70 



MOSAICS MOSCATI. 



Valencia; Ion. 22" W.; lat. 39 38' N.; population 

 fi^TS. It is supposed to be the ancient Saguntum 

 distroyed by Hannibal, and which tell .a victim to its 

 fidelity to the Romans. It was afterwards rebuilt by 

 tlit' Romans \vith great splendour. The city of Morvi- 

 edro is full of the remains of antiquity; the walls of 

 the houses, the city gates, and doors of the churches 

 and inns, are covered witli Roman inscriptions. The 

 most curious monuments are the-castleand the theatre. 

 The name is supposed to be derived from an allusion 

 to tin's circumstance muri veferes (ancient walls). 



MOSAICS are imitations of paintings by means of 

 coloured stones, pieces of glass, of marble, and even 

 of wood of different colours, cemented together with 

 much art. The name is sometimes supposed to be 

 derived from Moses, as the pretended inventor ; some- 

 times from Alusa, in the sense of elegance, beauty; 

 and sometimes from (tevrun, museum (a grotto con- 

 secrated to the muses), perhaps from the circumstance 

 that mosaic work was first used in grottoes. The 

 Italian musaico, as well as the French mosaigue, ori- 

 ginated from the word musaicon of the Byzantine 

 Greeks, who first introduced the art into Italy. We 

 know nothing with precision of the invention and 

 history of this art in antiquity. Probably it origi- 

 nated in the East, but received its perfection from 

 the Greeks, and was thus conveyed to the Romans 

 in Sylla's time. In Italy, and in most of the coun- 

 tries occupied by the Romans, many floors ornament- 

 ed with mosaic work have been found amongst the 

 ruins. When, in the fifth century, the arts and 

 sciences were driven from Italy by the distracted 

 state of the country, this art was preserved by the 

 Byzantine Greeks, and was restored to Italy in the 

 thirteenth century, where it attained the highest 

 perfection, particularly when Clement VIII., at the 

 commencement of the seventeenth century, had the 

 whole of the interior of the dome of St Peter's orna- 

 mented with this work. Giambattista Calandra 

 improved mosaic by the invention of a new cement. 

 He and many succeeding artists employed the art for 

 copying original paintings of famous artists, and thus 

 eternizing them in their original freshness and beauty; 

 for one of the greatest advantages of this kind of 

 painting is its wonderful power of preservation. In 

 this manner Guercino's Martyrdom of St Petronilla, 

 and Dominichino's Communion of the dying St Jer- 

 ome, were preserved. Peter Paul, of Christophoris, 

 founded, at the commencement of the eighteenth 

 century, a school for mosaic in Rome, and many of 

 his scholars carried the art to a still higher degree of 

 excellence. In recent times two kinds of mosaic are 

 particularly famous, the Roman and the Florentine. 

 In the former the paintings are formed by joining 

 very small pieces of stone, which gives greater var- 

 iety and elegance, and facilitates the representation 

 of large historical paintings. The Florentine style, 

 which makes use of larger pieces of stone, is far more 

 troublesome, and is adapted only for small paintings. 

 Mosaic in wood the Italians call tansia or tarsia; 

 the French marqueterie. (See Marquetry) In the 

 most costly mosaics, precious stones have been cut to 

 furnish materials ; but in common works of this art 

 enamels of different colours, manufactured for the pur- 

 pose, are the material employed. The enamel is first 

 formed into sticks, from the ends of which pieces of 

 the requisite size are cut or broken off. These are 

 confined in their proper places upon a plate of metal 

 or stone, by a cement made of quicklime, pulverized 

 limestone, and linseed oil. The cement is spread 

 over the plate, and a drawing made on it to guide 

 the artist before lip commences his work. He has 

 also constantly before him the painting to be copied. 

 After the whole has adhered, it is allowed to dry 

 two months, and is then polished with a flat stone 



and emery. Inlaid works, of agate and other costly 

 stones, are executed on the same principle as mosaic, 

 except that the stones sire larger, and cut to the 

 shape of different parts of the object to be represented, 

 whereas in mosaic the pieces are of tlie same size and 

 shape. The opus rcticidatum of the ancients, with 

 which columns and walls were sometimes incrusted, is 

 found to consist of small stones, of a pyramidal form, 

 the apex of which is imbedded in mortar, while tht 

 base, which is polished, forms the outer surface. A 

 mode has recently been invented of sawing the plate 

 with the mosaic paintings into two or three sheets, and 

 thus multiplying the paintings. Should smoke or 

 dirt soil the surface, it has only to be polished to be 

 restored to its original beauty. In 1819, Fernbach, 

 a native of Baden, invented a new kind of mosaic 

 painting, imitating with surprising fidelity the colour, 

 the juncture, the lustre, &c., of mineral bodies. 

 Professor Blank's mosaics of moss have also attract- 

 ed much attention. See J. B. Blank's description 

 of his Mosaic Paintings (WurUburg, 1820). 



MOZAMBIQUE, or MOSAMBICO ; a kingdom 

 of A frica, on the east coast, and in that part of the 

 Indian sea which passes between the continent and 

 the island of Madagascar. It takes its name from 

 the capital, situated on an island, the chief of three 

 islands which form a part of the kingdom. The city 

 of Mosambico is said to have once been very hand- 

 some; the houses well built, especially the churches 

 and convents, and the fort, or castle, which is about 

 a musket-shot from the town ; but it is now mu-jh 

 reduced. Mr Salt stated the population in 1809, at 

 500 Portuguese, 800 persons of Arabian extraction, 

 and 1500 negroes. The trade is in gold, ivory, and 

 slaves. The fort is one of the strongest and best 

 contrived which the Portuguese have on this coast. 

 The kings of Portugal spared no cost to fortify and 

 garrison Mosambico, and to provide it with an hos- 

 pital for the sick, and a well-stored magazine, with 

 all necessaries for shipping, though the charge of 

 keeping them up often exceeds the revenues it 

 affords. Lon. 41 38' E.; lat. 15 5' S. The island 

 of Mosambico, though the largest of the three islands, 

 is nevertheless very small, not being above two bow- 

 shots in breadth, and about six in length; about two 

 miles from the continent. The bay is about three 

 miles in circuit, so that the points of land on each 

 side advance into the sea. The other two, St George 

 and St James, lie on each side of it, facing the conti- 

 nent in a direct line with it. Over against that of 

 St George, and about a mile from it, is the cape 

 called by the Portuguese Cabo Cetra, which is a pen- 

 insula, joined tp the continent by a small neck of 

 land, covered with the sea at high, but fordable at 

 low water. 



MOSAMBIQUE, STRAITS OF ; that part of the 

 Indian ocean which divides the island of Madagascar 

 from the continent of Africa. 



MOSCATI, PIETRO, a celebrated physician and 

 statesman, son of one of the most celebrated sur- 

 geons in Italy, was born in 1736, at Milan. As his 

 talents were obvious at an early period, his father 

 cultivated them with the utmost care, and at length 

 sent him to Tuscany, and afterwards to Turin, to 

 study under the direction of Bertrandi and Beccaria, 

 Moscati, after having taken his doctor's degree at 

 Pavia, was appointed assistant physician to the hos- 

 pital at Florence, where, and at Bologna, he dili- 

 fently laboured in the acquisition of professional 

 nowledge. In 1764, he was elected professor of 

 anatomy and surgery in the university of Pavia, and 

 published his anatomical lessons, and a Discourse on 

 the physical Differences which exist between Man 

 and Animals. Both of these works were well re- 

 ceived, and the latter was translated into German. 



