772 



IIOHENSTAUFEN HOLBERO. 



merit lasting honour for tlicir administration of 

 justice, and the rectitude with which they allowed 

 the rights of their subjects, even against the throne 

 itself. Astronomy, astrology, physical science, phi- 

 losophy, geography, and particularly poetry, were 

 favourite pursuits of the Frederics, even in the 

 midst of public business and the tumult of arms ; 

 and very favourable efi'ects followed, from the close 

 alliance between the German poets and the minstrels 

 of Naples and Sicily, after those states fiad come into 

 the possession of the family of Hohenstaufen. Fre- 

 deric II., who first published the decrees of the diet 

 in the German language, erected schools for the 

 Minnesingers, and passed a law for the protection of 

 the students in their journeys to the universities. 

 See Frederic von Raumer's excellent History of the 

 Hohenstaufen and their Times, 6 vols., with twelve 

 engravings and maps, Leipsic, 1823. 



HOHENSTAUFEN; a high mountain in the king- 

 dom of Wurtemberg, between Gmund and Goppin- 

 gen, the original residence of the famous German 

 family which Dears its name. It rises in the form of 

 a pyramid, above the chain of hills which extends 

 between the Fils and the Hems. On its southern 

 declivity is a small market-town of the same name. 

 The castle of Hohenstaufen was burnt by the insur- 

 gents, in the peasants' war (1525). Nothing of the 

 ruins is now discernible, but a few feet of a low 

 wall. 



HOHENZOLLERN-HECHINGEN, AND HO- 

 HENZOLLERN-SIGMARINGEN ; two sovereign 

 principalities of the Germanic confederation. The 

 most remote known ancestor of this family was Thas- 

 silo, count of Zollern (died about 800). His descen- 

 dant in the eighth generation was Robert II., count 

 of Zollern, who lived in 1165, and had two sons, 

 Frederic IV. and Conrad. The latter became bur- 

 grave of Nuremberg, in 1200, and his grand-nephew, 

 Frederic III., was made, in 1277, a prince, and re- 

 ceived the burgraveship as a hereditary fief. From 

 him the royal Prussian dynasty is descended. See 

 Prussia. 



HOLBACH, PAUL THYRY, baron of, member of 

 the academies of Petersburg, Manheim, and Berlin, 

 was born at Heidelsheim in the Palatinate, in 1723. 

 He was educated in Paris, where he passed the 

 greater part of his life, and died in 1789. He was 

 distinguished for his love of the arts, and was eminent 

 as a mineralogist ; he has been represented in gene- 

 ral as benevolent, amiable, and even-tempered, but 

 the irritable Jean- Jacques complains of his rudeness. 

 He was the centre of a circle of men of wit, but of 

 the nouvelle philosophic , using his great fortune, says 

 Rousseau, generously, and appearing to advantage in 

 the learned society which he gathered round his 

 table. His guests were in general philosophes of too 

 free a turn of thinking to be admitted to the dinners 

 of madame Geoffrin, and Marmontel declares that 

 God, virtue, and morality were never discussed there. 

 He was the author of a great number of works, most 

 of which were anonymous or pseudonymous. He 

 contributed many papers on natural history, politics, 

 nd philosophy to the Encyclopedic; he also trans- 

 lated a German work of Waller on Mineralogy, 

 Akenside's Pleasures of Imagination, some essays of 

 Tindal, Hume, &c. His principal work, which ap- 

 peared under the name of M. Mirabaud, and which 

 excited much attention in the learned world, is the 

 Systeme de la Nature. Voltaire characterizes it as 

 execrable in morality, and absurd in physics, and 

 Frederic the Great undertook to refute it. Accord- 

 ing to Holbach, matter is the only form of existence, 

 and every thing is the eflect of a blind necessity; 

 instead of God, whom he asserts to have been invented 

 by theologians, he substitutes Nature, which he con- 



siders an ;i ssemblage of all beings and their motions. 

 The Elements de la Morale universelle (171/0) con- 

 tains the same principles. 



HOLBEIN, HANS, or JOHN ; the son of a painter 

 at Basle, in Switzerland, who, being instructed by his 

 father in the rudiments of the art, soon rose to great 

 eminence in his profession. The year of his birth 

 has been variously fixed, by Patin in 1495, but by 

 others in 1498, which latter is the era more generally 

 received. His talents procured him the acquaintance 

 and even the friendship of Erasmus, in spite of his 

 rough and dissolute habits, which that philosopher 

 exerted himself much to correct. His advice, and 

 the wish to escape from the consequences of an un- 

 fortunate marriage, induced the young artist to set 

 out for England, whither he had been invited most 

 pressingly by one of the nobility. His finances were 

 so low at the time, that he found the greatest diffi- 

 culty in reaching this country ; where, when he 

 arrived, he had forgotten the name of his promised 

 patron.* Fortunately, however, the features of the 

 peer were yet fresh in his recollection, and a striking 

 resemblance of him, which he produced, enabled him 

 to discover his name. Letters from his friend Eras- 

 mus, whose Panegyric on Folly he had illustrated 

 by a series of drawings, procured him subsequently 

 the patronage of the chancellor Sir Thomas More, 

 who took him into his own house, employed him to 

 delineate the portraits of most of his own personal 

 friends about the court, and introduced him to the 

 notice of Henry VIII., who, with all his faults was a 

 liberal encourager of the fine arts. At the command 

 of this monarch, Holbein drew the portrait of the 

 dowager duchess of Milan, whom Henry entertained 

 thoughts of espousing ; also that of Anne of Cleves, 

 the original of which was afterwards considered, by 

 his fastidious patron, so far inferior, in point of beauty, 

 to her picture, that his disgust was expressed in terms 

 less courtly than sincere. Holbein also painted most 

 of the principal English nobility, who showed them- 

 selves eager to encourage an artist ranking so high 

 in the favour of Henry. These portraits are still con- 

 sidered masterpieces of art. Some of his earlier 

 productions, especially his Dance of Death, are also 

 very celebrated, and have perhaps contributed as 

 much to his reputation as his later productions. The 

 capricious prince whom he served, however fickle 

 towards others, was constant in the protection which 

 he afforded to him, and was so sensible of his value, 

 that a memorable saying of his is recorded, on the 

 occasion of some complaint made against this artist 

 by a court butterfly : " I can, if I please, make seven 

 lords of seven ploughmen ; but I cannot make one 

 Holbein even of seven lords." Holbein died at 

 Whitehall, of the plague, in 1554. He excelled in 

 wood engraving, and, before his visit to England had 

 produced a large number of wood cuts. Several of 

 his historical paintings were engraved in wood by 

 him ; among others, his Dance ot Death. The best 

 edition of his series of ninety small wood cuts, Hlus- 

 tratiVe of the New Testament, is that of Lyons, 1529, 

 very rare. See Fuseli's History of the best Artists 

 of Switzerland. 



HOLBERG, Louis, baron of, the father of modern 

 Danish literature, and a popular writer in the same 

 sense as Cervantes in Spain, Moliere in France, and 

 Shakspeare in England, was born, ( 1 684) at Bergen, in 

 Norway, and early lost his father, who had raised him- 

 self, by a bold achievement, from the rank of a com- 

 mon soldier to the office of colonel. Little care was 

 taken in forming his mind and character. In 1702, he 

 studied theology and the foreign languages at Copen- 

 hagen, and afterwards became an instructer. The 

 perusal of the accounts of travellers excited in him 

 a great desire of visiting other countries. Notwith. 



