LONQHI, GIUSEPPE. 



LONGOMONTANUa 



Harvard Univenity ; and it is during tbi* period that be ha pub 

 li.-h<d the serin of worki by which he i best known. In 1839 he 

 publithed his proce-romance of 'Hyperion;' in 1840 his ' Voices 01 

 the Night,' a collection of poema; in 1841 his ' Ballads and other 

 Poems, including tnuulationa from the German and Swedish ; in 

 1842 (in which year he again visited Europe) a drama culled 'The 

 Spanish Student;' in 1843 his 'Poems on Slavery;' in 1845 his 

 ' Belfry of Bruges,' and also an extensive work entitled ' The Poets 

 and Poetry of Europe,' consisting of translations from various 

 languages, with introductions and biographical notices; in 1847 his 

 poem of ' Evongeline,' a story of early American colonial life, written 

 in EnglUh Hexameters; in 1848 bis ' Kavanagb,' a kind of poetico- 

 philosophicftl tale ; in 1849 a political series entitled 'The Sea-Side 

 and the Fireside;' in 1851 the 'Golden Legend,' a mystical and 

 dramatic version of a medueval German story; and lastly, in 1855, 

 his ' Song of Hiawatha,' a kind of American Indian mythical epic, 

 written in a very peculiar metre. 



Prom the nature of some of the subjects in this long series, it will 

 be seen that Mr. Longfellow, while true in the main to the cosmo- 

 politan theory of poetry and literature with which ho set out in his 

 career, has yet exhibited his genius again and again in national American 

 topics. No poem indeed is so thoroughly American in its scope and 

 associations as the ' Song of Hiawatha." Of all American poets Mr. 

 Longfellow is the most popular on this side of the Atlantic. Almost 

 all his works have been reprinted separately, some of them in various 

 forms by various publishers; and there are at present (1856) several 

 editions of his collective works in the market, one or two of which 

 are illustrated. Though the influence of Goethe, Jean Paul, and 

 other Gennacs is to be traced both in the matter and in the method 

 of some of hi* writings, there can be no doubt that he is a man of fine 

 original faculty, a highly-cut tivate 1 scholar, and a genuine literary artist. 

 LONGHI, GIUSEPPE, an Italian painter, and one of the most 

 distinguished engravers of the 19th century, was born at Monza in 

 1766. His father was a silk-mercer, and intended bis son for the 

 Church; but, through his own determination, Giuseppe was finally 

 placed with the Florentine Vincenzo Vangelisti, professor in the 

 1'rera at Milan, under whom he learnt engraving. He studied after- 

 wards some time in Home, where he became acquainted with Raphael 

 Morghen, a very celebrated engraver; and Longbi soon obtained a 

 reputation himself by his print from the ' Genius of Music,' a picture 

 by Guido in the Chigi Palace. 



After his return to Milan he was chiefly employed in miniature 

 painting, until he was ordered by Napoleon I. to make an engraving 

 of Qros's portrait of him ; and he was appointed about the same time 

 (1798) to succeed Vaogelisti, deceased, as professor of engraving in 

 the Academy of the Brera, to which, during Longhi'a professorship, 

 many distinguished engravers of the present time in Italy owe their 

 education. It was one of Longhi's first principles to make the means 

 subservient to the end, and not the end to the means; he always 

 deprecated cleverness of line as a principal object, and in liis own 

 works manual dexterity is invariably subordinate to conformity of 

 style. His first object was to give, as nearly as possible, the general 

 character, colour, and texture of the original, and the etching-needle 

 was accordingly his chief instrument. He excelled in light and shade. 

 Among his principal works are the ' Vision of Ezekiel,' after Raf- 

 faelle ; the ' Sposalizio, or the Marriage of the Virgin,' and a ' Holy 

 Family," after the same; the 'Entombment,' after D. Crespi ; the 

 ' Magdalen,' after Correggio ; the ' Madonna del Lago,' after Da Vinci ; 

 ' Galatea,,' after Albani ; and many heads, after Rembrandt. The 

 ' Sposalizio ' was engraved as a companion-piece, or pendant, to 

 Morgheu's large print of the 'Transfiguration,' by Raflaelle. He 

 commenced in 1827 to engrave the 'Last Judgment,' by Michel 

 Angelo, from a drawing by the Roman painter Minardi, but he died 

 before it was quite finished. Longhi died of apoplexy in 1831. He 

 was a Knight of the Iron Crown, and member of many academies. 



resides a few poems and other essays, there is a treatise on engraving 

 by Longhi ('La Calcographia '), which has been translated into German 

 by C. liarth, and contains a life of the author by F. Longhena. A 

 life of him also, with a list of his works, was published at Milan in 

 1831; and there are notices of him in the ' Kunstblatt," and in 

 Nagler's ' Neues Allgemcines Kiinstler- Lexicon.' 



LONGI'NUS, the author of a treatise in Greek 'On the Sublime,' 

 is said to have been born either in Syria or at Athens, but at what 

 time is uncertain. His education was carefully superintended by his 

 uncle Pronto, a celebrated teacher of rhetoric ; and he also received 

 instruction from the moot eminent teachers of philosophy and rhetoric 

 of his age, especially from Ammonias and Origen. Ho afterwards 

 settled at Athens, where ho taught philosophy, rhetoric, and criticism 

 to a numerous school, and numbered among his disciples the celebrated 

 Porphyry. His school soon became the most distinguished in the 

 Roman empire. After remaining at Athens for a considerable time, 

 he removed to Palmyra at the invitation of Zenobia, in order to super- 

 intend the education of her sons. He did not however confine his 

 attention to this duty, but also took an active port in public affairs, 

 and is laid to have been one of Zenobia's principal advisers in the war 

 against Aurolian, which proved so unfortunate to himself and his royal 

 mistress. After the capture of Palmyra by Aurelion A.D. 273, Loi'giuus 

 was put to death by order of the emperor. 



Longinus wrote many works on philosophical and critical subjects, 

 now known only by their titles, none of which have oome down to us, 

 with the exception of his treatise ' On the Sublime,' and a few frag- 

 ments preserved by other writers. There is however some doubt 

 whether the treatise 'On the Sublime' (rep! ttyous) was in reality 

 written by this Longinus. Modern editors have given the name of the 

 author of this treatise as ' Dionysius Longinus;' but in the best manu- 

 scripts it is said to be written by Dionysius, or Longinus, and in the 

 Florence manuscript by an anonymous author. Suidas says that the 

 name of the counsellor of Zenobia was Longinus Cassius. Some critics 

 have conjectured that this treatise was written by Dionysius of Hali- 

 carnassus, or by Dionysius of Pergamum, who is mentioned by Strabo 

 (625, Casaub.) as a distinguished teacher of rhetoric ; but the difference 

 of style between this work and the acknowledged works of Dionysius 

 of Halicarnasaus renders this conjecture very improbable, aud as to 

 the other Dionysius, the conjecture has no foundation. The treatise 

 ' On the Sublime ' has for its object the exposition of the nature of the 

 sublime, both as to the expression and the thought, which the author 

 illustrates by examples. As a specimen of critical judgment the work 

 has always maintained a high rank, and iu point of style is perspicuous 

 and precise. 



The best editions of Longinus are by Peorce (1724), Morus (1769), 

 Toup (1778), with improvements by Kuhnken (Oxford, 1806), Weiske 

 (1809), and Eggerix (1837) ; the best translations are the German by 

 Schlosser, the French by Boileau, and the English by W. Smith. 



LONGLAND, or LANGELANDE, ROBERT, the reputed author 

 of the ' Visions of Piers Plowman.' He was a secular priest, born 

 at Mortimer's Cleobury in Shropshire, and afterwards Fellow of 

 Oriel College in Oxford. He lived in the reigns of Edward III. and 

 Richard II. ; and, as Bale assures us, was one of the earliest disciples 

 of Wycliffe. Longland, according to the same author, completed the 

 ' Visions ' in 1369, when John Chichester was mayor of London. The 

 poem here named consists of ' XX. Pasaus' (pauses or breaks), exhibit- 

 ing a series of dreams supposed to have happened to the author on 

 the Malvern Hills in Worcestershire. It abounds in strong allegorical 

 painting, and censures with great humour aud fancy most of the vices 

 incident to the several professions of life, and particularly inveighs 

 against the corruptions of the clergy and the absurdities of super- 

 stition ; the whole written, not iu rhyme, but in an uncouth allitera- 

 tive versification. Of the ' Visions of Piers Plowman ' there are two 

 distinct versions, or rather two sets of manuscripts, each distinguished 

 from tho other by peculiar readings. Of one, no fewer than three 

 editions were printed in 1550, by Robert Crowley ; and one iu 1561, 

 by Owen Rogers, to which is sometimes subjoined a separate poem, 

 entitled ' Pierce the Plowman's Crede,' a production of a later date 

 than the ' Visions,' inasmuch as Wycliffe, who died iu 13S4, is men- 

 tioned (with honour) in it as no longer living. Of the other version 

 of the ' Visions,' the first edition was that published by Dr. Thomas 

 Dunham, Whitaker, 4to, London, 1813, who, in the following year, 

 republished the ' Crede,' from the first edition of that poem priutcd 

 by Reynold Wolfe, in 1553. The best edition of the ' Visions of Piers 

 Plowman ' is one admirably edited by Mr. T. Wright, and published 

 in a very convenient form, and at a remarkably moderate price, by 

 Mr. Russell Smith. 



(Bale, Script. Illustr., 4to, Baa., 1559, cent. VL p. 474 : Percy, 

 Reliqwa, edit. 1794, ii. 272; Ellis, Specim. of Kngl. Poet, i. 147; Whit- 

 aker and Wright's editions of P. Ploughman, Introd.) 



LONGOMONTA'NUS. CHRISTIAN SEVEHIN, better known as Chris- 

 tian Longomontanus, from the latinised form of his native village, 

 Langsberg, iu Denmark, was born in 1562. His early education was 

 probably wholly due to his own exertions, as the circumstances of 

 tiis father, who was a poor ploughman, would scarcely have enabled 

 aim to incur much expense on that account ; but upon the death of 

 this parent, which took place when he was only eigut years old, he 

 was sent for a short time to a good school by his maternal uncle. 

 This improvement in young Severin's conditiou excited so much 

 jealousy among his brethren, who thought themselves unfairly dealt 

 ,vith, that he determined, in 1577, upon removing to Wyborg, where 

 le lived eleven years, " working by night to earn a subsistence, and 

 attending the lectures of tho professors during the day." After this 

 le went to Copenhagen and there became known to Tycho Bruin', 

 who employed him in reducing his observations and making other 

 astronomical calculations up to the time of his quitting the island of 

 tloone in 1597, when he tent him to Wandenbourg, and thence to his 

 residence at Benach, near Prague. His stay here was not of long 

 duration, iu consequence, it is said, of hia attachment to his native 

 country, though it is perhaps attributable to the death of his patron, 

 which happened in 1601. [BiiAiife, Ttciio.] He returned by a cir- 

 cuitous route, in order to visit the place which had been honoured by 

 the presence of Copernicus, aud reached Wyborg about tho year 1603, 

 where he was appointed superintendent (recteur) of the gymnasium, 

 and two years after was promoted to the professorship of mathematics 

 11 the university of Copenhagen, the duties of which he contiuued to 

 discharge till within two yean of his death, lie died at Copenhagen, 

 8th October It! 1 7. 



Tiie following list of his published works is taken from the 18th 

 volume of the ' Mdinoires des Hommcs Illustrcs,' Paris, 1732 ; ' Theses 

 summaia doctilma Ethicw complectentes,' 1610 ; ' Disputatio Ethica 



