[1] _Mém. de l'Acad._ (1826), 6, p. 389.
[2] _Mém. des sav. étrang._ l. 40.
[3] _Mém. de l'Acad._ (1831), 10, p. 345.
[4] _B.A. Report_ (1846).
[5] _Cambridge Phil. Trans._ (1845 and 1857).
LUCAN [MARCUS ANNAEUS LUCANUS], (A.D. 39-65), Roman poet of the Silver
Age, grandson of the rhetorician Seneca and nephew of the philosopher,
was born at Corduba. His mother was Acilia; his father, Marcus Annaeus
Mela, had amassed great wealth as imperial procurator for the provinces.
From a memoir which is generally attributed to Suetonius we learn that
Lucan was taken to Rome at the age of eight months and displayed
remarkable precocity. One of his instructors was the Stoic philosopher,
Cornutus, the friend and teacher of Persius. He was studying at Athens
when Nero recalled him to Rome and made him quaestor. These friendly
relations did not last long. Lucan is said to have defeated Nero in a
public poetical contest; Nero forbade him to recite in public, and the
poet's indignation made him an accomplice in the conspiracy of Piso.
Upon the discovery of the plot he is said to have been tempted by the
hope of pardon to denounce his own mother. Failing to obtain a reprieve,
he caused his veins to be opened, and expired repeating a passage from
one of his poems descriptive of the death of a wounded soldier. His
father was involved in the proscription, his mother escaped, and his
widow Polla Argentaria survived to receive the homage of Statius under
Domitian. The birthday of Lucan was kept as a festival after his death,
and a poem addressed to his widow upon one of these occasions and
containing information on the poet's work and career is still extant
(Statius's _Silvae_, ii. 7, entitled _Genethliacon Lucani_).
Besides his principal performance, Lucan's works included poems on the
ransom of Hector, the nether world, the fate of Orpheus, a eulogy of
Nero, the burning of Rome, and one in honour of his wife (all mentioned
by Statius), letters, epigrams, an unfinished tragedy on the subject of
Medea and numerous miscellaneous pieces. His minor works have perished
except for a few fragments, but all that the author wrote of the
_Pharsalia_ has come down to us. It would probably have concluded with
the battle of Philippi, but breaks off abruptly as Caesar is about to
plunge into the harbour of Alexandria. The _Pharsalia_ opens with a
panegyric of Nero, sketches the causes of the war and the characters of
Caesar and Pompey, the crossing of the Rubicon by Caesar, the flight of
the tribunes to his camp, and the panic and confusion in Rome, which
Pompey has abandoned. The second book describes the visit of Brutus to
Cato, who is persuaded to join the side of the senate, and his marriage
a second time to his former wife Marcia, Ahenobarbus's capitulation at
Corfinium and the retirement of Pompey to Greece. In the third book
Caesar, after settling affairs in Rome, crosses the Alps for Spain.
Massilia is besieged and falls. The fourth book describes the victories
of Caesar in Spain over Afranius and Petreius, and the defeat of Curio
by Juba in Africa. In the fifth Caesar and Antony land in Greece, and
Pompey's wife Cornelia is placed in security at Lesbos. The sixth book
describes the repulses of Caesar round Dyrrhachium, the seventh the
defeat of Pompey at Pharsalia, the eighth his flight and assassination
in Egypt, the ninth the operations of Cato in Africa and his march
through the desert, and the landing of Caesar in Egypt, the tenth the
opening incidents of the Alexandrian war. The incompleteness of the work
should not be left out of account in the estimate of its merits, for,
with two capital exceptions, the faults of the _Pharsalia_ are such as
revision might have mitigated or rendered. No such pains, certainly,
could have amended the deficiency of unity of action, or supplied the
want of a legitimate protagonist. The _Pharsalia_ is not true to
history, but it cannot shake off its shackles, and is rather a metrical
chronicle than a true epic. If it had been completed according to the
author's design, Pompey, Cato and Brutus must have successively enacted
the part of nominal hero, while the real hero is the arch-enemy of
liberty and Lucan, Caesar. Yet these defects, though glaring, are not
fatal or peculiar to Lucan. The false taste, the strained rhetoric, the
ostentatious erudition, the tedious harangues and far-fetched or
commonplace reflections so frequent in this singularly unequal poem, are
faults much more irritating, but they are also faults capable of
amendment, which the writer might not improbably have removed. Great
allowance should also be made in the case of one who is emulating
predecessors who have already carried art to its last perfection.
Lucan's temper could never have brooked mere imitation; his
versification, no less than his subject, is entirely his own; he avoids
the appearance of outward resemblance to his great predecessor with a
persistency which can only have resulted from deliberate purpose, but he
is largely influenced by the declamatory school of his grandfather and
uncle. Hence his partiality for finished antithesis, contrasting
strongly with his generally breathless style and turbid diction.
Quintilian sums up both aspects of his genius with pregnant brevity,
"Ardens et concitatus et sententiis clarissimus," adding with equal
justice, "Magis oratoribus quam poetis annumerandus." Lucan's oratory,
however, frequently approaches the regions of poetry, e.g. the
apotheosis of Pompey at the beginning of the ninth book, and the passage
in the same book where Cato, in the truest spirit of the Stoic
philosophy, refuses to consult the oracle of Jupiter Ammon. Though in
many cases Lucan's rhetoric is frigid, hyperbolical, and out of keeping
with the character of the speaker, yet his theme has a genuine hold upon
him; in the age of Nero he celebrates the republic as a poet with the
same energy with which in the age of Cicero he might have defended it as
an orator. But for him it might almost have been said that the Roman
republic never inspired the Roman muse.
Lucan never speaks of himself, but his epic speaks for him. He must have
been endowed with no common ambition, industry and self-reliance, an
enthusiastic though narrow and aristocratic patriotism, and a faculty
for appreciating magnanimity in others. But the only personal trait
positively known to us is his conjugal affection, a characteristic of
Seneca also.
Lucan, together with Statius, was preferred even to Virgil in the middle
ages. So late as 1493 his commentator Sulpitius writes: "Magnus profecto
est Maro, magnus Lucanus; adeoque prope par, ut quis sit major possis
ambigere." Shelley and Southey, in the first transport of admiration,
thought Lucan superior to Virgil; Pope, with more judgment, says that
the fire which burns in Virgil with an equable glow breaks forth in
Lucan with sudden, brief and interrupted flashes. Of late,
notwithstanding the enthusiasm of isolated admirers, Lucan has been
unduly neglected, but he has exercised an important influence upon one
great department of modern literature by his effect upon Corneille, and
through him upon the classical French drama.
AUTHORITIES.--The _Pharsalia_ was much read in the middle ages, and
consequently it is preserved in a large number of manuscripts, the
relations of which have not yet been thoroughly made out. The most
recent critical text is that of C. Hosius (2nd ed. 1906), and the
latest complete commentaries are those of C. E. Haskins (1887, with a
valuable introduction by W. E. Heitland) and C. M. Francken (1896).
There are separate editions of book i. by P. Lejay (1894) and book
vii. by J. P. Postgate (1896). Of earlier editions those of Oudendorp
(which contains the continuation of the _Pharsalia_ to the death of
Caesar by Thomas May, 1728), Burmann (1740), Bentley (1816,
posthumous) and Weber (1829) may be mentioned. There are English
translations by C. Marlowe (book i. only, 1600), Sir F. Gorges (1614),
Thomas May (1626), N. Rowe (1718) and Sir E. Ridley (2nd ed. 1905),
the two last being the best. (R. G.; J. P. P.)
LUCANIA, in ancient geography, a district of southern Italy, extending
from the Tyrrhenian Sea to the Gulf of Tarentum. To the north it
adjoined Campania, Samnium and Apulia, and to the south it was separated
by a narrow isthmus from the district of Bruttii. It thus comprised
almost all the modern province of the Basilicata, with the greater part
of the province of Salerno and a portion of that of Cosenza. The precise
limits were the river Silarus on the north-west, which separated it from
Campania, and the Bradanus, which flows into the Gulf of Tarentum, on
the north-east; while the two little rivers Laus and Crathis, flowing
from the ridge of the Apennines to the sea on the west and east, marked
the limits of the district on the side of the Bruttii.
Almost the whole is occupied by the Apennines, here an irregular group
of lofty masses. The main ridge approaches the western sea, and is
continued from the lofty knot of mountains on the frontiers of Samnium,
nearly due south to within a few miles of the Gulf of Policastro, and
thenceforward is separated from the sea by only a narrow interval till
it enters the district of the Bruttii. Just within the frontier of
Lucania rises Monte Pollino, 7325 ft., the highest peak in the southern
Apennines. The mountains descend by a much more gradual slope to the
coastal plain of the Gulf of Tarentum. Thus the rivers which flow to the
Tyrrhenian Sea are of little importance compared with those that descend
towards the Gulf of Tarentum. Of these the most important are--the
Bradanus (Bradano), the Casuentus (Basiento), the Aciris (Agri), and the
Siris (Sinno). The Crathis, which forms at its mouth the southern limit
of the province, belongs almost wholly to the territory of the Bruttii,
but it receives a tributary, the Sybaris (Coscile), from the mountains
of Lucania. The only considerable stream on the western side is the
Silarus (Sele), which constitutes the northern boundary, and has two
important tributaries in the Calor (Calore) and the Tanager (Negro)
which joins it from the south.
The district of Lucania was so called from the people bearing the name
Lucani (Lucanians) by whom it was conquered about the middle of the 5th
century B.C. Before that period it was included under the general name
of Oenotria, which was applied by the Greeks to the southernmost
portion of Italy. The mountainous interior was occupied by the tribes
known as Oenotrians and Chones, while the coasts on both sides were
occupied by powerful Greek colonies which doubtless exercised a
protectorate over the interior (see MAGNA GRAECIA). The Lucanians were a
southern branch of the Samnite or Sabelline race, who spoke the Osca
Lingua (q.v.). We know from Strabo that they had a democratic
constitution save in time of war, when a dictator was chosen from among
the regular magistrates. A few Oscan inscriptions survive, mostly in
Greek characters, from the 4th or 3rd century B.C., and some coins with
Oscan legends of the 3rd century (see Conway, Italic Dialects, p. 11
sqq.; Mommsen, _C.I.L._ x. p. 21; Roehl, _Inscriptiones Graecae
Antiquissimae_, 547). The Lucanians gradually conquered the whole
country (with the exception of the Greek towns on the coast) from the
borders of Samnium and Campania to the southern extremity of Italy.
Subsequently the inhabitants of the peninsula, now known as Calabria,
broke into insurrection, and under the name of Bruttians established
their independence, after which the Lucanians became confined within the
limits already described. After this we find them engaged in hostilities
with the Tarentines, and with Alexander, king of Epirus, who was called
in by that people to their assistance, 326 B.C. In 298 B.C. (Livy x. 11
seq.) they made alliance with Rome, and Roman influence was extended by
the colonies of Venusia (291 B.C.), Paestum (273), and above all
Tarentum (272). Subsequently they were sometimes in alliance, but more
frequently engaged in hostilities, during the Samnite wars. On the
landing of Pyrrhus in Italy (281 B.C.) they were among the first to
declare in his favour, and found themselves exposed to the resentment of
Rome when the departure of Pyrrhus left his allies at the mercy of the
Romans. After several campaigns they were reduced to subjection (272
B.C.). Notwithstanding this they espoused the cause of Hannibal during
the Second Punic War (216 B.C.), and their territory during several
campaigns was ravaged by both armies. The country never recovered from
these disasters, and under the Roman government fell into decay, to
which the Social War, in which the Lucanians took part with the Samnites
against Rome (90-88 B.C.) gave the finishing stroke. In the time of
Strabo the Greek cities on the coast had fallen into insignificance, and
owing to the decrease of population and cultivation the malaria began to
obtain the upper hand. The few towns of the interior were of no
importance. A large part of the province was given up to pasture, and
the mountains were covered with forests, which abounded in wild boars,
bears and wolves. There were some fifteen independent communities, but
none of great importance.
For administrative purposes under the Roman empire, Lucania was always
united with the district of the Bruttii. The two together constituted
the third region of Augustus.
The towns on the east coast were--Metapontum, a few miles south of the
Bradanus; Heraclea, at the mouth of the Aciris; and Siris, on the
river of the same name. Close to its southern frontier stood Sybaris,
which was destroyed in 510 B.C., but subsequently replaced by Thurii.
On the west coast stood Posidonia, known under the Roman government as
Paestum; below that came Elea or Velia, Pyxus, called by the Romans
Buxentum, and Laus, near the frontier of the province towards
Bruttium. Of the towns of the interior the most considerable was
Potentia, still called Potenza. To the north, near the frontier of
Apulia, was Bantia (Aceruntia belonged more properly to Apulia); while
due south from Potentia was Grumentum, and still farther in that
direction were Nerulum and Muranum. In the upland valley of the
Tanagrus were Atina, Forum Popilii and Consilinum; Eburi (Eboli) and
Volceii (Buccino), though to the north of the Silarus, were also
included in Lucania. The Via Popillia traversed the district from N.
to S., entering it at the N.W. extremity; the Via Herculia, coming
southwards from the Via Appia and passing through Potentia and
Grumentum, joined the Via Popillia near the S.W. edge of the district:
while another nameless road followed the east coast and other roads of
less importance ran W. from Potentia to the Via Popillia, N.E. to the
Via Appia and E. from Grumentum to the coast at Heraclea. (T. As.)
LUCARIS, CYRILLUS (1572-1637), Greek prelate and theologian, was a
native of Crete. In youth he travelled, studying at Venice and Padua,
and at Geneva coming under the influence of the reformed faith as
represented by Calvin. In 1602 he was elected patriarch of Alexandria,
and in 1621 patriarch of Constantinople. He was the first great name in
the Orthodox Eastern Church since 1453, and dominates its history in the
17th century. The great aim of his life was to reform the church on
Calvinistic lines, and to this end he sent many young Greek theologians
to the universities of Switzerland, Holland and England. In 1629 he
published his famous _Confessio_, Calvinistic in doctrine, but as far as
possible accommodated to the language and creeds of the Orthodox Church.
It appeared the same year in two Latin editions, four French, one German
and one English, and in the Eastern Church started a controversy which
culminated in 1691 in the convocation by Dositheos, patriarch of
Jerusalem, of a synod by which the Calvinistic doctrines were condemned.
Lucaris was several times temporarily deposed and banished at the
instigation of his orthodox opponents and of the Jesuits, who were his
bitterest enemies. Finally, when Sultan Murad was about to set out for
the Persian War, the patriarch was accused of a design to stir up the
Cossacks, and to avoid trouble during his absence the sultan had him
killed by the Janissaries (June 1637). His body was thrown into the sea,
recovered and buried at a distance from the capital by his friends, and
only brought back to Constantinople after many years.
The orthodoxy of Lucaris himself continued to be a matter of debate in
the Eastern Church, even Dositheos, in view of the reputation of the
great patriarch, thinking it expedient to gloss over his heterodoxy in
the interests of the Church.
See the article "Lukaris" by Ph. Meyer in Herzog-Hauck,
_Realencyklop._ (3rd ed., Leipzig, 1902), which gives further
authorities.
LUCARNE, a French architectural term for a garret window, also for the
lights or small windows in spires.
LUCAS, SIR CHARLES (d. 1648), English soldier, was the son of Sir Thomas
Lucas of Colchester, Essex. As a young man he saw service in the
Netherlands under the command of his brother, and in the "Bishops' War"
he commanded a troop of horse in King Charles I.'s army. In 1639 he was
made a knight. At the outbreak of the Civil War Lucas naturally took the
king's side, and at the first cavalry fight, Powick Bridge, he was
wounded. Early in 1643 he raised a regiment of horse, with which he
defeated Middleton at Padbury on July 1st. In January 1644 he commanded
the forces attacking Nottingham, and soon afterwards, on Prince Rupert's
recommendation, he was made lieutenant-general of Newcastle's Northern
army. When Newcastle was shut up in York, Lucas and the cavalry remained
in the open country, and when Rupert's relieving army crossed the
mountains into Yorkshire he was quickly joined by Newcastle's squadrons.
At Marston Moor Lucas swept Fairfax's Yorkshire horse before him, but
later in the day he was taken prisoner. Exchanged during the winter, he
defended Berkeley Castle for a short time against Rainsborough, but was
soon in the field again. As lieutenant-general of all the horse he
accompanied Lord Astley in the last campaign of the first war, and,
taken prisoner at Stow-on-the-Wold, he engaged not to bear arms against
parliament in the future. This parole he must be held to have broken
when he took a prominent part in the seizure of Colchester in 1648. That
place was soon invested, and finally fell, after a desperate resistance,
to Fairfax's army. The superior officers had to surrender "at mercy,"
and Lucas and Sir George Lisle were immediately tried by court martial
and sentenced to death. The two Royalists were shot the same evening in
the Castle of Colchester.
See Lloyd, _Memoirs of Excellent Personages_ (1669); and Earl de Grey,
_A Memoir of the Life of Sir Charles Lucas_ (1845).
LUCAS, CHARLES (1713-1771), Irish physician and politician, was the son
of a country gentleman of small means in Co. Clare. Charles opened a
small business as an apothecary in Dublin, and between 1735 and 1741 he
began his career as a pamphleteer by publishing papers on professional
matters which led to legislation requiring inspection of drugs. Having
been elected a member of the common council of Dublin in 1741 he
detected and exposed encroachments by the aldermen on the electoral
rights of the citizens, and entered upon a controversy on the subject,
but failed in legal proceedings against the aldermen in 1744. With a
view to becoming a parliamentary candidate for the city of Dublin he
issued in 1748-1749 a series of political addresses in which he
advocated the principles of Molyneux and Swift; and he made himself so
obnoxious to the government that the House of Commons voted him an enemy
to the country, and issued a proclamation for his arrest, thus
compelling him to retire for some years to the continent. Having studied
medicine at Paris, Lucas took the degree of M.D. at Leiden in 1752. In
the following year he started practice as a physician in London, and in
1756 he published a work on medicinal waters, the properties of which he
had studied on the continent and at Bath. The essay was reviewed by Dr
Johnson, and although it was resented by the medical profession it
gained a reputation and a considerable practice for its author. In 1760
he renewed his political pamphleteering; and having obtained a pardon
from George III., he proceeded to Dublin, where he received a popular
welcome and a Doctor's degree from Trinity College. He was elected
member for the city of Dublin in 1761, his colleague in the
representation being the recorder, Henry Grattan's father. On the
appointment of Lord Halifax as lord lieutenant in the same year Lucas
wrote him a long letter (19th of Sept. 1761, MSS. Irish State Paper
Office) setting forth the grievances which Ireland had suffered in the
past, chiefly on account of the exorbitant pensions enjoyed by
government officials. The cause of these evils he declared to be the
unrepresentative character of the Irish constitution; and among the
remedies he proposed was the shortening of parliaments. Lucas brought in
a bill in his first session to effect this reform, but was defeated on
the motion to have the bill sent to England for approval by the privy
council; and he insisted upon the independent rights of the Irish
parliament, which were afterwards in fuller measure successfully
vindicated by Grattan. He also defended the privileges of the Irish
Protestants in the press, and especially in the _Freeman's Journal_,
founded in 1763. His contributions to the press, and his _Addresses to
the Lord Mayor_ and other political pamphlets made him one of the most
popular writers in Ireland of his time, although he was anti-catholic in
his prejudices, and although, as Lecky observes, "there is nothing in
his remains to show that he possessed any real superiority either of
intellect or knowledge, or even any remarkable brilliancy of
expression." He died on the 4th of November 1771, and was accorded a
public funeral. As an orator Charles Lucas appears to have had little
power, and he made no mark in the House of Commons.
See R. R. Madden, _Hist. of Irish Periodical Literature from the End
of the 17th to the Middle of the 19th Century_ (2 vols., London,
1867); Francis Hardy, _Memoirs of the Earl of Charlemont_ (2 vols.,
London, 1812); W. E. H. Lecky, _History of Ireland in the Eighteenth
Century_, vols. i. and ii. (5 vols., London, 1892).
LUCAS, JOHN SEYMOUR (1849- ), English painter, was born in London, and
was a student in the Royal Academy Schools. He was elected an associate
of the academy in 1886 and academician in 1898, and became a constant
exhibitor of pictures of historical and domestic incidents, notably of
the Tudor and Stuart periods, painted with much skill and with close
attention to detail. One of his most important works is a panel in the
Royal Exchange, presented by the corporation of London, representing
William the Conqueror granting the first charter to the city; and one of
his earlier pictures, "After Culloden: Rebel Hunting," is in the
National Gallery of British Art.
LUCAS VAN LEYDEN (c. 1494-1533), Dutch painter, was born at Leiden,
where his father Huig Jacobsz gave him the first lessons in art. He then
entered the painting-room of Cornelis Engelbrechtszen of Leiden, and
soon became known for his capacity in making designs for glass,
engraving copper-plates, painting pictures, portraits and landscapes in
oil and distemper. According to van Mander he was born in 1494, and
painted at the age of twelve a "Legend of St Hubert" for which he was
paid a dozen florins. He was only fourteen when he finished a plate
representing Mahomet taking the life of Sergius, the monk, and at
fifteen he produced a series of nine plates for a "Passion," a
"Temptation of St Anthony," and a "Conversion of St Paul." The list of
his engravings in 1510, when, according to van Mander, he was only
sixteen, includes subjects as various as a celebrated "Ecce Homo," "Adam
and Eve expelled from Paradise," a herdsman and a milkmaid with three
cows, and a little naked girl running away from a barking dog. Whatever
may be thought of the tradition embodied in van Mander's pages as to the
true age of Lucas van Leyden, there is no doubt that, as early as 1508,
he was a master of repute as a copperplate engraver. It was the time
when art found patrons among the public that could ill afford to buy
pictures, yet had enough interest in culture to satisfy itself by means
of prints. Lucas van Leyden became the representative man for the public
of Holland as Dürer for that of Germany; and a rivalry grew up between
the two engravers, which came to be so close that on the neutral market
of Italy the products of each were all but evenly quoted. Vasari
affirmed that Dürer surpassed Lucas as a designer, but that in the use
of the graver they were both unsurpassed, a judgment which has not been
reversed. But the rivalry was friendly. About the time when Dürer
visited the Netherlands Lucas went to Antwerp, which then flourished as
an international mart for productions of the pencil and the graver, and
it is thought that he was the master who took the freedom of the Antwerp
gild in 1521 under the name of Lucas the Hollander. In Dürer's diary
kept during his travels in the Low Countries, we find that at Antwerp he
met Lucas, who asked him to dinner, and that Dürer accepted. He valued
the art of Lucas at its true figure, and exchanged the Dutchman's prints
for eight florins' worth of his own. In 1527 Lucas made a tour of the
Netherlands, giving dinners to the painters of the gilds of Middleburg,
Ghent, Malines and Antwerp. He was accompanied during the trip by
Mabuse, whom he imitated in his style as well as in his love of rich
costume. On his return home he fell sick and remained ailing till his
death in 1533, and he believed that poison had been administered to him
by some envious comrade.
A few days before his death Lucas van Leyden was informed of the birth
of a grandson, first-born of his only daughter Gretchen. Gretchen's
fourth son JEAN DE HOEY followed the profession of his grandfather, and
became well known at the Parisian court as painter and chamberlain to
the king of France, Henry IV.
As an engraver Lucas van Leyden deserves his reputation. He has not
the genius, nor had he the artistic tact, of Dürer; and he displays
more cleverness of expression than skill in distribution or in
refinement in details. But his power in handling the graver is great,
and some of his portraits, especially his own, are equal to anything
by the master of Nüremberg. Much that he accomplished as a painter has
been lost, because he worked a good deal upon cloth in distemper. In
1522 he painted the "Virgin and Child with the Magdalen and a Kneeling
Donor," now in the gallery of Munich. His manner was then akin to that
of Mabuse. The "Last Judgment" in the town-gallery of Leiden is
composed on the traditional lines of Cristus and Memling, with
monsters in the style of Jerom Bosch and figures in the stilted
attitudes of the South German school; the scale of colours in yellow,
white and grey is at once pale and gaudy, the quaintest contrasts are
produced by the juxtaposition of alabaster flesh in females and
bronzed skin in males, or black hair by the side of yellow, or
rose-coloured drapery set sharply against apple-green or black; yet
some of the heads are painted with great delicacy and modelled with
exquisite feeling. Dr Waagen gave a favourable opinion of a triptych
now at the Hermitage at St Petersburg, executed, according to van
Mander, in 1531, representing the "Blind Man of Jericho healed by
Jesus Christ." Here too the German critic observed the union of faulty
composition with great finish and warm flesh-tints with a gaudy scale
of colours. The same defects and qualities will be found in such
specimens as are preserved in public collections, among which may be
mentioned the "Card Party" at Wilton House, the "Penitent St Jerome"
in the gallery of Berlin, and the hermits "Paul" and "Anthony" in the
Liechtenstein collection at Vienna. There is a characteristic
"Adoration of the Magi" at Buckingham Palace.
LUCCA (anc. _Luca_), a town and archiepiscopal see of Tuscany, Italy,
capital of the province of Lucca, 13 m. by rail N.E. of Pisa. Pop.
(1901) 43,566 (town); 73,465 (commune). It is situated 62 ft. above the
level of the sea, in the valley of the Serchio, and looks out for the
most part on a horizon of hills and mountains. The fortifications,
pierced by four gates, were begun in 1504 and completed in 1645, and
long ranked among the most remarkable in the peninsula. They are still
well-preserved and picturesque, with projecting bastions planted with
trees.
The city has a well-built and substantial appearance, its chief
attraction lying in the numerous churches, which belong in the main to a
well-marked basilican type, and present almost too richly decorated
exteriors, fine apsidal ends and quadrangular campaniles, in some cases
with battlemented summits, and windows increasing in number as they
ascend. In style they are an imitation of the Pisan. It is remarkable
that in the arcades a pillar generally occupies the middle of the
façade. The cathedral of St Martin was begun in 1063 by Bishop Anselm
(later Pope Alexander II.); but the great apse with its tall columnar
arcades and the fine campanile are probably the only remnants of the
early edifice, the nave and transepts having been rebuilt in the Gothic
style in the 14th century, while the west front was begun in 1204 by
Guidetto (lately identified with Guido Bigarelli of Como), and "consists
of a vast portico of three magnificent arches, and above them three
ranges of open galleries covered with all the devices of an exuberant
fancy." The ground plan is a Latin cross, the nave being 273 ft. in
length and 84 ft. in width, and the transepts 144 ft. in length. In the
nave is a little octagonal temple or chapel, which serves as a shrine
for the most precious of the relics of Lucca, a cedar-wood crucifix,
carved, according to the legend, by Nicodemus, and miraculously conveyed
to Lucca in 782. The Sacred Countenance (_Volto Santo_), as it is
generally called, because the face of the Saviour is considered a true
likeness, is only shown thrice a year. The chapel was built in 1484 by
Matteo Civitali, a local sculptor of the early Renaissance (1436-1501);
he was the only master of Tuscany outside Florence who worked thoroughly
in the Florentine style, and his creations are among the most charming
works of the Renaissance. The cathedral contains several other works by
him--the tomb of P. da Noceto, the altar of S. Regulus and the tomb of
Ilaria del Carretto by Jacopo della Quercia of Siena (described by
Ruskin in _Modern Painters_, ii.), the earliest of his extant works
(1406), and one of the earliest decorative works of the Renaissance. In
one of the chapels is a fine Madonna by Fra Bartolommeo; in the
municipal picture gallery are a fine "God the Father" and another
Madonna by him; also some sculptures by Civitali, and some good wood
carving, including choir stalls. In the cathedral choir is good stained
glass of 1485. The church of St Michael, founded in the 8th century, and
built of marble within and without, has a lofty and magnificent western
façade (1188)--an architectural screen rising much above the roof of the
church. The interior is good but rather bare. The church of St Martino
at Arliano near Lucca belongs to the first half of the 8th century; it
is of basilican plan (see G. T. Rivoira, _Origini dell' Architettura
Lombarda_, iii. [Rome, 1901] 138). St Frediano or Frigidian dates
originally from the 7th century, but was built in the Romanesque style
in 1112-1147, though the interior, originally with four aisles and nave,
shows traces of the earliest structure; the front occupies the site of
the ancient apse; in one of its chapels is the tomb of Santa Zita,
patroness of servants and of Lucca itself. In S. Francesco, a fine
Gothic church, is the tomb of Castruccio Castracane. San Giovanni
(originally of the 12th century), S. Cristoforo, San Romano (rebuilt in
the 17th century, by Vincenzo Buonamici), and Santa Maria Forisportam
(of the 12th century) also deserve mention.
Among the secular buildings are the old ducal palace, begun in 1578 by
Ammanati, and now the residence of the prefect and seat of the
provincial officers and the public picture gallery; the early
Renaissance Palazzo Pretorio, or former residence of the podestà, now
the seat of the civil and correctional courts; the palace, erected in
the 15th century by a member of the Guinigi family, of brick, in the
Italian Gothic style, and now serving as a poor-house; the 16th-century
palace of the marquis Guidiccioni, now used as a depository for the
archives, the earliest documents going back to A.D. 790. The Palazzo
Mansi contains a collection of Dutch pictures. There are several other
fine late 16th-century palaces. The principal market-place in the city
(_Piazza del Mercato_) has taken possession of the arena of the ancient
amphitheatre, the outer arches of which can still be seen in the
surrounding buildings. The whole building, belonging probably to the
early Empire, measured 135 by 105 yds., and the arena 87½ by 58 yds. The
outline of the ancient theatre can be traced in the Piazza delle Grazie,
and some of its substructure walls are preserved. The ancient forum was
on the site of the Piazza S. Michele in the centre of the town; remains
of a small public building or shrine were found not far off in 1906 (L.
Pernier in _Notizie degli Scavi_, 1906, p. 117). The rectangular
disposition of the streets in the centre of the town is a survival of
Roman times. Besides the academy of sciences, which dates from 1584,
there are several institutions of the same kind--a royal philomathic
academy, a royal academy of arts and a public library of 50,000 volumes.
The archiepiscopal library and archives are also important, while the
treasury contains some fine goldsmith's work, including the 14th-century
Croce dei Pisani, made by the Pisans for the cathedral.
The river Serchio affords water-power for numerous factories. The most
important industries are the manufacture of jute goods (carried on at
Ponte a Moriano in the Serchio valley, 6 m. N. of Lucca), tobacco, silks
and cottons. The silk manufacture, introduced at Lucca about the close
of the 11th century, and in the early part of the 16th the means of
subsistence for 30,000 of its inhabitants, now gives employment (in
reeling and throwing) to only about 1500. The bulk of the population is
engaged in agriculture. The water supply is maintained by an aqueduct
built in 1823-1832 with 459 arches, from the Pisan mountains.
The ancient Luca, commanding the valley of the Serchio, is first
mentioned as the place to which Sempronius retired in 218 B.C. before
Hannibal; but there is some doubt as to the correctness of Livy's
statement, for, though there were continual wars with the Ligurians,
after this time, it is not mentioned again until we are told that in 177
B.C. a Latin colony was founded there in territory offered by the Pisans
for the purpose.[1] It must have become a municipium by the _lex Julia_
of 90 B.C., and it was here that Julius Caesar in 56 B.C. held his
famous conference with Pompey and Crassus, Luca then being still in
Liguria, not in Etruria. A little later a colony was conducted hither by
the triumvirs or by Octavian; whether after Philippi or after Actium is
uncertain. In the Augustan division of Italy Luca was assigned to the
7th region (Etruria); it is little mentioned in the imperial period
except as a meeting-point of roads--to Florentia (see Clodia, Via), Luna
and Pisae. The road to Parma given in the itineraries, according to some
authorities, led by Luna and the Cisa pass (the route taken by the
modern railway from Sarzana to Parma), according to others up the
Serchio valley and over the Sassalbo pass (O. Cuntz in _Jahreshefte des
oesterr. arch. Instituts_, 1904, 53). Though plundered and deprived of
part of its territory by Odoacer, Luca appears as an important city and
fortress at the time of Narses, who besieged it for three months in A.D.
553, and under the Lombards it was the residence of a duke or marquis
and had the privilege of a mint. The dukes gradually extended their
power over all Tuscany, but after the death of the famous Matilda the
city began to constitute itself an independent community, and in 1160 it
obtained from Welf VI., duke of Bavaria and marquis of Tuscany, the
lordship of all the country for 5 m. round, on payment of an annual
tribute. Internal discord afforded an opportunity to Uguccione della
Faggiuola, with whom Dante spent some time there, to make himself master
of Lucca in 1314, but the Lucchesi expelled him two years afterwards,
and handed over their city to Castruccio Castracane, under whose
masterly tyranny it became "for a moment the leading state of Italy,"
until his death in 1328 (his tomb is in S. Francesco). Occupied by the
troops of Louis of Bavaria, sold to a rich Genoese Gherardino Spinola,
seized by John, king of Bohemia, pawned to the Rossi of Parma, by them
ceded to Martino della Scala of Verona, sold to the Florentines,
surrendered to the Pisans, nominally liberated by the emperor Charles
IV. and governed by his vicar, Lucca managed, at first as a democracy,
and after 1628 as an oligarchy, to maintain "its independence alongside
of Venice and Genoa, and painted the word Libertas on its banner till
the French Revolution." In the beginning of the 16th century one of its
leading citizens, Francesco Burlamacchi, made a noble attempt to give
political cohesion to Italy, but perished on the scaffold (1548); his
statue by Ulisse Cambi was erected on the Piazza San Michele in 1863. As
a principality formed in 1805 by Napoleon in favour of his sister Elisa
and her husband Bacchiocchi, Lucca was for a few years wonderfully
prosperous. It was occupied by the Neapolitans in 1814; from 1816 to
1847 it was governed as a duchy by Maria Luisa, queen of Etruria, and
her son Charles Louis; and it afterwards formed one of the divisions of
Tuscany.
The bishops of Lucca, who can be traced back to 347, received
exceptional marks of distinction, such as the pallium in 1120, and the
archiepiscopal cross from Alexander II. In 1726 Benedict XIII. raised
their see to the rank of an archbishopric, without suffragans.
See A. Mazzarosa, _Storia di Lucca_ (Lucca, 1833); E. Ridolfi, _L'Arte
in Lucca studiata nella sua Cattedrale_ (1882); _Guidi di Lucca; La
Basilica di S. Michele in Foro in Lucca_. (T. As.)