R I T 



R 1 T 



RISZOW, in Geography, a town of Poland, in the pa- 

 latinate of Kiev; 30 miles N.E. of Bialacerkiev. 



RITA, a town of Brafil, in the government of Goyas ; 

 80 miles E. of Villaboa. 



RITARDATO, and Ritardando, Ital. in Mufic, is 

 relaxing the meafure ; better exprefled now by rallentando, 

 which fee. 



RITCHEL, in Geography, a branch of the river Indus, 

 which feparates a little above Tatta, and runs into the 

 Arabian fea, N. lat. 24 15'. E. long. 66° 43'. 



RITE, Ritus, in Theology, denotes the particular man- 

 ner or form of celebrating or performing the religious cere- 

 monies, which obtains in this or that place. 



The eaftem people, Armenians, &c. celebrate divine fer- 

 tice according to the Greek rite. The weitern world follow 

 the Latin rite ; or that of the Roman church. 



The Englilh obferve the rite of the church of England, 

 prefcribed in the book of Common Prayer, &c. 



RITHER, or Rider, in Mining, is a Hone or thin clift 



that lies in the vein ; the ore fometimes runs on both fides it. 

 Sometimes the rither is fo thick, that it parts the vein, and 

 makes one vein two. 



RITIA, in Ancient Geography, Sheebah, a town of the 

 interior ol Africa, in Mauritania Cxfarienfis, fituated S. of 

 Victoria. It is mentioned by Ptolemy ; and ftill exhibits 

 fome fragments of Roman walls. 



RITORNELLO, or Refret, in Muftc, the burden of 

 a fong, or a repetition of the firil or other verfes of the 

 fong, at the end of each ltanza or couplet. 



The word is Italian, and fignifies properly a little return, or 

 a ftiort repetition, fuch as that of an echo, or of the lait 

 words of a long ; efpecially when the repetition is made after 

 a voice, by one or more inftruments. 



But cuftom has extended the ufe of the word to all fym- 

 phonies, played before the voices begin, and which ferve by 

 way of prelude or introduction to what follows. 



In the partitions or fcore of the Italian mufic, we fre- 

 quently find the ritornellos fignified by the words Jifuona, to 

 (hew that the organ, harpiichord, piano-forte, or the like, 

 are to repeat what the voice has been finging. 



In accompanied recitatives, the ritornels, or interttitial 

 lymphonies, are not repetitions of vocal paffages ; but are 

 often beautiful and pic/turefque periods of fymphony, ex- 

 prefiive of the fentiments and fituation of the finger. 



RITRO, in Botany, corrupted, as it feems, from the 

 fvi^ov of Theophraihis, as far as can be conjectured, appears 

 to have been fome plant of the thiftle kind. The name is 

 now uled as the fpeeific appellation of a kind of Eciiixops; 

 fee that article. 



RITROGRADO, Ital. in Mufic. See Retrogrado. 

 RITSCHA, in Geography, a town of Bohemia, in the 

 circle of Kaurzim ; 12 miles S.E. of Prague. 



RITSCHENHAUSEN, a town of Germany, in the 

 county of Henneberg ; 3 miles S.S.E. of Meinungen. 



RIT8CHIEN, a river ef Stiria, which runs into the 

 Laufnitz, 4 miles S.E. of Furllenfeld. 



RITSON, Tristram, in Biography, born about the 

 year 1580, at Winfcott, in Devon, was educated at Grc.it 



plicr, was probably owing to the death of a iilter, upon 

 which he became poffeffed of the eilate of Winfcott. Here 

 he drew up a large volume, entitled " The Chorographical 

 Deicription or Survey of the County of Devon, with I 

 City and County of Exeter, containing Matter of Hiftorv. 

 Antiquity, Chronology, the Nature of the Country," &c. 

 It was begun in 1605, and finifhed in 1630. 



The author did not print this Deicription, but a great 

 many manufcript copies were long in circulation in 

 county. A mutilated edition of it was printed in two v 

 lumes 8vo. in 1714 : it was afterwards printed from the ori- 

 ginal in one volume 4to. in 1735. But the molt perfect and 

 valuable edition was pubhlhed in 1811, from a manuscript 

 edition in the podcflion of John Coles, efq. of Stonehenge ; 

 to which the editors made fome important additions, and pit- 

 fixed, as an introduction, which renders the volume much 

 more interefting, " Remarks on the prefent State of the 

 County of Devon," the object of which was to compare the 

 prefent and pad conditions of the county in thole particulars 

 to which the author directed his attention, and to add a brief 

 account of fuch fubje&s as either eicaped his notice, or have 

 acquired their exillence or importance fince his time. 



Mr. Ritfon lived to a great age, dying in the year 1640; 

 he was interred at St. Giles Winfcott, without tomb or mo- 

 nument. " He," fays Prince in the Worthies of Devon, 

 " that with great expence of money, time, and labour, 

 fought to perpetuate the memory ot many perfons and fami- 

 lies, hath no monument to continue his own ; unlcfs that 

 lafting one his " Survey of the County of Devon." ' See 

 Chorographical Deicription, ed. 181 1. 



Ritfon, Joseph, was born in 1752, at Stockton 01 

 Tees, in the county of Durham, and was brought up to 

 the profeffion of the law. As a confulting barriiter and 

 convevancer he was very much diilinguilfied : but his literary 

 enquiries were by no means confined within the limits of his 

 profeffion ; he very fuccefsfully invclligated the old Englifh 

 literature, particularly of the f«venteenth century. He died 

 in the year 1803. His works are " Obfervations on John- 

 fon's and Stevens's Edition of Shaklpeare ;" "Curfory Criti- 

 cifms on Malone's Edition of Shaklpeare ;" " Obfervations 

 on Warton's Hiltory of Englilh Poetry ;" " Defcent of 

 the Crown of England ;" " Collection of Englilh Songs, 

 3 vols, and of Scotch Songs, in 2 vols. ;" " Englifh An- 

 thology ;" " Metrical Romances," 3 vols. ; " Bibhographia 

 Poetica ;" " A Treatife on Abstinence from Animal Food ;" 

 and other pieces. As an hiftorian, he was rigidly accurate ; 

 .as a critic, he was uncharitable and levere. The languid 

 of his writing 5 ii harfh, rugged, and barren ; and all his pub- 

 lications are iarther disfigured by the affected angularity of 

 their orthography. Monthly Mag. Nov. and Dec. 1803, 

 and Gent. Mag. 



RITTANGEL, John-Joseph, a learned profeilor of 

 the Oriental languages, at Kbnigfberg, in the 17th cen- 

 tury. According to fome writers he was born of Jewi/h 

 parents, and educated in the religion of his fore- fathers, but 

 afterwards became a convert to Chriftianity ; others afiume 

 that he was a German by birth, and educated in the princi- 

 ples of Popery, and th.it he became a convert to the inftitu- 



Torrington, and by his rapid progrefs in learning he very tions of Mofes, and received circumcifion at Hamburgh, but 



that in more mature life he embraced the Proteftant religion, 

 becoming at firft a Calvinift and afterwards a Lutheran. 

 On the authority of a letter given by Bayh, he was a native 

 ot Forcheim in Franconia, in th< diocefe of Bamberg, and 

 brought up to the Roman Catholic faith. Having btcome a 

 proficient in claffical learning, his attention was directed to 

 the It tidy of the oriental languages, and he went to Conitan- 



ioon became fitted for the higher improvements of the um 

 verfity of Oxford, of which he was admitted a member, 

 being entered probably of Exeter or Pembroke college, about 

 the latter end of the reign of queen Elizabeth. At Oxford 

 he was much diltinguifhed for his learning, and his accom- 

 plifhments as a gentleman. He, however, appears to have 

 left college without taking any fcholaftic degree, and re 



tired into his owa country, which, according to his biogra- tinople, where he remained twelve years, and during that 



6 time- 



