955 



TELLEZ, BALTHEZAR. 



TEMMINCK, C. J. 



650 



and from dry metaphysical philosophising on the other, Teller," says 

 Kuttner, " addresses himself both to the reason and the heart, and 

 while he touches the latter, carries conviction to the former." Others 

 have also spoken of him in very high terms, not only as a writer and 

 teacher of religion, but as a man one no less estimable in private life 

 than in his public capacity, and as exemplifying in himself that 

 conduct which he sought to enforce upon others. 



Besides his German writings, Teller published not a few theological 

 and critical dissertations in Latin, and continued to employ his pen 

 almost up to the time of his death ; for though he was greatly worn 

 out in body, his faculties continued active to the last. He died at 

 Berlin, December 8, 1804. 



TELLEZ, BALTHEZAR, a native of Lisbon, was born, according 

 to the statement of .M. Weiss, in the 'Biographic Univeraelle,' in the 

 year 1595. Moreri states that he joined the Society of Jesus in the 

 year 1610. In the eulogistic letter of Dom Francisco Manoel, pre- 

 fixed to Tellez's ' History of Ethiopia,' he is said (at least this seems 

 to be the writer's meaning, which his affected style renders rather 

 obscure) to have studied ten years and taught forty ; to have paid 

 attention to literature during the whole ten years of his career as 

 student, but devoted two of them more especially to philosophy, and 

 four of them to theology. He lectured upon belles lettres for twenty 

 years, teaching in succession the most advanced literary classes in the 

 Society's colleges at Braga, Evora, Lisbon, and Coimbra. He lectured 

 two years on philosophy, but Manoel does not mention in what semi- 

 nary. Lastly Tellez was eight years professor of theology in the 

 college of St. Antonio at Lisbon. At a later period he was appointed 

 master of the house of the professed Jesuits in Lisbon, and ultimately 

 provincial of the order in Portugal. He died on the 19th of April 

 1675. The published works of Tellez are : 1, A compendium of 

 philosophy, entitled ' Summa Universae Philosophite, cum Qusestionibus 

 quze inter Philosophos agitantur,' published at Lisbon, in folio, ia 

 1642; at Paris, in two quarto volumes, in 1644; and at Lisbon, in 

 four octavo volumes, in 1652 : 2, ' Chronica da Companhia de Jesus da 

 Proviucia da Portugal,' in two volumes, the first published in 1645, 

 the second in 1648, both at Lisbon : 3, ' Historia geral de Ethiopia a 

 alta,' in one folio volume, at Coimbra, in 1660. He is also said to 

 have left in manuscript a history of the Society's labours in the East. 

 The historical works of Tellez are of more value than his philosophical 

 treatise. The ' History of the Jesuits in Portugal ' is a valuable con- 

 tribution to the history of that accomplished and energetic order. 

 The ' Hktory of Ethiopia,' or, more properly, the history of the Jesuit 

 Missions in Ethiopia, is indispensable to any one who wishes to study 

 the history or comparative geography of Abyssinia, The first book 

 contains an outline of the geography of Abyssinia, of its political 

 divisions, government, and statistics, as they existed from the time 

 that the Jesuit missionaries first entered the kingdom till their expul- 

 sion under Facilidas. The remainiug five books are chiefly occupied 

 with the narrative of missionary enterprise, but contain important 

 contributions to geogi-aphy, the general accuracy of which has, on the 

 whole, been confirmed by the testimony of later travellers. In the 

 preface Tellez gives an account of the authorities from whom he has 

 compiled his book, Manoel d'Almeyda, Affouso Mendes, Jeronymo 

 Lobo, and Pero Pays ; and he has availed himself of their information 

 both with taste and judgment. 



TELLEZ, GABRIEL, better known under the name of Tmso DE 

 MOLINA, after Lope de Vega and Calderon the most prolific and the 

 best dramatist of Spain, was born at Madrid probably about 1585. He 

 was educated at Alcala", and entered the church as early as 1613. In 

 1620 he became a monk in the convent of Nuestra Senora de la 

 Merced, in which fraternity he filled the offices of chronicler, and 

 inspector of Old Castile. In 1645 he was elected prior of the convent 

 of Soria, where he died in 1648. In his dramatic career, which he pur- 

 sued under his assumed name, he was a friend and follower of De Vega. 

 In his ' Cigarrales de Toledo,' a collection of novels and comedies 

 published in 1621, he states that he had then composed about three 

 hundred comedies. Of these there remain to us only fifty-eight, 

 together with some interludes and autos sacramentales; namely fifty- 

 one comedies, and twelve interludes, in the rare collection of his 

 'Comedias,' published at Madrid in five volumes, in 1627, three in the 

 ' Cigarrales,' and fourteen printed singly. His ' Autos ' appeared 

 under his real name, and were published at Madrid in 1635, as 

 ' Deleitar aprovechando.' The name of Tirso de Molina was prefixed 

 to his comedies, because, it is supposed, he deemed the production of 

 them somewhat inconsistent with his clerical profession ; for it is 

 stated the disappearance of so many of his dramas is owing to their 

 having been destroyed by order of the Inquisition on account of their 

 indeb'cacy. He is also the author of ' Un acto de contricion en verso,' 

 printed at Madrid in 1635; and 'Gcnealogia des Condes de Silstago,' 

 printed at Madrid in 1640. Though Tellez is an avowed adopter of 

 De Vega's rules for the construction of the national drama, and a 

 conscientious follower of his direction?, he is not a servile imitator. 

 While adhering to the national peculiarities, he has an individuality 

 of his own, and a genial originality that can be compared properly 

 with none. The prevailing merit of his dramas consists less in 

 the artistical construction of his plots, or the development and unity 

 of the whole, than in the variety and grace of the situations, the 

 freshness and vividness of the characterisation, the well-blended 



harmony of his images, the brilliance of his wit, and the poetry of 

 his diction. His comedies in particular are fascinating from their 

 pleasantry, which often assumes the form of a gentle irony ; his 

 ' graciosos,' or clowns, belong to the most humorous, the most deli- 

 cate, and the most varied representations of the species, and his 

 female characters are drawn with a masterly and energetic hand. The 

 lyrical portions, which he is fond of introducing, are marked by a 

 graceful naivete". Considering his country and his profession, the 

 boldness with which ho attacks the follies and vicea of the higher 

 ranks, even ridiculing the ecclesiastical body, is not a little remarkable; 

 but it is done with such good-humour that even the chastised could 

 not be angry. The variety of his power is also remarkable. Hia 

 epigrams are clever and well pointed : one on the waterless Manza- 

 nares, in which he compares it to the long summer vacation of the 

 universities, is still quoted by Spaniards. In his dramas he is not less 

 great in painting earnest and serious characters, as in his ' Prudencia 

 en la mujer,' which ranks with the best works of the Spanish stage, 

 in 'La mujer que manda en ca?a,' and in the ' Escarmientos para el 

 cuerdo,' than in the deeply thoughtful and glowingly coloured mystic- 

 ascetic drama ' El condenado por desconfiado,' which preceded Calde- 

 ron's ' Devotion to the Cross,' and with which it may be favourably 

 compared ; or the sparkling epigrammatic ' Por el solano y el torno.' 

 Many of his comedies are still favourites on the Spanish stage, among 

 which are ' Gil de las calzas verdes,' which has been translated into 

 German by Dohrn ; ' La villana de la sagra ; ' ' No hay peor sordo que 

 el que no quiere oir ; ' and ' El vergonzoso en palacio.' His Don Juan 

 ('El burlador de Sevilla, 6 el convidado de piedra') was imitated by 

 Moliere, and has since attained a world-wide celebrity. A selection of 

 his comedies, published - in Madrid, in 12 vols., between 1839 and 1842, 

 edited by Don Juan Eugenio Hartzenbush, in the ' Teatro escogido,' 

 was reprinted in one volume in 1850, and contains thirty -six of his 

 dramatic pieces. 



TEMANZA, TOMMASO, an architect who is better known by his 

 writings relative to his art than by the buildings which he executed, 

 was the son of an architect, and the nephew of another architect 

 (Giovanni Scalfarotti), and was born at Venice in 1705. Having 

 finished his mathematical studies in the school of Padre Niccolo 

 Comiui and the eminent Marchese Poleni, he was appointed although 

 then only twenty-two one of the assistants in the Commission of 

 Engineers, and in 1742 became the chief of that body on the resigna- 

 tion of Bernardino Zeudrini, a few years before the latter's death 

 (1747). His share in the hydraulic commission caused him for awhile 

 to be involved in literary disputes, he having offended the people of 

 Padua by a publication entitled ' Dell' antico Corso de' Fiumi in Padova 

 e suoi Contorni;' wherein he asserts that their ancestors had attempted 

 to turn the course of the Brenta. As an architect he had not many 

 opportunities afforded him, for the period of Venetian grandeur and 

 enterprise in art had passed away. He was however employed to 

 execute one of the very few public edifices of any kind erected at 

 Venice in the last century, namely the church of La Maddeleua, a 

 structure of the Ionic order, and which, though it may be said to be 

 comparatively pure, is also somewhat feeble and insipid in design. 

 His other principal architectural works are the facade of Santa 

 Margherita, at Padua ; the Rotunda at Piazzolo, built at the expenso 

 of the Contarini family ; and the bridge over the Brenta at Dolo. It 

 is as a writer that Temanza is chiefly known, more especially by his 

 ' Vite de' piti Eccellenti Architetti e Scultori Veneziani,' 4to, Yen., 

 1778 ; which is one of the most copious as well as best-written works 

 of the kind, not on account of the number of lives it contaius, it being 

 in that respect scanty, but for the unusual extent at which they are 

 given. In fact several of them, Palladio, Sansovino, &c., had pre- 

 viously been published separately. Besides this literary production 

 an important contribution to architectural biography he published 

 the ' Antichith, di Rimini,' folio, 1741 ; and left behind him another 

 work, ' Degli Archi e delle Volte, e delle Regole generali dell' Archi- 

 tettura Civile,' which was first edited in 1811. There are likewise a 

 great many letters by him on architectural topics in Ticozzi's edition 

 of Bottari's ' Raccolta di Lettere sulla Pittura,' &c. 



Temanza died at Venice, June 14, 1789, and was buried in his own 

 church of La Maddelena. There is a portrait of him in Gamba'a 

 ' Galleria d'Uomini Illustri," to which work, and to Comolli's 'Biblio- 

 grafia Storia Critica dell' Architettura Civile,' we are indebted for some 

 of the particulars here given. 



*TEMMINCK, C. J., a celebrated Dutch naturalist, who has pub- 

 lished several important works on the natural history of the vertebrate 

 animals. He was Director of the Academy of Arts and Sciences at 

 Haarlem, and of the Museum of Natural History of the Pays Bas. One 

 of his most important works is his ' Monographies de Maaimologie, 

 ou Descriptions de quelques genres de Mammiteres dont les espcces 

 ont (Ste" observe'eg dans les differens Musdes de 1'Europe.' This work, 

 which was published in parts, has contributed greatly to the clearing 

 up of the difficulties with regard to the species of animals existing in 

 the museums of Europe. 11. Temminck is perhaps better known for 

 his works on ornithology than any other department of natural 

 history. In 1807 he published a ' Catalogue systematique clu Cabinet 

 d'Ornithologie,' embracing a short description of birds hitherto not 

 known. In 1815 he published his 'Manuel d'Ornithologie,' and sub- 

 sequently an ' Atlas des Oiseaux.' In the ' Linngean Transactions,' 



