.52 M O S 
. ment of Archangel, on the weft fide of the Dwina : one 
hundred miles fouth-eaft of Archangel. 
MOR'ZOVETZ, an ifland of Ruftia, in the llraits be¬ 
tween the Frozen and White Sea. Lat. 66.40. N. Ion. 41. 
. 38. E. 
MO'SA, in ancient geography, a river of Belgic Gaul 
falling into the German Ocean ; and now called the Maefe, 
or MciiJ'e. The bridge over it, Mojce Pons, is now fuppofed 
to be Maes.tr.ioht. 
MOSABAD', a town of Hindooftan, in Agimere : 
thirteen miles fouth-fouth-eaft of Roopnagur. 
MO'SACH, a river of Bavaria, which runs into the 
Ifer two miles eaft of Freyfingen. 
MOSA'IC, or Mosaical, adj. [from Mofes.~\ Denot- 
• ing the writings or law of Moles.—For his acquaintance 
with the Mofaical learning, as it is more credible in itfelf, 
fo I have alio better proof. More's Conj. Call .—The Mo- 
.Jaick facrifices were types (and by both the difpenfations 
of the Law and Gofpel declared to be fo) of the great 
vicarious facrifice of the crofs. War bur ton's Div. Leg. 
MOSA'IC, f. [nioj'aique, Fr. fuppofed to be corrupted 
from mufcens, Lat.] A kind of painting in fmall pebbles, 
cockles, and fhells of fundry colours ; and of late days 
likewife with pieces of glafs figured at pleafure ; an or¬ 
nament in truth, of much beauty, and long life, but of 
moft ufein pavements and floorings. Wotton's Architecture. 
MOSA'IC, or MosaicaL, adj. Belonging to the above 
kind of work.—The trees were to them [the flowers] a 
pavilion, and they to the trees a mofaical floor. Sidney's 
Arcadia. —The moft remarkable remnant of it is a very 
beautiful mofaich pavement, the fineft I have ever feen in 
marble ; the parts are fo well joined together, that the 
whole piece looks like a continued pifture. AddiJ’on on 
Ltaly. 
Each beauteous flower, 
Iris all hues, roles, and jefiamin, 
Rear’d high their flourilh’d heads between, and wrought 
Mofaich. Milton. 
Critics are divided as to the origin and reafon of the 
name : fome derive it from mofaicnm, a corruption of mu- 
faicum , as that is of mujlvum, as it was called among the 
Romans. Scaliger derives it from the Greek p.acrx, and 
imagines the name was given to this fort of work, as 
being very fine and ingenious. Nebricenlis is of opinion 
it was fo called, becaufe ex i/lis piCluris ornabantur mufea. 
Mofaic feems to have taken its origin from paving : the 
fine effeft and ufe of pavements compofed of pieces of 
marble of different colours, fo well joined together, as 
that, when dried, they might be polillied, and the whole 
make a very beautiful and folid body, which, continually 
trodden upon, and walked with water, was not at all da¬ 
maged, gave the painter the hint, who foon carried the 
art to a much greater perfection, fo as to reprefent foliages, 
mafques, and other grotefque pieces of various colours, 
on aground of black or white marble. In fine, obferving 
the good effcCl which this kind of work had in pavements, 
and finding that it refined water, they proceeded to line 
walls with it, and to take various figures by it, for the or¬ 
nament of their temples and public buildings. But, na¬ 
ture not producing variety of colours enough for them in 
marbles to paint all kinds of objeCls, they bethought of 
counterfeiting them with glafs and metal colours ; which 
fucceeded fo well, that, having given all manner of tints 
to an infinite number of little pieces of thefe two matters, 
to counterfeit ftones of various colours, in order to get 
more colours, the workmen arranged them with fo much 
art, that their mofaic feemed almoft to vie with painting ; 
this way of reprefenting objeCls having this advantage, 
that it refills the injuries of the air as w'eli as marble itfelf; 
and even grows more beautiful with time, which effaces 
all other kinds of painting. 
The fuccef’sful employment of mofaic for interior de¬ 
coration might have led to the invention of painting on 
jlafs. Mofaic, it is well-known, is compofed of little 
M, O S 
pieces of coloured or enamelled glafs: in like manner, 
the oldeft painted windows are nothing more than final! 
portions of coloured glafs foldered one to the other in 
leaden moulded grooves, by which they are held toge¬ 
ther fo as to be placed in a falh of iron, or of any other 
material; making a kind of picture, like inlaid ftones or 
glafs-ware united by maftic or any other cement, and pro¬ 
ducing the reprefentation which is called mofaic. We 
are inclined alfo to believe that, in the infancy of the art 
of painting on glafs, the artift began with tracing figures 
in diftemper, or with colours diluted in yolk of egg or var- 
nifli, on clear glafs, before the idea was formed of colour¬ 
ing glafs in the fire in order to render the piclure more 
perfect and more durable. 
Previoufly to having reached the perfection of mofaic, 
artifts commenced by inferting in walls and pavements 
flint, pieces of coloured glafs, enamel, or marble : by de¬ 
grees, they reduced thefe into fmall divifions ; and this 
art, profecuted with care, obtained fo much favour among 
the Greeks, that the moft celebrated artifts were em¬ 
ployed on it, and produced in it moft magnificent pictures, 
of which hiftory makes mention. Piiny fpeaks of one 
Sofus who worked at Pergamus, and who excelled in the 
art of fabricating mofaic. In 1763 were difcovered at 
Pompeii feveral mofaics from the hand of Diofcorides, if 
we may judge by the infcriptions which they exhibit. 
The French alfo worked in mofaic ; but, as they had no 
knowledge of the rules of art, they produced only rude 
figures. The practice of mofaic continued in fpite of the 
ignorance which prevailed in the arts of defign ; and itr 
was cultivated at Rome about the fourteenth century, 
and at Florence a century later. A prefident of the par¬ 
liament of Paris, named David, being in that city, caufed 
to be executed under his own eye, and at his expenfe, a 
mofaic, bearing the date of 1500, which reprefents the 
Virgin fitting with the infant Jelus on her knees, accom¬ 
panied by two angels in the aCl of adoration. Towards 
the end of the laft century, the tafte for mofaic came again 
into faftiion at Rome, and the latter popes incurred con- 
fiderable expenfe to fupport and encourage able workers 
in mofaic, whofe talents they were jealous of exclusively 
pofiefling. They caufed to be thus copied, of the fame 
lize as the originals, the moft beautiful pictures which 
Raphael had painted for the decoration of the Vatican ; 
and thefe fine monuments, capable of refilling the ravages 
of time, embellifli the church of St. Peter. At laft the 
French government, wilhing to rival Italy in this fpecies 
of the pictorial art, eftablilhed at Paris (fome years ago) 
a fchool of mofaic for the deaf and dumb. The direction 
of this little philanthropic academy is confided to M. 
Belloni; and already thefe unfortunate children, who are 
inftruCled with equal zeal and care, execute mofaics which 
may be put in competition with the bell of thofe of Italy. 
Lenoir's Hijl. of the Arts in France, 1811. 
We Ihallnow detail the precedes for the different kinds 
of mofaic work. 
j. Glafs. —‘This kind they begin with little pieces cvf 
glafs, which they provide of as many different colours qs 
poffible. To this end, the glalfman’s furnaces being dif- 
pofed, and their pots or crucibles full of the matter of 
which glafs is made, or rather of glafs already made, they 
put what metalline colour or dye they think fit in each 
crucible, always beginning with the weakeft, and aug¬ 
menting the llrength of the colours from crucible to cru¬ 
cible, till they come to the deepeft dye, as in mixing of 
colours on a pallet to paint in oil. When the glafs has 
had diffident coclion, and all the colours are in their 
perfection, they take out the glafs hot as it is, laying it 
on a finooth marble, flatting it down with another marble, 
and then cut it into dices of equal bignefs, and about the 
thicknefs of an inch and a half. They then, with an in- 
ftrument which the Italians call bocca dicane, make fome 
pieces fquare, and others of different figures and fizes, as 
occalion requires. If it be delired to have gold, either in 
the ground of the painting or in the ornaments, they 
take 
