GERNING --GESSNER. 



437 



GERNING, JOHN CHRISTIAN, an entomologist, 

 born at Frankfort on the Maine, in 1745, died in the 

 same place, in 1802. He prepared most of the text 

 of the great work, Papillons de I' 'Europe (Paris, 

 1780 1792). He left one of the largest collections 

 of insects ever made by a single individual. It con- 

 tains more than 30.000 specimens, about 5,500 spe- 

 cies, and 500 varieties, and is still in Frankfort. His 

 sou, John Isaac, born 17(59, became known to the 

 king and queen of Naples, when they lived in tiie 

 house, of his father, at the time of the coronation of 

 Leopold IF. He was afterwards, for a long- time, 

 in the Neapolitan service, and went on several mis- 

 sions to foreign courts. In 1818, he was ambassa- 

 dor of the landgrave of Hesse-Homburg, in London, 

 where he published (1821) his splendid work, Views 

 on the Rhine. He is also the author of several other 

 works, both in prose and in verse. 



GERONA ; a strong town of Spain, in Catalonia, 

 at the confluence of the Ona and the Ter, the latter 

 of which flows through the town. It is built in the 

 form of a triangle, on the slope and at the foot of a 

 steep mountain. It is surrounded with good walls, 

 flanked with fortifications, and covered by two forts, 

 erected on the mountain. Besides these, it has five 

 fortified buildings. The streets are narrow and 

 winding ; the houses tolerably good. It has a semi- 

 nary of education on a large scale. The cathedral 

 is rich. It was taken by the French in 1809. Popu- 

 lation, 14,000. Forty miles S. Perpignan. 



GERONTES (old men) magistrates in Sparta, 

 who, with the ephori and kings, were the supreme 

 authority of the state. They could not be elevated 

 to this dignity before their sixtieth year, at whicli 

 age the judges in the state of New York are obliged 

 to retire from office. They could not be removed 

 from office, unless in extreme cases. There were 

 twenty-eight, or, according to some, thirty-two of 

 these magistrates. 



GERSTENBERG, HENRY WILLIAM VON, was 

 born in 1737, at Tondern, in Sleswick, and died 

 Nov. 1, 1823. He was employed in the Danisli 

 service, both civil and military. His mind was 

 formed by intercourse with Klopstock, Cramer, 

 Sturtz, &c. He was once the favourite of his nation, 

 and was distinguished for his writings, critical and 

 poetical. He wrote many songs and several trage- 

 dies. His Ugolino was successful, even on the stage. 



GERYON; in fabulous history, son of Chrysaor 

 and Callirrhoe, a three-headed giant, who ruled, 

 according to some, in Spain; according to others, 

 in the Balearic islands, or in the distant island 

 Erythia, where he possessed numerous and fine 

 nerds, which were guarded by the two-headed dog 

 Orthrus and the giant Eurytion. The herds were 

 carried away, and Geryon slain by Hercules, in obe- 

 dience to the command of Eurystheus. 



GESNER, CONRAD, surnamed the Pliny of Ger- 

 many, was born of poor parents, at Zurich, in 1516, 

 where he studied, as also at Strasburg, Bourges, 

 and Paris, and was a schoolmaster in his native town. 

 Hoping to raise himself from his needy condition, he 

 went to Basle, and devoted himself particularly to 

 the study of medicine. He became, afterwards, 

 professor of the Greek language at Lausanne, and, 

 after a short residence at Montpellier, he was made 

 professor of philosophy, and practised as a physician 

 at Zurich, where he died of the plague, in 1565. 

 Medicine, philology, and the history of literature 

 were his departments. He commenced his labours 

 in the last branch by his Bibliotheca Universalis, a full 

 catalogue of all writers extant in three languages, 

 Greek, Latin, and Hebrew (Zurich, 1545 55, 4 

 vols., fol.). This work is a monument of immense 

 learning and industry. Natural history was awak- 



ened by him from its slumber of centuries. He col- 

 lected matter in every quarter, either from his own 

 observations or from the works of the ancients. H ia 

 history of animals must be regarded as the foundation 

 of modern zoology (Hist, dnimalium, Zurich, 1550 

 87, 4 vols., fol.). He also rendered a service to 

 science by a complete translation of ylian. As a 

 botanist, he surpassed all his predecessors or contem- 

 poraries; travelled through almost all parts of Europe, 

 to see and to collect ; established, notwithstanding 

 his slender resources, a botanic garden of rare plants, 

 supported an artist to draw and paint, and formed 

 the first cabinet of natural history. He was the 

 inventor of botanical arrangement, since he distri- 

 buted the vegetable kingdom into classes, genera, 

 and species, according to the characters of the seeds 

 and flowers. The medicinal properties of plants 

 were not neglected by him, and he made experi- 

 ments, first upon himself and then upon others. He 

 wrote also on mineral springs, medicines, the nature 

 and relation of languages (Mithridates), and edited 

 and commented upon several ancient writers. He 

 was as modest and obliging as he was learned. For 

 his various and great merits, he was ennobled the 

 year before his death. See Hanhart's Life of Conrad 

 Gesner, Winterthur, 1824. 



GESNER, JOHN MATTHEW. This scholar was 

 born at Roth in Anspach, 1691, and died in 1761, at 

 Gottingen. After he had completed his studies at 

 Jena, he became, in 1715, co-rector and librarian at 

 Weimar ; in 1728, rector of the gymnasium at Ans- 

 pach ; in 1730, rector of the school of St Thomas at 

 Leipsic ; and, in 1734, professor of rhetoric, and sub- 

 sequently librarian, in the newly erected university 

 of Gottingen. He laboured with equal judgment 

 and zeal to improve the course of instruction and the 

 study of the ancient languages. By his editions of 

 the ancient writers on agriculture, of Quinctilian, 

 Pliny the Younger, Claudian, Horace, and Orpheus, 

 he introduced an instructive mode of illustrating the 

 ancient classics, and, by his Primes Lineee Isagoges 

 in Eruditionem universam, he prepared the way for 

 a general study of the sciences. His Ciceronian and 

 Plinian Chrestomathies are useful school books. He 

 rendered service to the study of the Roman language 

 and literature, by his edition of Faber's Thesaurus, 

 and still more by his New Thesaurus of the Roman 

 Language and Literature (Leipsic, 1749, 4 vols., 

 fol.), in which he collected the whole vocabulary of 

 the Latin language. 



GESSNER, SOLOMON, a German poet, author of 

 the death of Abel, was born at Zurich, in 1730, 

 where his father was a bookseller and a member of 

 the great council. He was intrusted to the care of a 

 country priest, after it was found that his early educa- 

 tion had not awakened his intellect. Here his mind, 

 hitherto depressed by mortifying censures, was 

 aroused. He made advances in the Latin language, 

 and his intercourse with his instructor's son, who 

 read the best German writers, as well as the beauty 

 of the surrounding country, developed his natural 

 disposition to poetry. After two years, he returned 

 to his friends. His intercourse with the most eminent 

 scholars in Zurich served to correct and extend his 

 knowledge, and to enlighten his conceptions. 

 Gessner's father desired that he should undertake the 

 business of a bookseller, and sent him, in 1749, to 

 Berlin, that he might prepare himself for this occupa- 

 tion. He entertained, however, so decided a dislike 

 for the business, that he left his master. As his 

 father endeavoured to compel his return, by with- 

 holding the money necessary to his support, he main- 

 tained himself by executing landscapes, which were 

 well received. In 1762, he published, in four volumes, 

 the poems which he had previously given to the w jrld 



