T E S 



TESORO, a fmall idand in the Spamft Main, near 

 the coaft of South America. N. lat. io° 8'. W. long. 



75° 46'. r ,,- ■ .u • 



TESPIS, in ylncifnt Geography, a town of Afia, in the ni- 



terior of Carmania, and near Carmana. Ptolemy. 



TESS, in Geography, ?^T\ser of Moravia, which runs into 

 the Marfch, 8 miles N. of Muglitz. 



TESSAILAH, a town of Algiers ; 20 miles 6. ot 



Oran. 



TESSALON. See Tiiessalon. 



TESSARACONTA, Tsj-TOpaxo.™, among the Athe- 

 nians, were forty men who went their circuits round the fe- 

 veral 'boroughs, and had cognizance of all controvedies 

 about money, if not above ten drachms ; as alfo of aftions 

 of aflault and battery. Potter, Archiol. Grsec. 



TESSARACONTERIS, in the Naval ^rchlleaure of 

 the Ancients, a word uTed toexprefs a fort of galley, in which 

 there were no lefs than forty tiers of rowers one above an- 

 other. Se Enneris and Polycrota. 



TESSARA-COSTA, in our Ancient Writers. See 

 Quadragesima. 



TESSARACOSTON, r-wapaxoro., in ^«/;>%, a fo- 

 lemnity kept by women on the fortieth day after child-birth, 

 when they went to the temple, and paid fome grateful ac- 

 knowledgments for their fafe delivery. Pott. Archxol. 

 Graec. torn. i. p. 432. and tom ii. p. 335. 



TESSARINI, Carlo, in Biography, firft violin, and 

 leader of the band in the metropohtan church at Urbino, was 

 born at Rimini in 1 690 ; he was a fpirited performer on his 

 inftrument, and a very voluminous compofer. His ftyle was 

 light and flimfy, compared with that of Corelli and Gemi- 

 niani ; but his concertos not being very difficult, were much 

 played in country concerts in our own memory, with thole 

 of Albert], Albinoni, and Vivaldi. 



Teflarini's firft publication at Amfterdam has a title-page 

 of great promife ; but whether the promife was ever per- 

 formed, fceptics in thefe incredulous days \»ill be much in- 

 clined to doubt. The title is in French, but Hterally tranf- 

 lated, is the following : " A new Method for learning theo- 

 retically, in a Month's Time, to play on the Viohn, divided 

 into three Clafles, with progreffive LefTons for two Viohns." 

 Then twelve violin concertos ; twelve flute folos ; the maf- 

 ter and fcholars ; divertimenti for two violins ; twelve violin 

 folos ; fix divertimenti for two violins, in canon, &c. &c. 

 He lived till the year 1672, in the perpetual labour of pub- 

 lication ; but his produftions would now be as difficult to 

 find as thofe of Timotheus and Olympus. 



TESSE, in Geography, a town of France, in the depart- 

 ment of the Sarte ; 15 miles S.W. of Le Mans. 



TESSELiE, a word ufed in Pharmacy, to exprefs 

 lozenges cut into regular figures. 



TESSELARH, among the Romans, artificers of che- 

 quered or mofaic work. 



TESSELATED Pavement, pavimentum tejfelatum, a 

 rich pavement of mofaic work, made of curious fmall fquare 

 marbles, bricks, or tiles, called tejfelh, from the form of 

 dies. 



Teflelated pavements were much ufed in the tents of the 

 Roman generals. 



TESSERA, in Roman Antiquity, denoted in its primary 

 fenfe a cube or dye ; fo called from the Greek word rscj-o-apa, 

 or TEo-a-epa, four ; refpeft being had to its number of fides, 

 diftinft from the two horizontal planes, above and below. 

 And it was thus diftinguifhed from the talus, which, being 

 round at each end, contained only four planes or faces on 

 which it could ftand ; and therefore, when thrown, had no 



4 



T E S 



more than two fide faces in view. Hence ludere talis et ludere 

 tejferis are fpoken of by Roman writers as two different 

 games. The fyllable tes. occurs often in Roman infcrip- 

 tions. 



The word tejfera was applied to many other things, not fo 

 much from a fimihtude in the figure, as from the relation 

 they bore to fome other thing of which they were the figu 

 or token ; as tlie points on the upper plane of the dye de- 

 noted the good or ill fuccefs of the call. 



The tejfera hofpitalis was either public or private. As to 

 the former, we find among the infcriptions publilhsd by 

 Gruter, inftances of two municipal towns which put them- 

 felves under the patronage of the Roman governor ; and 

 the reciprocal engagements between them, engraved on two 

 copper-plates in the form of an oblong fquare, with a pedi- 

 ment at the top, is called in both tejfera hofpitalis. 



The defign of the latter was to cultivate or maintain a 

 lafting friendftiip between private perfons and their families ; 

 and gave a mutual claim to the contrafting parties, and their 

 defcendants, of a reception and kind treatment at each 

 other's houfes, as occafion offered. For which end thofe 

 teffers were fo contrived, as beft to preferve the memory of 

 that tranfaftion to pofterity. And one method of doing 

 this was by dividing one of them lengthwife into two equal 

 parts, upon each of which one of the parties wrote his name, 

 and interchanged it with the other. From this cuftom came 

 the prevailing expreffion tejferam hofpitalem confringere, ap- 

 plied to perfons who violated their engagements. 



The tejfera frumentariit were fmall tallies given by the em- 

 perors to the populace of Rome, entitling them to the re- 

 ception of a quantity of corn from the public at ftated 

 feafons. The perfon who had the infpeftion of thefe 

 was called tejferarius. They were made of wood and of 

 ftone. 



There was another kind of teffera which intitled perfons 

 to a fight of the public games and other diverfions, ufually 

 made in the form of an oblong fquare. 



The tejfera militaris was a fignal given by the general, or 

 chief commander of an army, as a direftion to the loldiers 

 for executing any duty or fervice required of them. 



This, upon urgent occafions, was only vocal ; but, in 

 ordinary cafes, it was written on a tablet, commonly made 

 of wood. Befide the civil and mihtary tefferae, there are 

 others which related to religious affairs, and may be called 

 facrcd. Phil. Tranf. vol. xlv. art. 12. 



TESSERMUIT, in Geography, an ifland near the S.W. 



coaft of Eaft Greenland. N. lat. 59° 59'. W. long. 44"^ 20'. 



TESSET, a town and diftrid of Africa, in the country 



of Sahara ; 170 miles S. of Morocco. N. lat. 15° 24'. W. 



long. 7°. 



TESSIN, Charles Gustavus, in Biography, a Swedith 

 count and confiderable ftatefman, was born at Stockholm in 

 1695, and received the rudiments of his education under his 

 father. In 1 7 1 4 he fet out on his travels, and continued them 

 through various countries of Europe for five years, availing 

 himfelf of every opportunity that occurred of acquainting 

 himfelf with their refpeftive conftitution and laws. At the 

 age of twenty-five he was deputed to the courts of Great 

 Britain, Denmark, and France, and alfo to the States of Hol- 

 land, to announce the acceflion of Frederic I. to the Swedifh 

 throne; and in 1725 he was fent to Vienna, to folicit the 

 attention of that court to the new treaty of alliance between 

 Sweden and Ruffia. On the death of his father, in 1728, he 

 fucceeded him as principal intendant of the court, and in 

 order to qualify himfelf for the office, he undertook a new 

 tour at liis own expence. In 1735 he was again difpatched 



to 



