[1] His fellow-workers were Bono of Ferrara, Ansuino of Forlì, and
Niccolò Pizzolo, to whom considerable sections of the
fresco-paintings are to be assigned. The acts of St James and St
Christopher are the leading subjects of the series. St James
Exorcizing may have been commenced by Pizzolo, and completed by
Mantegna. The Calling of St James to the Apostleship appears to be
Mantegna's design, partially carried out by Pizzolo; the subjects of
St James baptizing, his appearing before the judge, and going to
execution, and most of the legend of St Christopher, are entirely by
Mantegna.
MANTELL, GIDEON ALGERNON (1790-1852), English geologist and
palaeontologist, was born in 1790 at Lewes, Sussex. Educated for the
medical profession, he first practised in his native town, afterwards in
1835 in Brighton, and finally at Clapham, near London. He found time to
prosecute researches on the palaeontology of the Secondary rocks,
particularly in Sussex--a region which he made classical in the history
of discovery. While he was still a country doctor at Lewes his eminence
as a geological investigator was fully recognized on the publication of
his work on _The Fossils of the South Downs_ (1822). His most remarkable
discoveries were made in the Wealden formations. He demonstrated the
fresh-water origin of the strata, and from them he brought to light and
described the remarkable Dinosaurian reptiles known as _Iguanodon_,
_Hylaeosaurus_, _Pelorosaurus_ and _Regnosaurus_. For these researches
he was awarded the Wollaston medal by the Geological Society and a Royal
medal by the Royal Society. He was elected F.R.S. in 1825. Among his
other contributions to the literature of palaeontology was his
description of the Triassic reptile _Telerpelon elginense_. Towards the
end of his life Dr Mantell retired to London, where he died on the 10th
of November 1852. His eldest son, WALTER BALDOCK DURRANT MANTELL
(1820-1895), settled in New Zealand, and there attained high public
positions, eventually being secretary for Crown-lands. He obtained
remains of the _Notornis_, a recently extinct bird, and also brought
forward evidence to show that the moas were contemporaries of man.
In addition to the works above mentioned Dr Mantell was author of
_Illustrations of the Geology of Sussex_ (4to, 1827); _Geology of the
South-east of England_ (1833); _The Wonders of Geology_, 2 vols.
(1838; ed. 7, 1857); _Geological Excursions round the Isle of Wight,
and along the Adjacent Coast of Dorsetshire_ (1847; ed. 3, 1854);
_Petrifactions and their Teachings_ (1851); _The Medals of Creation_
(2 vols., 1854).
MANTES-SUR-SEINE, a town of northern France, capital of an
arrondissement in the department of Seine-et-Oise on the left bank of
the Seine, 34 m. W.N.W. of Paris by rail. Pop. (1906), 8113. The chief
building in Mantes is the celebrated church of Notre-Dame which dates in
the main from the end of the 12th century. A previous edifice was burnt
down by William the Conqueror together with the rest of the town, at the
capture of which he lost his life in 1087; he is said to have bequeathed
a large sum for the rebuilding of the church. The plan, which bears a
marked resemblance to that of Notre-Dame at Paris, includes a nave,
aisles and choir, but no transepts. Three portals open into the church
on the west, the two northernmost, which date from the 12th century,
being decorated with fine carving; that to the south is of the 14th
century and still more ornate. A fine rose-window and an open gallery,
above which rise the summits of the western towers, occupy the upper
part of the façade. In the interior, chapels dating from the 13th and
14th centuries are of interest. The tower of St Maclou (14th century),
relic of an old church and the hôtel de ville (15th to 17th centuries),
are among the older buildings of the town, and there is a fountain of
the Renaissance period. Modern bridges and a medieval bridge unite
Mantes with the opposite bank of the Seine on which the town of Limay is
built. The town has a sub-prefecture and a tribunal of first instance.
Mantes was occupied by the English from 1346 to 1364, and from 1416 to
1449.
MANTEUFFEL, EDWIN, FREIHERR VON (1809-1885), Prussian general field
marshal, son of the president of the superior court of Magdeburg, was
born at Dresden on the 24th of February 1809. He was brought up with his
cousin, Otto von Manteuffel (1805-1882), the Prussian statesman, entered
the guard cavalry at Berlin in 1827, and became an officer in 1828.
After attending the War Academy for two years, and serving successively
as aide-de-camp to General von Müffling and to Prince Albert of Prussia,
he was promoted captain in 1843 and major in 1848, when he became
aide-de-camp to Frederick William IV., whose confidence he had gained
during the revolutionary movement in Berlin. Promoted lieutenant-colonel
in 1852, and colonel to command the 5th Uhlans in 1853, he was sent on
important diplomatic missions to Vienna and St Petersburg. In 1857 he
became major-general and chief of the military cabinet. He gave hearty
support to the prince regent's plans for the reorganization of the army.
In 1861 he was violently attacked in a pamphlet by Karl Twesten
(1820-1870), a Liberal leader, whom he wounded in a duel. He served as
lieutenant-general (to which rank he was promoted on the coronation of
William I., Oct. 18, 1861) in the Danish war of 1864, and at its
conclusion was appointed civil and military governor of Schleswig. In
the Austrian War of 1866 he first occupied Holstein and afterwards
commanded a division under Vogel von Falkenstein in the Hanoverian
campaign, and succeeded him, in July, in command of the Army of the Main
(see SEVEN WEEKS' WAR). His successful operations ended with the
occupation of Würzburg, and he received the order _pour le mérite_. He
was, however, on account of his monarchist political views and almost
bigoted Roman Catholicism, regarded by the parliament as a reactionary,
and, unlike the other army commanders, he was not granted a money reward
for his services. He then went on a diplomatic mission to St Petersburg,
where he was _persona grata_, and succeeded in gaining Russia's assent
to the new position in north Germany. On returning he was gazetted to
the colonelcy of the 5th Dragoons. He was appointed to the command of
the IX. (Schleswig-Holstein) army corps in 1866. But having formerly
exercised both civil and military control in the Elbe duchies he was
unwilling to be a purely military commander under one of his late civil
subordinates, and retired from the army for a year. In 1868, however, he
returned to active service. In the Franco-German War of 1870-71 he
commanded the I. corps under Steinmetz, distinguishing himself in the
battle of Colombey-Neuilly, and in the repulse of Bazaine at Noisseville
(see FRANCO-GERMAN WAR; and METZ). He succeeded Steinmetz in October in
the command of the I. army, won the battle of Amiens against General
Farre, and occupied Rouen, but was less fortunate against Faidherbe at
Pont Noyelles and Bapaume. In January 1871 he commanded the newly formed
Army of the South, which he led, in spite of hard frost, through the
Côte d'Or and over the plateau of Langres, cut off Bourbaki's army of
the east (80,000 men), and, after the action of Pontarlier, compelled it
to cross the Swiss frontier, where it was disarmed. His immediate reward
was the Grand Cross of the order of the Iron Cross, and at the
conclusion of peace he received the Black Eagle. When the Southern Army
was disbanded Manteuffel commanded first the II. army, and, from June
1871 until 1873, the army of occupation left in France, showing great
tact in a difficult position. On leaving France at the close of the
occupation, the emperor promoted Manteuffel to the rank of general field
marshal and awarded him a large grant in money, and about the same time
Alexander II. of Russia gave him the order of St Andrew. After this he
was employed on several diplomatic missions, was for a time governor of
Berlin, and in 1879, perhaps, as was commonly reported, because he was
considered by Bismarck as a formidable rival, he was appointed
governor-general of Alsace-Lorraine; and this office he exercised--more
in the spirit, some said, of a Prussian than of a German official--until
his death at Carlsbad, Bohemia, on the 17th of June 1885.
See lives by v. Collas (Berlin, 1874), and K. H. Keck (Bielefeld and
Leipzig, 1890).
MANTINEIA, or MANTINEA, an ancient city of Arcadia, Greece, situated in
the long narrow plain running north and south, which is now called after
the chief town Tripolitsa. Tegea was in the same valley, about 10 m. S.
of Mantineia, and the two cities continually disputed the supremacy of
the district. In every great war we find them ranged on opposite sides,
except when superior force constrained both. The worship and mysteries
of Cora at Mantineia were famous. The valley in which the city lies has
no opening to the coast, and the water finds its way, often only with
much care and artificial aid, through underground passages
(_katavothra_) to the sea. It is bounded on the west by Mount Maenalus,
on the east by Mount Artemision.
Mantineia is mentioned in the Homeric catalogue of ships, but in early
Greek times existed only as a cluster of villages inhabited by a purely
agricultural community. In the 6th century it was still insignificant as
compared with the neighbouring city of Tegea, and submitted more readily
to Spartan overlordship. The political history of Mantineia begins soon
after the Persian wars, when its five constituent villages, at the
suggestion of Argos, were merged into one city, whose military strength
forthwith secured it a leading position in the Peloponnesus. Its policy
was henceforth guided by three main considerations. Its democratic
constitution, which seems to have been entirely congenial to the
population of small freeholders, and its ambition to gain control over
the Alpheus watershed and both the Arcadian high roads to the isthmus,
frequently estranged Mantineia from Sparta and threw it into the arms of
Argos. But the chronic frontier disputes with Tegea, which turned the
two cities into bitter enemies, contributed most of all to determine
their several policies. About 469 B.C. Mantineia alone of Arcadian
townships refused to join the league of Tegea and Argos against Sparta.
Though formally enrolled on the same side during the Peloponnesian War
the two cities used the truce of 423 to wage a fierce but indecisive war
with each other. In the time following the peace of Nicias the
Mantineians, whose attempts at expansion beyond Mount Maenalus were
being foiled by Sparta, formed a powerful alliance with Argos, Elis and
Athens (420), which the Spartans, assisted by Tegea, broke up after a
pitched battle in the city's territory (418). In the subsequent years
Mantineia still found opportunity to give the Athenians covert help, and
during the Corinthian War (394-387) scarcely disguised its sympathy with
the anti-Spartan league. In 385 the Spartans seized a pretext to besiege
and dismantle Mantineia and to scatter its inhabitants among four
villages. The city was reconstituted after the battle of Leuctra and
under its statesman Lycomedes played a prominent part in organizing the
Arcadian League (370). But the long-standing jealousy against Tegea, and
a recent one against the new foundation of Megalopolis, created
dissensions which resulted in Mantineia passing over to the Spartan
side. In the following campaign of 362 Mantineia, after narrowly
escaping capture by the Theban general Epaminondas, became the scene of
a decisive conflict in which the latter achieved a notable victory but
lost his own life. After the withdrawal of the Thebans from Arcadia
Mantineia failed to recover its pre-eminence from Megalopolis, with
which city it had frequent disputes. In contrast with the Macedonian
sympathies of Megalopolis Mantineia joined the leagues against Antipater
(322) and Antigonus Gonatas (266). A change of constitution, imposed
perhaps by the Macedonians, was nullified (about 250) by a revolution
through which democracy was restored. About 235 B.C. Mantineia entered
the Achaean League, from which it had obtained protection against
Spartan encroachments, but soon passed in turn to the Aetolians and to
Cleomenes III. of Sparta. A renewed defection, inspired apparently by
aversion to the aristocratic government of the Achaeans and jealousy of
Megalopolis, was punished in 222 by a thorough devastation of the city,
which was now reconstituted as a dependency of Argos and renamed
Antigoneia in honour of the Achaeans' ally Antigonus Doson. Mantineia
regained its autonomous position in the Achaean League in 192, and its
original name during a visit of the emperor Hadrian in A.D. 133. Under
the later Roman Empire the city dwindled into a mere village, which
since the 6th century bore the Slavonic name of Goritza. It finally
became a prey to the malaria which arose when the plain fell out of
cultivation, and under Turkish rule disappeared altogether.
(M. O. B. C.)
[Illustration: Plan of Agora of Mantineia.]
The site was excavated by M. Fougères, of the French School at Athens,
in 1888. The plan of the agora and adjacent buildings has been
recovered, and the walls have been completely investigated. The town was
situated in an unusual position for a Greek city, on a flat marshy
plain, and its walls form a regular ellipse about 2½ m. in
circumference. When the town was first formed in 470 B.C. by the
"synoecism" of the neighbouring villages, the river Ophis flowed through
the midst of it, and the Spartan king Agesipolis dammed it up below the
town and so flooded out the Mantineians and sapped their walls, which
were of unbaked brick. Accordingly, when the city was rebuilt in 370
B.C., the river Ophis was divided into two branches, which between them
encircled the walls; and the walls themselves were constructed to a
height of about 3 to 6 feet of stone, the rest being of unbaked brick.
These are the walls of which the remains are still extant. There are
towers about every 80 ft.; and the gates are so arranged that the
passage inwards usually runs from right to left, and so an attacking
force would have to expose its right or shieldless side. Within the
walls the most conspicuous landmark is the theatre, which, unlike the
majority of Greek theatres, consists entirely of an artificial mound
standing up from the level plain. Only about a quarter of its original
height remains. Its _scena_ is of rather irregular shape, and borders
one of the narrow ends of the agora. Close to it are the foundations of
several temples, one of them sacred to the hero Podaros. The agora is of
unsymmetrical form; its sides are bordered by porticoes, interrupted by
streets, like the primitive agora of Elis as described by Pausanias, and
unlike the regular agoras of Ionic type. Most of these porticoes were of
Roman period--the finest of them were erected, as we learn from
inscriptions, by a lady named Epigone: one, which faced south, had a
double colonnade, and was called the [Greek: Baitê]: close to it was a
large exedra. The foundations of a square market-hall of earlier date
were found beneath this. On the opposite side of the agora was an
extensive Bouleuterion or senate-house. Traces remain of paved roads
both within the agora and leading out of it; but the whole site is now a
deserted and feverish swamp. The site is interesting for comparison with
Megalopolis; the nature of its plan seems to imply that its main
features must survive from the earlier "synoecism" a century before the
time of Epaminondas.
See Strabo viii. 337; Pausanias viii. 8; Thucyd. iv. 134, v.;
Xenophon, _Hellenica_, iv.-vii.; Diodorus xv. 85-87; Polybius ii. 57
sqq., vi. 43; D. Worenka, _Mantineia_ (1905); B. V. Head, _Historia
numorum_ (Oxford, 1887), pp. 376-377; G. Fougères in _Bulletin de
correspondance hellénique_ (1890), id. _Mantinée et l'Arcadie
orientale_ (Paris, 1898). Consult also TEGEA; ARCADIA.
Five battles are recorded to have been fought near Mantineia; 418, 362
(see above), 295 (Demetrius Poliorcetes defeats Archidamus of Sparta),
242 (Aratus beats Agis of Sparta), 207 (Philopoemen beats Machanidas
of Sparta). The battles of 362 and 207 are discussed at length by J.
Kromayer, _Antike Schtachtfelder in Griechenland_ (Berlin, 1903),
27-123, 281-314; _Wiener Studien_ (1905), pp. 1-16. (E. Gr.)
MANTIS, an insect belonging to the order _Orthoptera_. Probably no other
insect has been the subject of so many and widespread legends and
superstitions as the common "praying mantis," _Mantis religiosa_, L. The
ancient Greeks endowed it with supernatural powers ([Greek: mantis], a
diviner); the Turks and Arabs hold that it prays constantly with its
face turned towards Mecca; the Provençals call it _Prega-Diou_
(_Prie-Dieu_); and numerous more or less similar names--preacher, saint,
nun, mendicant, soothsayer, &c.--are widely diffused throughout southern
Europe. In Nubia it is held in great esteem, and the Hottentots, if not
indeed worshipping the local species (_M. fausta_), as one traveller has
alleged, at least appear to regard its alighting upon any person both as
a token of saintliness and an omen of good fortune.
Yet these are "not the saints but the tigers of the insect world." The
front pair of limbs are very peculiarly modified--the coxa being greatly
elongated, while the strong third joint or femur bears on its curved
underside a channel armed on each edge by strong movable spines. Into
this groove the stout tibia is capable of closing like the blade of a
pen-knife, its sharp, serrated edge being adapted to cut and hold. Thus
armed, with head raised upon the much-elongated and semi-erect
prothorax, and with the half-opened fore-limbs held outwards in the
characteristic devotional attitude, it rests motionless upon the four
posterior limbs waiting for prey, or occasionally stalks it with slow
and silent movements, finally seizing it with its knife-blades and
devouring it. Although apparently not daring to attack ants, these
insects destroy great numbers of flies, grasshoppers and caterpillars,
and the larger South-American species even attack small frogs, lizards
and birds. They are very pugnacious, fencing with their sword-like limbs
"like hussars with sabres," the larger frequently devouring the smaller,
and the females the males. The Chinese keep them in bamboo cages, and
match them like fighting-cocks.
The common species fixes its somewhat nut-like egg capsules on the stems
of plants in September. The young are hatched in early summer, and
resemble the adults, but are without wings.
[Illustration: Praying Mantis (_Mantis religiosa_).]
The green coloration and shape of the typical mantis are procryptic,
serving to conceal the insect alike from its enemies and prey. The
passage from leaf to flower simulation is but a step which, without
interfering with the protective value of the coloration so far as
insectivorous foes are concerned, carries with it the additional
advantage of attracting flower-feeding insects within reach of the
raptorial limbs. This method of allurement has been perfected in certain
tropical species of _Mantidae_ by the development on the prothorax and
raptorial limbs of laminate expansions so coloured on the under side as
to resemble papilionaceous or other blossoms, to which the likeness is
enhanced by a gentle swaying kept up by the insect in imitation of the
effect of a lightly blowing breeze. As instances of this may be cited
_Idalum diabolicum_, an African insect, and _Gongylus gongyloides_,
which comes from India. Examples of another species (_Empusa eugena_)
when standing upon the ground deceptively imitate in shape and hue a
greenish white anemone tinted at the edges with rose; and Bates records
what appears to be a true case of aggressive mimicry practised by a
Brazilian species which exactly resembles the white ants it preys upon.
MANTIS-FLY, the name given to neuropterous insects of the family
_Mantispidae_, related to the ant-lions, lace-wing flies, &c., and named
from their superficial resemblance to a _Mantis_ owing to the length of
the prothorax and the shape and prehensorial nature of the anterior
legs. The larva, at first campodeiform, makes its way into the egg-case
of a spider or the nest of a wasp to feed upon the eggs or young.
Subsequently it changes into a fat grub with short legs. When full grown
it spins a silken cocoon in which the transformation into the pupa is
effected. The latter escapes from its double case before moulting into
the mature insect.
MANTLE, a long flowing cloak without sleeves, worn by either sex.
Particularly applied to the long robe worn over the armour by the
men-at-arms of the middle ages, the name is still given to the robes of
state of kings, peers, and the members of an order of knights. Thus the
"electoral mantle" was a robe of office worn by the imperial electors,
and the Teutonic knights were known as the _orde alborum mantellorum_
from their white mantles. As an article of women's dress a mantle now
means a loose cloak or cape, of any length, and made of silk, velvet, or
other rich material. The word is derived from the Latin _mantellum_ or
_mantelum_, a cloak, and is probably the same as, or another form of,
_mantelium_ or _mantele_, a table-napkin or table-cloth, from _manus_,
hand, and _tela_, a cloth. A late Latin _mantum_, from which several
Romance languages have taken words (cf. Ital. _manto_, and Fr. _mante_),
must, as the _New English Dictionary_ points out, be a "back-formation,"
and this will explain the diminutive form of the Spanish _mantilla_.
From the old French _mantel_ came the English compounds "mantel-piece,"
"mantel-shelf," for the stone or wood beam which serves as a support for
the structure above a fire-place, together with the whole framework,
whether of wood, stone, &c., that acts as an ornament of the same (see
CHIMNEYPIECE). The modern French form _manteau_ is used in English
chiefly as a dressmaker's term for a woman's mantle. "Mantua," much used
in the 18th century for a similar garment, is probably a corruption of
_manteau_, due to silk or other materials coming from the Italian town
of that name, and known by the trade name of "mantuas." The Spanish
_mantilla_ is a covering for the head and shoulders of white or black
lace or other material, the characteristic head-dress of women in
southern and central Spain. It is occasionally seen in the other parts
of Spain and Spanish countries, and also in Portugal.
"Mantle" is used in many transferred senses, all with the meaning of
"covering," as in zoology, for an enclosing sac or integument; thus it
is applied to the "tunic" or layer of connective-tissue forming the
body-wall of ascidians enclosing muscle-fibres, blood-sinuses and nerves
(see TUNICATA). The term is also used for a meshed cap of refractory
oxides employed in systems of incandescent lighting (see LIGHTING). The
verb is used for the creaming or frothing of liquids and of the
suffusing of the skin with blood. In heraldry "mantling," also known as
"panache," "lambrequin" or "contoise," is an ornamental appendage to an
escutcheon, of flowing drapery, forming a background (see HERALDRY).
MANTON, THOMAS (1620-1677), English Nonconformist divine, was born at
Laurence Lydiard, Somerset, in 1620, and was educated at Hart Hall,
Oxford. Joseph Hall, bishop of Norwich, ordained him deacon: he never
took priest's orders, holding that "he was properly ordained to the
ministerial office." He was one of the clerks at the Westminster
Assembly, one of Cromwell's chaplains and a "trier," and held livings at
Stoke Newington (1645) and St Paul's, Covent Garden (1656). He
disapproved of the execution of Charles I. In 1658 he assisted Baxter to
draw up the "Fundamentals of Religion." He helped to restore Charles II.
and became one of his chaplains, refusing the deanery of Rochester. In
1662 he lost his living under the Act of Uniformity and preached in his
own rooms and in other parts of London. For this he was arrested in
1670.
His works are best known in the collected edition by J. C. Ryle (22
vols. 1870-1875).
MAN-TRAPS, mechanical devices for catching poachers and trespassers.
They have taken many forms, the most usual being like a large rat-trap,
the steel springs being armed with teeth which met in the victim's leg.
Since 1827 they have been illegal in England, except in houses between
sunset and sunrise as a defence against burglars.
MANTUA (Ital. _Mantova_), a fortified city of Lombardy, Italy, the
capital of the province of Mantua, the see of a bishop, and the centre
of a military district, 25 m. S.S.W. of Verona and 100 m. E.S.E. of
Milan by rail. Pop. (1906), 31,783. It is situated 88 ft. above the
level of the Adriatic on an almost insular site in the midst of the
swampy lagoons of the Mincio. As the belt of marshy ground along the
south side can be laid under water at pleasure, the site of the city
proper, exclusive of the considerable suburbs of Borgo di Fortezza to
the north and Borgo di San Giorgio to the east, may still be said to
consist, as it formerly did more distinctly, of two islands separated by
a narrow channel and united by a number of bridges. On the west side
lies Lago Superiore, on the east side Lago Inferiore--the boundary
between the two being marked by the _Argine del Mulino_, a long mole
stretching northward from the north-west angle of the city to the
citadel.
On the highest ground in the city rises the cathedral, the interior of
which was built after his death according to the plans of Giulio Romano;
it has double aisles, a fine fretted ceiling, a dome-covered transept, a
bad baroque façade, and a large unfinished Romanesque tower. Much more
important architecturally is the church of St Andrea, built towards the
close of the 15th century, after plans by Leon Battista Alberti, and
consisting of a single, barrel-vaulted nave 350 ft. long by 62 ft. wide.
It has a noble façade with a deeply recessed portico, and a brick
campanile of 1414. The interior is decorated with 18th-century frescoes,
to which period the dome also belongs. Mantegna is buried in one of the
side chapels. S. Sebastiano is another work of Alberti's. The old ducal
palace--one of the largest buildings of its kind in Europe--was begun in
1302 for Guido Bonaccolsi, and probably completed in 1328 for Ludovico
Gonzaga; but many of the accessory apartments are of much later date,
and the internal decorations are for the most part the work of Giulio
Romano and his pupils. There are also some fine rooms of the early 19th
century. Close by are the Piazza dell' Erbe and the Piazza Sordello,
with Gothic palaces. The Castello di Corte here, the old castle of the
Gonzagas (1395-1406), erected by Bartolino da Novara, the architect of
the castle of Ferrara, now contains the archives, and has some fine
frescoes by Mantegna with scenes from the life of Ludovico Gonzaga.
Outside of the city, to the south of Porta Pusterla, stands the Palazzo
del Te, Giulio's architectural masterpiece, erected for Frederick
Gonzaga in 1523-1535; of the numerous fresco-covered chambers which it
contains, perhaps the most celebrated is the Sala dei Giganti, where, by
a combination of mechanical with artistic devices, the rout of the
Titans still contending with artillery of uptorn rocks against the
pursuit and thunderbolts of Jove appears to rush downwards on the
spectator. The architecture of Giulio's own house in the town is also
good.
Mantua has an academy of arts and sciences (_Accademia Vergiliana_),
occupying a fine building erected by Piermarini, a public library
founded in 1780 by Maria Theresa, a museum of antiquities dating from
1779, many of which have been brought from Sabbioneta, a small residence
town of the Gonzagas in the late 16th century, a mineralogical museum, a
good botanical garden, and an observatory. There are ironworks,
tanneries, breweries, oil-mills and flour-mills in the town, which also
has printing, furriery, doll-making and playing-card industries. As a
fortress Mantua was long one of the most formidable in Europe, a force
of thirty to forty thousand men finding accommodation within its walls;
but it had two serious defects--the marshy climate told heavily on the
health of the garrison, and effective sorties were almost impossible. It
lies on the main line of railway between Verona and Modena; and is also
connected by rail with Cremona and with Monselice, on the line from
Padua to Bologna, and by steam tramway with Brescia and other places.
S. Maria delle Grazie, standing some 5 m. outside the town, was
consecrated in 1399 as an act of thanksgiving for the cessation of the
plague, and has a curious collection of _ex voto_ pictures (wax
figures), and also the tombs of the Gonzaga family.
Mantua had still a strong Etruscan element in its population during the
Roman period. It became a Roman municipium, with the rest of Gallia
Transpadana; but Martial calls it little Mantua, and had it not been for
Virgil's interest in his native place, and in the expulsion of a number
of the Mantuans (and among them the poet himself) from their lands in
favour of Octavian's soldiers, we should probably have heard almost
nothing of its existence. In 568 the Lombards found Mantua a walled town
of some strength; recovered from their grasp in 590 by the exarch of
Ravenna, it was again captured by Agilulf in 601. The 9th century was
the period of episcopal supremacy, and in the 11th the city formed part
of the vast possessions of Bonifacio, marquis of Canossa. From him it
passed to Geoffrey, duke of Lorraine, and afterwards to the countess
Matilda, whose support of the pope led to the conquest of Mantua by the
emperor Henry IV. in 1090. Reduced to obedience by Matilda in 1113, the
city obtained its liberty on her death, and instituted a communal
government of its own, _salva imperiali justitia_. It afterwards joined
the Lombard League; and the unsuccessful attack made by Frederick II. in
1236 brought it a confirmation of its privileges. But after a period of
internal discord Ludovico Gonzaga attained to power (1328), and was
recognized as imperial vicar (1329); and from that time till the death
of Ferdinando Carbo in 1708 the Gonzagas were masters of Mantua (see
GONZAGA). Under Gian Francesco II., the first marquis, Ludovico III.,
Gian Francesco III. (whose wife was Isabella d'Este), and Federico II.,
the first duke of Mantua, the city rose rapidly into importance as a
seat of industry and culture. It was stormed and sacked by the Austrians
in 1630, and never quite recovered. Claimed in 1708 as a fief of the
empire by Joseph I., it was governed for the greater part of the century
by the Austrians. In June 1796 it was besieged by Napoleon; but in spite
of terrific bombardments it held out till February 1797. A three days'
bombardment in 1799 again placed Mantua in the hands of the Austrians;
and, though restored to the French by the peace of Lunéville (1801), it
became Austrian once more from 1814 till 1866. Between 1849 and 1859,
when the whole of Lombardy except Mantua was, by the peace of
Villafranca, ceded to Italy, the city was the scene of violent political
persecution.
See Gaet. Susani, _Nuovo prospetto delle pitture, &c., di Mantova_
(Mantua, 1830); Carlo d'Arco, _Delle arti e degli artefici di Mantova_
(Mantua, 1857); and _Storia di Mantova_ (Mantua, 1874).
MANU (Sanskrit, "man"), in Hindu mythology, the first man, ancestor of
the world. In the Satapatha-Brahmana he is represented as a holy man,
the chief figure in a flood-myth. Warned by a fish of the impending
disaster he built a ship, and when the waters rose was dragged by the
fish, which he harnessed to his craft, beyond the northern mountains.
When the deluge ceased, a daughter was miraculously born to him and this
pair became the ancestors of the human race. In the later scriptures the
fish is declared an incarnation of Brahma. See SANSKRIT LITERATURE;
INDIAN LAW (_Hindu_).
MANUAL, i.e. belonging to the hand (Lat. _manus_), a word chiefly used
to describe an occupation which employs the hands, as opposed to that
which chiefly or entirely employs the mind. Particular uses of the word
are: "sign-manual," a signature or autograph, especially one affixed to
a state document; "manual-exercise," in military usage, drill in the
handling of the rifle; "manual alphabet," the formation of the letters
of the alphabet by the fingers of one or both hands for communication
with the deaf and dumb; and "manual acts," the breaking of the bread,
and the taking of the cup in the hands by the officiating priest in
consecrating the elements during the celebration of the Eucharist. The
use of the word for tools and implements to be used by the hand, as
distinct from machinery, only survives in the "manual fire-engine." From
the late Latin use of _manuale_ as a substantive, meaning "handbook,"
comes the use of the word for a book treating a subject in a concise
way, but more particularly of a book of offices, containing the forms to
be used in the administration of the sacraments other than the Mass, but
including communion out of the Mass, also the forms for churching,
burials, &c. In the Roman Church such a book is usually called a
_rituale_, "manual" being the name given to it in the English Church
before the Reformation. The keyboard of an organ, as played by the
hands, is called the "manual," in distinction from the "pedal" keys
played by the feet.
MANUCODE, from the French, an abbreviation of _Manucodiata_, and the
Latinized form of the Malay _Manukdewata_, meaning, says Crawfurd
(_Malay and Engl. Dictionary_, p. 97), the "bird of the gods," and a
name applied for more than two hundred years apparently to
birds-of-paradise in general. In the original sense of its inventor,
Montbeillard (_Hist. nat. oiseaux_, iii. 163), _Manucode_ was restricted
to the king bird-of-paradise and three allied species; but in English it
has curiously been transferred[1] to a small group of species whose
relationship to the _Paradiseidae_ has been frequently doubted, and must
be considered uncertain. These manucodes have a glossy steel-blue
plumage of much beauty, but are distinguished from other birds of
similar coloration by the outer and middle toes being united for some
distance, and by the extraordinary convolution of the trachea, in the
males at least, with which is correlated the loud and clear voice of the
birds. The convoluted portion of the trachea lies on the breast, between
the skin and the muscles, much as is found in the females of the painted
snipes (_Rostratula_), in the males of the curassows (_Cracidae_), and
in a few other birds, but wholly unknown elsewhere among the _Passeres_.
The manucodes are peculiar to the Papuan sub-region (including therein
the peninsula of Cape York), and comprehend, according to R. B. Sharpe
(_Cat. B. Brit. Museum_, iii. 164), two genera, for the first of which,
distinguished by the elongated tufts on the head, he adopts R. P.
Lesson's name _Phonygama_, and for the second, having no tufts, but the
feathers of the head crisped, that of _Manucodia_; and W. A. Forbes
(_Proc. Zool. Soc._ 1882, p. 349) observed that the validity of the
separation was confirmed by their tracheal formation. Of _Phonygama_
Sharpe recognizes three species, _P. keraudreni_ (the type) and _P.
jamesi_, both from New Guinea, and _P. gouldi_, the Australian
representative species; but the first two are considered by D. G. Elliot
(_Ibis._ 1878, p. 56) and Count Salvadori (_Ornitol. della Papuasia_,
ii. 510) to be inseparable. There is a greater unanimity in regard to
the species of the so-called genus _Manucodia_ proper, of which four are
admitted--_M. chalybeata_ or _chalybea_ from north-western New Guinea,
_M. comriei_ from the south-eastern part of the same country, _M. atra_
of wide distribution within the Papuan area, and _M. jobiensis_ peculiar
to the island which gives it a name. Little is known of the habits of
these birds, except that they are, as already mentioned, remarkable for
their vocal powers, which, in _P. keraudreni_, Lesson describes (_Voy.
de la Coquille_, "Zoologie," i. 638) as enabling them to pass through
every note of the gamut. (A. N.)