amount- 

 ing to one minute or more. It appears also that Riccioli entertained 

 an opinion that the measures of the ancients were nearly correct; 

 hence, among his observations, he made choice of such as gave results 

 which approached the nearest to those measures, and thus his deter- 

 mination of the length of a degree is found to have been very erro 

 neons. The value expressed by 64,365 paces of Bologna (66,772 Eng. 

 fath.), which he obtained by one of his methods, is considered by him 

 as possessing an evidence in its favour which nothing can resist ; it 

 however differs far more from the truth than the determination of 

 Snell, which had been made a few years previously in France ; and in 

 fact it is too great by above 6000 fathom?. The same work contains 

 some remarks on the variation of the magnetic needle, observations 

 on geographical longitudes and latitudes, and several problems relating 

 to navigation. 



Lastly, in 1665, Riccioli published his 'Astronomia Reformata,' a 

 work in which he treats of refractions and parallaxes, and describes 

 the instruments which he used to determiiie the places of the stars. 

 He also gives a collection of the observations previously made on the 

 planets, and he compares them with the astronomical tables which had 

 then been published. The work concludes with several tables relating 

 to chronology, geography, and astronomy, and with a catalogue of 

 stars. Riccioli died in 1671, at the age of seventy-three. 



RICH, CLAUDIUS JAMES, was born on the 28th of March 1787, 

 near Dijon in Burgundy, and, while yet an infant, was carried to 

 Bristol, where lie spent the early years of his life. He received a good 

 education, and was early distinguished by his extraordinary powers in 

 the acquisition of languages. At the age of eight or nine he happened 

 to see some Arabic manuscripts in the library of a gentleman at 

 Bristol, and was seized with a strong desire to acquire that language. 

 This accidental circumstance led him to study the Oriental languages, 

 in which he made such proficiency as to be able to read with con- 

 siderable facility the Arabic, Hebrew, Syriac, Persian, and Turkish 

 languages by the time he had attained his fifteenth year. His extra- 

 ordinary acquirements in Oriental literature induced a friend to obtain 

 for him, in 1803, the appointment to a cadetcy in the East India 

 Company's service ; and he was shortly after presented with a writer- 

 ship in the Bombay establishment by Mr. Parry, the chairman of the 

 board of directors, in consequence of the strong recommendation of 

 Sir Charles Wilkins. To enable him to perfect himself in the Arabic 

 and Turkish languages, he was attached as secretary to Mr. Lock, who 

 was at that time proceeding to Egypt as consul-general ; and after the 

 death of Mr. Lock, which happened before Mr. Rich joined him, he 

 was allowed by the court of directors to prosecute such a course of 

 travel as it was supposed might be most conducive to the object which 

 he had in view. He accordingly went to Constantinople and Smyrna 

 to study the Turkish language, and thence proceeded to Egypt to 

 perfect himself in the Arabic and its various dialects. After leaving 

 Egypt, he travelled over a great part of Palestine and Syria in the 

 disguise of a Mameluke, and, confiding in his knowledge of the 

 Turkish language and manners, ventured to visit the grand mosque at 

 Damascus, while the great body of pilgrims was assembled at that 

 city on their way to Mecca. From Syria he proceeded by Mardin and 

 Baghdad to Bussora, whence he sailed for Bombay, which he reached 

 in September 1807. 



On his arrival at Eombay, he resided at the house of Sir James 

 Mackintosh, to whom he had been introduced by the Rev. Robert 

 Hall previous to his departure from England. In the following year 

 he married the eldest daughter of Sir J. Mackintosh, and was shortly 

 afterwards appointed the East India Company's resident at Baghdad, 

 where he remained for about six years. During this time he pro- 

 secuted with the greatest diligence his favourite studies. He formed 

 a rich collection of Oriental manuscripts, and also of medals and coins, 

 and of the gems and engraved stones found at Babylon, Nineveh, 

 Ctesiphon, and Baghdad. He made an excursion to Babylon in 1811 

 for the purpose of examining the ruins of that city, and afterwards pub- 

 lished at Vienna, in the ' Mines de 1'Orient,' a ' Memoir on the Ruins 

 of Babylon,' which was subsequently reprinted in this country. In 

 consequence of a paper published by Major Rennell, in the ' Archseo- 

 logia,' containing ' Remarks on the Topography of Ancient Babylon, 



suggested by the recent Observations and Discoveries of C. J. Rich, 

 Esq., in which he questioned Home of his conclusions, Mr. Rich under- 

 iOok another journey to Babylon, and in 1818 published, in London, 

 a ' Second Memoir on Babylon,' in which he endeavoured to confirm 

 ;he correctness of his first account ; to this memoir he also added a 

 valuable appendix on Babylonian antiques, illustrated by engravings, 

 which represent fac-similes of many cuneiform inscriptions found 

 upon bricks at Babylon : recent investigations have confirmed many 

 of his views. A second edition of these Memoirs, with the narrative 

 of Mr. Rich's journey to Babylon in 1811, and to Persepolis in 1821, 

 was published by his widow in 1839. 



In 1813 Mr. Rich, being compelled by bad health to leave Baghdad 

 for a time, travelled to Constantinople, and subsequently to Paris. He 

 returned to Baghdad in 1815, where he resumed his former pursuits, 

 and made large additions to his collection of manuscripts and antiques. 

 During this time he made the second excursion to Babylon already 

 referred to ; and in 1820 he made a tour into Koordistan. He went as 

 far east as Sinna, and visited Sulimania, Mosul, and the ruins of 

 Nineveh, and returned from Mosul to Baghdad down the Tigris. The 

 journal which he kept on this occasion was published in 1836 by his 

 widow under the title of 'Narrative of a Residence in Koordistan,' and 

 was accompanied by a valuable map of the country between Sinna, 

 Arbil, and Mosul, which was drawn up from Mr. Rich's survey and 

 astronomical observations. On his return to Baghdad he intended to 

 proceed to Bombay, where he had been appointed to an important 

 office by the Hon. Mountstuart Elphinstone, who was then governor ; 

 but in consequence ol an attack made upon the residency by the orders 

 or with the connivance of the pasha, he retired to Bussora. While 

 waiting for instructions from his own government, he employed his 

 time in a tour to Shirauz, whence he visited the ruins of Persepolis 

 and other remains of antiquity in that neighbourhood. While at 

 Shirauz he was attacked by the cholera morbus, and died of that 

 disease on the 5th of October 1821. 



Mr. Rich's death was a great loss to his private friends and to 

 oriental literature. His disposition was amiable and kind, and his 

 knowledge of many oriental languages such as few Europeans have 

 ever possessed. The ' Memoirs ' on Babylon were the only writings 

 which he published in his lifetime, with the exception of a few articles 

 in the ' Mines de 1'Orient ; ' but he left behind him a considerable 

 number of papers on various subjects. His collection of oriental 

 manuscripts, coins, and antiquities, was purchased by parliament for 

 the British Museum. Mr. Rich, during his second residence at Bagh- 

 dad and on his various excursions, was unwearied in his astronomical 

 observations. He has left a very complete series of eclipses of Jupiter's 

 satellites, and numerous altitudes of stars and lunar distances, most of 

 which are computed, and the results in latitude and longitude deduced. 

 His zeal as an observer may be estimated from the fact that when 

 taking the sun at Baghdad the metal of his sextant was frequently too 

 hot to be touched without pain ; and after the most fatiguing marches, 

 and while labouring under severe indisposition, he seized every favour- 

 able opportunity of fixing his position astronomically. 



( Brief Notice of the Life of Mr. Rick prefixed to Mr. Rich's ' Narra- 

 tive of a Residence in Koordistan.') 



RICHARD L, King of England, surnamed C<EUR DE LION, was the 

 third son of Henry II., and his queen Eleanor, and was born at 

 Oxford, in the king's manor-house there, afterwards the monastery of 

 the White Friars, in September 1157. The history of the earlier part 

 of the life of Richard has been already detailed. [HENRY II.] By 

 the treaty of Montmirail, concluded on the 6th of January 1169, 

 between Henry and Louis VII. of France, it was stipulated that the 

 duchy of Aquitaine should be made over to Richard, who should do 

 homage and fealty for it to Louis, and should espouse Adelais, or 

 Alice, that king's youngest daughter; and in 1170, Henry, being taken 

 ill at Domfront, in Maine, made a will, by which he confirmed this 

 arrangement. In 1173, Richard, with his younger brother, Geoffrey, 

 and their mother, joined their eldest brother, Henry, in his first 

 rebellion against their father ; on the submission of the rebels, in 

 September 1174, Richard received two castles in Poitou, with half the 

 revenue of that earldom, and, along with Geoffrey, did homage and 

 swore fealty to their father. Nevertheless, Richard continued from 

 this time to hold the government of the whole of Aquitaine, and to 

 be usually styled, as before, Duke of Aquitaine, or Duke of Poitou 

 (which were considered as the same title), although it appears that 

 Henry now looked upon the arrangements made at the treaty of 

 Montmirail as annulled, and that dukedom to have actually reverted 

 to himself. In 1183 Richard refused, when commanded by his father, 

 to do homage for Aquitaine to his elder brother Henry, on which 

 Henry and Geoffrey invaded the duchy, and a new war ensued 

 between them and their father assisted by Richard, which however 

 was terminated by the death of the eldest of the three brothers in 

 June of that same year, when Richard became his father's heir appa- 

 rent ; but at an interview between King Henry and Philip Augustus 

 of France, in November 1188, Richard, apparently impelled by a sus- 

 picion that his father intended to leave his crown to his younger 

 brother John, and also professing to resent Henry's conduct in with- 

 holding from him his affianced bride, the French king's sister, suddenly 

 declared himself the liegeman of Philip for all his father's dominions 

 in France; whence arose a new war, in which Philip and Richard 



