ZOEGA ZONE. 



179 





in his Mecanique Cehste ; and Regnier is of opinion 

 that it is owing merely to the refraction of the solar 

 light by the earth's atmosphere. 



ZOEGA, GEORGE, a Dane, one of the greatest 

 antiquarians of our time, was born December 20, 

 1755, at Dahler, a village in Jutland, where his 

 father was a clergyman. In 1772, he entered the 

 gymnasium of Altona, and, in 1773, the university 

 of Gb'ttingen. In 1776, he travelled through Swit- 

 zerland and Italy, and lived during the winter in 

 Leipsic. In 1777, he returned to his parents, and 

 remained until 1778 in Copenhagen. He now be- 

 came a tutor, and went, in J779, with his pupil, to 

 Gottingen, and again to Italy. In 1782, he made 

 a third journey to Italy. On his return, having 

 heard in Paris of the change of ministry in Copen- 

 hagen, he resolved to go back to Rome, and reside 

 there the rest of his life. In 1787, he became a 

 Catholic, in order to be able to marry the daughter 

 of the painter Pietruccioli. Zoega undoubtedly 

 received his first impulse to a profound investiga- 

 tion of antiquity from Winckelmann. He lived 

 entirely with the ancients ; and no modern charac- 

 ters or events exerted such an influence over him. 

 In early youth, he had an inclination to melancholy, 

 and his temper was irritable ; but he overcame these 

 propensities, and the serene tranquillity of the 

 Greek character took possession of his soul. He 

 was kind, and had a noble heart. He observed 

 strictly the external forms of religion. When he 

 arrived in Rome, professor Adler presented him to 

 cardinal Stefano Borgia, whose favour and patron- 

 age he soon obtained. This cardinal had a great 

 fondness for Egyptian antiquities, of which he pos- 

 sessed a rich collection. Zoega, who was acquainted 

 with the Coptic language, soon began to explain 

 these ancient monuments. In 1787, he published 

 an account of a complete collection of Egyptian 

 coins, with full illustrations. The general appro- 

 bation bestowed on this work, which furnished im- 

 portant contributions to history and chronology, 

 excited the attention of Pope Pius VI., and he em- 

 ployed Zoega in the explanation of the obelisks. 

 In 1797, he published, at the expense of the pope, 

 his great work on the obelisks De Origins et Usu 

 Obeliscorum (Rome. 1797) which procured him 

 great reputation. The Museo Borgiano Veliterno 

 was rich in Coptic manuscripts. Zoega undertook 

 the difficult task of explaining them, and, in 1810, 

 the fruits of this immense labour were given to the 

 public. Zoega wrote, in the German language, an 

 Archaeological Guide through Rome ; and himself 

 accompanied the most distinguished travellers 

 through the city. A treasure of rare knowledge is 

 contained in his Li Bassirilieve antichi di Roma, in- \ 

 cm da Tom. Piroli colle Illustrazioni di Giorgio 

 Zoega, in two folio volumes (Rome, 1808). He 

 often regretted, at a later period, that he had not 

 devoted to Grecian antiquities the time which he 

 had*given to the Egyptian. The Danish govern- 

 ment appointed him its consul-general for the States 

 of the Church ; and, a few days after his death, a 

 diploma of the Danebrog order, intended for him, 

 arrived in Rome. He was professor of the univer- 

 sity of Kiel, and member of the academies of Copen- 

 hagen, Gottingen, Berlin, Siena, Florence, Rome, 

 &c. He died February 10, 1809. He had eleven 

 children ; but three only survived him, who are 

 supported by the Danish government. Mr Niebuhr, 

 the historian, offered a prize, some years before his 

 death, for the best essay on Zoega and his produc- 

 tions. 



ZOILUS; the name of a Thracian rhetorician, 

 whose hypercriticisms on the works of Homer have 

 given him a very unenviable kind of distinction with 

 posterity. He was a native of the town of Amphi- 

 polis, said to have been born about 270 years before 

 the Christian era, and studied under Polycrates, 

 himself an abusive and illiberal critic. The appel- 

 lation by which Zoilus delighted to be known, was 

 Homero-mastyx, although his censures were by no 

 means confined to the writings of the great father 

 of epic poetry, but extended indiscriminately and im- 

 partially to those of Demosthenes, Aristotle, Plato 

 and all others whose works came under his lash. 

 His very name has now become a proverb, as ap- 

 plied to all illiberal and captious pretenders to criti- 

 cism. The period of his death, which was a violent 

 one, is unknown : indeed, the precise era in which he 

 lived is not absolutely determined, Vitruvius making 

 him contemporary with Ptolemy Pbiladelphus, while 

 .^Elian refers him to the ninety-fifth Olympiad. 

 ZOISITE. See Epidote. 

 ZOLLIKOFER, GEORGE JOACHIM, one of the 

 most eminent preachers of the last century, was 

 born at St Gall, in Switzerland, August 5, 1730. 

 He studied at the gymnasia of Frankfort on the 

 Maine, and of Bremen, and at the university of 

 Utrecht, and, in 1754, became a clergyman at Mo- 

 rat, in Switzerland. In 1758, he accepted an invi- 

 tation from a congregation at Leipsic, and remained 

 in this situation until his death, January 20, 1788. 

 During these thirty years, he did great good, not 

 only in his congregation, but also among the stu- 

 dents of the university in Leipsic. Two hundred 

 and fifty of his sermons have appeared in print. 

 From 1769 to 1788, he published four collections, 

 in six volumes, which went through several edi- 

 tions. After his death, his remaining sermons were 

 published in nine volumes. The whole of his ser- 

 mons have been published in fifteen volumes (Leip- 

 sic, 1789 1804). Two volumes have of late been 

 translated into English, by reverend W. Tooke ; 

 also a small volume of his Devotional Exercises. 

 Zollikofer also published a Hymn Book (eighth edi- 

 tion, Leipsic, 1786), besides translations of some 

 English and French works. Garve wrote on the 

 character of Zollikofer (Leipsic, 1788). 



ZONARAS, JOHN ; a monk of St Basil, by birth 

 a Greek, who lived during the latter part of the 

 eleventh and the commencement of the following 

 century. Before he renounced the world for the 

 cloister, he had filled some distinguished offices 

 about the imperial court, but becoming, at length, 

 disgusted with its intrigues, gave himself up to a 

 religious life, employing his leisure hours in the 

 compilation of a History of the World, from the 

 Earliest Periods to the Year 1 1 18. hi this work 

 (of which an edition appeared at Paris, in two folio 

 volumes, 1687), he follows, principally, the narra- 

 tive of Dion Cassius ; and all the earlier part of 

 the book is a tissue of fable ; but, as he approaches 

 his own times, he becomes more entitled to atten- 

 tion, as all his mistakes arise evidently more from 

 ignorance than design. There is also extant a com- 

 mentary on the apostolic canons by him. His death 

 took place about the year 1 120. 



ZONE. The whole surface of the earth is divid- 

 ed into five zones the torrid, northern and south- 

 ern temperate, and northern and southern frigid 

 zones. The torrid zone extends 23 north and 

 south of the equator ; and twice a year, the sun 

 shines vertically on its inhabitants. This zone is 

 bounded, on both sides of the equator, by the two 

 M 2 



