DOMAT DOMFNICAL LETTER. 



707 



cloctoi and the duke. The German scholar who wishes to 

 read a full account of these transactions, ia referred to the 

 article Domainenverkauf, in the German Conversations 

 JLexikon. 



DOMAT, JOHN ; an eminent French lawyer, 

 who was born in the province of Auvergne, in 1625. 

 He was king's advocate in the presidial court of 

 Clermont, for thirty years. He died at Paris, 

 in 1696. His treatise, entitled Les Loix civiles, 

 dans leur Ordre naturel, was published in 1094, 3 

 vols. 4to ; and after his death appeared three 

 volumes more, on public law, &c. An improved 

 edition of his works was published in 1777, and there 

 is an English translation of them, 1720, 2 vols. folio. 

 DOMENICHINO; the name, among artists, of 

 Domenico Zampieri, a painter of great eminence, of 

 the Lombard school, born at Bologna, in 1581. 

 He was sent to study first with Calvart, and after- 

 wards with the Carracci. From the slowness of his 

 performance, he was named, by his fellow students, 

 the ox of painting ; but Annibal Carracci predicted 

 that the ox would " plough a fruitful field." Hav- 

 ing contracted a great friendship for Albano, he 

 joined him at Rome, and his former master, Annibal 

 Carracci, jealous of Guido, procured for him the exe- 

 cution of one of the pictures for a Roman church, 

 which had been promised to that great painter. It 

 was a custom with Doinenichino to assume, for a 

 time, the passion he was depicturing ; so that, while 

 working by himself, he was often heard tq laugh, 

 weep, and talk aloud, in a manner that would have 

 induced a stranger to suppose him a lunatic. The 

 effect was, however, such, that few painters have 

 surpassed him in lively representation. His Com- 

 munion of St Jerome has been considered, by some 

 connoisseurs, inferior only to the Transfiguration of 

 Raphael; and the History of Apollo, which he 

 painted in ten frescoes, for cardinal Aldobrandini, is 

 also much admired. Although a modest and inof- 

 fensive man, his merit excited so much envy, that he 

 retired to his native city, where he married, and em- 

 ployed himself two years on his famous picture of 

 the Rosary. He was afterwards recalled to Rome, 

 by Gregory XV., who created him his first painter, 

 and architect of the Vatican. Losing this post after 

 the pope's death, .he accepted an invitation to 

 Naples, to paint the chapel of St Januarius. But 

 here he encountered a jealousy so rancorous, that 

 his life became altogether imbittered by it ; and so 

 great was his dread of poison, that he prepared all 

 his eatables with his own hand. He died in 1641, 

 at the age of sixty. Domenichino, who understood 

 every branch of his art, produced nothing excellent 

 without study and labour ; but, in consequence of his 

 great premeditation, no painter has given his pieces 

 ruore of the properties belonging to the subject. At 

 the same time, his designs are correct ; and he suc- 

 ceeded equally hi the grand and the tender. Nearly 

 fifty of his pieces have been engraved. 



DOMESDAY or pOOMSDAY BOOK, a very 

 ancient record, made in the time of William the Con- 

 queror, which now remains in the exchequer, and 

 consists of two volumes ; the greater contains a 

 survey of all the lands in most of the counties in 

 England, and the less comprehends some counties that 

 were not at first surveyed. The Book of Domesday 

 was begun by five justices, assigned for that purpose, 

 in each county, in the year 1081, and finished in 

 1086. It was of such authority, that the Conqueror 

 himself submitted, in some cases wherein he was 

 concerned, to be governed by it. Camden calls this 

 book the Tax-Book of king William ; and it was 

 further called Magna Rolla. There is likewise a 

 third Book of Domesday, made by command of the 

 Conqueror ; and also a fourth, being an abridgment 

 of the other books. 



DOMIC1L. The dwelling had peculiar privi- 

 eges among the Romans ; it was regarded as invio- 

 able ; for example, no debtor could be arrested in his 

 domicil ; no officer of the police or court could pass 

 .he threshold of a private house, to arrest even a 

 )erson who did not dwell there. These rights and 

 )rivileges still belong to the dwelling house in Eng- 

 and, the Netherlands, and the United States of 

 America. The name domicil implies in general, a 

 jlace of residence ; in a narrower sense, the place 

 where one lives, in opposition to that where he only 

 emains for a time. 



DOMINGO, ST. See Hayti. 



DOMINIC DE GUZMAN, ST., the founder of 

 ;he Dominican order, was born in 1170, at Calahorra, 

 n Old Castile, and applied himself, in his early 

 years with zeal and ability, to the acquisition of 

 oiowledge. He was made canon and archdeacon at 

 Osma, in Castile, and was employed with others by 

 pope Innocent III., to discover, confute, and punish 

 heretics, especially the Albigenses in France. This 

 was the origin of the court of the inquisition, and St 

 Dominic is considered as the first inquisitor-general. 

 As he prescribed to the members of his order a cer- 

 tain number of Pater-Nosters and Ave-Marias daily, 

 tie is supposed to have introduced the rosary. He 

 died at Bologna, in 1221, and in 1233 was canonized 

 by Gregory IX. In the examination, previous to the 

 canonization, it was proved that he had converted 

 more than 100,000 souls to the true faith. An in- 

 teresting comparison might be made between St Do- 

 minicus, and St Franciscus, certainly two of the most 

 powerful minds among the saints. St Franciscus 

 laboured all his life to relieve the poor and persecut- 

 ed, to propagate the gospel among the lower classes, 

 who, in those convulsed periods, were almost en- 

 tirely excluded, hi most countries, from education 

 and instruction in Christianity ; whilst St Dominicus 

 strove to spread Christianity by persecution. The 

 character of the two founders is deeply imprinted on 

 the two orders the humble Franciscans, and the zeal- 

 ous Dominicans. Dante speaks of these two saints, 

 in one of the most beautiful passages in his Paradise. 



DOMINICA; one of the Caribbee islands in the 

 West Indies, belonging to Great Britain ; situated be- 

 tween Guadaloupe and Martinico ; about twenty-nine 

 miles in length, and sixteen in breadth, containing 

 186,436 acres of land. Colquhoun estimated the 

 population, in 1812, at 26,500. An article on the 

 state of the British colonies, in the Edinburgh Re- 

 view, gives it, in 1823, as only 16,554. This same 

 article gives the imports from this island into Great 

 Britain, in 1823, at 39,013 quintals of sugar, 17,136 

 quintals of coffee, and 14,310 gallons of rum. It 

 was discovered by Columbus, November 3, 1493, on 

 Sunday hence its name. It contains many high 

 and rugged mountains, among which are volcanoes, 

 that frequently discharge eruptions. From some of 

 these mountains issue springs of hot water, whoso 

 medicinal virtues are much commended. Dominica 

 is well watered, there being upwards of thirty rivers 

 in the island, besides a great number of rivulets. 

 The soil in most of the interior country, is a light 

 brown-coloured mould, and appears to have been 

 washed from the mountains. Towards the sea- 

 coast, and in many of the valleys, it is a deep, black, 

 and rich native earth, which seems well adapted to 

 the cultivation of all the articles of West Indian pro- 

 duce. The principal towns are Portsmouth and Ro- 

 seau, or Charlotte's Town. Lon. 61 23' W. ; lat. 



15 ya N. 



DOMINICAL LETTER, in chronology; pro- 

 perly called Sunday letter ; one of the seven letters 

 of the alphabet, A B C D E F G, used in almanacs* 

 ephemerides, &c., to designate the Sundays througb,- 

 2 Y 2 



