615 



SPOHR, LUDWIG. 



SPOTSWOOD, JOHN. 



646 



and geography. He published an edition of the 'Odyssey,' with 

 valuable dissertations prefixed, entitled 'De Agro Trojano in Car-mi- 

 nibus Homeri descripto,' Leipzig, 8vo, 1814; ' Commentarius de 

 extrema Odysseae parte inde a rhapsod. V 297, scvo recentiore orta 

 quam Homerico,' Leipzig, 1816. He revised the text of Hesiod with 

 great care"; the edition was commenced in 1819, but never completed. 

 In 1817 he edited the ' Panegyricus ' of Isocrates ; and in the last 

 year of his life published 'Lectiones Theocritese.' He projected also 

 Annals of the reign of Augustus, deduced from a chronological 

 arrangement of the various passages in Latin authors illustrative of 

 this period. 



As a geographer, he made great additions to the materials collected 

 by Bredow. His researches into the mythology of the ancients led 

 him to study Egyptian hieroglyphics ; some remar-ks of his on this 

 subject appeared in a German publication called ' Amalthaea.' In 

 1822 he was employed in examining and arranging the Egyptian anti- 

 quities brought to Berlin by Minutoli. His untimely death arrested 

 the publication of his work on hieroglyphics, which has since been 

 edited by Seyffarth, of Berlin, uuder the title ' De Lingua et Literis 

 veterum ./Egyptiorum, cum permultis tabulis lithographicis literas 

 ^Egyptiorum turn vulgari turn sacerdotali ratione scriptas explicantibus 

 atque interpretationem Rosettanse aliaruinque inscriptionum et aliquot 

 volutninum papyraceorum in sepulcris repertorum exhibentibus. 

 Accedit Glossarium jEgyptiacum,' Leipzig, 1825, with a life and 

 portrait of Spohn. This work did not however contribute very much 

 to solve the difficulties attending the interpretation of hieroglyphics. 

 There is a life of Spohn in the ' Zeit-genosseu, Neue Reihe,' heft xv. 



* SPOHR, LUDWIG, a great German musician, was born at Seesen, 

 in the Duchy of Brunswick, in the year 1783. His father was an 

 eminent physician. In early youth he showed no signs of the talents 

 which afterwards distinguished him, being rather remarkable for 

 apparent flowness of intellect. Few particulars of his quiet and 

 uneventful life have been recorded ; and there is no account of the 

 manner in which his genius for music began to develope itself or how 

 it was cultivated. He betook himself especially to the study of the 

 violin, and obtained an engagement as chamber musician in the service 

 of the Duke of Brunswick. In 1804 he travelled over different parts 

 of Germany, giving concerts, and acquiring the reputation of being 

 one of the greatest violinists of the time. In 1805 he became Con- 

 cert-master to the Duke of Saxe-Gotha ; and while he held this situa- 

 tion, made various professional tours, during one of which he was 

 present at the Congress of Vienna in 1814, where he eclipsed all his 

 rivals. His earliest compositions consisted chiefly of music for his 

 own instrument, Concertos, Quartets, &c. In 1817 he travelled in 

 Italy; and after his return from that country became director of 

 music at the theatre of Frankfurt-am- Main. ' He now turned his 

 attention to dramatic composition; and, at this period of his life, 

 produced those fine Operas, ' Faust,' ' Jessonda,' and ' Zemira and 

 Azor,' which have become popular throughout Europe. 



When he left Frankfurt-am-Main, he became Maestro di Capella 

 to the Duke of Hesse Cassel and took up his residence at Cassel, 

 where he still lives. During the latter part of his life he has devoted 

 himself principally to the composition of sacred music : and his 

 oratorios, ' The Last Judgment,' ' The Crucifixion,' and ' The Fall of 

 Babylon,' are deservedly classed among the greatest works of this 

 description which have appeared since the days of HandeL 



Spohr has paid many visits to England. The first, we believe, was 

 in 1819, when he came on the invitation of the Philharmonic Society 

 of London; and several of his orchestral pieces were performed at 

 their concerts. His oratorios were first made known to the English 

 public by their production at the Norwich musical festivals ; and it 

 was for one of those great music-meetings that one of them, ' The Fall 

 of Babylon,' was expressly composed. 



He is a voluminous composer. Besides his oratorios, and his operas 

 on which his permanent fame will chiefly rest, he has produced a 

 multitude of orchestral symphonies, concertos, quartets, and other 

 instrumental works, together with numerous vocal pieces cantatas, 

 songs, ballads, &c., which are popular throughout Germany. Many 

 years ago, when he became engrossed by composition, he discontinued 

 performing on the violin ; but he has left to the lovers of that instru- 

 ment a most valuable gift, in his ' Violin-School,' the best and most 

 complete work of its class. He has not lately produced any new 

 work : and though he enjoys a serene and happy old age, the reward 

 of a well-spent life, we may regard his artistic career as closed. 



SPON, JACOB, the son of Charles Spon, an eminent French 

 physician, was born at Lyon, 1647, and educated at Strasburg. He 

 took the degree of Doctor of Medicine at Montpellier, and returning 

 to his native place in 1669, studied medicine and archaeology. In 1673 

 he published ' Recherches des Antiquity's et Quriosite's de la Ville de 

 Lyon,' 8vo, and the following year endeavoured to draw attention 

 towards the remains of antiquity in Greece, by the publication of 

 ' Relation de 1'Etat Present de la Ville d'Athenes, avec un Abre'ge' de 

 son Histoire et de ses Antiquite"s,' Lyon, 1674, written by the Pere 

 Babin, a Jesuit, who had been resident there. In 1675 he went to 

 Italy, and spent some time at Rome studying ancient art. At Venice 

 he met with an English traveller, Sir George Wheler, and set out with 

 him on a tour to the East. Their route lay through Dalmatia, the 

 Archipelago, Constantinople, and Asia Minor : they then visited Athens 



and the Peloponnesus. From Negropont they set sail for Venice, 

 whence Spon returned to Lyon in the middle of the year 1676. In 

 1678 he published his ' Travels,' printed at Lyon, 3 vol. 8vo; reprinted 

 Amsterd., 2 vola. 12rao, 1679. The third volume contains inscriptions, 

 great numbers of which relate to the demi of Attica. In the eame 

 year he published ' Miscellanea eruditae Antiquitatis, in quibus Mar- 

 mora, &c., Grutero et Ursino ignota referuntur et illustrantur,' Lyon, 

 folio, published in torn. 4 of the ' Thesaurus' of Polenus, and containing 

 much interesting matter. About this time, having noticed the false- 

 hood of Quillet's account of Athens, published under the name of 

 La Guilletiere, he became engaged in a controversy with him, and 

 succeeded in exposing him as a literary impostor. (Leake's 'Athens,' 

 2nd ed., i. 94, contains a full account of this matter.) In 1683 appeared 

 a work of his, entitled 'Recherchea Curieuses d'Antiquite",' Lyon. He 

 continued to practise as a physician, and published several medical 

 treatises. Being a Protestant, he quitted Lyon before the revocation 

 of the Edict of Nantes, and went to Geneva, and thence to Vevay, 

 where he died in great distress on the 25th of December 1685. His 

 archaeological works are very valuable: his 'Travels' show great 

 learning, as well as accuracy of observation ; and the fidelity of his 

 descriptions has been confirmed by the testimony of later travellers, 

 and by recent discoveries at Athens. (Dr. Ross, ' Die Acropolis von 

 Athen.') Spon and his companion were among the first European 

 travellers who visited the Parthenon before its destruction during the 

 siege of Athens by the Venetians in 1687. 



The ' Biographie Universelle ' gives a list of Spon's works, but omits 

 several which are in the Catalogue of the British Museum. 



(Jb'cher, Allgetntines Gelehrten- Lexicon.) 



SPONTINI, GASPARD, a celebrated Italian dramatic composer, 

 was born at Jesi, in the Roman States, in the year 1778. After study- 

 ing the principles of music under Padre Martini at Bologna, he 

 entered, at the age of thirteen, the Conservatory of La Pieta at Naples, 

 then a music school of great renown. At seventeen he composed his 

 first opera, ' I Puntigli delle Donne,' which spread his name over 

 Italy, and led to the favourable reception of a long series of dramatic 

 productions. He visited Paris in 1804, and from that time became 

 much connected with the music of the French opera ; his principal 

 works, ' La Vestale,' ' Olympia,' and ' Fernand Cortez,' having been 

 composed for and produced at the Academie Royale de Musique. Of 

 these works, ' La Vestale ' acquired the greatest celebrity. Having 

 been adapted both to the Italian and the German stage, it was per- 

 formed in every great musical theatre in Europe, and for a time had 

 almost as much popularity as the works of Rossini himself. Spontini 

 passed many years of the latter period of his life at Berlin, as director 

 of music at the Prussian court, and held this office at the time of his 

 death, January 21, 1851. 



SPOTSWOOD, (or SPOTISWOOD,) JOHN, Archbishop of St. 

 Andrews, was born in 1565, in what is now the parish of Mid-Calder, 

 in the county of Edinburgh, of which, and of West Calder, then 

 forming one parish, his father, a descendant of the ancient family of 

 Spots wood of Spots wood in Berwickshire, still subsisting, was parson. 

 The spelling of the name which we have adopted is that given on the 

 title-page of Spots wood's ' History of the Church of Scotland,' and is 

 also that followed by his contemporaries Calderwood and Martine. 

 But it is often written Spotiswood ; that is the spelling of the writer 

 of the biographical memoir prefixed to the ' History,' and also in the 

 inscription on the archbishop's monument. The parson of Calder 

 (whose father had fallen at Flodden Field) was soon after his induction 

 to that benefice invested with the office of superintendent of Lothian, 

 Merse, and Teviotdale (a sort of bishopric under what was thought a 

 less odious name), which he held till his death in 1585. Spotswood's 

 mother was Beatrix Crichton, described by the English writer of his 

 Life, prefixed to his ' History of the Church of Scotland,' as " a grave 

 and a discreet matron, daughter to the laird of Lugton, an ancient 

 baron of Scotland." 



Spots wood was educated at the University of Glasgow, where he is 

 stated to have "received his degrees" in his sixteenth year. At the 

 age of eighteen Spotswood was appointed to take the place of his 

 father, who was disabled by age and infirmities, as parson of Calder; 

 and for severat years he confined himself mostly to the duties of his 

 parish. During this period of his life however, he appears to have 

 been considered as belonging to the ultra-presbyterian party, and to 

 have gone along with the majority of the church in their opposition to 

 the attempts of the government to restore episcopacy. Calderwood 

 seems to assert (' History of the Church of Scotland,' p. 369) that the 

 remarkable paper published by Bruce, one of the ministers of Edin- 

 burgh, in 1697, as his apology or defence for refusing to subscribe the 

 bond demanded from the clergy by the king, engaging that they 

 would not hold themselves privileged to utter sedition or treason in 

 their pulpits, was written, or at least revised, by Spotswood ; " he 

 would seem," says Calderwood, " so frank in the cause, that he would 

 needs write it with his own hand, and give it a sharper edge." It is 

 in truth sharp and also sly enough in various passages. Latterly 

 however symptoms of a tendency to defection may be detected. We 

 find him mentioned (Calderwood, p. 394) as one of twenty-one 

 ministers appointed by the General Assembly, which met at Perth in 

 1597, to confer with the king's commissioners upon certain articles 

 propounded by his majesty ; but, in the notion of the zealous historian 



