LOLME LOMBARDS. 



519 



tl>e schools of Nardini and Ferrari. lie had acquired 

 tin astonishing facility on his instrument. He was 

 called the nmsical rope-dancer. None of his prede- 

 cessors had attained such perfection on the finger- 

 board ; but, at the same time, he lost himself in wild 

 and irregular phantasies, in which he often neglected 

 all time, so that the most practised player could not 

 accompany him. 



LOLME, DE. See De Lolme. 



LOMBARD HOUSE, LOMBARD (mons pietatis, 

 itwnt deplete) ; a public institution, at which every per- 

 son, but especially the poor, may obtain money for a 

 short time, at a moderate rate of interest, on depositing 

 sufficient pledges (pawns), and are thus saved from 

 the necessity of having recourse to usurers. The 

 chief difference between Lombards and pawnhouses 

 is, that the former are established by public author- 

 ity, for the relief of the poor, while the latter are 

 established by private individuals, for their own pro- 

 fit. After a given time, the pawns, if not redeemed, 

 are sold by public auction, and the surplus, after 

 deducting interest and costs, is given to the former 

 owner ; or, if he cannot be found, retained for him 

 one year. If he does not then appear, the sum is 

 given to charitable institutions. The Lombard gives 

 a certificate, stating the time of deposit, the sum re- 

 ceived, the name of the pawner, the article pawned, 

 the page of the book in which it is entered. The 

 bearer of this certificate may redeem the articles 

 within the time fixed, unless the owner has apprized 

 the Lombard that it was lost, &c. 



The origin of these establishments has been, with 

 much probability, referred, by Dorotheus Ascionius 

 (i. e. Matthew Zimmermann, who died in 1639, and 

 who was superintendent in Meissen*), to the time of 

 pope Pius II. or Paul II. (1464 1471). Barnabas In- 

 teramnensis, however, a Minorite friar, established 

 the firstLombard house in Perugia, in the States of the 

 Church, before 1464, or in that year, though it did 

 not receive pope Paul II. 's confirmation before 1467. 

 A lawyer in Perugia, Fortunatusde Copolis, rendered 

 much assistance in the execution of the plan. An- 

 other Lombard was soon after erected in Orvieto. 

 In 1472, Sixtus IV. confirmed one, established at 

 Viterbo, in 1469, by a Minorite, Franciscus de 

 Viterbo, and, in 1479, another at Savona, his native 

 place. Lombards were thus gradually established 

 in almost all Italian cities during the fifteenth and 

 sixteenth centuries. (See Beckmann's History of 

 Inventions, vol. iii., 3d part.) The first Lombard in 

 Germany was established in Nuremberg, in 1498, 

 with an imperial privilege. In the Netherlands, 

 France, and England, whither the rich Lombard 

 merchants emigrated, on account of the struggles of 

 the Guelphs and Ghibelines, they lent their money for 

 interest ; whence, such establishments were, and still 

 are, called Lombards. In some large cities of 

 Europe, the Lombards are very extensive, but do 

 not always attain the object for which they were 

 originally intended, as the following statement will 

 prove. 



The following statistical facts, relative to the 

 mont de piete in Paris, framed by the prefect of the 

 Seine, are interesting, as they show that there is a 

 numerous class of persons who can with difficulty 

 find the means of existence ; and that half of the 

 inhabitants of the capital are obliged to have re- 

 course to the pawn-broker, at some time of the year, 

 though they are forced to pay usurious interest. In 

 the year 1826, there were 1,200,104 pledges of differ- 

 ent articles, upon which the sum of 24,521,157 francs 

 was lent. The number of pledges redeemed in the 

 same year amounted to only 1,124,221, and the sum 



* A superintendent, in the north of Germany, ii a supe- 

 rior Poteetaut minister. 



to 21,569,437 francs ; so that 75,883 remained at the 

 mont de piete ; and there was in its hands the sum of 

 2,951,720 francs. As it is the principle of the mont 

 de piete not to lend more than about a quarter of the 

 value upon articles pledged, i hough the law for 

 its formation, dated in 1777, directs that the borrower 

 shall receive two-thirds of the value of his pledge, 

 we may estimate the value of the 75,883 unredeemed 

 pledges, upon which nearly 3,000,000 of francs were 

 lent, at 12,000,000. Supposing the sale of these 

 articles to be effected, and all the reductions of 

 excise, registry, &c., made, there would be re- 

 turned to the proprietors of them the half of these 

 12,000,000. It would result, that 6,000,000, at 

 least, are thus annually levied upon the least affluent 

 class of society that which approaches the nearest 

 to the description of persons for whom the depots for 

 mendicity were created. Independently of these 

 6,000,000, inevitably lost to the unfortunate bor- 

 rowers, we must add the interest of twelve per cent, 

 per annum, taken upon the 24,521,137 francs lent 

 by the mont de piete ; that is to say, 2,942,536 francs, 

 adding nearly 3,000,000, which, with the 6,000,000 

 already spoken of, constitute a total of 9,000,000. 

 9,000,000, divided among 437,500 inhabitants, half 

 of the 875,000 composing the entire population of 

 the capital, give twenty francs, twenty centimes, or 

 omitting the fraction, twenty francs for each inha- 

 bitant. In a family composed of four persons, the 

 average will be nearly eighty francs an immense 

 sum for a family which can with difficulty procure 

 daily necessaries ! 



LOMBARD SCHOOL. See Italian Art, in the 

 article Italy, and Painting, History of. 



LOMBARD STREET, a well-known spot in the 

 gigantic metropolis of the British empire, is situated 

 in the city, and received its name from having been 

 the residence of the Lombards, the money-lenders of 

 former times, whose usurious transactions caused 

 their expulsion from the kingdom in the reign of 

 Elizabeth. It is now chiefly occupied by bankers, 

 and is a place of much importance in the London 

 commercial world. 



LOMBARDS, LONGOBARDI, or LANGO 

 BARDI. Some derive the name from the long 

 bards or spears, by which this nation is said to have 

 been distinguished from the other northern tribes ; 

 others from the long strips of land (bcerde) which 

 they inhabited, on both sides of the Elbe, from Lune- 

 burg to Magdeburg. They are generally considered 

 a German tribe (but Paulus Diaconus calls them 

 Scandinavians), of the tribe of the Hermiones or 

 Suevi, which dwelt below the Ista3vones. Their 

 most ancient seats were on the east side of the Elbe, 

 in the eastern parts of the principality of Luneburg 

 and in the Alt.ma.rk, or the Bardenguu, so called, 

 which, most probably, takes its name from them. 

 Here Tiberius found them, on his expedition to the 

 Elbe, and fought a battle with them. Strabo nar- 

 rates that Tiberius drove them beyond the Elbe ; but 

 Vtlleius Paterculus, who himself accompanied the 

 expedition, makes no mention of it. The Lombards 

 afterwards appear in the Marcomanic league, under 

 Maroboduus, with whose despotism being dissatisfied, 

 they concluded a league with the Cherusci. They 

 appear, at this time, to have left their settlements 01: 

 the Elbe, and to have approached nearer the Che- 

 rusci. The latter tribe, having been weakened by a 

 series of misfortunes, the Lombards improved the 

 opportunity to spread themselves farther, and humi- 

 liate the Cherusci, took possession of all their settle- 

 ments north of the Hartz mountains, and became the 

 most powerful of the nations there. According to 

 the accounts of Ptolemy, they now spread between 

 the Wesi-r and the Rhine, in the territories ol tlw 



