EOS 



LAPO, ARNOLFO DI. 



LARDNER, NATHANIEL, D.D. 



E06 



have been written by a person of any religious or political sentiments 

 whatever. 



LAPO, ARNOLFO DI, the name by which a very celebrated and 

 one of the most early of the Italian architects is known. He is so 

 called by Vasari, and is said by him to have been the son of Lapo, a 

 German, whose real name was Jacob, and who was sometimes called 

 in Florence Jacopo Tedesco, but more frequently Lapo. This Lapo, 

 who executed many works in Florence, died there, according to Vasari, 

 in 1262. 



Recent researches however have shown that Arnolfo and Lapo were 

 not otherwise connected further than that they were contemporaries 

 in Florence. Arnolfo was the son of Cambio, a native of Colle, and, 

 according to Vasari, was born in 1232. Arnolfo did for building, says 

 Vasari, what Cimabue did for painting : he was the pupil of Cimabue 

 in design. He wag the greatest architect of his time in Florence, and 

 was the architect of many important works. Th walls of Florence, 

 which were erected in 1284, were planned by Arnolfo. He built the 

 hall of Or. San Michele, the old corn-market ; the loggia and piazza 

 De" Priori ; and in 1294 he laid the foundations and built the great 

 church of Santa Croce, now celebrated for its many magnificent monu- 

 ments of distinguished Florentines. But his greatest work, is the 

 church of Santa Maria del Fiore, or the Cathedral of Florence, of which 

 he laid the foundations in 1293, or, according to some accounts, in 

 1294. He raised the walls of the whole church, and covered part of 

 it in, but the vast dome is the addition of Brunelleschi ; it stands 

 however on the foundations of Arnolfo, who also, according to his 

 model, had intended to erect a dome in the centre, though lower and 

 of less dimensions than the enormous pile of Brunelleschi, which is 

 one of the largest domes in the world, and but little less than the 

 gigantic vault of St. Peter's, which is an imitation of it. The models 

 of Arnolfo and Brunelleschi are now both lost. For the erection of 

 this immense church a tax of twopence per head was levied annually 

 upon the citizens of Florence, and they were encouraged also by 

 indulgences to make donations to its building-fund. The external 

 marble facing of the walls is the work of Arnolfo. The old municipal 

 palace, the Paluzzo della Signoria, which still exists as a part of the 

 old palace of the Florentine princes in the Piazza Granduca, was also 

 built by Arnolfo ; and there are works by him in other Italian cities : 

 he executed in 1285 the marble tabernacle of the Basilica of San Paolo, 

 without the walls, at Rome; and shortly before 1290 he designed and 

 executed the monument of the Cardinal de Braye in the church of San 

 Domenico at Orvieto. Arnolfo died, according to Vasari, in 1300. 

 Arnolfo's portrait by Giotto is in the picture of the death of San 

 Francesco, in the church of Santa Croce at Florence : it is one of the 

 group of figures conversing together in the foreground. 



LAPPENBERG, JOB ANN MARTIN, keeper of the archives of 

 the senate of Hamburg, was born in that town July 30, 1794. He was 

 sent by his father to study medicine at Edinburgh, but applied him- 

 self in' preference to historical researches. After visiting the Highlands 

 and the Hebrides, he proceeded to London, where he resided some 

 time studying the nature of the constitution and administration of 

 Great Britain. On returning to Germany he continued his investiga- 

 tion of jurisprudence in the universities of Berlin and Gottingen, and in 

 1816 received the degree of Doctor of Civil Law. At the time of the 

 congress of Troppau, in 1820, he was sent by his native state as 

 residentiary minister to the court of Berlin, in which post he continued 

 till 1823, when he was appointed archivist to the Hamburg senate. 

 He devoted himself to the duties of his office, and discovered many 

 valuable historical records supposed to be lost. A journey to the 

 north of Europe also enabled him to add materially to his diplomatic 

 collections. Besides many essays and smaller papers, chiefly on histo- 

 rical subjects, scattered in German and English periodical publications, 

 he has written several works of great interest, among the more import- 

 ant of which are a continuation of Sartorius' ' Authentic History of 

 the Origin of the German Hanse Towns,' Hamburg, 1830; on the 

 'Former Extent and History of Heligoland,' Hamburg, 1831; a 

 ' History of England under the Anglo-Saxon Kings,' Hamburg, 1834-37, 

 a work of much research and of great value to all interested in our 

 early history, which has been translated by Mr. Benjamin Thorp, 

 who has made corrections and additions to it, with additional cor- 

 rections from the author, and which was published in London in 2 vols. 

 STO, 1845; an edition of Ditmar of Merseburg, in Perry's 'Monu- 

 menta Germanise historiea," in 2 vols. foL Hanover, 1839; 'Sources of 

 the History of the Archbishopric and State of Bremen,' and several 

 smaller works relating to his native town, such as the 'History of 

 Printing in Hamburg,' &c., &c. 



LAKCHE'lt, PIERRE HENRI, was born at Dijon in 1726. Larcher 

 applied himself especially to the study of the Greek classics, and made 

 himself known by several translations from them, the principal of 

 which is his translation of Herodotus, with a commentary, Paris, 

 1786, a useful book, which was republished in an improved edition, 9 

 vols. 8vo, 1805. In 1774 Larcher published a ' Memoir on the Goddess 

 Venus,' which obtained the prize of the Academy of Inscriptions, of 

 which body he afterwards became a member. He had a controversy 

 with Voltaire, in consequence of some strictures which he wrote on 

 Voltaire's ' Philosophic de 1'Histoire.' Voltaire replied in his usual 

 sarcastic vein in the ' Defense de mon Oncle,' and Laroher answered 

 him in the ' Response b. la Defense de mon Oncle,' After the revolu- 



tion, Larcher was made a member of the National Institute. He died 

 at Paris, in December 1812. 



Larcher's translation of Herodotus, which is his chief work, has the 

 merit of being generally correct, but it has no recommendations of 

 style, and as a work of art it altogether fails to represent the beautiful 

 simplicity of the original. The commentary on the text is still 

 useful, though it is far from containing all that might now be added 

 in illustration of Herodotus. Larcher also translated the ' Anabasis ' 



LARDNER, REV. DIONYSIUS, LL.D., was born April 3rd, 

 1793, in the city of Dublin, where his father was a solicitor. At the 

 age of fourteen he was placed in his father's office, but having taken a 

 dislike to the profession, in 1812 he was entered of Trinity College, 

 Dublin, where he took his degree of B.A. in 1817, having previously 

 obtained several prizes in logic, mathematics, natural philosophy, 

 astronomy, and moral philosophy. He continued to reside in the 

 University as a member till 1827, and in the meantime published a 

 ' Treatise on Algebraic Geometry,' 8vo, 1823 ; a 'Treatise on Trigono- 

 metry ;' a ' Treatise on Differential and Integral Calculus,' 8vo, 1825 ; 

 and a ' Treatise on Solid Geometry,' besides several articles on mathe- 

 matical subjects which he contributed to the ' Edinburgh Encyclopaedia" 

 and the ' Encyclopaedia Metropolitana.' He afterwards delivered a 

 course of lectures before the Royal Dublin Society, for which, in addi- 

 tion to the usual remuneration, he was presented with a gold medal. 

 These lectures he published in 1828, ' Popular Lectures on the Steam- 

 Engine,' 8vo, a work which has been improved and extended in several 

 subsequent editions. In the year 1828, when the London University, 

 now University College, was established, Mr. Lardner was appointed 

 professor of natural philosophy and astronomy, and in the same year 

 published ' A Discourse on the Advantages of Natural Philosophy,' 

 8vo, and 'An Analytical Treatise on Plane and Spherical Trigono- 

 metry,' 8vo. In 1830 he commenced the 'Cabinet Library,' 9 vols. 

 12mo, 1830-32, and in the same year projected and commenced an 

 extensive series of works by writers of the highest class, well-known 

 as Lardner's ' Cabinet Cyclopaedia,' 134 vols. 12mo, 1830-44. For this 

 series Dr. Lardner furnished 'Hydrostatics and Pneumatics," 'Mecha- 

 nics ' with Captain Kater, a ' Treatise on Heat,' ' Treatise on Arithmetic, 

 ' Treatise on Geometry,' and ' Lardner and Walker's Electricity,' 2 vols. 

 For the ' Library of Useful Knowledge ' he wrote several treatises on 

 different branches of natural philosophy. Between the years 1830 and 

 1840 he was also an occasional contributor to the 'Edinburgh Review' 

 and other periodical works. In 1840 circumstances of a private nature 

 occasioned Dr. Lardner to go to Paris, and afterwards to North 

 Americn, where he delivered lectures in most of the cities and towns 

 of the United States. The lectures were afterwards published in 

 two large volumes, which have been there frequently reprinted. 

 Dr. Lardner returned to Europe in 1845, and settled in Paris, where 

 he still continues to reside. He has since published a ' Handbook of 

 Natural Philosophy and Astronomy,' 2 vofs. 12mo, 1851-52, and ' The 

 Great Exhibition reviewed,' 12mo, 1852. In 1854 he commenced the 

 publication of ' The Museum of Science and Art,' a series of essays on 

 the physical sciences and their applications to the industrial arts. 

 This series is now complete ia 12 vols. 12mo. In 1854, 1855, and 

 1856 he published in 8vo 'Handbooks' of 'Natural Philosophy and 

 Hydrostatics," of ' Pneumatics and Heat," of ' Natural Philosophy 

 and Mechanics,' of ' Natural Philosophy, Electricity, Magnetism, and 

 Acoustics," and of ' Natural Philosophy and Optics.' 



LARDNER, NATHANIEL, D.D., was born in 1 684, and devoted 

 a long life to the prosecution of theological inquiry, to the exclusion 

 of attention to almost any other subject. The results which he com- 

 municated to the world from time to time show at once the assiduity 

 with which he laboured in this department, and the ability which he 

 possessed to conduct his learned researches to a successful issue. 



Dr. Lardner waa an English dissenting minister, belonging to the 

 denomination called Presbyterian, but which had adopted the opinions 

 known as Unitarian. In early life he was a pupil of Dr. Joshua 

 Oldfield, a minister of eminence in that denomination, but he took a 

 course which many of the Dissenters of his time took going abroad 

 to prosecute his studies. He spent more than three years at Utrecht, 

 where he studied under Graevius and Burmann, and was then some 

 time at Ley den. He returned to England in 1703, and continued 

 prosecuting his theological studies with a view to the ministry ; but 

 it was not till he was twenty-five that he began to preach. The course 

 of his after-life is soon described. He became private chaplain iu the 

 family of Lady Treby, who died in 1729; and was a lecturer at the 

 chapel in the Old Jewry. He was not acceptable as a preacher owing 

 to the want of power to modulate his voice, arising from the imper- 

 fection of his sense of hearing. He died in 1768. 



The religious sect to which he belonged have no means of placing 

 their scholars in any situations which can leave them at liberty to 

 prosecute those studies, the results of which are of the most essential 

 benefit to the great interests which they hold peculiarly dear ; so that 

 Dr. Lardner was thrown for the most part upon his own resources 

 while engaged in those profound inquiries which have gained for 



His 



his' __. 



the most distinguished persons, as constituting the most unanswerable 



