OST OSTRACION. 



367 



Italy. At the age of ten, he returned to Spain, and 

 was educated at Salamanca. His satirical wit made 

 him many enemies at the court of Philip II., and he 

 was banished from the capital on account of a dis- 

 respectful answer to the king. After the death of 

 Philip, he returned, attached himself to the duke of 

 Lerma, the favourite minister of Philip III., and 

 took the title of duke of Ossunna. The courtiers, 

 however, again found means to procure his banish- 

 ment, and he served six campaigns in Flanders. In 

 this interval he visited England and France, and 

 was received with many marks of favour by Henry 

 IV. and James I., the former of whom was delighted 

 by his wit, and the latter with his learned conversa- 

 tion in Latin. In 1607, the duke of Lerma procured 

 permission for him to return, and Ossunna exercised 

 his influence in effecting the acknowledgment of the 

 independence of the United Netherlands by the treaty 

 of 1609. His opposition to the expulsion of the 

 Moors (q. v.) from Spain, exposed him to the perse- 

 cutions of the inquisition, which, however, was 

 unable to fix any charge upon him. The vice- 

 royalty of Sicily was soon after conferred on him, 

 and he remained there till 1615. The restoration of 

 public security, the repression of the violences of the 

 nobles, the encouragement of commerce and agri- 

 culture, and the deliverance of the coasts from the 

 ravages of the Turks, prove the vigour and wisdom 

 of his administration. In 1616, he was appointed 

 viceroy of Naples. He resisted with success the 

 claims of Venice to the exclusive navigation of the 

 Adriatic. Philip, at the instigation of the papal 

 nuncio, having formed the design of introducing the 

 inquisition into Naples, Ossunna refused to obey his 

 orders to this effect, and his enemies were busy in 

 their efforts to bring him into disgrace with the 

 court. To avoid the storm which now threatened 

 him, he married his daughter to the son of Lerma. 

 His opposition to the establishment of the inquisition 

 had, however, excited the animosity of the clergy, 

 who were very powerful in Naples ; and, as he 

 foresaw that the intrigues of the court would sooner 

 or later strip him of his power, he formed the bold 

 plan of raising himself to the sovereignty of the 

 country. In prosecution of this design, he sounded 

 the dispositions of Savoy, Venice, and France, in 

 1617, and formed connexions with Holland and the 

 Porte. (See Daru's Histoire de f'enise.) A part of 

 nis plan became known ; a capuchin denounced the 

 viceroy in Madrid, and he was recalled in 1619, but 

 returned in a sort of triumph. On the accession of 

 Philip IV., however, he was arrested, and pro- 

 ceedings were commenced against him. They con- 

 tinued three years, but nothing was proved against 

 him ; and he died in the castle of Almeda, in 1624, 

 full of witty sallies to the last. See Leti's Life of 

 the Duke of Ossunna (Paris, 1700). 



OST, the German for east, appearing, of course, 

 in a number of geographical names. 



OSTADE, ADRIAN VAN, a painter of the Flemish 

 school, was born at Lubeck, in 1610, and studied 

 under Francis Hals. His pictures are characterized 

 by an exact imitation of nature, and his admirable 

 representations of subjects, which in other hands 

 would only have been disgusting. They usually 

 consist of the interiors of alehouses or kitchens, 

 with Dutch peasants smoking, quarrelling, or 

 drinking ; but he throws such expression into the 

 heads of his characters, that their vulgarity is lost 

 'n our admiration of theirtruth and animation. His 

 colouring is rich and clear, his touch spirited and 

 free, and all his works are highly finished. On the 

 approach of the French troops, in 1 662, to Haarlem, 

 Ostade sold all his pictures and effects, in order to 

 return to Lubeck ; but at Amsterdam he was pre- 



vailed upon to remain, and he practised his profession 

 with great reputation until his death, in 1685. 



Isaac van Ostade, his brother and scholar, was 

 born at Lubeck, about 1612. His earliest pictures, 

 which he painted in imitation of his brother, were 

 greatly inferior ; but he afterwards adopted a 

 style of his own, in which he was successful ; and 

 he was often solicited by contemporary landscape 

 painters to add his figures to their pieces. He died 

 young. 



OSTEND ; a fortified and well built place in the 

 Belgic province of West Flanders, with 10,500 

 inhabitants, and a harbour on the North sea, into 

 which the largest ships can enter only at flood tide ; 

 lat. 51 13' N.j Ion. 2 55' E.; sixty-six miles west 

 of Brussels. It communicates by canals with Bruges 

 and Ghent on the east, smd with Nieuport on the 

 west. Regular post-office packets convey the mail 

 twice a week from Dover to Ostend, and from 

 Ostend to Dover. Ostend is celebrated in history 

 for the siege (1601 1604) which it sustained againft 

 the whole Spanish power for three years. It finally 

 capitulated on honourable terms. See Netherlands, 

 and Belgium. 



OSTEOLITE (from the Greek] ; a petrifaction of 

 a bone. See Geology, and Organic Remains. 



OSTEOLOGY. See Anatomy, and Bones. 



OSTIA ; at the mouth of the Tiber, whence 

 Rome received her supplies of all commodities by 

 sea, celebrated in the poem of Virgil, and the 

 traditions which represent zEneas as having landed 

 there. Sixtus IV. and Julius II. surrounded it with 

 fortifications. It has also a bishop's palace, with a 

 church. During summer, on account of the malaria, 

 it has but ten inhabitants, and in winter not above 

 a hundred. The ancient Ostia, now only known by 

 its ruins, is near the modern. Formerly, when it 

 had 30,000 inhabitants, it formed a semicircle round 

 the river, which makes a bend there. Ostia was 

 never a seaport, but an unfortified anchorage 

 ground, in which, from the time of Ancus Martins 

 to the latest period of the republic, the Roman fleet 

 lay moored. This made it possible for pirates to 

 pillage the fleet in the midst of Ostia, which Cicero, 

 in his speech for the Manilian law, so bitterly con- 

 demns. At a later period, this anchorage became 

 so obstructed, that, even in the time of Strabo, only 

 light vessels could go up the stream. Just before 

 Ostia the Tiber divides into two branches ; the right 

 branch, on account of its straighter direction, appears 

 to fill up less. Claudius and Trajan therefore built 

 a port on the right arm of the Tiber, to supply the 

 city more safely : this is now called Porto, and its 

 prosperity caused the decline of the once important 

 Ostia. As early as A. D. 420, Rutilius Numanti- 

 anus describes Ostia as inaccessible, and Procopius 

 (De Bello Goth. 1st vol., p. 26) speaks of it as in 

 his time (the middle of the sixth century) entirely 

 destroyed. With its decay it is probable the malaria 

 increased ; and the neighbouring salt-works, founded 

 by Ancus Martius, and now scarcely discoverable, 

 aqueducts, as also an adjoining marsh, were also 

 pernicious. The invasion of the Saracens, who dis- 

 turbed the peace of the few remaining inhabitants, 

 caused the fortifying of the present Ostia. A cele- 

 brated picture, by Raphael, commemorates the naval 

 battle between the Neapolitans and the Saracens. 



OSTRACION is the name adopted by Linnaeus 

 for a genus of fish, which appear as if they were 

 invested in a coat of mail; for, instead of scales, 

 they have regular bony compartments, forming a kind 

 of cuirass that covers the body and head, so that all 

 the movable parts are the tail, the fins, the mouth, 

 and a small projection at the gills. The greatest 

 number of their vertebra; are likewise inflexible. 



