RUBEZAHL RUDDIMAN. 



31 



general, and an almost total absence of sublime or 

 poetical conception of character. The works of 

 Rubens are found in churches, palaces, and galleries 

 throughout Europe; for every branch of the art 

 was cultivated by him, history, landscape, por- 

 trait, and even common life. His celebrated Rape 

 of the Sabines is in the national gallery of Great 

 Britain. The number of engravings from the de- 

 signs of Rubens exceed three hundred. This great 

 painter, who was no mean scholar, wrote some trea- 

 tises on his art in very good Latin. See Sir J. lley- 

 nolds's Works ; Walpole's Anec. ; Fuseli's Lectures. 



RUBEZAHL. See Rucbezahl. 



RUBICON; a river of Italy, anciently forming 

 the boundafy between Gaul and Italy. Caesar, by 

 passing this river with his troops, and thus leaving 

 the province assigned him, made war on the re- 

 public. See Caesar. 



RUBRIC; in the canon law, signifies a title or 

 article in certain ancient law books; thus called 

 because written, as the titles of the chapters of our 

 ancient Bibles are, in red letters. 



Rubrics also denote the rules and directions 

 given at the beginning and in the course of the 

 liturgy, for the order and manner in which the 

 several parts of the office are \o be performed. 

 There are general rubrics, special rubrics, a rubric 

 for the communion, &c. In the Romish missal and 

 breviary are rubrics for matins, for lauds, for trans- 

 lations, for beatifications, &c. 



RUBY, ORIENTAL. See Corundum. 



RUDDER. See Helm. 



RUDDIMAN, THOMAS, a celebrated philologist 

 and Latin grammarian, was the son of a respectable 

 farmer, and born in the parish of Boyndie, county 

 of Banff, in 1674. After passing through the usual 

 course of education at the parish school, he set out, 

 in his sixteenth year, for Aberdeen, where he was 

 a successful competitor for a vacant bursary at 

 King's college. When only twenty-one, he was 

 appointed parish schoolmaster at Laurencekirk ; 

 and in that situation became acquainted with the 

 celebrated Dr Pitcairne, by whom he was invited to 

 Edinburgh. He repaired to the metropolis in the 

 beginning of the year 1700, and on his arrival, Dr 

 Pitcairne procured him employment in the Advo- 

 cates's library as a sort of assistant librarian, though 

 for upwards of a year he had no regular or formal 

 engagement in that capacity. During this interval 

 he employed himself in arranging books, copying 

 papers, and making extracts from interesting works. 

 In 1701, he married the daughter of a gentleman of 

 small estate in Orkney, and in the year following, 

 he was formally admitted, on the 2nd of May, 

 i nt librarian, with the salary of only 8, 6s. 8d. 

 sterling -per annum. He now set himself to the 

 task of improving his circumstances by literary 

 industry and diligence, and the situation he was in 

 eminently favoured such a design. He copied 

 chronicles and chartularies for the Glasgow uni- 

 versity, which gave him constant and regular em- 

 ployment in this way. He formed connexions with 

 bookseller.-;, and revised, corrected, and added to 

 the works which they were publishing, particularly 

 those of a learned character. The first work to 

 which he is known to have lent his assistance was 

 Sir Robert Sibbald's " Introductio ad Historian! 

 rerum a Romanis gestarum in ea Boreali Britannia; 

 parte quae ultra Murum Picticum est." He was 

 next employed to revise " The Practiques of the 

 Laws of Scotland," by Sir Robert Spottiswood. 

 lii 1707, he published an edition of Wilson's 



" Animi Tranqnillitate Dialogus.' ; To this work 

 he added a new preface, and subjoined a sketch of 

 the b'fe of Wilson. In 1709, he published a new 

 edition, with notes, of "Johnstoni Cantici Solo- 

 monis Paraphrasis Poetica," which he dedicated, 

 in a copy of verses, to his patron Dr Pitcairne. He 

 afterwards edited an edition of Virgil's ./Encid, as 

 translated into Scottish verse by the celebrated 

 Gawin Douglas. To this work, besides super- 

 intending and correcting the press, he contributed 

 a Glossary, explaining difficult and obsolete words ; 

 a performance which bespeaks great depth of re- 

 search and soundness of judgment. In 1711, he 

 assisted in preparing a new edition of the works 

 of Drummond of Hawthornden, and immediately 

 after lent his aid to Abercromby, to publish his 

 " Martial Achievements of the Scots Nation." 

 He next devoted himself to philological pursuits; 

 and in 1713, published a new edition of the Latin 

 Vocabulary of John Forrest, with improvements. 

 In the year following, he published that work 

 which filled up the measure of his fame. This 

 was his "Rudiments of the Latin Tongue;" a 

 work which he lived to see go through no less than 

 fifteen editions. It is almost unnecessary to add, 

 that it immediately supplanted all those of a similar 

 kind which had been previously in use, every one 

 of which were singularly defective; and that it has 

 remained in extensive use throughout the grammar 

 schools of Scotland ever since. Shortly after this, 

 he was employed to edit " Buchanani Opera 

 Omnia," now collected for the first time. To this 

 work, which was published in 1715, in two vols. 

 folio, he contributed large annotations, in which 

 he treated freely both the character and political 

 principles of the author ; a proceeding which raised 

 him a host of enemies, and involved him in a liti- 

 gated and annoying controversy. In 1715, he 

 added to his other avocations that of printer, ad- 

 mitting a younger brother of his own, who had 

 been bred to the business, as a partner of the con- 

 cern. The first production of his press, was the 

 second volume of Abercromby's Martial Achieve- 

 ments. Amongst the learned works of note, which 

 he printed subsequently, were, the first volume of 

 " Epistolae Regum Scotorum," 1722, for which he 

 wrote a preface ; " Ovidii Excerpta ex Metamor- 

 phoseon Libris," \ containing English Notes, by 

 Willymot and himself, 1723; Herodian, 1724; 

 Pars Prima of his own Grammaticae Latinae Insti- 

 tutiones, 1725, which brought him a great accession 

 of fame and profit; and Pars Secunda of the same 

 work. He also printed, in 1733, " A Dissertation 

 upon the Way of Teaching the Latin Tongue." 

 In 1728, he was nominated, conjunctly with James 

 Davidson, printer to the college university. Pre- 

 viously to this viz., in 1724, he began to print the 

 continuation of the Caledonian Mercury for Rol- 

 land, who was then its proprietor; but in 1729, he 

 acquired the whole interest in that paper, which 

 was transferred to him in March of the year just 

 named, and continued in his family till 1772, wlit-n 

 it was sold by the trustees of his grandchildren. 

 Amongst the last of his literary labours was an 

 elaborate preface, or rather introduction, to Ander- 

 son's " Selectus Diplomatum et Numismatum Sco- 

 tiaj Thesaurus;" an able and learned disquisition on 

 various subjects of antiquity. Being now in the 

 sixty-fifth year of his age, he ceased, after the com- 

 pletion of the work just spoken of, from every kind 

 of literary employment; and, nearly at the same 

 period, resigned his half of the printing concern to 



