143 
LAN 
LAN'DGRABEN, a river of Silefia, which runs into 
the Weiftritz a little above its junction with the Oder. 
LAND'GRAVE, f. [from the German land, earth, and 
graff or grave, judge or count.] A name formerly given 
to thofe who executed juftice in behalf of the emperors, 
with regard to the internal policy of the country. The 
title does not feem to have been ufed before the eleventh 
century. Thefe judges were fird appointed within a cer¬ 
tain diftrift of Germany : in procefs of time the title be¬ 
came hereditary, and their judges aflumed the fovereignty 
of the feveral diftrifts or counties over which they pre- 
fided. Landgrave is now applied by way of eminence to 
thofe fovereign princes of the empire who poflels by in¬ 
heritance certain eftates called landgravates, and of which 
they receive the invediture of the emperor. There are 
four princes who have this title, viz. thofe of Thuringia, 
Heffia, Alface, and Leuchtemberg. There are alfo other 
landgraves, who are not princes, but counts of the empire. 
LANDGRA'VIATE, or Land'gravate, /. The of-’* 
fice, authority, jurifdiftion, or territory, of a landgrave. 
LAND'GUARD FO'RT, a fort of England, iituated 
on a point of land, at the fouth-eaft extremity of the 
county/of Suffolk, at the mouth of the rivers Orwell and 
Stour, oppofite Harwich ; and furniflied with a garrifon 
tinder the command of a governor, and a platform of 
guns to defend the coad. It is placed on a point.of land 
fo furrounded with the fea at high-water, that it looks 
like a little ifland at lead one mile from the fhore. The 
making its foundation folid enough for fo good a fortifi¬ 
cation cod many years’ labour, and a prodigious expenfe. 
It was built in the reign of king James I. when it was a 
much more confiderable fortification than now, having 
four badions mounted with fixty very large guns, parti¬ 
cularly thofe on the royal badion, which would throw a 
twenty-eight pound ball over Harwich. A number of 
alterations were made a few years ago at Landguard 
Fort. The magazines and dore-houfes were taken down, 
and the dores removed to the depot at Harwich. The 
ditch has been deepened, the embrafures clofed up, the 
walls raifed, and the cannon new mounted upon a differ¬ 
ent conftru&ion. Two mortars are mounted on the 
Downs between the fort and the fea, the larged of which 
weighs 8z|- cwt. and its bed, which is of cad-iron, up¬ 
wards of 94 cwt. Here the young officers belonging to 
the royal marine artillery are daily exercifed in throwing 
fhells. 
LAN'DI (Hortenfio), an ingenious but whimfical wri¬ 
ter, was born at Milan near the beginning of the fixteenth 
century. He was brought up to letters, and dudied at 
his native city, and at Bologna, but in very neceditous 
circumdances ; and it appears that he praftifed phyfic for 
his fupport, though he has left no proof of his proficiency 
in this fcience. While yet at Milan, he publifhed two 
dialogues, entitled Cicero rclegatus, and Cicero revocatus, 
which he feigns to have been held by a company of learn¬ 
ed men in 1533. Thefe are elegant and ingenious com- 
pofitions, but not without a turn to paradox. A journey 
which he then took gave occafion to a work entitled For- 
ciana Quajliones ; in which, under the feigned name of 
Philalethes, he treats in an entertaining manner on the 
manners and cudomS, drefs, diverfions, ladies, &c. of 
the different cities of Italy. It was publifhed at Naples 
in 1536. He travelled into France about this time, and 
at Lyons contrafted a clofe intimacy with Stephen Dolet, 
who was afterwards burnt as an atheid. It appears how¬ 
ever, that, upon his return into Italy, he entered fuccef- 
fively into the fervice of the bifiiops of Trent and Cata¬ 
nia. Paffmg in 1540 through Bafil, he publifhed a dia¬ 
logue againd Erafmus, who died four years before, which 
was anfwered in afevere inveftive againd the author. He 
was at the court of Francis I. in 1543, and in that year 
publifhed his two books of Paradoxes. As thefe, from 
their extravagance and undue freedom, excited confider¬ 
able attention, he thought proper to arsfwer them himfelf, 
LAN 
anonymoufly; and in his reply he /pares himfelf as little 
as any real antagonid would have done. In 1544 he tra¬ 
velled through Germany ; and, returning to Italy, under¬ 
took that journey through its feveral provinces, which he 
has defcribed in his Comentario delli piu notabili & mojlruofe 
Cofe d'Italia & altri Luoghi, 1548. This is a mixture of 
faff and fable, written in a ludicrous and whimfical dyle. 
He fettled at Venice in 1548, and there publifhed his Let- 
tere di Molte valorofe Donne, which, as well as his collection 
of Confolatory Letters, and the Letters of 'Donna Lucre- 
tia Gonzaga, were all of his own compofition ;—a fpecies 
of literary impolture certainly not to be commended. His 
Sferza de Scrittori antichi & moderni, di M. Anonymio d'Uto- 
pia, 1550, is a fevere inveftive againd the mod celebrated 
authors, and againd the fciences themfelves, to which he 
gave a fort of antidote in Una Efortatiqne alio Studio delle 
Lettere. It is unneceffary to go through all the catalogue- 
of the wofks of this capricious writer, one of which was. 
a dialogue concerning the utility of reading the holy fcrip- 
tures, a kind of dudy in which he feems to have been lit¬ 
tle converfant. Another, which treated of Medicine for 
the PafTions of the Mind, mixed with, a fubjeft which 
might have been ferioufly profeffional, his jocular and fan¬ 
ciful imaginations. The dates of his later works run be¬ 
tween 1550 and 1560, and it is fuppofed that he did not 
live much longer. With all his oddity of charafter, he 
lived in friendfhip with many of the learned men of that 
age, by whom he has been praifed. He was particularly 
intimate with Peter Aretine, whom he fomewhat refembled 
in his writings, but with more decency and real learning 
Tirabofchi. 
LAN'DIN, a town of Portugal, in the province of 
Entre Duero e Minho : twelve miles ead of Villa de Conde, 
and fix wed of Guimaraens. 
LAN'DING,/! The aft of putting on fhore; the aft: 
of getting on fhore. 
LAN'DING, or Lan'ding-Place, f. The top of flairs, 
—There is a dair-cafe that drangers are generally carried 
to fee, where the eafinefs of the afcent, the difpofition of 
the lights, and the convenient landing, are admirably well- 
contrived. Addifon on Italy. —What the Romans called vef- 
tibulum was no part of the houfe, but the court and land¬ 
ing-place between it and the dreet, Arbuthnot on Coins.. - 
I.ANDI'NO (Chridopher), an early Italian fcholar, was- 
born at Florence in 1434. He dudied fird at Volterra,. 
under Angiolo da Todi; to whom he was fo dear, that 
he not only maintained him a long time at his own ex¬ 
penfe, but at his death bound his heirs to maintain him 
three years longer. His father then obliged him to em¬ 
brace the profeffion of law ; but the munificence of Cofmo 
and Peter de Medici recalled him to his beloved dudies, 
of which that of the Platonic philofophy was his particu¬ 
lar favourite. He was one of the principal ornaments of 
the Platonic academy at Florence, and lived in great 
friendfhip with Poliziano, Ficino, and others of its mem¬ 
bers. In 1457 he opened a pubjic fchool of polite litera¬ 
ture at Florence, which greatly contributed to the prO- 
grefs of learning at that period. At an advanced age he 
obtained the office of fecretary to the feigniory, and was 
prefented with a palace in the Cafentino. He finally re¬ 
tired to Prato-Vecchio, where he died in 1504. He wrote 
“ Latin Poems,” which, though not perfeftly correft, may 
dand in competition with molt of the compofitions of that 
age. He drew up Commentaries upon Virgil, Horace,, 
and Dante, which were feveral times printed; and he 
tranflated into Italian Pliny’s Natural Hidory, and the 
Sforziade of John Simonetta. Thefe verfions and com¬ 
mentaries are, indeed, little efteemed. He fhowed his at¬ 
tachment to moral philofophy by his Dialogues on the No¬ 
bility of the Mind, his four books of Camaldolefe Ques¬ 
tions, and other works. He compofed “Latin and Italian 
Orations” on various occafions, which have been printed ; 
but many of his writings remain in manufcript in the. 
Laureutian library, Tirabofchi, . . 
LAND I VISi AU 
