of Gottingen University to essay the task. He began with the assumption
that there were three languages, and that of these the first was ancient
Persian, the language of the Achaemenians, who had erected these palaces
and caused these inscriptions to be written. For his first attempts at
decipherment he chose two of these old Persian inscriptions and laid
them side by side. They were of moderate length, and the frequent
recurrence of the same signs in them seemed to indicate that their
contents were similar. The method which he now pursued was so simple,
yet so sure, as he advanced step by step, that there seemed scarcely a
chance of error. Munter had observed in all the Persian texts a word
which occurred in two forms, a short and a longer form. This word
appeared in Grotefend's two texts in both long and short forms. Munter
had suggested that it meant "king" in the short form and "kings" in the
longer, and that when the two words occurred together the expression
meant "king of kings." But further, this word occurred in both
inscriptions in the first line, and in both cases was followed by the
same word. This second word Grotefend supposed to mean "_great_," the
combined expression being "king great," that is, "great king." All this
found support in the phraseology of the lately deciphered Sassanian
inscriptions, and it was plausible in itself. It must, however, be
supported by definite facts, and furthermore each word must be separated
into its alphabetic parts, every one of them identified, and the words
themselves be shown to be philologically possible by the production of
similar words in related languages. In other words, the archaeological
method must find support in a philological method. To this Grotefend now
devoted himself with equal energy. His method was as simple as before.
He had made out to his own satisfaction the titles "great king, king of
kings." Now, in the Sassanian inscriptions, the first word was always
the king's name, followed immediately by "great king, king of kings,"
and Grotefend reasoned that this was probably true in his texts. But if
true, then these two texts were set up by two different kings, for the
names were not the same at the beginning. Furthermore the name with
which his text No. I. began appears in the third line of text No. II.,
but in a somewhat longer form, which Grotefend thought was a genitive
and meant "of N." It followed the word previously supposed to be "king"
and another which might mean son (N king son), so that the whole
expression would be "son of N king." From these facts Grotefend surmised
that in these two inscriptions he had the names of three rulers,
grandfather, father and son. It was now easy to search the list of the
Achaemenian dynasty and to find three names which would suit the
conditions, and the three which he ventured to select were Hystaspes,
Darius, Xerxes. According to his hypothesis the name at the beginning of
inscription I. was Darius, and he was ready to translate his texts in
part as follows:--
I. Darius, great king, king of kings ... son of Hystaspes....
II. Xerxes, great king, king of kings ... son of Darius king.
The form which he provisionally adopted for Darius was Darheush; later
investigation has shown that it ought really to be read as Daryavush,
but the error was not serious, and he had safely secured at least the
letters D, A, R, SH. It was a most wonderful achievement, the importance
of which he did not realize, for in it was the key to the decipherment
of three ancient languages. To very few men has it been given to make
discoveries so important both for history and for philology.
To Grotefend it was, however, not given to translate a whole text, or
even to work out all the words whose meaning he had surmised. Rasmus
Christian Rask (1787-1832), who followed him, found the plural ending in
Persian, which had baffled him; and Eugene Burnouf (1801-1852), by the
study of a list of Persian geographical names found at Naksh-i-Rustam,
discovered at a single stroke almost all the characters of the Persian
alphabet, and incidentally confirmed the values already determined by
his predecessors.
At the same time as Burnouf, the eminent Sanskrit scholar Professor
Christian Lassen (1800-1876), of Bonn, was studying the same list of
names; and his results were published at the same time. The controversy
which resulted as to priority of discovery may be here passed over while
we sum up the results in general conclusions. Lassen may certainly claim
in the final court of history that he discovered independently of
Burnouf the values of at least six and possibly of eight signs. But in
another respect he made very definite progress over Burnouf. He
discovered that, if the system of Grotefend were rigidly followed, and
to every sign were given the value Grotefend had assigned, some words
would be left wholly or almost wholly without vowels; and therefore
unpronounceable. As instances of such words he mentioned CPRD, THTGUS,
KTPTUK, FRAISJM. This situation led Lassen to a very important
discovery, towards which his knowledge of the Sanskrit alphabet did much
to bring him. He came, in short, to the conclusion that the ancient
Persian signs were not entirely alphabetic, but were at least partially
syllabic, that is, that certain signs were used to represent not merely
an alphabetic character like "b," but also a syllable such as "ba," "bi"
or "bu." He claimed that he had successfully demonstrated that the sign
for "a" was only used at the beginning of a word, or before a consonant,
or before another vowel, and that in every other case it was included in
the consonant sign. Thus in the inscription No I. in the second line the
signs should be read VA-ZA-RA-KA. This was a most important discovery,
and may be said to have revolutionized the study of these long puzzling
texts.
During the entire time of this slow process of decipherment, from the
first essays of Grotefend in 1802 until the publication of Lassen's book
in 1836, there were more sceptics than believers in the results of the
deciphering process. Indeed the history of all forms of decipherment of
unknown languages shows that scepticism concerning them is far more
prevalent than credulity or even a too ready acceptance. There was need
for a man of another people, of different training and a fresh and
unbiased mind, to put the capstone upon the decipherment, and he was
already at work when Lassen's important researches appeared.
Major (afterward Sir) Henry Rawlinson had gone out to India, in the
service of the East India Company, while still a boy. There he had
learned Persian and several of the Indian vernaculars. That was not the
sort of training that had prepared Grotefend, Burnouf or Lassen, but it
was the kind that the early travellers and copyists had enjoyed. In 1833
young Rawlinson went to Persia, to work with other British officers in
the reorganization of the Persian army. While engaged in this service
his attention was drawn to the ancient Persian cuneiform inscriptions.
In 1835 he copied with great care the texts at Hamadan, and began their
decipherment. Of all the eager work which had been going on in Europe he
knew little. It is no longer possible to ascertain when he gained his
first information of Grotefend's work, for Norris, the secretary of the
Royal Asiatic Society, has left us no record of when he began to send
notices of the German's work. Whenever it was, there seems to be no
doubt that Rawlinson worked independently for a time. His method was
strikingly like Grotefend's. He had copied two trilingual inscriptions,
and recognized at once that he had three languages before him. In 1839
(_Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society_, x. pp. 5, 6) he thus wrote of
his method: "When I proceeded ... to compare and interline the two
inscriptions (or rather the Persian columns of the two inscriptions,
for, as the compartments exhibiting the inscription in the Persian
language occupied the principal place in the tablets, and were engraved
in the least complicated of the three classes of cuneiform writing, they
were naturally first submitted to examination) I found that the
characters coincided throughout, except in certain particular groups,
and it was only reasonable to suppose that the grounds which were thus
brought out and individualized must represent proper names. I further
remarked that there were but three of these distinct groups in the two
inscriptions; for the group which occupied the second place in one
inscription, and which, from its position, suggested the idea of its
representing the name of the father of the king who was there
commemorated, corresponded with the group which occupied the first place
in the other inscription, and thus not only served determinately to
connect the two inscriptions together, but, assuming the groups to
represent proper names, appeared also to indicate a genealogical
succession. The natural inference was that in these three groups of
characters I had obtained the proper names belonging to three
consecutive generations of the Persian monarchy; and it so happened that
the first three names of Hystaspes, Darius and Xerxes, which I applied
at hazard to the three groups, according to the succession, proved to
answer in all respects satisfactorily and were, in fact, the true
identification."
Rawlinson's next work was the copying of the great inscription of Darius
on the rocks at Behistun (q.v.). He had first seen it in 1835, and as it
was high up on the rocky face, and apparently inaccessible, he had
studied it by means of a field-glass. He was not able to copy the whole
of the Persian text, but in 1837, when he was more skilled in the
script, he secured more of it. In the next year he forwarded to the
Royal Asiatic Society of London his translation of the first two
paragraphs of the Persian text, containing the name, titles and
genealogy of Darius. This was little less than a _tour de force_, for it
must be remembered that this had been accomplished without the knowledge
of other ancient languages which his European competitors had enjoyed.
The translation, received in London on the 14th of March, made a
sensation, and a transcript sent in April to the Asiatic Society of
Paris secured him an honorary membership in that distinguished body. He
was now known, and many made haste to send him copies of everything
important which had been published in Europe. The works of Burnouf,
Niebuhr, le Brun and Porter came to his hands, and with such assistance
he made rapid progress, and in the winter of 1838-1839 his alphabet of
ancient Persian was almost complete. In 1839 he was in Bagdad, his work
written out and almost ready for publication. But he delayed, hoping for
more light, and revising sign by sign with exhaustless patience. He
expected to publish his preliminary memoir in the spring of 1840, when
he was suddenly sent to Afghanistan as political agent at Kandahar. Here
he was too busily engaged in war administration to attend to his
favourite studies, which were not renewed until 1843 when he returned to
Bagdad. There he received fresh copies and corrections of the Persepolis
inscriptions which had been made by Westergaard, and later made a
journey to Behistun to perfect his own copies of the texts which had
formed the basis of his own first study. At last, after many delays and
discouragements, he published, in 1846, in the _Journal of the Royal
Asiatic Society_, his memoir, or series of memoirs, on the ancient
Persian inscriptions, in which for the first time he gave a nearly
complete translation of the Persian text of Behistun. In this one
publication Rawlinson attained imperishable fame in Oriental research.
His work had been carried on under greater difficulties than those in
the path of his European colleagues, but he had surpassed them all in
the making of an intelligible and connected translation of a long
inscription. He had indeed not done it without assistance from the work
of Burnouf, Grotefend and Lassen, but when all allowance is made for
these influences his fame is not diminished nor the extent of his
services curtailed. His method was adopted before he knew of Lassen's
work. That two men of such different training and of such opposite types
of mind should have lighted upon the same method, and by it have
attained the same results, confirmed in the eyes of many the truth of
the decipherment.
The work of the decipherment of the old Persian texts was now complete
for all practical purposes. But in 1846 there appeared a paper read
before the Royal Irish Academy by the Rev. Edward Hincks of Killyleagh,
County Down, Ireland, whose keen criticisms of Lassen's work, and
original contributions to the definite settlement of syllabic values,
may be regarded as closing the period of decipherment of Persian
cuneiform writing.
The next problem in the study of cuneiform was the decipherment of the
second language in each of the trilingual groups. The first essay in
this difficult task was made in 1844 by Niels Louis Westergaard. His
method was very similar to that used by Grotefend in the decipherment of
Persian. He selected the names of Darius, Hystaspes, Persians and
others, and compared them with their equivalents in the Persian texts.
By this means he learned a number of signs, and sought by their use in
other words to spell out syllables or words whose meanings were then
ascertained by conjecture or by comparison. He estimated the number of
characters at eighty-two or eighty-seven, and judged the writing to be
partly alphabetic and partly syllabic. The language he called Median,
and classified it in "the Scythian, rather than in the Japhetic family."
The results of Westergaard were subjected to incisive criticism by
Hincks, who made a distinct gain in the problem. It next passed to the
hands of de Saulcy, who was able to see further than either. But the
matter moved with difficulty because the copied texts were not accurate.
By the generosity of Sir Henry Rawlinson his superb copies of the
Behistun text, second column, were placed in the hands of Mr Edwin
Norris, who was able in 1852 to present a paper to the Royal Asiatic
Society deciphering nearly all of it. Mordtmann followed him, naming the
language Susian, which was met with general acceptance and was not
displaced by the name Amardian, suggested by A. H. Sayce in two papers
which otherwise made important contributions to the subject. With his
contributions the problem of decipherment of Susian may be considered as
closed. The latter workers could only be builders on foundations already
laid.
The decipherment of the third of the three languages found at Persepolis
and Behistun followed quickly on the success with Susian. The first
worker was Isadore Lowenstern, who made out the words for "king" and
"great" and the sign for the plural, but little more. The first really
great advance was made by Hincks in 1846 and 1847. In these he
determined successfully the values of several signs, settled the
numerals, and was apparently on the high-road toward the translation of
an entire Assyrian text. He was, however, too cautious to proceed so
far, and the credit of first translating a short Assyrian text belongs
to Longperier, who in 1847 published the following as the translation of
an entire text: "Glorious is Sargon, the great king, the (...) king,
king of kings, king of the land of Assyria." It was nearly all correct,
but it advanced our knowledge but slightly because it did not give the
forms of the words--because (to put it in another way) he was not able
to transliterate the Assyrian words. This was the great problem. In the
Persian texts there were but forty-four signs, but in the third column
of the Persepolis texts Grotefend had counted one hundred and thirty
different characters, and estimated that in all the Babylonian texts
known to him there were about three hundred different signs, while Botta
discovered six hundred and forty-two in the texts found by him at
Khorsabad. That was enough to make the stoutest heart quail, for a
meaning must be found for every one of these signs. There could not be
so many syllables, and it was, therefore, quite plain that the
Babylonian language must have been written in part at least in
ideograms. But in 1851 Rawlinson published one hundred and twelve lines
of the Babylonian column from Behistun, accompanied by an interlinear
transcription into Roman characters, and a translation into Latin. That
paper, added to Hinck's still more acute detail studies, brought to an
end the preliminary decipherment of Babylonian. There were still
enormous difficulties to be surmounted in the full appreciation of the
complicated script, but these would be solved by the combined labours of
many workers.
Origin.
The cuneiform script had its origin in Babylonia and its inventors were
a people whom we call the Sumerians. Before the Semitic Babylonians
conquered the land it was inhabited by a people of unknown origin
variously classified, by different scholars, with the Ural-altaic or
even with the Indo-European family, or as having blood relationship with
both. This people is known to us from thousands of cuneiform
inscriptions written entirely in their language, though our chief
knowledge of them was for a long time derived from Sumerian inscriptions
with interlinear translations in Assyrian. Their language is called
Sumerian (li-sa-an Su-me-ri) by the Assyrians (Br. Mus. 81-7-27, 130),
and its characteristics are being slowly developed by the elaborate
study of the immense literature which has come down to us. In 1884
Halevy denied the existence of the Sumerian language, and claimed that
it was merely a cabalistic script invented by the priests of the
Semites. His early success has not been sustained, and the vast majority
of scholars have ceased to doubt the existence of the language.
The Sumerians developed their script from a rude picture-writing, some
early forms of which have come down to us. In course of time they used
the pictures to represent sounds, apart from ideas. They wrote first on
stone, and when clay was adopted soon found that straight lines in soft
clay when made by a single pressure of the stylus tend to become wedges,
and the pictures therefore lost their character and came to be mere
conventional groups of wedges. Some of these wedge-shaped signs are of
such character that we are still able to recognize or re-construct the
original picture from which they came. The Assyrian sign [symbol], which
means heaven, appears in early texts in the form [symbol] in which its
star-like form is quite evident (star = heaven) and from which the
linear form [symbol] may be not improbably pre-supposed. A number of
other cases were enumerated by the Assyrians themselves (see _Cuneiform
Texts from Bab. Tab. in Brit. Museum_, vol. v., 1898), and there can be
no reasonable doubt that this is the origin of the script.
Development and characteristics.
The number of the original picture-signs cannot have been great, but the
development of new signs never ceased till the cuneiform script passed
wholly from use. The simplest form of development was doubling, to
express plurality or intensity. After this came the working of two signs
into one; thus [symbol] "water," when placed in [symbol] "mouth" gave
the new sign [symbol] "to drink," and many others. Other signs were
formed by the addition of four lines, either vertically or horizontally,
to intensify the original meaning. Thus, for instance, the old linear
sign [symbol] means dwelling, but with four additional signs, thus
[symbol], it means "great house." This sign gradually changed in form
until it came to be [symbol]. This method of development was called by
the Sumerians _gunu_, and signs thus formed are now commonly called by
us, _gunu_ signs. They number hundreds and must be reckoned with in our
study of the script development, though perhaps recent scholars have
somewhat exaggerated their importance. The process of development is
obscure and must always remain so.
The script as finally developed and used by the Assyrians is cumbrous
and complicated, and very ill adapted to the sounds of the Semitic
alphabet. It has (1) simple syllables, consisting of one vowel and a
consonant, or a vowel by itself, thus [symbol] "a," [symbol] ab,
[symbol] ib, [symbol] ub, [symbol] ba, [symbol] bi, [symbol] bu. In
addition to these the Assyrian had also (2) compound syllables, such as
[symbol] bit, [symbol] bal, and (3) ideograms, or signs which express an
entire word, such as [symbol] _beltu_, lady, [symbol] _abu_, father. The
difficulty of reading this script is enormously increased by the fact
that many signs are polyphonous, i.e. they may have more than one
syllabic value and also be used as an ideogram. Thus the sign [symbol]
has the ideographic values of _matu_, land, _shadu_, mountain,
_kashadu_, to conquer, _napachu_, to arise (of the sun), and also the
syllabic values _kur_, _mad_, _mat_, _shad_, _shat_, _lat_, _nad_,
_nat_, _kin_ and _gin_. This method of writing must lead to ambiguity,
and this difficulty is helped somewhat by (4) determinatives, which are
signs intended to indicate the class to which the word belongs. Thus,
the [symbol] is placed before names of persons, and [symbol] (the
ideogram for _matu_, country, and _shadu_, mountain) is placed before
names of countries and mountains, and [symbol] (_ilu_, god) before the
names of gods.
History.
The cuneiform writing, begun by the Sumerians in a period so remote that
it is idle to speculate concerning it, had a long and very extensive
history. It was first adopted by the Semitic Babylonians, and as we have
seen was modified, developed, nay almost made over. Their inscriptions
are written in it from _circa_ 4500 B.C. to the 1st century B.C. From
their hands it passed to the Assyrians, who simplified some characters
and conventionalized many more, and used the script during the entire
period of their national existence from 1500 B.C. to 607 B.C. From the
Babylonian by a slow process of evolution the much simplified Persian
script was developed, and with the Babylonian is also to be connected
the Susian, less complicated than the Babylonian, but less simple than
the Persian. The Chaldians (not Chaldaeans), who lived about Lake Van,
also adopted the cuneiform script with values of their own, and
expressed a considerable literature in it. The discovery in 1887 of the
Tell-el-Amarna tablets in upper Egypt showed that the same script was in
use in the 15th century B.C., from Elam to the Mediterranean and from
Armenia to the Persian Gulf for purposes of correspondence. There is
good reason to expect the discovery of its use by yet other peoples. It
was one of the most widely used of all the forms of ancient writing.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.--The history of the decipherment may be further studied
in R. W. Rogers, _History of Babylonia and Assyria_, vol. i. (N.Y. and
London, 1900); and in A. J. Booth, _The Discovery and Decipherment of
the Trilingual Cuneiform Inscriptions_ (London, 1902), which is very
exhaustive and accurate. The Sumerian question may best be studied in
F. H. Weissbach, _Die Sumerische Frage_ (Leipzig, 1898), and Charles
Fossey, _Manuel d'Assyriologie_, tome i. (Paris, 1904). For
development and characteristics, see Friedrich Delitzsch, _Die
Entstehung des altesten Schriftsystems_ (Leipzig, 1897); Paul
Toscanne, _Les Signes sumeriens derives_ (Paris, 1905). (R. W. R.)
CUNEO (Fr. _Coni_), a town and episcopal see of Piedmont, Italy, the
capital of the province of Cuneo, 55 m. by rail S. of Turin, 1722 ft.
above sea-level. Cuneo lies on the railway from Turin to Ventimiglia,
which farther on passes under the Col di Tenda (tunnel 5 m. long). It is
also a junction for Mondovi and Saluzzo, and has steam tramways to Borgo
S. Dalmazzo, Boves, Saluzzo and Dronero. Pop. (1901) 15,412 (town),
26,879 (commune). Its name ("wedge") is due to its position on a hill
between two streams, the Stura and the Gesso, with fine views of the
mountains. The Franciscan church, now converted into a military
storehouse, belongs to the 12th century, but there are no other
buildings of special interest. The fortifications have been converted
into promenades. Cuneo was founded about 1120 by refugees from local
baronial tyranny, who, after the destruction of Milan by Barbarossa,
were joined by Lombards. In 1382 it swore fealty to Amedeus VI., duke of
Savoy. It was an important fortress, and was ceded by the treaty of
Cherasco (1796), with Ceva and Tortona, to the French. In 1799 it was
taken after ten days' bombardment by the Austrian and Russian armies,
and, in 1800, after the victory of Marengo, the French demolished the
fortifications.
CUNEUS (Latin for "wedge"; plural, _cunei_), the architectural term
applied to the wedge-shaped divisions of the Roman theatre separated by
the _scalae_ or stairways; see Vitruvius v. 4.
CUNITZ, MARIA (c. 1610-1664), Silesian astronomer, was the eldest
daughter of Dr Heinrich Cunitz of Schweinitz, and the wife (1630) of Dr
Elias von Loven, of Pitschen in Silesia--both of them men of learning
and distinction. From her universal accomplishments she was called the
"Silesian Pallas," and the publication of her work, _Urania propitia_
(Oels, 1650), a simplification of the Rudolphine Tables, gained her a
European reputation. It was composed at the village of Lugnitz, close by
the convent of Olobok (Posen), where, with her husband, she had taken
refuge at the outbreak of the Thirty Years' War, and was dedicated to
the emperor Frederick III. The author became a widow in 1661, and died
at Pitschen on the 24th of August 1664.
See A. G. Kastner, _Geschichte der Mathematik_, iv. 430 (1800); N.
Henelii, _Silesiographia renovata_, cap. vi. p. 684; J. C. Eberti's
_Schlesiens wohlgelehrtes Frauenzimmer_, p. 25 (Breslau, 1727);
_Allgemeine deutsche Biographie_ (Schimmelpfenning); &c.
CUNNINGHAM, ALEXANDER (c. 1655-1730), Scottish classical scholar and
critic, was born in Ayrshire. Very little is known of his uneventful
life. It is probable that he completed his education at Leiden or
Utrecht. He was tutor to the son of the first duke of Queensberry,
through whose influence he was appointed professor of civil law in the
university of Edinburgh. In 1710, the Edinburgh magistrates, regarding
the university patronage as their privilege, appointed another
professor, ignoring the appointment of Cunningham, who had been
installed in the office for at least ten years. Cunningham thereupon
left England for the Hague, where he resided until his death. He is
chiefly known for his edition of Horace (1721) with notes, mostly
critical, which included a volume of _Animadversiones_ upon Richard
Bentley's notes and emendations. They marked him as one of the most able
critics of Bentley's (in many cases) rash and tasteless conjectural
alterations of the text. Cunningham also edited the works of Virgil and
Phaedrus (together with the _Sententiae_ of Publilius Syrus and others).
He had also been engaged for some years in the preparation of an edition
of the Pandects and of a work on Christian evidences.
Life by D. Irving in _Lives of Scottish Writers_ (1839).
The above must not be confused with Alexander Cunningham, British
minister to Venice (1715-1720), a learned historian and author of _The
History of Great Britain_ (from 1688 to the accession of George I.),
originally written in Latin and published in an English translation
after his death.
CUNNINGHAM, ALLAN (1784-1842), Scottish poet and man of letters, was
born at Keir, Dumfriesshire, on the 7th of December 1784, and began life
as a stone mason's apprentice. His father was a neighbour of Burns at
Ellisland, and Allan with his brother James visited James Hogg, the
Ettrick shepherd, who became a friend to both. Cunningham contributed
some songs to Roche's _Literary Recreations_ in 1807, and in 1809 he
collected old ballads for Robert Hartley Cromek's _Remains of Nithsdale
and Galloway Song_; he sent in, however, poems of his own, which the
editor inserted, even though he may have suspected their real
authorship. In 1810 Cunningham went to London, where he supported
himself chiefly by newspaper reporting till 1814, when he became clerk
of the works in the studio of Francis Chantrey, retaining this
employment till the sculptor's death in 1841. He meanwhile continued to
be busily engaged in literary work. Cunningham's prose is often spoiled
by its misplaced and too ambitious rhetoric; his verse also is often
over-ornate, and both are full of mannerisms. Some of his songs,
however, hold a high place among British lyrics. "A Wet Sheet and a
Flowing Sea" is one of the best of our sea-songs, although written by a
landsman; and many other of Cunningham's songs will bear comparison with
it. He died on the 30th of October 1842.
He was married to Jean Walker, who had been servant in a house where he
lived, and had five sons and one daughter. JOSEPH DAVEY CUNNINGHAM
(1812-1851) entered the Bengal Engineers, and is known by his _History
of the Sikhs_ (1849). SIR ALEXANDER CUNNINGHAM (1814-1893) also entered
the Bengal Engineers, attaining the rank of major-general; he was
director general of the Indian Archaeological Survey (1870-1885), and
wrote an _Ancient Geography of India_ (1871) and _Coins of Medieval
India_ (1894). PETER CUNNINGHAM (1816-1869) published several
topographical and biographical studies, of which the most important are
his _Handbook of London_ (1849) and _The Life of Drummond of
Hawthornden_ (1833). FRANCIS CUNNINGHAM (1820-1875) joined the Indian
army, and published editions of Ben Jonson (1871), Marlowe (1870) and
Massinger (1871).
The works of Allan Cunningham include _Lives of the Most Eminent
British Painters, Sculptors and Architects_ (1829-1833); _Sir
Marmaduke Maxwell_ (1820), a dramatic poem; _Traditionary Tales of the
Peasantry_ (1822), several novels (_Paul Jones, Sir Michael Scott,
Lord Roldan_); the _Maid of Elwar_, a sort of epic romance; the _Songs
of Scotland_ (1825); _Biographical and Critical History of the
Literature of the Last Fifty Years_ (1833); an edition of _The Works
of Robert Burns_, with notes and a life containing a good deal of new
material (1834); _Biographical and Critical Dissertations_ affixed to
Major's _Cabinet Gallery of Pictures_; and _Life, Journals and
Correspondence of Sir David Wilkie_, published in 1843. An edition of
his _Poems and Songs_ was issued by his son, Peter Cunningham, in
1847.
CUNNINGHAM, WILLIAM (1805-1861), Scottish theologian and ecclesiastic,
was born at Hamilton, in Lanarkshire, on the 2nd of October 1805, and
educated at the university of Edinburgh. He was licensed to preach in
1828, and in 1830 was ordained to a collegiate charge in Greenock, where
he remained for three years. In 1834 he was transferred to the charge of
Trinity College parish, Edinburgh. His removal coincided with the
commencement of the period known in Scottish ecclesiastical history as
the Ten Years' Conflict, in which he was destined to take a leading
share. In the stormy discussions and controversies which preceded the
Disruption the weight and force of his intellect, the keenness of his
logic, and his firm grasp of principle made him one of the most powerful
advocates of the cause of spiritual independence; and he has been
generally recognized as one of three to whom mainly the existence of the
Free Church is due, the others being Chalmers and Candlish. On the
formation of the Free Church in 1843, Cunningham was appointed professor
of church history and divinity in the New College, Edinburgh, of which
he became principal in 1847 in succession to Thomas Chalmers. His career
was very successful, his controversial sympathies combined with his
evident desire to be rigidly impartial qualifying him to be an
interesting delineator of the more stirring periods of church history,
and a skilful disentangler of the knotty points in theological polemics.
In 1859 he was appointed moderator of the General Assembly. He had
received the degree of D.D. from the university of Princeton in 1842. He
died on the 14th of December 1861. He was one of the founders of the
Evangelical Alliance. A theological lectureship at the New College,
Edinburgh, was endowed in 1862, to be known as the Cunningham
lectureship.
A _Life of Cunningham_, by Rainy and Mackenzie, appeared in 1871.
CUNNINGHAM, WILLIAM (1849- ), English economist, was born at Edinburgh
on the 29th of December 1849. Educated at Edinburgh Academy and
University and Trinity College, Cambridge, he graduated 1st class in the
Moral Science tripos in 1873, and in the same year took holy orders. He
was university lecturer in history from 1884 to 1891, in which year he
was appointed professor of economics at King's College, London, a post
which he held until 1897. He was lecturer in economic history at Harvard
University (1899), and Hulsean lecturer at Cambridge (1885). He became
vicar of Great St Mary's, Cambridge, in 1887, and was made a fellow of
the British Academy. In 1906 he was appointed archdeacon of Ely. Dr
Cunningham's _Growth of English Industry and Commerce during the Early
and Middle Ages_ (1890; 4th ed., 1905) and _Growth of English Industry
and Commerce in Modern Times_ (1882; 3rd ed., 1903) are the standard
works of reference on the industrial history of England. He also wrote
_The Use and Abuse of Money_ (1891); _Alien Immigration_ (1897);
_Western Civilization in its Economic Aspect in Ancient Times_ (1898),
and _in Modern Times_ (1900), and _The Rise and Decline of Free Trade_
(1905). Dr Cunningham's eminence as an economic historian gave special
importance to his attitude as one of the leading supporters of Mr
Chamberlain from 1903 onwards in criticizing the English free-trade
policy and advocating tariff reform.
CUP (in O. E. _cuppe_; generally taken to be from Late Lat. _cuppa_, a
variant of Lat. _cupa_, a cask, cf. Gr. [Greek: kypellon]), a drinking
vessel, usually in the form of a half a sphere, with or without a foot
or handles. The footless type with a single handle is preserved in the
ordinary tea-cup. The cup on a stem with a base is the usual form taken
by the cup as used in the celebration of the eucharist, to which the
name "chalice" (Lat. _calix_, Gr. [Greek: kylix], a goblet) is generally
given. (See DRINKING VESSELS and PLATE.)
CUPAR, a royal, municipal and police burgh, and capital of the county of
Fifeshire, Scotland, 11 m. W. by S. of St Andrews by the North British
railway. Pop. (1901) 4511. It is situated on the left bank of the Eden,
in the east of the Howe (Hollow) of Fife, and is sometimes written
Cupar-Fife to distinguish it from Coupar-Angus in Perthshire. Among the
chief buildings are the town hall, county buildings, corn exchange,
Duncan Institute, cottage hospital, Union Street Hall and the
Bell-Baxter school. The school, formerly called the Madras Academy, was
originally endowed (1832) by Dr Bell, founder of the Madras system of
education, but, having been enriched at a later date by a bequest of Sir
David Baxter (1873), it was afterwards called the Bell-Baxter school.
The Mercat Cross stands at "the Cross" in the main street, where it was
set up in 1897, having been removed from Hilltarvit, an eminence in the
neighbourhood of Cupar, on the western slope of which, at Garliebank,
the truce was signed between Mary of Guise and the lords of the
Congregation. In the parish, but at a distance from the town, are the
Fife and Kinross asylum and the Adamson institute, a holiday home for
poor children from Leith. The town received its charter in 1356 from
David II., and, being situated between Falkland and St Andrews, was
constantly visited by Scottish sovereigns, James VI. holding his court
there for some time in 1583. The site of the 12th-century castle, one of
the strongholds of the Macduffs, thanes or earls of Fife, is occupied by
a public school. On the esplanade in front of Macduff Castle, still
called the Playfield, took place in 1552 one of the first recorded
performances of Sir David Lindsay's _Ane Satyre of the Three Estaits_
(1540); his _Tragedy of the Cardinal_ (1547), referring to the murder of
Beaton, being also performed there. Sir David sat in the Scottish
parliament as commissioner for Cupar, his place, the Mount, being within
3 m. north-west of the town. Lord Chancellor Campbell (1799-1861) was a
native of Cupar.
Cupar is an agricultural and legal centre. Its chief industry is the
manufacture of linen, and tanning is carried on. At Cupar Muir, 1(1/2)
m. to the west, there are a sandstone quarry and brick works. The town
has also some repute for the quality of its printing, both in black and
colour. This was largely due to the Tullis press, which produced about
the beginning of the 19th century editions of Virgil, Horace and other
classical writers, under the recension of Professor John Hunter of St
Andrews, which were highly esteemed for the accuracy of their
typography. Cupar belongs to the St Andrews district group of burghs for
returning one member to parliament, the other constituents being Crail,
the two Anstruthers, Kilrenny, Pittenweem and St Andrews.
There are several interesting places within a few miles. To the
north-east is the parish of Dairsie, where one of the few parliaments
that ever met in Fife assembled in 1335. The castle in which the senate
sat was also the residence for a period of Archbishop Spottiswood, who
founded the parish church in 1621. Two miles and a half north of Dairsie
is situated Kilmany, which was the first charge of Thomas Chalmers. He
was ordained to it in May 1803 and held it for twelve years. David
Hackston, the Covenanter, who was a passive assister at the
assassination of Archbishop Sharp, belonged to this parish, his place
being named Rathillet. After his execution at Edinburgh (1680) one of
his hands was buried at Cupar, where a monument inscription records the
circumstances of his death. To the west of Kilmany lies Creich, where
Alexander Henderson (1583-1646), the Covenanting divine and diplomatist,
and John Sage (1652-1711), the non-juring archbishop of Glasgow, were
born. Henderson took a keen interest in education and gave the school at
Creich a small endowment. Some 3 m. to the south-west of Cupar is Cults,
where Sir David Wilkie, the painter, was born. His father was minister
of the parish, and Pitlessie, the fair of which provided the artist with
the subject of the first picture in which he showed distinct promise,
lies within a mile of the manse. In the sandstone of Dura Den, a ravine
on Ceres Burn, 2(1/2) m. E. of Cupar, have been found great quantities
of fossils of ganoid fishes. The rocks belong to the Upper Old Red
Sandstone.
CUPBOARD, a fixed or movable closet usually with shelves. As the name
suggests, it is a descendant of the credence or buffet, the
characteristic of which was a series of open shelves for the reception
of drinking vessels and table requisites. After the word lost its
original meaning--and down to the end of the 16th century we still find
the expression "on the cupboard"--this piece of furniture was, as it to
some extent remains, movable, but it is now most frequently a fixture
designed to fill a corner or recess. Throughout the 18th century the
cupboard was a distinguished domestic institution, and the housewife
found her chief joy in accumulating cupboards full of china, glass and
preserves. With the exception of a very few examples of fine
ecclesiastical cupboards which partook chiefly of the nature of the
armoire in that they were intended for the storage of vestments, the
so-called court-cupboard is perhaps the oldest form of the contrivance.
The derivation of the expression is somewhat obscure, but it is
generally taken to refer to the French word _court_, short. This
particular type was much used from the Elizabethan to the end of the
Carolinian period. It was really a sideboard with small square doors
below, and a recessed superstructure supported upon balusters. Of these
many examples remain. Less frequent is the livery cupboard, the meaning
of which may be best explained by the following quotation from Spenser's
_Account of the State of Ireland_:--"What livery is we by common use in
England know well enough, namely, that it is an allowance of horse-meat,
as they commonly use the word stabling, as to keep horses at livery; the
which word I guess is derived of livering or delivering forth their
nightly food; so in great houses the livery is said to be served up for
all night--that is, their evening allowance for drink." The livery
cupboard appears usually to have been placed in bedrooms, so that a
supply of food and drink was readily available when a very long interval
separated the last meal of the evening from the first in the morning.
The livery cupboard was often small enough to stand upon a sideboard or
cabinet, and had an open front with a series of turned balusters. It was
often used in churches to contain the loaves of bread doled out to poor
persons under the terms of ancient charities. They were then called dole
cupboards; there are two large and excellent examples in St Alban's
Abbey. The butter, or bread and cheese cupboard, was a more ordinary
form, with the back and sides bored with holes, sometimes in a
geometrical pattern, for the admission of air to the food within. The
corner cupboard, which is in many ways the most pleasing and artistic
form of this piece of furniture, originated in the 18th century, which
as we have seen was the golden age of the cupboard. It was often of oak,
but more frequently of mahogany, and had either a solid or a glass
front. The older solid-fronted pieces are fixed to the wall half-way up,
but those of the somewhat more modern type, in which there is much
glass, usually have a wooden base with glazed superstructure. Most
corner cupboards are attractive in form and treatment, and many of
them, inlaid with satinwood, ebony, holly or box, are extremely elegant.
CUPID (_Cupido_, "desire"), the Latin name for the god of love, Eros
(q.v.). Cupid is generally identical with Amor. The idea of the god of
love in Roman poetry is due to the influence of Alexandrian poets and
artists, in whose hands he degenerated into a mischievous boy with
essentially human characteristics. His usual attribute is the bow. For
the story of Cupid and Psyche, see under PSYCHE.
CUPOLA (Ital., from Lat. _cupula_, small cask or vault, _cupa_, tub), a
term, in architecture, for a spherical or spheroidal covering to a
building, or to any part of it. In fortification the word is used of a
form of armoured structure, in which guns or howitzers are mounted. It
is a low flat turret resembling an overturned saucer and showing little
above the ground except the muzzles of the guns. See for details and
illustrations FORTIFICATION AND SIEGECRAFT; also ORDNANCE.
CUPPING. The operation of cupping is one of the methods that have been
adopted by surgeons to draw blood from an inflamed part in order to
relieve the inflammation. The skin is washed and dried; a glass cup with
a rounded edge is then firmly applied, after the air in it has been
heated; the cooling of the air causes the formation of a partial vacuum,
and the blood is thus drawn from the neighbouring parts to the skin
under the cup. Either the blood is drawn from the patient's body through
a number of small wounds which are made in the skin, with a special
instrument, before the cup is applied; or the cup is simply applied to
the unbroken skin and the blood drawn into the subcutaneous tissue
within the circumference of the cup. The result of both methods is the
same,--namely, a withdrawal of blood locally from the inflamed part. The
former is called moist cupping, the latter dry cupping. This operation
has naturally declined in vogue with the obsolescence of blood-letting
as a remedy.
CUPRA, the name of two ancient Italian _municipia_ in Picenum.
1. Cupra Maritima (Civita di Marano near the modern Cupra Marittima), on
the Adriatic coast, 48 m. S.S.E. of Ancona, erected in the neighbourhood
of an ancient temple of the Sabine goddess Cupra, which was restored by
Hadrian in A.D. 127, and probably (though there is some controversy on
the point) occupied the site of the church of S. Martino, some way to
the south, in which the inscription of Hadrian exists. At Civita the
remains of what was believed to be the temple were more probably those
of the forum of the town, as is indicated by the discovery of fragments
of a calendar and of a statue of Hadrian. Some statuettes of Juno were
also among the finds. An inscription of a water reservoir erected in 7
B.C. is also recorded. But the more ancient Picene town appears to have
been situated near the hill of S. Andrea, a little way to the south,
where pre-Roman tombs have been discovered.
See C. Hulsen in Pauly-Wissowa, _Realencyclopadie_ (Stuttgart, 1901),
iv. 1760; G. Speranza, _Il Piceno_ (Ascoli Piceno, 1900), i. 119 seq.
2. Cupra Montana, 10 m. S.W. of Aesis (mod. Jesi) by road. The village,
formerly called Massaccio, has resumed the ancient name. Its site is
fixed by inscriptions--cf. Th. Mommsen in _Corp. Inscrip. Lat._ ix.
(Berlin, 1883), p. 543; and various ruins, perhaps of baths, and remains
of subterranean aqueducts have been discovered near the church of S.
Eleuterio.
See F. Menicucci in G. Colucci, _Antichita Picene_, xx. (1793).
CUPRITE, a mineral consisting of cuprous oxide, Cu2O, crystallizing in
the cubic system, and forming an important ore of copper, of which
element cuprite contains 88.8%. The name cuprite (from Lat. _cuprum_,
copper) was given by W. Haidinger in 1845; earlier names are red copper
ore and ruby copper, which at once distinguish this mineral from the
other native copper oxide--cupric oxide--known as black copper ore or
melaconite. Well-developed crystals are of common occurrence; they
usually have the form of the regular octahedron, sometimes in
combination with the cube and the rhombic dodecahedron. A few Cornish
crystals have been observed with faces of a form {_hkl_} known as the
pentagonal icositetrahedron, since it is bounded by twenty-four
irregular pentagons. In this class of cubic crystals there are no planes
or centre of symmetry, but the full number (thirteen) of axes of
symmetry; it is known as the trapezohedral hemihedral class, and cuprite
affords the best example of this type of symmetry. The etching figures
do not, however, conform to this lower degree of symmetry, nor do
crystals of cuprite rotate the plane of polarization of plane-polarized
light. The colour of the mineral is cochineal-red, and the lustre
brilliant and adamantine to sub-metallic in character; crystals are
often translucent, and show a crimson-red colour by transmitted light.
On prolonged exposure to light the crystals become dull and opaque. The
streak is brownish-red. Hardness 3(1/2); specific gravity 6.0;
refractive index 2.85.
[Illustration]
Compact to granular masses also occur, and there are two curious
varieties--chalcotrichite and tile-ore--which require special mention.
Chalcotrichite (from Gr. [Greek: chalkos], copper, and [Greek: thrix],
[Greek: trichos], hair) or "plush copper ore" is a capillary form with a
rich carmine colour and silky lustre; the delicate hairs are loosely
matted together, and each one is an individual crystal enormously
elongated in the direction of the diagonal or the edge of the cube.
Tile-ore (Ger. _Ziegelerz_) is a soft earthy variety of a brick-red to
brownish-red colour; it contains admixed limonite, and has been formed
by the alteration of chalcopyrite (copper and iron sulphide).
Cuprite occurs in the upper part of copper-bearing lodes, and is of
secondary origin, having been produced by the alteration of copper
sulphides. Beautifully crystallized specimens were formerly found in
Wheal Gorland and Wheal Unity at Gwennap, and in Wheal Phoenix near
Liskeard in Cornwall; they also occur in the copper mines of the Urals,
and in Arizona. Isolated crystals bounded by faces on all sides, and an
inch or more in diameter, are found embedded in a soft white clay at
Chessy near Lyons; they are usually altered on the surface, or
throughout, to malachite. Chalcotrichite comes from Wheal Phoenix and
Fowey Consols mine in Cornwall, and from Morenci in Arizona; tile-ore
from Bogoslovsk in the Urals, Atacama in South America, and other
localities. Small crystals of cuprite, together with malachite, azurite
and cerussite, are sometimes found encrusting ancient objects of copper
and bronze, such as celts and Roman coins, which have for long periods
remained buried in the soil. Artificially formed crystals have been
observed in furnace products. (R. W. R.)
CUPULIFERAE, a botanical order, or, in recent arrangements, group of
orders, containing several familiar trees. The plants are trees or
shrubs with simple leaves alternately arranged and small unisexual
flowers generally arranged in catkins and pollinated by wind-agency. The
generally one-seeded nut-like fruit is associated with the persistent
often hardened or greatly enlarged bracts forming the so-called cupule
which gives the name to the group. The group is subdivided as follows,
and these subdivisions are now generally regarded either as distinct
natural orders or the first two as sub-orders of one natural order.
_Betuleae_ or _Betulaceae_. Female flowers arranged, two to three
together on scale-like structures formed by the union of bracts, in
catkins; ovary two-celled; fruit small, flattened, protected between the
ripened scales of the catkin. Includes _Betula_ (birch) and _Alnus_
(alder).
_Coryleae_ or _Corylaceae_. Female flowers in pairs, the bracts
enlarging in the fruit to form a membranous cup (hazel), or a flat
three-lobed structure (hornbeam). Ovary two-celled. Includes _Corylus_
(hazel) and _Carpinus_ (hornbeam).
_Fagaceae_ (Cupuliferae in a restricted sense). Bracts forming a fleshy
or hard cupule which envelops the one to several fruits. Ovary
three-celled. Includes _Quercus_ (oak), _Fagus_ (beech), _Castanea_
(sweet-chestnut).
Detailed accounts of the trees will be found under separate headings.
CURACAO, or CURACOA, an island in the Dutch West Indies. It lies 40 m.
from the north coast of Venezuela, in 12 deg. N. and 69 deg. W., being
40 m. long from N.W. to S.E., with an average width of 10 m. and an area
of 212 sq. m. The surface is generally flat, but in the south-west there
are hills attaining an elevation of 1200 ft. The shores are in places
deeply indented, forming several natural harbours, the chief of which is
that of St Anna on the south-west coast. Curacao consists of eruptive
rocks, chiefly diorite and diabase, and is surrounded by coral reefs.
Streams are few and the rainfall is scanty, averaging only 16 in. per
annum. Although the plains are for the most part arid wastes, sugar,
aloes, tobacco and divi-divi are produced with much toil in the more
fertile glens. Salt, phosphates and cattle are exported. The commerce is
mainly with the United States, and there is a large carrying trade with
Venezuela. The famous Curacoa liqueur (see below) was originally made on
the island from a peculiar variety of orange, the _Citrus Aurantium
curassuviensis_. Willemstad (pop. about 8000), on the harbour of St.
Anna, is the principal town. It bears a strong resemblance to a Dutch
town, for the houses are built in the style of those of Amsterdam, and
the narrow channel separating it from its western suburb of Overzijde
and the waters of the Waigat, which intersect it, recall the canals. The
narrow entrance leading to the Schottegat or Inner Harbour is protected
by forts. The negroes of the island speak a curious dialect called
_Papaimento_, composed of Spanish, Dutch, English and native words.
Curacao gives name to the government of the Dutch West Indies, which
consists of Aruba, an island lying W. of Curacao, with an area of 69 sq.
m. and a population of 9591; Buen Ayre, lying 20 m. N.E., with an area
of 95 sq. m. and a population of 4926; together with St Eustatius, Saba
and part of St Martin. The governor is assisted by a council of four
members and a colonial council of eight members nominated by the crown.
The island of Curacao has a population of 30,119; and altogether the
Dutch West Indies have a population of 51,693.
Curacao was discovered by Hojeda about 1499 and occupied by the
Spaniards in 1527. In 1634 it fell into the hands of the Dutch, who have
held it ever since, except during the year 1798 and from 1806 to 1814
when it passed into the possession of Great Britain.
See Wynmalen, "Les Colonies neerlandaises dans les Antilles," _Revue
colon. internat._ (1887), ii. p. 391; K. Martin, _West-Indische
Skizzen_ (Leiden, 1887); De Veer, _La Colonie de Curacoa_ (Les Pays
Bas, 1898). Also several articles on all the islands in _Tijdschrift
v. h. Ned. Aardr. Genootschap_ (1883-1886).
CURACOA, a liqueur, chiefly manufactured in Holland. It is relatively
simple in composition, the predominating flavour being obtained from the
dried peel of the Curacoa orange. The method of preparation is in
principle as follows. The peel is first softened by maceration; then a
part of the softened peel is distilled with spirit and water, and the
remainder is macerated in a portion of the distillate so obtained. After
two or three days the infusion is strained and added to the remainder of
the original distillate. This simple method is subject to variations in
manufacture, and the addition of a small quantity of Jamaica rum, in
particular, is said to much improve the flavour. Dry Curacoa contains
about 39%, the sweet variety about 36% of alcohol. A lighter variety of
Curacoa, made with fine brandy, is known as "Grand Marnier."
CURASSOW (_Cracinae_), a group of gallinaceous birds forming one of the
subfamilies of _Cracidae_, the species of which are among the largest
and most splendid of the game birds of South America, where they may be
said to represent the pheasants of the Old World. They are large, heavy
birds, many of them rivalling the turkey in size, with short wings, long
and broad tail, and strong bill. In common with the family to which they
belong, they have the hind toe of the foot placed on a level with the
others, thus resembling the pigeons, and unlike the majority of
gallinaceous birds. With the exception of a single species found north
of Panama, the curassows are confined to the tropical forests of South
America, east of the Andes, and not extending south of Paraguay. They
live in small flocks, and are arboreal in their habits, only
occasionally descending to the ground, while always roosting and
building their nests on the branches of trees. Their nests are neat
structures, made of slender branches interlaced with stems of grass, and
lined internally with leaves. They feed on fruits, seeds and insects.
They are often tamed in several parts of South America, but have never
been thoroughly domesticated anywhere. Large numbers of these birds
were, according to K. J. Temminck, brought to Holland from Dutch Guiana
towards the end of the 18th century, and got so completely acclimatized
and domesticated as to breed in confinement like ordinary poultry; but
the establishments in which these were kept were broken up during the
troubles that followed on the French Revolution. Their flesh is said to
be exceedingly white and delicate, and this, together with their size
and the beauty of their plumage, would make the curassows an important
gain to the poultry yards of Europe, if they were not such bad breeders.
The subfamily of curassows contains four genera and twelve species, all
confined to South America, with the exception of _Crax globicera_--a
Central American species, which extends northward into Mexico. This bird
is about 3 ft. in length, of a glossy black colour over the whole body,
excepting the abdomen and tail coverts, which are white. In common with
the other species of this genus its head bears a crest of feathers
curled forward at the tips, which can be raised or depressed at will.
The female is of a reddish-brown colour, although varying greatly in
this respect, and was formerly described as a separate species--the red
curassow. In another species, _Crax incommoda_, the greater part of the
black plumage is beautifully varied with narrow transverse bars of
white. The galeated curassow (_Pauxi galeata_) is peculiar in having a
large blue tubercle, hard and stony externally, but cellular within, and
resembling a hen's egg in size and shape, situated at the base of the
hill. It only appears after the first moulting, and is much larger in
the male than in the female.
CURATE (from the Lat. _curare_, to take care of), properly a presbyter
who has the cure of souls within a parish. The term is used in this
general sense in certain rubrics of the English Book of Common Prayer,
in which it is applied equally to rectors and vicars as to perpetual
curates. So, on the continent of Europe, it is applied in this sense to
parish priests, as the Fr. _cure_, Ital. _curato_, Span. _cura_, &c. In
a more limited sense it is applied in the Church of England to the
incumbent of a parish who has no endowment of tithes, as distinguished
from a perpetual vicar, who has an endowment of small tithes, which are
for that reason sometimes styled vicarial tithes. The origin of such
unendowed curacies is traceable to the fact that benefices were
sometimes granted to religious houses _pleno jure_, and with liberty for
them to provide for the cure; and when such appropriations were
transferred to lay persons, being unable to serve themselves, the
impropriators were required to nominate a clerk in full orders to the
ordinary for his licence to serve the cure. Such curates, being not
removable at the pleasure of the impropriators, but only on due
revocation of the licence of the ordinary, came to be entitled perpetual
curates. The term "curate" in the present day is almost exclusively used
to signify a clergyman who is assistant to a rector or vicar, by whom he
is employed and paid; and a clerk in deacon's orders is competent to be
licensed by a bishop to the office of such assistant curate. The
consequence of this misuse of the term "curate" was that the title of
"perpetual curate" fell into desuetude in the Anglican Church, and an
act of parliament (1868) was passed to authorize perpetual curates to
style themselves vicars (see VICAR). The term is in use in the Roman
Catholic Church in Ireland to designate an assistant clergyman, and also
to a certain extent in the American Episcopal Church, though "assistant
minister" is usually preferred.
CURATOR (Lat. for "one who takes care," _curare_, to take care of), in
Roman law the "caretaker" or guardian of a spendthrift (_prodigus_) or
of a person of unsound mind (_furiosus_), and, more particularly, one
who takes charge of the estate of an _adolescens_, i.e. of a person _sui
juris_, above the age of a _pupillus_, fourteen or twelve years,
according to sex, and below the full age of twenty-five. Such persons
were known as "minors," i.e. _minores viginti quinque annis_. While the
tutor, the guardian of the _pupillus_, was said to be appointed for the
care of the person, the curator took charge of the property. The term
survives in Scots law for the guardian of one in the second stage of
minority, i.e. below twenty-one, and above fourteen, if a male, and
twelve, if a female. Under the Roman empire the title of curator was
given to several officials who were in charge of departments of public
administration, such as the _curatores annonae_, of the public supplies
of corn and oil, or the _curatores regionum_, who were responsible for
order in the fourteen _regiones_ or districts into which the city of
Rome was divided, and who protected the citizen from exaction in the
collection of taxes; the _curatores aquarum_ had the charge of the
aqueducts. Many of these curatorships were instituted by Augustus. In
modern usage "curator" is applied chiefly to the keeper of a museum, art
collection, public gallery, &c., but in many universities to an official
or member of a board having a general control over the university, or
with the power of electing to professorships. In the university of
Oxford "curators" are nominated to administer certain departments, such
as the University Chest.
CURCI, CARLO MARIA (1810-1891), Italian theologian, was born at Naples.
He joined the Jesuits in 1826, and for some time was devoted to
educational work and the care of the poor and prisoners. He became one
of the first editors of the Jesuit organ, the _Civilta Cattolica_; but
then came under the influence of Gioberti, Rosmini and other advocates
for reform. He wrote a preface to Gioberti's _Primato_ (1843), but
dissented from his _Prolegomena_. After the events of 1870, Curci, at
Florence, delivered a course on Christian philosophy; and in 1874 began
to publish several Scriptural works. In his edition of the New Testament
(1879-1880) he makes some severe remarks on the neglect of the study of
Scripture amongst the Italian clergy. In the meantime he began to attack
the political action of the Vatican, and in his _Il Moderno Dissidio tra
la Chiesa e l'Italia_ (1878) he advocated an understanding between the
church and state. This was followed by _La Nuova Italia ed i Vecchi
Zelanti_ (1881), another attack on the Vatican policy; and by his
_Vaticano Regio_ (1883), in which he accuses the Vatican of trafficking
in holy things and declares that the taint of worldliness came from the
false principles accepted by the Curia. His former work at Naples drew
him also in the direction of Christian Socialism. He was condemned at
Rome, and in a letter to _The Times_ (10th of September 1884) declares
that it was on account of his disobedience to the decrees of the Roman
Congregation: "I am a dutiful son of the Church who hesitates to obey an
order of his mother because he does not see clear enough the maternal
authority in it." He was cast out of the Society of Jesus and suspended,
and during this time Cardinal Manning put his purse at Curci's disposal.
Finally he accepted the decrees against him and retracted "all that he
said contrary to the faith, morals and discipline of the Church." He
passed the remainder of his life in retirement at Florence, and, a few
months before his death, was readmitted to the Jesuit Society. He died
on the 8th of June 1891. (E. Tn.)
CUREL, FRANCOIS, VICOMTE DE (1854- ), French dramatist, was born at
Metz on the 10th of June 1854. He was educated at the Ecole Centrale as
a civil engineer, the family wealth being derived from smelting works.
He began his literary career with two novels, _L'Ete des fruits secs_
(1885) and _Le Sauvetage du grand duc_ (1889). In 1891 three pieces were
accepted by the Theatre Libre. The list of his plays includes _L'Envers
d'une sainte_ (1892); _Les Fossiles_ (1892), a picture of the prejudices
of the provincial nobility; _L'Invitee_ (1893), the story of a mother
who returns to her children after twenty years' separation; _L'Amour
brode_ (1893), which was withdrawn by the author from the Theatre
Francais after the second representation; _La Figurante_ (1896); _Le
Repas du lion_ (1898), dealing with the relations between capital and
labour; _La Fille sauvage_ (1902), the history of the development of the
religious idea; _La Nouvelle Idole_ (1899), dealing with the worship of
science; and _Le Coup d'aile_ (1906).
See also _Contemporary Review_ for August 1903.
CURELY, JEAN NICOLAS (1774-1827), French cavalry leader, was the son of
a poor peasant of Lorraine. Joining, in 1793, a regiment of hussars, he
served with great distinction as private and as _sous-officier_ in the
Rhine campaigns from 1794 to 1800. He was, however, still a
non-commissioned officer of twelve years' service, when at Afflenz (12th
of November 1805) he attacked and defeated, with twenty-five men, a
whole regiment of Austrian cavalry. This brilliant feat of arms won him
the grade of _sous-lieutenant_, and the reputation of being one of the
men of the future. The next two campaigns of the _Grande Armee_ gained
him two more promotions, and as a captain of hussars he performed, in
the campaign of Wagram, a feat of even greater daring than the affair of
Afflenz. Entrusted with despatches for the viceroy of Italy, Curely,
with forty troopers, made his way through the Austrian lines,
reconnoitred everywhere, even in the very headquarters-camp of the
archduke John, and finally accomplished his mission in safety. This
exploit, only to be compared to the famous raids of the American Civil
War, and almost unparalleled in European war, gained him the grade of
_chef d'escadrons_, in which for some years he served in the Peninsular
War. Under Gouvion St Cyr he took part in the Russian War of 1812, and
in 1813 was promoted colonel. In the campaign of France (1814) Curely,
now general of brigade, commanded a brigade of "improvised" cavalry, and
succeeded in infusing into this unpromising material some of his own
daring spirit. His regiments distinguished themselves in several
combats, especially at the battle of Arcis-sur-Aube. The Restoration
government looked with suspicion on the most dashing cavalry leader of
the younger generation, and in 1815 Curely, who during the Hundred Days
had rallied to his old leader, was placed on the retired list.
Withdrawing to the little estate of Jaulny (near Thiaucourt), which was
his sole property, he lived in mournful retirement, which was saddened
still further when in 1824 he was suddenly deprived of his rank. This
last blow hastened his death. Curely, had he arrived at high command
earlier, would have been ranked with Lasalle and Montbrun, but his
career, later than theirs in beginning, was ended by the fall of
Napoleon. His devoted friend, De Brack, in his celebrated work _Light
Cavalry Outposts_, considers Curely incomparable as a leader of light
cavalry, and the portrait of Curely to be found in its pages is justly
ranked as one of the masterpieces of military literature. The general
himself left but a modest manuscript, which was left for a subsequent
generation to publish.
See also Thoumas, _Le General Curely: itineraires d'un Cavalier leger,
1793-1815_ (Paris, 1887).
CURES, a Sabine town between the left bank of the Tiber and the Via
Salaria, about 26 m. from Rome. According to the legend, it was from
Cures that Titus Tatius led to the Quirinal the Sabine settlers, from
whom, after their union with the settlers on the Palatine, the whole
Roman people took the name Quirites. It was also renowned as the
birthplace of Numa, and its importance among the Sabines at an early
period is indicated by the fact that its territory is often called
simply _ager Sabinus_. At the beginning of the imperial period it is
spoken of as an unimportant place, but seems to have risen to greater
prosperity in the 2nd century. It appears as the seat of a bishop in the
5th century, but seems to have been destroyed by the Lombards in A.D.
589. The site consists of a hill with two summits, round the base of
which runs the Fosso Corese: the western summit was occupied by the
necropolis, the eastern by the citadel, and the lower ground between the
two by the city itself. A temple, the forum, the baths, &c., were
excavated in 1874-1877.
See T. Ashby in _Papers of the British School at Rome_, iii. 34.
(T. As.)
CURETES (Gr. [Greek: Kouretes] and [Greek: Kouretes]). (1) A legendary
people mentioned by Homer (_Il._ ix. 529 ff.) as taking part in the
quarrel over the Calydonian boar. They were identified in antiquity as
either Aetolians or Acarnanians (Strabo 462, 26), and were also
represented by a stock in Chalcis in Euboea. (2) In mythology
(unconnected with the above), the attendants of Rhea. The story went
that they saved the infant Zeus from his father Cronus in Crete by
surrounding his cradle and with clashing of sword and shield preventing
his cries from being heard, and thus became the body-guard of the god
and the first priests of Zeus and Rhea. In historic times the cult of
the Curetes was widely known in Greece in connexion with that of Rhea
(q.v.). Its ceremonies consisted principally in the performance of the
Pyrrhic dance to the accompaniment of hymns and flute music, by the
priests, who represented and thus commemorated the original act of the
Curetes themselves. The dance was originally distinguished from that of
the Corybantes by its comparative moderation, and took on the full
character of the latter only after the cult of the Great Mother, Cybele,
to which it belonged, spread to Greek soil. The origin of the dance may
have lain in the supposed efficacy of noise in averting evil.
The Curetes are represented in art with shield and sword performing the
sacred dance about the infant Zeus, sometimes in the presence of a
female figure which may be Rhea. Their number in art is usually two or
three, but in literature is sometimes as high as ten. Of their names the
following have survived: Kures, Kres, Biennos, Eleuther, Itanos,
Labrandos, Panamoros, Palaxos; but no complete list of names is possible
because of their confusion with the names of the Corybantes and other
like deities. Their origin is variously related: they were earth-born,
sprung of the rain, sons of Zeus and Hera, sons of Apollo and Danais,
sons of Rhea, of the Dactyli, contemporary with the Titans (Diod. Sic.
v. 66). Rationalism made them the mortal sons of a mortal Zeus, or
originators of the Pyrrhic dance, inventors of weapons, fosterers of
agriculture, regulators of social life, &c. A plausible theory is that
of Georg Kaibel (_Gottinger Nachrichten_, 1901, pp. 512-514), who sees
in them, together with the Corybantes, Cabeiri, Dactyli, Telchines,
Titans, &c., only the same beings under different names at different
times and in different places. Kaibel holds that they all had a phallic
significance, having once been great primitive deities of procreation,
and that having fallen to an indistinct, subordinate position in the
course of the development and formalization of Greek religion, they
survive in historic times only as half divine, half demonic beings,
worshipped in connexion with the various forms of the great nature
goddess. The resemblances, especially between Rhea and her Curetes and
the Great Mother and her Corybantes (q.v.), were so striking that their
origins were inextricably confused even in the minds of the ancients:
e.g. Demetrius of Scepsis (Strabo 469, 12) derives the Curetes and Rhea
from the cult of the Great Mother in Asia, while Virgil (_Aen._ iii.
111) looks upon the latter and the Corybantes as derivations from the
former. The worship of both was akin in nature to that of the Dactyli,
the Cabeiri, and even of Dionysus, the special visible bond being the
orgiastic character of their rites.