R O S 
R O S 
which was greatly applauded ; and from that time, on almost 
every public occasion of the like kind, he was chosen to per¬ 
form the office of orator. His education was completed at 
Rome and other seats of academical instruction, through the 
care of an uncle, who was afterwards general of the Carme¬ 
lites. The profession he chose was that of medicine, in which 
he became so eminent, that several cities offered him a large 
salary to become their public physician. The work for 
which this writer is principally commemorated, is his “ His- 
toriarum Ravennatum, Lib. X.,” first printed at the expense 
of the senate of that city in 1572, folio, and reprinted, with 
the addition of one book and other augmentations, in 1589. 
The first edition is in request on account of some passages 
which are omitted in the second. This history is written in 
a polished and dignified Latin style; and on account of its 
learned researches into antiquity, and the light it throws upon 
Italian history in general, it brought much honour to the au¬ 
thor during his life, and has ever since been regarded as one 
of the best productions of that age. He published various 
other works on medical and miscellaneous topics. Morcri. 
Tiraboschi. 
ROSSIA, or Capo Rossia, a promontory of Naples, in 
Calabria Citra, in the bay of Rossano. 
ROSSIE, a township of the United States, in Lawrence 
county. New York. 
ROSSIGNOL, a port on the south coast of Nova Scotia, 
to the south-west of Port de l’Heve. 
ROSSIGNOL, a considerable lake of Nova Scotia, be¬ 
tween Liverpool and Annapolis. 
ROSSINGTON, a parish of England, West Riding of 
Yorkshire; 4§ miles north-west of Bawtry. 
ROSKEEN, a parish of Scotland, in Ross-shire, the in¬ 
habited part of which extends about 10 miles in length from 
the coast of the frith of Cromarty, and about 6 miles in 
breadth ; but the mountainous district extends much farther. 
The soil upon the coast is partly gravelly and partly loam ; 
above this it becomes clay and wet, and the interior is only 
fit for pasture. Population 2390. 
ROSSLEBEN, a small town of Prussian Saxony, in the 
government of Merseburg, on the river Unstrut. Here is a 
celebrated free school, formerly a convent. Population 
1100; 23 miles west of Merseburg, and 3 north of Wiehe. 
ROSSMORE ISLAND, a small island of Ireland, in 
Kenmare river; 9 miles south-west of Kenmare. Lat. 51. 
48. N. long. 9. 44. E. 
ROSSO (del Rosso), an Italian painter, called by the 
French Mai t re Roux, was born at Florence, in 1496. W ith- 
out any regular instruction, he acquired the art of painting 
from the study of the works of Michael Angelo and other 
masters, and formed a style of his own, which, with some 
extravagance of conception, combined much life, expression, 
force of colouring, and grandeur of grouping. After a va- 
riety of fortune in his own country, and the loss of all his 
property at the sack of Rome, he visited France, where he 
was taken into the service of Francis L, and was highly fa¬ 
voured by that friend to the arts. He had a good figure, and 
possessed various talents and acquirements, being an ana¬ 
tomist, poet, musician, and architect. The king made him 
superintendant of all his works at Fontainebleau, where he 
erected the little gallery, which he decorated with many cu¬ 
rious works of art, and especially with 14 large pieces by his 
own hand, representing the actions of Francis I„ and stories 
from ancient history and mythology. These display great 
facility of invention and boldness of execution; and with his 
other works are sufficient to denominate him a man of genius, 
if not a faultless artist. “ His great merit (says Mr. Fuseli) in 
general consists in the principal group, and the diffusion of 
that dying and nearly nocturnal light which tones the whole 
. with sombre gravity.” He particularly excelled in painting 
women, and the heads of old men. Several of his works at 
Fontainebleau were destroyed by his rival Primaticcio to make 
room for his own. Rosso was richly remunerated by Francis, 
and lived in great prosperity, when an event happened which 
proved his ruin. He was often visited by a Florentine painter 
' named Pellegrino, with whom he was on terms of intimacy. 
391 
Having been robbed of a large sum of money, he suspected 
this man, and caused him to be apprehended and put to the 
torture to force confession. Pellegrino sustained the trial 
with fortitude, and being discharged as innocent, commenced 
a prosecution against Rosso. This artist, overwhelmed with 
remorse and the fear of infamy, swallowed poison, and died 
in 1541, much regretted by the king, who regarded him as 
the ablest painter who had ever visited France. Many of 
his works are seen in the cities of Italy, as well as at Fontaine¬ 
bleau. A considerable number have been engraved. D'Ar- 
genville. Pilkington. 
ROSSTRAPPE, a valley of Prussian Saxony, among the 
Hartz mountains, near the village of Thala. It is one of the 
most romantic and beautiful parts of this extensive mountain 
track, and has a fine cascade formed by the river Bude. 
ROSSVILLE, a post village of the United States, in York 
county, Pennsylvania. 
ROSSVILLE, a township of the United States, in Butler 
county, Ohio, on the great Miami, opposite Hamilton. Po¬ 
pulation 1321. 
ROSVILLE, a township of the United States, in the New 
Madrid district, territory of the Missouri. 
ROSVILLE, a post village of the Cherokee nation, on the 
south side of the Tennessee river, four or five miles below 
the mouth of Chickamaugah creek, and 50 south-south-west 
of Washington Tennessee. 
ROSS WAG, a small town of Austrian Silesia; 6 miles 
north of Jagerndorf. 
ROSSWEIN, or Ruspen, a small town of Germany, in 
Saxony, on the river called the Freyberg Mulda; 24 miles 
west of Dresden. Population 2700. They are employed 
chiefly in weaving softer kinds of woollen, such as flannel, 
baize, duffle, &c. 
ROST (John Christopher), a German poet, was born 
at Leipsic in 1717. He received a good education, and ap¬ 
plied with great assiduity to jurisprudence, antiquities, and 
the belles-lettres. His principal instructor was Ernesti; but 
he studied philosophy also under Hoffman, and attended the 
lectures of Gottsched, to whose praise he devoted the first 
fruits of his muse, though he afterwards wrote against him a 
satirical poein, which was published in 1743. It is said to 
be the best of his productions, and to abound with genuine 
and delicate wit. About this period, the German poetry 
possessed nothing of the pastoral kind which could serve as a 
model; but as Rost had a genius suited to this species of 
writing, he made some attempts in it about the year 1735. 
These pastorals were printed at Berlin, in 1742 ; but they de¬ 
serve, it is said, no praise for their morality, as vice is exhi¬ 
bited in them under the captivating form of innocence. A 
new edition of them appeared at Dresden in 1744, entitled 
“ An Attempt at pastoral Poetry, with other poetical Pieces,” 
and a third was published in 1768. In 1746, Rost was ap¬ 
pointed secretary and librarian to Count Bruhl, and died in 
1765, in the forty-eighth year of his age. His miscellaneous 
poems were published, after his death, in 1769. Grok- 
mann. 
ROSTGAARD (Frederick), a learned Danish writer, 
was born in Kraagerupin Zealand, in 1671. He received the 
early part of his education in the school of Copenhagen, and 
in 1690, undertook a tour through Europe, in the course of 
which he paid a visit to the most celebrated Universities of 
Germany, Holland, England, France, and Italy. He died in 
1745, and bequeathed to the library of the University of Co¬ 
penhagen a great many of his manuscripts and several printed 
books, consisting mostly of historical works, together with a 
fount of Arabic and Persian types. Among his literary 
labours were the following: “ DelicisePoetarum Danorum,” 
Lugd. Bat. 1693. 12mo. 2 tom.; “ A Danish Translation of 
Corneille’s Cid.” Paris, 1696, 4to.;“ Project d’une nou- 
velle Methode pour dresser le Catalogue d’une Bibliotheque 
selon les Matieres, avec le Plan ;” “ Enchiridion studiosi, 
Arabice cunl Versione Latina, edit, ab Hadriano Relando ;” 
“ Variantes Lectiones ad Thucydidem.” He collected also 
with great care, and at considerable expense, in various parts 
of France and Italy, manuscripts of “ Libanii Epistolre,” 
from 
