L ANDES L ANGLES. 



367 



LANDES ; a department in the south-west of 

 France. See Department. 



LANDINUS, CHRISTOPHER, an Italian scholar, 

 philosopher, and poet, horn at Florence in 1424, was 

 patronized by Pietro de' Medici, and appointed tutor 

 to his son, the afterwards celebrated Lorenzo, witli 

 whom an attachment highly honourable to both par- 

 ties took place. Landinus, in his old age, became 

 secretary to the seigniory of Florence, and died in 

 1504. He left several Latin poems, and his notes on 

 Virgil, Horace, and Dante are much esteemed. His 

 philosophical opinions appear in his Disputationes 

 Camaldulenses (1480, folio, and Strasburg, 1508). 



LANDO, MICHEL ; a wool-comber at Florence, 

 who became, during the revolution of that republic, 

 in 1378, gonfaloniers of the republic. Machiavelli, 

 in the third book of his History of Florence, de- 

 scribes him as one of the wisest and greatest men, 

 though from the lowest class. By his prudence and 

 firmness, he put an end to disorder, deposed the 

 existing magistrates, created a new nobility, and 

 divided the people into three classes. This state of 

 things, however, only lasted until 1381. (See Ma- 

 chiavelli 's History of Florence.) 



LANDRECIES, or LANDRECY ; a fortress on 

 the Sambre (navigable from this place), in the depart- 

 ment Du Nord ; Ion. 3 42' E.; lat. 50 22' N.; with 

 3800 inhabitants. Its situation renders Landrecy 

 important in any war between Germany and France. 

 Francis I. captured it, but it was recovered by 

 Charles V. In ]655, it was taken by Louis XIV., 

 and was ceded to France by the peace of the Pyre- 

 nees, in 1659. In 1712, prince Eugene besieged it; 

 but Marshal Villars delivered it. In 1794, Landrecy 

 was taken by the Austrians, after a valiant defence, 

 but recovered the same year. In 1815, the Prus- 

 sians captured it after a short bombardment. 



LANDSCAPE PAINTING. See Painting. 



LAND'S END, in Cornwall ; the western ex- 

 tremity of England. Lon. 5 45' W.; lat. 50 6' N. 



LANDSHUT ; a city in the Bavarian circle of 

 the Iser, with 8000 inhabitants on the river Iser; 

 Ion. 12 6' E.; lat. 48 30' N. The city is well 

 built ; the spire of St Martin's church is 456 feet 

 high. Landshut formerly contained the university 

 called Ludovico-Maximilianea, which was transferred 

 hither from Ingoldstadt ; but, in 1826, it was trans- 

 ferred to Munich, (q. v.) 



LANDSHUT, in Silesia, government of Leignitz, 

 at the foot of the Riesengebirge, on the Bober (3100 

 inhabitants), is important for its linen trade. 



LANDSMANNSCHAFT. See University. 



LANDSTURM. See Levee-en-Masse. 



LANDWEHR. See Militia. 



LANFRANC, a prelate of the eleventh century, 

 distinguished by his learning and abilities, as well as 

 by his opposition to Rome, was born in 1005, at 

 Pavia, and, after having been for some time a profes- 

 sor of jurisprudence at Avranches, assumed the cowl, 

 and WHS elected prior of the abbey of Bee in 1044. 

 In 1O59, he entered into a dispute with Berengarius 

 of Tours, at Rome, respecting the doctrine of tran- 

 substantiation, and maintained the controversy 

 against him, not only personally before the general 

 council held in that city, but subsequently in his 

 writings. Three years after, he exchanged his 

 priory lor the abl)ey of St Stephen, at Caen, in Nor- 

 mandy; and when William, the sovereign of that 

 duchy, acquired the English throne by conquest, the 

 interest of that prince procured his election, in 1070, 

 to the archbishopric of Canterbury, then become 

 vacant by the deposition of Stigand. In his super- 

 intendence of this diocese, he was early involved in 

 a contest with Thomas, archbishop of York, respect- 

 ing the primacy, which was decided in his favour. 



Lanfranc was an able politician, as well as a munifi- 

 cent prelate. He died in 1089. His writings were 

 printed in one volume, folio, 1647. 



LANGDON, JOHN, an eminent American patriot, 

 was born at Portsmouth, N. H., in the year 1739, 

 and was educated in his native place. At an early 

 age, he entered the counting house of a merchant, 

 and afiersvards owned and commanded a ship which 

 was employed in the London and West India trade, 

 but soon exchanged the seafaring life for the busi- 

 ness exclusively of a merchant, in which he was 

 highly successful. At the opening of the revolution, 

 he took a decided part in behalf ofthe colonies. As 

 early as 1774, when the mother country passed the 

 Boston port bill, and menaced hostilities, Mr Lang- 

 don, with John Sullivan and Thomas Pickering, 

 raised a troop, proceeded to the fort at Great Island, 

 disarmed the garrison, and conveyed the arms and 

 ammunition to a place of safety. The royal govern- 

 ment would have prosecuted him, but was deterred 

 by the resolution of the inhabitants to shield him at 

 all hazards. In 1775, lie was a delegate to the gen- 

 eral congress of the colonies. In June, 1776, he 

 resigned his seat in that body, for the place of navy- 

 agent. In 1777, he was speaker of the assembly of 

 New Hampshire, and, when means were wanted to 

 support a regiment, Langdon gave all his hard 

 money, pledged his plate, and applied to the same 

 purpose the proceeds of seventy hogsheads of to- 

 bacco. A brigade was raised with the means which 

 he furnished, and with that brigade general Stark 

 achieved his memorable victory over the Hessians. 

 In 1785, Mr Langdon was president of New Hamp- 

 shire, and, in 1787, delegate in the convention that 

 framed the federal constitution. Under this consti- 

 tution, he was one of the first senators from New 

 Hampshire. In 1805, he was elected governor of 

 his state, and again in 1810. In 1801, president 

 Jefferson solicited him in vain to accept the post of 

 secretary of the navy at Washington. He died Sept. 

 18, 1819. Governor Langdon was a conspicuous 

 and efficient public character. In the party politics 

 of the Union, he acted with Mr Jefferson and his 

 associates ; but he was honoured and trusted on all 

 sides. The influence of his name was great through- 

 out the Union. 



LANGELAND ; an island of Denmark, in the 

 south part of the Great Belt, between the islands of 

 Laaland and Funen, about thirty miles in length, 

 and from three to five in breadth; Ion. 10 50' E.; 

 lat. 55 N.; population, about 11,200; square miles, 

 103. This island is fertile in every part. It is now 

 only a county, but one of the best in the kingdom, 

 and under the same governor as Funen. Rudkiop- 

 ing is the chief town. 



LANGLANDE, ROBERT; a secular priest, and 

 fellow of Oriel college, Oxford, in the fourteenth 

 century, who is supposed to have been the author of 

 the curious poetical compositions, entitled, the 

 Visiolt of Pierce Plowman, and Pierce Plowman's 

 Crede. He is said to have been a disciple of Wick- 

 liffe; and his poems are satires on the vice and 

 luxury of the monastic orders and Romish clergy in 

 general. Editions of these works have been pub- 

 lished by doctor T. D. Whitaker. (See Warton's 

 Hist. / Eng. Poetry.) 



LANGLES, Louis MATTHEW, a celebrated Ori- 

 ental scholar, born at Peronne, in France, 1763, 

 studied Arabic and Persian under M. Silvestre de 

 Sacy, afterwards Mantchou, and published an alpha- 

 bet of that language in 1787, with a dedication to 

 the academy of inscriptions. This work was fol- 

 lowed, in 1788, by a Dictionnaire Mantchou- Franca is, 

 after which he printed various pieces translated from 

 the Arabic and Persian. In 1790, he published 



