ROSETTA 



ROSICRUCIANS 



Rosetta. Town 

 in Egypt, on the 

 Bolbitinic arm of 

 the Nile Delta. 

 Once an important 

 harbour, it is now, 

 owing to the rise 

 of Alexandria as a 

 seaport, unimport- 

 ant. ;Pop. 16,800. 



Rosetta Stone 

 Inscribed black 

 basalt slab from 

 Rosetta, lower 

 Egypt. It was 

 discovered by 

 one of Napoleon's 

 officers in 1799, 

 and, acquired by 

 Great Britain at 

 the capitulation 

 of Alexandria, 

 1801, it reached 

 the British Mu- 

 seum in 1802. 

 Bearing an in- 

 scription in three 

 versions, hiero- 

 glyphic, demotic, 

 and Greek, the 

 Greek was trans- 



Rosetta Stone. Inscribed slab of black basalt, tbat fur- 

 nished the key to hieroglyphic writing 



lated by Weston, and the demotic 

 partly deciphered by Akerblad, 

 1802. Thomas Young identified 

 the hieroglyphic name Ptolemy, 

 1818; Champoliion, by completing 

 the decipherment, through modern 

 Coptic, furnished the long-sought 

 key to hieroglyphic writing. Hiero- 

 glyphs missing from the fractured 

 top were recovered from a Daman- 

 hur slab found in 1898, now at 

 Cairo. The text records the priestly 

 decree of Memphis, 196 B.C., in 

 honour of Ptolemy V Epiphanes. 

 See Hieroglyphs. 



Rosetti, CONSTANT (1816-85). 

 Rumanian poet and statesman. A 

 native of Bukarest, he married in 



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Rose Window. Stained glass window, nearly 41 It. in 



diameter, formerly in the facade of Reimx Cathedral. 



It was destroyed during the Great War 



1845 Marie Grant, an English- 

 woman, born in Guernsey. He 

 published in 1840 a volume of 

 translations from Byron, Voltaire, 

 and Lamartine. During a ten years' 

 exile in Paris, after the revolution 

 of 1848, he devoted himself mainly 

 to propaganda for the Rumanian 

 revolution. In 1861 he returned to 

 Bukarest, and became president of 

 the Chamber in 1876. He died April 

 20, 1885. 



Rosewater. Water tinctured 

 with the essence of roses obtained 

 by distillation. A rosewater dish is 

 a bowl designed to hold rose- 

 water which can be sprinkled over 

 the hands. They are frequently 

 used in the East 

 after eating, and 

 occasionally in 

 Western countries 

 replace the custo- 

 mary h'nger-bowl. 

 Several examples 

 belong to the Cloth- 

 workers' Company, 

 including one pre- 

 sented by Samuel 

 Pepys (q.v.). 



Rose Window. 

 In architecture, a 

 circular window 

 divided into a 

 number of com- 

 partments by trac- 

 ery. Large win- 

 dows of this type 

 are a feature of 

 the fronts of the 

 great cathedrals ; 

 they are gener- 

 ally filled with 



stained glass. When the tracery 

 radiates in a more or less definite 

 pattern from the centre, the 

 window is often called a Catherine 

 wheel window. See Architecture; 

 Cathedral , York. 



Rosewood. Commercial term 

 applied to the dark coloured timber 

 of many distinct species of trees. 

 The American product is from 

 Dalbergia nigra, and species of 

 Machaerium. Burmese rosewood is 

 Pterocarpus indicus ; Canary rose- 

 wood is the striped wood of a shrub 

 (Convolvulus scoparius) ; Dominica 

 rosewood is Cordia gerascanthus ; 

 Indian rosewood, Dalbergia lati- 

 jolia and D. slssoides ; Jamaica 

 rosewood, Amyris loxijera ; Moul- 

 mein rosewood, Milletia speciosa ; 

 New South Wales rosewood, Trich- 

 ilia glandulona and Disoxylon 

 jraserianum ; Queensland rose- 

 wood. Acacia glaucescens. It is much 

 used in the making of furniture. 



Rosherville Gardens. Once 

 popular London pleasure resort. 

 Formed in a chalk quarry, between 

 Northfleet and Gravesend, on the 

 S. bank of the Thames, and opened 

 in 1837, the attractions included 

 a theatre, dancing platform, a look- 

 out tower with windows of coloured 



Rosewater dish and ewer, presented 



to the Clothworkers' Company by 



Samuel Pepys, Master, 1677-78 



glass, and restaurant. Advertising 

 made the gardens familiar as " the 

 place to spend a happy day," but 

 their popularity waned when the 

 steamboats ceased to run. The 

 gardens were named after Jeremiah 

 Rosher, by whom they were es- 

 tablished ; and were sold to an oil 

 company, 1920. 



Rosicrucians (Lat. ros, dew ; or 

 rosa, rose ; crux, cross). Name 

 given to a secret brotherhood, of 

 which much has been written, but 

 little is known. It did not attract 

 wide attention in Europe until the 

 early part of the 17th century, when 

 it arose in Germany, and spread 

 thence to France, and, through the 

 agency in particular of Robert 



