FOOTNOTES:

[1] See Harleian MS. 2034, f. 207b, British Museum, in the third part

of Randle Holme's _Academy of Armoury_, written before 1688, where an

outline sketch in ink is also given.

[2] See J. Ecorcheville, "Quelques documents sur la musique de la

Grande Ecurie du Roi," _Sammelband intern. Musikges._ ii. 4, pp. 609

and 625. Deeds exist creating charges for four hautbois and musettes

de Poitou in the hand of King John, middle of 14th century, see p.

633.

[3] See Henri Lavoix, _Histoire de l'instrumentation_, p. 111;

Gerber, _Lexikon_, "Giuseppe Ferlendis"; Robert Eitner,

_Quellen-Lexikon der Tonkunstler_, "Gioseffo Ferlendis." Fetis and

Pohl also refer to him.

[4] See _Musical Travels thro' England_ (London, 1774), p. 56.

CORATO, a city of Apulia, Italy, in the province of Bari, 26 m. W. of

Bari by steam tramway. Pop. (1901) 41,573. It is situated in the centre

of an agricultural district. It contains no buildings of great interest,

but is a clean and well-kept town.

CORBAN ([Hebrew: KRBN]), an Aramaic word meaning "a consecrated gift."

Josephus uses the word of Nazirites and of the temple treasure of

Jerusalem. Such a votive offering lay under a curse if it were diverted

to ordinary purposes, like the spoil of Jericho which Achan appropriated

(Josh. vii.), or the temple treasure of Delphi which was seized by the

Phocians, 356 B.C. The word is found in Mark vii. 11, the usual

interpretation of which is that Jesus refers to an abuse--a man might

declare that any part of his property which came into his parents' hands

was _corban_, consecrated, i.e. that a curse rested on any benefit they

might get from it. The Jewish scribes thus fenced the law of vows with a

traditional interpretation which made men break the most binding

injunctions of the Mosaic Law, in this case the fifth commandment. A

totally different explanation of the passage is put forward by J. H. A.

Hart in _The Jewish Quarterly Review_ for July 1907, the gist of which

is that Jesus commends the Pharisees for insisting that when a man has

vowed a vow to God he should pay it even though his parents should

suffer.

CORBEIL, WILLIAM OF (d. 1136), archbishop of Canterbury, was born

probably at Corbeil on the Seine, and was educated at Laon. He was soon

in the service of Ranulf Flambard, bishop of Durham; then, having

entered the order of St Augustine, he became prior of the Augustinian

foundation at St Osyth in Essex. At the beginning of 1123 he was chosen

from among several candidates to be archbishop of Canterbury, and as he

refused to admit that Thurstan, archbishop of York, was independent of

the see of Canterbury, this prelate refused to consecrate him, and the

ceremony was performed by his own suffragan bishops. Proceeding to Rome

the new archbishop found that Thurstan had anticipated his arrival in

that city and had made out a strong case against him to Pope Calixtus

II.; however, the exertions of the English king Henry I. and of the

emperor Henry V. prevailed, and the pope gave William the pallium. The

archbishop's next dispute was with the papal legate. Cardinal John of

Crema, who had arrived in England and was acting in an autocratic

manner. Again travelling to Rome, William gained another victory, and

was himself appointed papal legate (_legatus natus_) in England and

Scotland, a precedent of considerable importance in the history of the

English Church. The archbishop had sworn to Henry I. that he would

support the claim of his daughter Matilda to the English crown, but

nevertheless he crowned Stephen in December 1135. He died at Canterbury

on the 21st of November 1136. William built the keep of Rochester

Castle, and finished the building of the cathedral at Canterbury, which

was dedicated with great pomp in May 1130.

See W. F. Hook, _Lives of the Archbishops of Canterbury_ (1860-1884);

and W. R. W. Stephens, _History of the English Church_ (1901).

CORBEIL, a town of northern France, capital of an arrondissement in the

department of Seine-et-Oise, at the confluence of the Essonne with the

Seine, 21 m. S. by E. of Paris on the Orleans railway to Nevers. Pop.

(1906) 9756. A bridge across the Seine unites the main part of the town

on the left bank with a suburb on the other side; handsome boulevards

lead to the village of Essonnes (pop. 7255), about a mile to the

south-west. St Spire, the only survivor of the formerly numerous

churches of Corbeil, dates from the 12th to the 15th centuries. Behind

the church there is a Gothic gateway. A monument has been erected to the

brothers Galignani, publishers of Paris, who gave a hospital and

orphanage to the town. Corbeil is the seat of a sub-prefect, and has

tribunals of first instance and commerce and a chamber of commerce. It

has important flour-mills, tallow-works, printing-works, large

paper-works at Essonnes, and carries on boat and carriage-building, and

the manufacture of plaster. The Decauville engineering works are in the

vicinity. There is trade in grain and flour.

From the 10th to the 12th century Corbeil was the chief town of a

powerful countship, but it was united to the crown by Louis VI.; it

continued for a long time to be an important military post in connexion

with the commissariat of Paris. In 1258 St Louis concluded a treaty here

with James I. of Aragon. Of the numerous sieges to which it has been

exposed the most important were those by the Huguenots in 1562, and by

Alexander Farnese, prince of Parma, in 1590.

CORBEL (Lat. _corbellus_, a diminutive of _corvus_, a raven, on account

of the beak-like appearance; Ital. _mensola_, Fr. _corbeau_,

_cul-de-lampe_, Ger. _Kragstein_), the name in medieval architecture for

a piece of stone jutting out of a wall to carry any super-incumbent

weight. A piece of timber projecting in the same way was called a tassel

or a bragger. Thus the carved ornaments from which the vaulting shafts

spring at Lincoln are corbels. Norman corbels are generally plain. In

the Early English period they are sometimes elaborately carved, as at

Lincoln above cited, and sometimes more simply so, as at Stone. They

sometimes end with a point apparently growing into the wall, or forming

a knot, as at Winchester, and often are supported by angels and other

figures. In the later periods the foliage or ornaments resemble those in

the capitals. The corbels carrying the arches of the corbel tables in

Italy and France were often elaborately moulded, and sometimes in two or

three courses projecting over one another; those carrying the

machicolations of English and French castles had four courses. The

corbels carrying balconies in Italy and France were sometimes of great

size and richly carved, and some of the finest examples of the Italian

Cinquecento style are found in them. Throughout England, in half-timber

work, wood corbels abound, carrying window-sills or oriels in wood,

which also are often carved. A "corbel table" is a projecting moulded

string course supported by a range of corbels. Sometimes these corbels

carry a small arcade under the string course, the arches of which are

pointed and trefoiled. As a rule the corbel table carries the gutter,

but in Lombard work the arcaded corbel table was utilized as a

decoration to subdivide the storeys and break up the wall surface. In

Italy sometimes over the corbels will be a moulding, and above a plain

piece of projecting wall forming a parapet (see also MASONRY).

CORBET, RICHARD (1582-1635), English bishop and poet, was born in 1582,

the son of a nurseryman at Ewell, Surrey. At Oxford, to which he

proceeded from Westminster school in 1597, he was noted as a wit. On

taking orders he continued to display this talent from the pulpit, and

James I., in consideration of his "fine fancy and preaching," made him

one of the royal chaplains. In 1620 he became vicar of Stewkley,

Berkshire, and in the same year was made dean of Christchurch, Oxford.

In 1628 he was made bishop of Oxford, and in 1632 translated thence to

the see of Norwich. Corbet was the author of many poems, for the most

part of a lively, satirical order, his most serious production being the

_Fairies' Farewell_. His verses were first collected and published in

1647. His conviviality was famous, and many stories are told of his

youthful merrymaking in London taverns in company with Ben Jonson, who

always remained his close friend, and other dramatists. He died at

Norwich on the 28th of July 1635.

CORBIE (Lat. _corvus_), a crow or raven. In architecture, "corbie steps"

is a Scottish term (cf. CORBEL) for the steps formed up the sides of the

gable by breaking the coping into short horizontal beds.

CORBRIDGE, a small market town in the Hexham parliamentary division of

Northumberland, England; 3-1/2 m. E. of Hexham, on the north bank of the

river Tyne, which is here crossed by a fine seven-arched bridge dating

from 1674. Pop. (1901) 1647. Corbridge was formerly of greater

importance than at present. Its name, derived from the small river Cor,

a tributary of the Tyne, is said to be associated with the Brigantian

tribe of Corionototai. About 760 it became the capital of Northumbria;

later it was a borough and was long represented in parliament. In 1138

David of Scotland made it a centre of military operations, and it was

ravaged by Wallace in 1296, by Bruce in 1312, and by David II. in 1346.

Its chief remains of antiquity are a square peel-tower and the cruciform

church of St Andrew, of which part of the fabric is of pre-Conquest

date, though the building is mainly Early English. Extensive use is made

of building materials from the Roman station of _Corstopitum_ (also

called Corchester), which lay half a mile west of Corbridge at the

junction of the Cor with the Tyne. This site has from time to time

yielded many valuable relics, notably a silver dish, discovered in 1734,

148 oz. in weight and ornamented with figures of deities; but the

first-rate importance of the station was only revealed by careful

excavations undertaken in 1907 seq. There were then unearthed remains of

several buildings fronting a broad thoroughfare, one of which is the

largest Roman building, except the baths at Bath, yet discovered in

England. Two of these buildings were granaries, and indicate the

importance of Corstopitum as a base of the northward operations of

Antoninus Pius. After his conquests had been lost, and Corstopitum

ceased to be a military centre, its military buildings passed into

civilian occupation, of which many evidences have been found. A fine

hoard of gold coins, wrapped in lead-foil and hidden in a wall, was

discovered in 1908. Corstopitum ceased to exist early in the 5th

century, and the site was never again occupied.

CORBULO, GNAEUS DOMITIUS (1st century A.D.), Roman general, was the

half-brother of Caesonia, one of the wives of the emperor Caligula. In

the reign of Tiberius he held the office of praetor, and was appointed

to the superintendence of the roads and bridges. Under Claudius he was

governor of lower Germany (A.D. 47). He punished the Frisii who refused

to pay the tribute, and was on the point of advancing against the

Chauci, but was recalled by the emperor and ordered to withdraw behind

the Rhine. In order to provide employment for his soldiers, Corbulo made

them cut a canal from the Mosa (Meuse) to the northern branch of the

Rhine, which still forms one of the chief drains between Leiden and

Sluys, and before the introduction of railways was the ordinary traffic

road between Leiden and Rotterdam. Soon after the accession of Nero,

Vologaeses (Vologasus), king of Parthia, overran Armenia, drove out

Rhadamistus, who was under the protection of the Romans, and set his own

brother Tiridates on the throne. Corbulo was thereupon sent out to the

East with full military powers. After some delay, he took the offensive

in 58, and, reinforced by troops from Germany, attacked Tiridates.

Artaxata and Tigranocerta were captured, and Tigranes, who had been

brought up in Rome and was the obedient servant of the government, was

installed king of Armenia. In 61 Tigranes invaded Adiabene, an integral

portion of the Parthian kingdom, and a conflict between Rome and Parthia

seemed unavoidable. Vologaeses, however, thought it better to come to

terms. It was agreed that both the Roman and Parthian troops should

evacuate Armenia, that Tigranes should be dethroned, and the position of

Tiridates recognized. The Roman government declined to accede to these

arrangements, and L. Caesennius Paetus, governor of Cappadocia, was

ordered to settle the question by bringing Armenia under direct Roman

administration. The protection of Syria in the meantime claimed all

Corbulo's attention. Paetus, a weak and incapable man, suffered a severe

defeat at Rhandea (62), where he was surrounded and forced to capitulate

and to evacuate Armenia. The command of the troops was again entrusted

to Corbulo. In 63, with a strong army, he crossed the Euphrates, but

Tiridates declined to give battle and concluded peace. At Rhandea he

laid down his diadem at the foot of the emperor's statue, promising not

to resume it until he received it from the hand of Nero himself in Rome.

In 67 disturbances broke out in Judaea, but Nero, jealous of Corbulo's

success and popularity, ordered Vespasian to take command of the forces

and summoned Corbulo to Greece. On his arrival at Cenchreae, the port of

Corinth, messengers from Nero met Corbulo, and ordered him to commit

suicide. Without hesitation he obeyed, exclaiming, "I have deserved it."

Whether he had really given any grounds for suspicion is unknown; but

there is no doubt, so great was his popularity with the soldiers and

such the hatred felt for Nero, that he could easily have seized the

throne. Corbulo wrote an account of his Asiatic experiences, which is

lost.

See Tacitus, _Annals_, xii.-xv.; Dio Cassius lix. 15, lx. 30, lxii.

19-23, lxiii. 6, 17, lxvi. 3; H. Schiller, _Geschichte des romischen

Kaiserreichs unter der Regierung des Nero_ (1872); E. Egli, "Feldzuge

in Armenien von 41-63," in M. Budinger's _Untersuchungen zur romischen

Kaisergeschichte_, i. (1868); Mommsen, _Hist. of the Roman Provinces_,

ii. (1886); for the Armenian campaigns see B. W. Henderson in

_Classical Review_ (April, May, June, 1901); in general D. T.

Schoonover, _A Study of Cn. Domitius Corbulo_ (Chicago, 1909).

CORD (derived through the Fr. _corde_, from the Lat. _chorda_, Gr.

[Greek: chorde], the string of a musical instrument), a length of

twisted or woven strands, in thickness coming between a rope and a

string, a smaller kind of rope (q.v.). From the use of such a cord for

measuring, the word is applied to a quantity of cut wood, differing

according to locality. The variant "chord," which, in spelling, reverts

to the original Latin, is used in particular senses, as, in physiology,

for such cord-like structures as the vocal chords; in the case of the

"umbilical cord," the other spelling is usually retained. In mathematics

a "chord" is a straight line joining any two points on the same curve,

and, in music, the word is used of several musical notes sounded

simultaneously and in harmony (q.v.). In this last sense, "chord" is

properly a shortened form of "accord," agreement, from Late Lat.

_accordare_, and the spelling with _h_ is due to a confusion.

CORDAY D'ARMONT, MARIE ANNE CHARLOTTE (1768-1793), French revolutionary

heroine, the murderess of Marat, born at St Saturnin des Lignerets, near

Seez in Normandy, was descended from a noble but poor family, and

numbered among her ancestors the dramatist Corneille. Charlotte Corday

was educated in the convent of the Holy Trinity at Caen, and then sent

to live with an aunt. Here she saw hardly any one but her relative, and

passed her lonely hours in reading the works of the _philosophes_,

especially Voltaire and the Abbe Raynal. Another of her favourite

authors was Plutarch, from whose pages she doubtless imbibed the idea of

classic heroism and civic virtue which prompted the act that has made

her name famous. On the outbreak of the Revolution she began to study

current politics, chiefly in the papers issued by the party afterwards

known as the Girondins. On the downfall of this party, on May 31, 1793,

many of the leaders took refuge in Normandy, and proposed to make Caen

the headquarters of an army of volunteers, at the head of whom Felix de

Wimpffen, who commanded the army assembled for the defence of the coasts

at Cherbourg, was to have marched upon Paris. Charlotte attended their

meetings, and heard them speak; but we have no reason to believe that

she saw any of them privately, till the day when she went to ask for

introductions to friends of theirs in Paris. She saw that their efforts

in Normandy were doomed to fail. She had heard of Marat as a tyrant and

the chief agent in their overthrow, and she had conceived the idea of

going alone to Paris and assassinating him,--doubtless thinking that

this would break up the party of the Terrorists and be the signal of a

counter-revolution, and ignorant of the fact that Marat was ill almost

to the point of death, and that others were more influential than he.

Apparently she had thought of going to Paris in April, before the fall

of the Girondins, for she had then procured a passport which she used in

July. It contained the usual description of the bearer, and ran thus:

_Laissez passer la citoyenne Marie, &c., Corday, agee de 24 ans, taille

de 5 pieds 1 pouce, cheveux et sourcils chatains, yeux gris, front

eleve, nez long, bouche moyenne, menton rond fourchu, visage ovale._

Arrived in Paris she first attended to some business for a friend at

Caen, and then she wrote to Marat: "Citizen, I have just arrived from

Caen. Your love for your native place doubtless makes you desirous of

learning the events which have occurred in that part of the republic. I

shall call at your residence in about an hour; have the goodness to

receive me and to give me a brief interview. I will put you in a

condition to render great service to France." On calling she was refused

admittance, and wrote again, promising to reveal important secrets, and

appealing to Marat's sympathy on the ground that she herself was

persecuted by the enemies of the republic. She was again refused an

audience, and it was only when she called a third time (July 13) that

Marat, hearing her voice in the antechamber, consented to see her. He

lay in a bathing tub, wrapped in towels, for he was suffering from a

horrible disease which had almost reduced him to a state of

putrefaction. Our only source of information as to what followed is

Charlotte's own confession. She spoke to Marat of what was passing at

Caen, and his only comment on her narrative was that all the men she had

mentioned should be guillotined in a few days. As he spoke she drew from

her bosom a dinner-knife (which she had bought the day before for two

francs) and plunged it into his left side. It pierced the lung and the

aorta. He cried out, "_A moi, ma chere amie!_" and expired. Two women

rushed in, and prevented Charlotte from escaping. A crowd collected

round the house, and it was with difficulty that she was escorted to the

prison of the Abbaye. On being brought before the Revolutionary Tribunal

she gloried in her act, and when the indictment against her was read,

and the president asked her what she had to say in reply, her answer

was, "Nothing, except that I have succeeded." Her advocate, Claude

Francois Chauveau Lagarde, put forward in vain the plea of insanity. She

was sentenced to death, and calmly thanked her counsel for his efforts

on her behalf, adding that the only defence worthy of her was an avowal

of the act. She was then conducted to the Conciergerie, where at her own

desire her portrait (now in the museum of Versailles) was painted by the

artist Jean Jacques Hauer. She preserved her perfect calmness to the

last. When she saw the guillotine, she placed herself in position under

the fatal blade without assistance from any one. The knife fell, and one

of the executioners held up her head by the hair, and had the brutality

to strike it with his fist. Many believed they saw the dead face

blush,--probably an effect of the red stormy sunset. It was the 17th of

July 1793. It is difficult to analyse the character of Charlotte Corday;

but there was in it much that was noble and exalted. Her mind had been

formed by her studies on a pagan type. To C. J. M. Barbaroux and the

Girondins of Caen she wrote from her prison, anticipating happiness

"with Brutus in the Elysian Fields" after her death, and with this

letter she sent a simple loving farewell to her father, revealing a

tender side to her character that otherwise we would hardly have looked

for in such a woman. Lamartine called her _l'ange de l'assassinat_, and

Vergniaud said, "_Elle nous perd, mais elle nous apprend a mourir._"

See _OEuvres politiques de Charlotte Corday_ (Caen, 1863; some letters

and an _Adresse aux Francais amis des lois el de la paix_), with a

supplement printed in the same year; Louvet de Couvrai, _Memoires_

(ed. Aulard, Paris, 1889); Alphonse Esquiros, _Charlotte Corday_ (2nd

ed., 2 vols., Paris, 1841); Cheron de Villiers, _Marie Anne Charlotte

Corday_ (Paris, 1865); Casimir Perier, "La Jeunesse de Charlotte

Corday" (_Revue des deux mondes_, 1862); C. Vatel, _Dossiers du proces

criminel de Charlotte de Corday ... extraits des archives imperiales_

(Paris, 1861), and _Dossier historique de Charlotte Corday_ (Paris,

1872); Austin Dobson, _Four Frenchwomen_ (London, 1890); A. Ducos,

_Les Trois Girondines, Mme Roland, Charlotte Corday ..._ (Paris,

1896); Dr Cabanes, "La vraie Charlotte Corday," in _Le Cabinet secret

de l'histoire_ (4 vols., 1897-1900). Her tragic history was the

subject of two anonymous tragedies, _Charlotte Corday_ (1795), said to

be by the Conventional F. J. Gamon, and _Charlotte Corday_ (Caen,

1797), neither of which have any merit; another by J. B. Salles is

published by C. Vatel in _Charlotte de Corday et les Girondins_

(1864-1872). See further bibliographical articles in M. Tourneux,

_Bibl. de l'hist. de Paris ..._ (vol. iv., 1906), and in the

_Bibliographie des femmes celebres_ (3 vols., Turin and Rome,

1892-1905); and also E. Defrance, _Charlotte Corday et la mort de

Marat_ (1909).

CORDELIERS, CLUB OF THE, or SOCIETY OF THE FRIENDS OF THE RIGHTS OF MAN

AND OF THE CITIZEN, a popular society of the French Revolution. It was

formed by the members of the district of the Cordeliers, when the

Constituent Assembly suppressed the 60 districts of Paris to replace

them with 48 sections (21st of May 1790). It held its meetings at first

in the church of the monastery of the Cordeliers,--the name given in

France to the Franciscan Observantists,--now the Dupuytren museum of

anatomy in connexion with the school of medicine. From 1791, however,

the Cordeliers met in a hall in the rue Dauphine. The aim of the society

was to keep an eye on the government; its emblem on its papers was

simply an open eye. It sought as well to encourage revolutionary

measures against the monarchy and the old regime, and it was it

especially which popularized the motto "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity."

It took an active part in the movement against the monarchy of the 20th

of June and the 10th of August 1792; but after that date the more

moderate leaders of the club, Danton, Fabre d'Eglantine, Camille

Desmoulins, seem to have ceased attending, and the "_enrages_" obtained

control, such as J. R. Hebert, F. N. Vincent, C. P. H. Ronsin and A. F.

Momoro. Its influence was especially seen in the creation of the

revolutionary army destined to assure provisions for Paris, and in the

establishment of the worship of Reason. The Cordeliers were combated by

those revolutionists who wished to end the Terror, especially by Danton,

and by Camille Desmoulins in his journal _Le Vieux Cordelier_. The club

disowned Danton and Desmoulins and attacked Robespierre for his

"moderation," but the new insurrection which it attempted failed, and

its leaders were guillotined on the 24th of March 1794, from which date

nothing is known of the club. We know little of its composition.

The papers emanating from the Cordeliers are enumerated in M.

Tourneux, _Bibliographie de l'histoire de Paris pendant la Revolution_

(1894), i. (on the trial of the Hebertists) Nos. 4204-4210, ii. Nos.

9795-9834 and 11,813. See also A. Bougeart, _Les Cordeliers, documents

pour servir a l'histoire de la Revolution_ (Caen, 1891); G. Lenotre,

_Paris revolutionnaire_ (Paris, 1895); G. Tridon, _Les Hebertists,

plainte contre une calomnie de l'histoire_ (Paris, 1864). The

last-named author was condemned to four months' prison; his work was

reprinted in 1871. The inventory of the pictures found in 1790 in the

monastery of the Cordeliers was published by J. Guiffrey in _Nouvelles

archives de l'art francais_, viii., 2nd series, iii. (1880).

(R. A.*)

CORDERIUS, the Latinized form of name used by MATHURIN CORDIER (c.

1480-1564), French schoolmaster, a native of Normandy or Perche. He

possessed special tact and liking for teaching children, and taught

first at Paris, where Calvin was among his pupils, and, after a number

of changes, finally at Geneva, where he died on the 8th of September

1564. He wrote several books for children; the most famous is his

_Colloquia_ (_Colloquiorum scholasticorum libri quatuor_), which has

passed through innumerable editions, and was used in schools for three

centuries after his time. He also wrote: _Principia Latine loquendi

scribendique, sive selecta quaedam ex Epistolis Ciceronis_; _De corrupti

sermonis apud Gallos emendatione et Latine loquendi Ratione_; _De

syllabarum quantitate_; _Conciones sacrae viginti sex Galliae_; _Catonis

disticha de moribus_ (with Latin and French translation); _Remontrances

et exhortations au roi et aux grands de son royaume_.

See monograph by E. A. Berthault, _De M. Corderio et creatis apud

Protestantes litterarum studiis_ (1875).

CORDES, a town of southern France, in the department of Tarn, 15 m. N.W.

of Albi by road. Pop. (1906) 1619. Cordes, which covers the summit and

slopes of an isolated hill, was a bastide founded by Raymond VII., count

of Toulouse, in the first half of the 13th century. It preserves its

medieval aspect to a remarkable degree, a large number of houses of the

13th and 14th centuries, with decorated fronts, forming its chief

attraction. A church of the same periods and remains of the original

ramparts are also to be seen.

CORDILLERA, a Spanish term for a range or chain of mountains, derived

from the Old Spanish _cordilla_, the diminutive of _cuerda_, a cord or

rope. The name was first given to the Andes ranges of South America,

_Las Cordilleras de los Andes_, and applied to the extension of the

system into Mexico. In North America the parallel ranges of mountains

running between and including the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevada

are known as the "Cordilleras," and that part of the western continent

crossed by them has been termed the "Cordilleran region." Although the

name has been applied to the eastern mountain system of Australia, the

word is not, outside America, used as a generic term for parallel ranges

of mountains.

CORDITE, the name given to the smokeless propellant in use in the

British army and navy. The material is produced in the form of

cylindrical rods or strings of varying thicknesses by pressing the

material, whilst in a soft and pasty state, through dies or perforations

in a steel plate by hydraulic or screw pressure, hence the name cordite.

The thickness or size of the rods varies from about 1 mm. diameter to 5

or more mm. according to the nature of the charge for which it is

intended. The smallest diameter is used for revolver cartridge and the

largest for heavy guns. When first devised by the Ordnance Committee,

presided over by Sir Frederick Abel, in 1891, this explosive consisted

of 58% of nitro-glycerin, 37% of gun-cotton, and 5% of mineral jelly.

This variety is now known as Cordite Mark 1. At the present time a

modification is made which contains gun-cotton 65%, nitro-glycerin 30%,

and mineral jelly 5%. This is known as Cordite M.D. The advantages of

Cordite M.D. over Mark 1 are slightly reduced rate of burning, higher

velocities and more regular pressure in the gun, and lower temperature.

Cordite of either mark is a perfectly waterproof substance, containing

only traces of water remaining from the manufacturing processes. It has

a density of about 1.56 at the ordinary temperature (15 deg. C.), and, as

its coefficient of expansion is small, this density does not change to

any serious extent under climatic temperature variations. A rod may be

bent to a moderate extent without breaking, and Cordite M.D. especially

shows considerable elasticity. It can be impressed by the nail and cut

with a knife, but is not in the least sticky, nor does the

nitro-glycerin exude to any appreciable extent. It can be obtained in a

finely-divided state by scraping with a sharp knife, or on a new file,

or by grinding in a mill, such as a coffee-mill, but can scarcely be

pounded in a mortar. Cordite is of a brownish colour in mass, but is

much paler when finely ground or scraped. The rods easily become

electrified by gentle friction with a dry substance. Like all colloidal

substances it is an exceedingly bad conductor of heat. A piece ignited

in air burns with a yellowish flame. With the smaller sizes, about 2 mm.

diameter or less, this flame may be blown out, and the rod will continue

to burn in a suppressed manner without actual flame, fumes containing

oxides of nitrogen being emitted. Temperature appears to have an effect

on the rate of burning. When much cooled it certainly burns more slowly

than when at the ordinary air temperature, and is also more difficult to

ignite. Rods of moderate thickness, say from 5 mm. diameter, will

continue to burn under water if first ignited in air and the burning

portion slowly immersed. The end of a rod of cordite may be struck a

moderately heavy blow on an anvil without exploding or igniting. The rod

will first flatten out. A _sharp_ blow will then detonate or explode

the portion immediately under the hammer, the remainder of the rod

remaining quite intact. Bullets may be fired through a bundle or package

of cordite without detonating or inflaming it. This is of course a

valuable quality. The exact temperature at which substances ignite or

take fire is in all cases difficult to determine with any exactness.

Cordite is not _instantly_ ignited on contact with a flame such as that

of a candle, because, perhaps, of the condensation of some moisture from

the products of burning of the candle upon it. A blow-pipe flame or a

red-hot wire is more rapid in action. The ignition temperature may be

somewhere in the region of 180 deg. C.

All the members of this class of explosive when kept for some time at

(for them) moderately high temperatures, such as the boiling-point of

water (100 deg. C.), show signs of decomposition; oxides of nitrogen are

liberated, and some complex oxidation processes are started. Carefully

prepared gun-cotton and nitro-glycerin will, however, withstand this

temperature for a long time without serious detriment, excepting that

nitro-glycerin is slightly volatilized. When incorporated in cordite,

however, the nitro-glycerin appears to be much less volatile than when

free at this temperature. Under reduced pressure (3 or 4 in. only of

mercury instead of 30) it is possible to distil away a considerable

amount of nitro-glycerin from cordite at 100 deg. C. It is very doubtful

whether at ordinary temperatures and pressures any nitro-glycerin

whatever evaporates.

Cordite may be kept in contact with clean, dry metals, wood, paper, and

a number of ordinary substances without deterioration. In contact with

damp and easily oxidizable metals all the substances of the gun-cotton

class are liable to a slight local action, but the colloid nature, and

probably also the contained mineral jelly, protect cordite considerably

in these circumstances. Ammonia has a deleterious action, but even this

proceeds but slowly. Cordite does not appear to change when kept under

water.

The manufacturing processes comprise: drying the gun-cotton and

nitro-glycerin; melting and filtering the mineral jelly; weighing and

mixing the nitro-glycerin with the gun-cotton; moistening this mixture

with acetone until it becomes a jelly; and then incorporating in a

special mixing mill for about three hours, after which the weighed

amount of mineral jelly is added and the incorporation continued for

about one hour or until judged complete. The incorporating or mixing

machine is covered as closely as possible to prevent too great

evaporation of the very volatile acetone. Before complete incorporation

the mixture is termed, in the works, "paste," and, when finally mixed,

"dough."

The right consistency having been produced, the material is placed in a

steel cylinder provided with an arrangement of dies or holes of

regulated size at one end, and a piston or plunger at the other. The

plunger is worked either by hydraulic power or by a screw (driven from

ordinary shafting). Before reaching and passing through the holes in the

die, the material is filtered through a disk of fine wire gauze to

retain any foreign substances, such as sand, bits of wood or metal, or

unchanged fibres of cellulose, &c., which might choke the dies or be

otherwise dangerous. The material issues from the cylinders in the form

of cord or string of the diameter of the holes of the die. The thicker

sizes are cut off, as they issue, into lengths (of about 3 ft.), it

being generally arranged that a certain number of these--say ten--should

have, within narrow limits, a definite weight. The small sizes, such as

those employed for rifle cartridges, are wound on reels or drums, as the

material issues from the press cylinders, in lengths of many yards.

Some of the solvent or gelatinizing material (acetone) is lost during

the incorporating, and more during the pressing process and the

necessary handling, but much still remains in the cordite at this stage.

It is now dried in heated rooms, where it is generally spread out on

shelves, a current of air passing through carrying the acetone vapour

with it. In the more modern works this air current is drawn, finally,

through a solution of a substance such as sodium bisulphite; a fixed

compound is thus formed with the acetone, which by suitable treatment

may be recovered. The time taken in the drying varies with the

thickness of the cordite from a few days to several weeks. For several

reasons it is desirable that this process should go on gradually and

slowly.

After drying, all the various batches of cordite of the same size are

carefully "blended," so that any slight differences in the manufacture

of one batch or one day's output may be equalized as much as possible.

Slight differences may arise from the raw materials, cotton waste or

glycerin, or in the making of these into gun-cotton or nitro-glycerin

respectively. To help in controlling the blending, each "make" of

gun-cotton and nitro-glycerin is "marked" or numbered, and carries its

mark to the cordite batch of which it is an ingredient. The history of

each box of large-sized or reel of small-sized cordite is therefore

known up to the operation of blending and packing. The final testing is

by firing proofs, as in the case of the old gunpowders.

The gun-cotton employed for cordite is made in the usual way (see

GUN-COTTON), with the exception of treating with alkali. It is also

after complete washing with water gently pressed into small cylinders

(about 3 in. diameter and 4 in. high) whilst wet, and these are

carefully dried before the nitro-glycerin is added. The pressure applied

is only sufficient to make the gun-cotton just hold together so that it

is easily mixed with the nitro-glycerin. The mineral jelly or vaseline

is obtained at a certain stage of distillation of petroleum, and is a

mixture of hydrocarbons, paraffins, olefines and some other unsaturated

hydrocarbons, possibly aromatic, which no doubt play a very important

part as preservatives in cordite.

The stability of cordite, that is, its capability of keeping without

chemical or ballistic changes, is judged of by certain "heat tests." The

Abel heat test consists in subjecting a weighed quantity, 2 grams, of

the finely divided cordite contained in a test tube, to a temperature of

70 deg. C. maintained constant by a water bath. The test tube is about 6

X 3/4 in., and dips into the water sufficiently to immerse about 2 in.,

viz. the part containing the cordite. In the upper free portion a piece

of filter-paper impregnated with a mixture of potassium iodide and

starch paste is suspended by a platinum wire from the stopper of the

tube. A portion of the test paper is moistened with a solution of

glycerin to render it more sensitive than the dry part. A faint brown

colour appearing on the moistened portion indicates that some oxides of

nitrogen have been evolved from the cordite. This brown tint is compared

with a standard, and the time taken before the standard tint appears is

noted. The time fixed upon as a test of relative stability is an

arbitrary one determined by examination of well-known specimens. Should

the cordite or other explosive contain traces of mercury salts, such as

mercuric chloride, which is sometimes added as a preservative, this test

is rendered nugatory, and no coloration may appear (or only after a long

exposure), although the sample may be of indifferent stability. It is

now customary to examine specially for mercury, either by heating the

explosive in contact with gold leaf or silver foil, or by burning the

substance and examining the flame in the spectroscope.

The method of examination known as the vacuum silvered vessel process is

probably not interfered with by the presence of very small quantities of

mercury. It consists in heating 50 grams of the finely divided explosive

in a Dewar's silvered vacuum glass bulb to a rigidly constant

temperature of 80 deg. C. for many hours. A sensitive thermometer having

its bulb immersed in the centre of the cordite shows when the

temperature rises above 80 deg.. Such a rise indicates internal

oxidation or decomposition of the explosive; it is accompanied by an

evolution of nitrogen dioxide, NO2, the depth of colour of which is

noted through a side tube attached to the bulb. As all explosives of

this class would in time decompose sufficiently to give these

indications, time periods or limits have been fixed at which an

appreciable and definite rise in temperature and production of red fumes

indicate relative stability or instability. (W. R. E. H.)

CORDOBA, GONZALO FERNANDEZ DE (1453-1515), Spanish general and

statesman, usually spoken of by the Italianized form of his Christian

name as GONSALVO DE CORDOBA, or as "the Great Captain," was the second

son of Don Pedro Fernandez de Cordoba, count of Aguilar, and of his wife

Elvira de Herrera, who belonged to the family of Enriquez, the

hereditary admirals of Castile, a branch of the royal house. Gonzalo was

born at Montilla near the city of Cordova (Cordoba) on the 16th of March

1453. The father died when he and his elder brother, Don Alonso, were

mere boys. The counts of Aguilar carried on an hereditary feud with the

rival house of Cabra, and the children were carried by their vassals

into the faction fights of the two families. As a younger son Gonzalo

had his fortune to make, but he was generously aided by the affection of

his elder brother, who was very wealthy. War and service in the king's

court offered the one acceptable career outside the church to a

gentleman of his birth.

He was first attached to the household of Don Alphonso, the king's

brother, and upon his death devoted himself to Isabella, afterwards the

queen. During the civil war, and the conflict with Portugal which

disturbed the first years of her reign, he fought under the grand master

of Santiago, Alonso de Cardenas. After the battle of Albuera, the grand

master gave him especial praise, saying that he could always see Gonzalo

to the front because he was conspicuous by the splendour of his armour.

Indeed the future Great Captain, who, as a general, was above all things

astute and patient, could, and habitually did, display the most reckless

personal daring, going into a fight as if he loved it, and having a

shrewd sense that a reputation for intrepidity, a free-handed profusion,

and the personal magnificence which strikes the eye, would secure him

the devotion of his soldiers. During the ten years' war for the conquest

of Granada he completed his apprenticeship under his brother, the count

of Aguilar, the grand master of Santiago, and the count of Tendilla, of

whom he always spoke as his masters. It was a war of surprises and

defences of castles or towns, of skirmishes, and of ambuscades in the

defiles of the mountains. The military engineer and the "guerrillero"

were about equally employed. Gonzalo's most distinguished single feat

was the defence of the advanced post of Illora, but he commanded the

queen's escort when she wished to take a closer view of Granada, and he

beat back a sortie of the Moors under her eyes. When Granada

surrendered, he was one of the officers chosen to arrange the

capitulation, and on the peace he was rewarded by a grant of land.

So far he was only known as an able subordinate, but his capacity could

not be hidden from such an excellent judge of character as Isabella, to

whom as a woman he appealed by a chivalrous union of devotion and

respect. When, therefore, the Catholic sovereigns decided to support the

Aragonese house of Naples against Charles VIII. of France, Gonzalo was

chosen by the influence of the queen, and in preference to older men, to

command the Spanish expedition. It was in Italy that he won the title of

the Great Captain; Guicciardini says that it was given him by the

customary arrogance of the Spaniards, but it was certainly accepted as

just by all the soldiers of the time of whatever nationality. A detailed

account of his campaigns cannot be given here. He held the command in

Italy twice. In 1495 he was sent with a small force of little more than

five thousand men to aid Ferdinand of Naples to recover his kingdom, and

he returned home after achieving success, in 1498. After a brief

interval of service against the conquered Moors who had risen in revolt,

he returned to Italy in 1501. Ferdinand of Spain had entered into his

iniquitous compact with Louis XII. of France for the spoliation and

division of the kingdom of Naples. The Great Captain was chosen to

command the Spanish part of this robber coalition. As general and as

viceroy of Naples he remained in Italy till 1507. During his first

command he was mostly employed in Calabria in mountain warfare which

bore much resemblance to his former experience in Granada. There was,

however, a material difference in the enemy. The French forces,

commanded by the Scotsman Stuart d'Aubigny, consisted largely of Swiss

pikemen, and of their own men-at-arms. With his veterans of the

Granadine war, foot soldiers armed with sword and buckler, or arquebuses

and crossbows, and light cavalry, trained to unsleeping vigilance,

capable of long marches, and of an endurance unparalleled among the

soldiers of the time, he could carry on a guerrillero warfare which wore

down his opponents, who suffered far more than the Spaniards from the

heat. But he saw clearly that this was not enough. His experience in

Seminara showed him that something more was wanted on the battlefield.

The action was lost mainly because King Ferdinand, disregarding the

advice of Gonzalo, persisted in fighting a pitched battle with inferior

numbers, some of whom were untrustworthy Neapolitans. The Spanish foot

behaved excellently, but the result showed that in the open field their

loose formation and their swords put them at a disadvantage as against a

charge of heavy cavalry or pikemen. Gonzalo therefore introduced a much

more strict formation, and adopted the pike as the weapon of a part of

his foot. The division of the Spanish infantry into the "battle" or main

central body of pikemen, and the wings (_alas_) of "shot" to be employed

in outflanking the enemy, was primarily due to the Great Captain.

The French were expelled by 1498 without another battle. When the Great

Captain reappeared in Italy he had first to perform the congenial task

of driving the Turk from Cephalonia, then to aid in robbing the king of

Naples, Frederick, brother of his old ally Ferdinand. When the king of

Naples had been despoiled, the French and Spaniards quarrelled over the

booty. The Great Captain now found himself with a much outnumbered army

in the presence of the French. The war was divided into two phases very

similar to one another. During the end of 1502 and the early part of

1503 the Spaniards stood at bay in the entrenched camp at Barletta near

the Ofanto on the shores of the Adriatic. He resolutely refused to be

tempted into battle either by the taunts of the French or the discontent

of his own soldiers. Meanwhile he employed the Aragonese partisans in

the country, and flying expeditions of his own men, to harass the

enemy's communications. When he was reinforced, and the French committed

the mistake of scattering their forces too much to secure supplies, he

took the offensive, pounced on the enemy's depot of provisions at

Cerignola, took a strong position, threw up hasty field works, and

strengthened them with a species of wire entanglements. The French made

a headlong front attack, were repulsed, assailed in flank, and routed.

The later operations on the Garigliano were very similar, and led to the

total expulsion of the French from Naples. Gonzalo remained as governor

of Naples till 1507. But he had become too great not to arouse the

jealousy of such a typical king of the Renaissance as Ferdinand the

Catholic. The death of the queen in 1504 had deprived him of a friend,

and it must be allowed that he was profuse in rewarding his captains and

his soldiers out of the public treasury. Ferdinand loaded him with

titles and fine words, but recalled him so soon as he could, and left

him unemployed till his death on the 2nd of December 1515.

The Great Captain is sometimes spoken of as the first of modern

generals. The expression is uncritical, for modern generalship arose

from many sides, but he was emphatically a general. There is much in his

methods which bears a curious likeness to those of the duke of

Wellington; Barletta, for instance, has a distinct resemblance to the

Torres Vedras campaign, and the battle on the Garigliano to Assaye. As

an organizer he founded the Spanish infantry of the 16th and 17th

centuries, and he gave the best proof of his influence by forming a

school of officers. The best generals of Charles V. were either the

pupils of the Great Captain or were trained by them.

There is no life of Gonzalo de Cordoba written by a scholar who was

also a good judge of war. The dull _Cronica del Gran Capitan_ gives

the bare events of his campaigns rather wearisomely but fully. Paulus

Govius, _Vitae illustrium virorum_, translated by Domenichi (Florence,

1550), is elegant and very readable. Don Jose Quintana includes him in

his _Espanoles celebres_ (_Rivadeneyra Biblioteca de autores

espanoles_, vol. xix., Madrid, 1846-1880); and Prescott collected the

authorities, and made good use of them in his _Ferdinand and

Isabella_. See also P. du Poncet, _Histoire de Gonsalve de Cordoue_

(Paris, 1714). The _Gonsalve de Cordoue, ou Grenade reconquise_ of

Florian (Paris, 1791) is a romance. (D. H.)

CORDOBA, a large central province of the Argentine Republic, bounded N.

by Santiago del Estero, E. by Santa Fe, S. by Buenos Aires and La Pampa,

W. by San Luis and Rioja, and N.W. by Catamarca. Pop. (1895) 351,223;

(1904, estimate) 465,464; area, 62,160 sq. m. The greater part of the

province belongs to the pampas, though less fertile and grassy than the

plains farther E. and S. It likewise includes large saline and swampy

areas. The N.W. part of the province is traversed by an isolated

mountain system made up of the Cordoba, Pocho and Ischilin sierras,

which extend for a distance of some 200 m. in a N. and S. direction.

These ranges intercept the moist winds from the Atlantic, and receive on

their eastern slopes an abundant rainfall, which gives them a strikingly

verdant appearance in comparison with the surrounding plains. West and

N.W. of the sierras are extensive saline basins called Las Salinas

Grandes, which extend into the neighbouring provinces and are absolutely

barren. In the N.E. the land is low and swampy; here are the large

saline lagoons of Mar Chiquita and Los Porongos. The principal rivers,

which have their sources in the sierras and flow eastward, are the

Primero and Segundo, which flow north-easterly into the lacustrine basin

of Mar Chiquita; the Tercero and Quarto, which unite near the Santa Fe

frontier to form the Carcarana, a tributary of the Parana; and the

Quinto, which flows south-easterly into the swamps of the Laguna Amarga

in the S. part of the province. Countless small streams also descend the

eastern slopes of the sierras and are lost in the great plains. The

eastern districts are moderately fertile, and are chiefly devoted to

cattle-breeding, though cereals are also produced. In the valleys and

well-watered foothills of the sierras, however, cereals, alfalfa and

fruit are the principal products. The rainfall is limited throughout the

province, and irrigation is employed in but few localities. The mineral

resources include gold, silver, copper, lead and iron, but mining is

carried on only to a very limited extent. Salt and marble are also

produced. Cordoba is traversed by several railway lines--those running

westward from Buenos Aires and Rosario to Mendoza and the Chilean

frontier, those connecting the city of Cordoba with the same cities, and

with Tucuman on the N. and Catamarca and Rioja on the N.W. The chief

towns are Cordoba, the capital, Rio Quarto, Villa Maria, an important

railway centre 82 m. S.E. of Cordoba, and Cruz del Eje on the W. slopes

of the sierras, 110 m. N.W. of Cordoba.

CORDOBA, a city in the central part of the Argentine Republic, capital

of the above province, on the Rio Primero, 435 m. by rail N.W. of Buenos

Aires by way of Rosario, 246 m. from the latter. Pop. (1895) 42,783--the

suburbs having 11,679 more--(1905, estimate) 60,000. The city is

connected by railway with Buenos Aires and Rosario, and with the

capitals of all the surrounding provinces. Cordoba stands on a high

eastward-sloping plain called the "Altos," 1240 ft. above sea-level, and

is built in a broad river bottom washed out by periodical inundations

and the action of the rains on the alluvial banks. The inundations have

been brought under control by the construction of barriers and dams, but

the banks are constantly broken down. The city is regularly laid out,

and contains many fine edifices and dwellings. Several suburban

settlements surround the city, the more important of which are served by

the urban tramway lines. The streets are lighted by gas and electricity,

and an excellent telephone service is maintained. The noteworthy public

buildings include the cathedral, a handsome edifice curiously oriental

in appearance, a massive old Jesuit church with a ceiling of richly

carved and gilded cedar, the old university, founded in 1613, which

still occupies the halls built by the Jesuits around a large quadrangle,

the fine old _cabildo_, or government house, of Moorish appearance, and

the national observatory on the _barranca_ overlooking the city. There

are, also, two national normal schools, a national college, an episcopal

seminary, an endowed Carmelite orphanage, a national meteorological

station, a national academy of sciences, and a good public library.

Among the attractive features of the city is an alameda of about six

acres, within which is a square artificial lake of 4 acres, surrounded

by shrubbery and shaded walks; the alameda dates from the time when the

Jesuits ruled the city, and to them also are due the tiled baths,

supplied with running water. A short avenue connects the alameda with

the principal _plaza_, a pretty garden and promenade. The water supply

of Cordoba is derived from the Rio Primero, 12 m. above the city, where

an immense dam (Dique San Roque), one of the largest of its kind in

South America, has been built across the river valley. This dam also

serves to irrigate the valley below, and to furnish power for the

electric plant which provides Cordoba with light and electric power. In

and about the city there are several industrial establishments which

have sprung into existence since the opening of the first railway in

1870. The surrounding country is irrigated and well cultivated, and

produces an abundance of fruit and vegetables.

The city was founded in 1573 by Luis Geronimo de Cabrera and was for a

long time distinguished for its learning and piety. It was the

headquarters of the Jesuits in this part of South America for two

centuries, and for a time the capital of the Spanish _intendencia_ of

Tucuman. The expulsion of the Jesuits in 1767 proved to be a serious

blow to the academic reputation of the city, from which it did not

recover until 1870, when President Sarmiento engaged some eminent

scientific men from Europe to teach modern science in the university.

CORDOBA, a town of the state of Vera Cruz, Mexico, 55 m. W.S.W. of the

port of Vera Cruz, in a highly fertile valley, near the volcano of

Orizaba, and 2880 ft. above sea-level. Pop. (1895) 7974. The surrounding

district produces sugar, tobacco and coffee, Cordoba being one of the

principal coffee-producing centres of Mexico. It also manufactures

cotton and woollen fabrics. The town is regularly laid out and built of

stone, and contains several handsome edifices, chief of which is the old

cathedral. Cordoba was a town of considerable importance in colonial

times, but fell into decay after the revolution. The railway from Vera

Cruz to Mexico, which passes through it, and the development of coffee

production, have helped the city to recover a part of its lost trade.

CORDON (a French derivative of _corde_, cord), a word used in many

applications of its meaning of "line" or "cord," and particularly of a

cord of gold or silver lace worn in military and other uniforms. The

word is especially used of the sash or ribbon worn by members of an

order of knighthood, crossing from one shoulder to the opposite hip. The

_cordon bleu_, the sky-blue ribbon of the knight's grand cross of the

order of the Holy Spirit, the highest order of the Bourbon kings of

France, was, like the "blue ribbon" of the English Garter, taken as a

type of the highest reward or prize to which any one can attain (see

also COOKERY). In heraldry, "cordons" are the ornamental cords which,

with the hats to which they are attached, ensign the shields of arms of

certain ecclesiastical dignitaries; they are interlaced to form a mesh

or network and terminate in rows of tassels. A cardinal's cordon is

_gules_ with five rows of fifteen tassels, an archbishop's _vert_ with

four rows of ten, and a bishop's also _vert_, with three rows of six. In

architecture a "cordon" is a projecting band of stone along the outside

of a building, a string-course. The word is frequently used in a

transferred sense of a line of posts or stations to guard an enclosed

area from unauthorized passage, e.g. a military or police cordon, and

especially a sanitary cordon, a line of posts to prevent communication

from or with an area infected with disease.

CORDOVA (Span. _Cordoba_), an inland province of southern Spain, bounded

on the N.E. by Ciudad Real, E. by Jaen, S.E. by Granada, S. by Malaga,

S.W. and W. by Seville, and N.W. by Badajoz. Pop. (1900) 455,859; area,

5299 sq. m. The river Guadalquivir divides the province into two very

dissimilar portions. On the right bank is the mountainous region of the

Sierra Morena, less peopled and fertile than the left bank, with its

great plains (_La Campina_) and slightly undulating country towards the

south and south-east, where the surface again becomes mountainous with

the outlying ridges of the Sierra Nevada. The Guadalquivir, flowing from

E.N.E. to W.S.W., waters the richest districts of Cordova, and has many

tributaries, notably the Bembezar, Guadiato and Guadamellato, on the

right, and the Genil and Guadajoz on the left. The northern districts

(_Los Pedroches_) are drained by several small tributaries of the

Guadiana. The climate is much varied. Snow is to be found for months on

the highest peaks of the mountains; mild temperature in the plains,

except in the few torrid summer months, when rain seldom falls. The

peasantry are chiefly occupied in various branches of husbandry;

sheep-farming and the culture of the olive employ large numbers. The

agricultural wealth of Cordova is, however, not fully exploited, owing

to the conservatism and backward education of the peasantry. There are

no great manufacturing towns, but mining is an industry of some

importance. In 1903 coal was obtained in considerable quantities in the

Belmez district; argentiferous lead and zinc near Pozoblanco and

elsewhere; iron ore at Luque, near Baena. A small amount of bismuth is

also obtained. Mining is facilitated by a fairly complete and well-kept

system of communication by road and railway. The main line

Madrid-Linares-Seville follows the Guadalquivir valley throughout the

province, passing through the capital, Cordova. Here it meets the line

from Almorchon, on the north, to Malaga, on the south, which has three

important branches--Belmez-Fuente del Arco, Cordova-Utrera, and Puente

Genil-Jaen. After the capital, the principal towns are Aguilar de la

Frontera (13,236), Baena (14,539), Cabra (13,127), Fuente Ovejuna

(11,777), Lucena (21,179), Montilla (13,603), Montoro (14,581),

Pozoblanco (12,792), Priego de Cordoba (16,904) and Puente Genil

(12,956). These are described under separate headings. Other towns of

less importance are Adamuz (6974), Belalcazar (7682), Belmez (8978),

Bujalance (10,756), Castro del Rio (11,821), Hinojosa del Duque

(10,673), Palma del Rio (7914), Rute (10,740) and Villafranca de Cordoba

(9771).

CORDOVA (Span. _Cordoba_; Lat. _Corduba_), the capital of the Spanish

province of Cordova, on the southern slopes of the Sierra de Cordova,

and the right bank of the river Guadalquivir. Pop. (1900) 58,275. At

Cordova the Madrid-Seville railway meets the branch line from Almorchon

to Malaga. The city is an episcopal see. Few fragments remain of its

Moorish walls, which were erected on Roman foundations and enclosed a

very wide area, now largely occupied by garden-ground cleared from the

ruins of ancient buildings. On the outskirts are many modern factories

in striking contrast with the surrounding orange, lemon and olive

plantations, and with the pastures which belong to the celebrated

Cordovan school of bull-fighting. Nearer the centre the streets are for

the most part narrow and crooked. Almost every building, however, is

profusely covered with whitewash, and thus there is little difference on

the surface between the oldest and the most modern houses. The southern

suburb communicates with the town by means of a bridge of sixteen arches

across the river, exhibiting the usual combination of Roman and Moorish

masonry and dominated at the one end by an elevated statue of the patron

saint, St Raphael, whose effigy is to be seen in various other quarters

of the city. The most important of the public buildings are the

cathedral, the old monastic establishments, the churches, the bishop's

palace, the city hall, the hospitals and the schools and colleges,

including the academy for girls founded in 1590 by Bishop Pacheco of

Cordova, which is empowered to grant degrees. The Alcazar, or royal

palace, stands on the south-west amid the gardens laid out by its

builder, the caliph Abd-ar-Rahman III. (912-961). Its older parts are in

ruins, and even the so-called New Alcazar, erected by Alphonso XI. of

Castile in 1328, and long used as the offices of the Holy Inquisition,

has only one wing in good repair, which serves as a prison.

But the glory of Cordova, surpassing all its other Moorish or Christian

buildings, is the _mezquita_, or mosque, now a cathedral, but originally

founded on the site of a Roman temple and a Visigothic church by

Abd-ar-Rahman I. (756-788), who wished to confirm the power of his

caliphate by making its capital a great religious centre. Immigration

from all the lands of Islam soon rendered a larger mosque necessary,

owing to the greatly increased multitude of worshippers, and, by orders

of Abd-ar-Rahman II. (822-852) and Al-Hakim II. (961-976), the original

size was doubled. After various minor additions, Al-Mansur, the vizier

of the caliph Hisham II. (976-1009), again enlarged the _Zeca_, or House

of Purification, as the mosque was named, to twice its former size,

rendering it the largest sacred building of Islam, after the Kaaba at

Mecca. The ground plan of the completed mosque forms a rectangle,

measuring 570 ft. in length and 425 in breadth, or little less than St

Peter's in Rome. About one-third of this area is occupied by the

courtyard, and the cloisters which surround it on the north, west and

east. The exterior, with the straight lines of its square buttress

towers, has a heavy and somewhat ungainly appearance; but the interior

is one of the most beautiful specimens of Moorish architecture. Passing

through a grand courtyard about 500 ft. in length, shady with palm and

cypress and orange trees and watered by five fountains, the visitor

enters on the south a magnificent and bewildering labyrinth of pillars

in which porphyry, jasper and many-coloured marbles are boldly combined.

Part came from the spoils of Nimes or Narbonne, part from Seville or

Tarragona, some from the older ruins of Carthage, and others as a

present to Abd-ar-Rahman I. from the East Roman emperor Leo IV., who

sent also from Constantinople his own skilled workmen, with 16 tons of

tesserae for the mosaics. Originally of different heights, the pillars

have been adjusted to their present standard of 12 ft. either by being

sunk into the soil or by the addition of Corinthian capitals. Twelve

hundred was the number of the columns in the original building, but many

have been destroyed. The pillars divide the area of the building from

north to south, longitudinally into nineteen and transversely into

twenty-nine aisles--each row supporting a tier of open Moorish arches of

the same height (12 ft.) with a third and similar tier superimposed upon

the second. The full height of the ceiling is thus about 35 ft. The

Moorish character of the building was unfortunately impaired in the 16th

century by the formation in the interior of a _crucero_, or high altar

and cruciform choir, by the addition of numerous chapels along the sides

of the vast quadrangle, and by the erection of a belfry 300 ft. high in

room of the old minaret. The _crucero_ in itself is no disgrace to the

architect Hernan Ruiz, but every lover of art must sympathize with the

rebuke administered by the emperor Charles V. (1500-1558) to the

cathedral authorities: "You have built here what could have been built

as well anywhere else; and you have destroyed what was unique in the

world." Magnificent, indeed, as the cathedral still is, it is almost

impossible to realize what the mosque must have been when the

worshippers thronged through its nineteen gateways of bronze, and its

4700 lamps, fed with perfumed oil, illuminated its brilliant aisles. Of

the exquisite elaboration bestowed on the more sacred portions abundant

proof is afforded by the third _Mihrab_, or prayer-recess, a small

10th-century chapel, heptagonal in shape, roofed with a single

shell-like block of snow-white marble, and inlaid with Byzantine mosaics

of glass and gold.

Cordova was celebrated in the time of the Moors for its silversmiths,

who are said to have come originally from Damascus; and it exported a

peculiar kind of leather which took its name from the city, whence is

derived the word _cordwainer_. Fine silver filigree ornaments are still

produced; and Moorish work in leather is often skilfully imitated,

although this handicraft almost disappeared in the 15th century. The

chief modern industries of Cordova are distillation of spirits and the

manufacture of woollen, linen and silken goods.

Corduba, probably of Carthaginian origin, was occupied by the Romans

under Marcus Marcellus in 152 B.C.. and shortly afterwards became the

first Roman _colonia_ in Spain. From the large number of men of noble

rank among the colonists, the city obtained the title of _Patricia_; and

to this day the Cordovese pride themselves on the purity and antiquity

of their descent. In the 1st century B.C. Cordova aided the sons of

Pompey against Caesar; but after the battle of Munda, in 45 B.C., it

fell into the hands of Caesar, who avenged the obstinacy of its

resistance by massacring 20,000 of the inhabitants. Under Augustus, if

not before, it became a municipality, and was the capital of the

thoroughly Romanized province of Baetica. In the lifetime of Strabo,

however (c. 63 B.C.-A.D. 21), it still ranked as the largest city of

Spain. Its prosperity was due partly to its position on the Baetis, and

on the Via Augusta, the great commercial road from northern Spain built

by Augustus, and partly to its proximity to mines and rich grazing and

grain-producing districts. Hosius, its bishop, presided over the first

council of Nicaea in 345; and its importance was maintained by the

Visigothic kings, whose rule lasted from the 5th to the beginning of the

8th century. Under the Moors, Cordova was at first an appanage of the

caliphate of Damascus; but after 756 Abd-ar-Rahman I. made it the

capital of Moorish Spain, and the centre of an independent caliphate

(see ABD-AR-RAHMAN). It reached its zenith of prosperity in the middle

of the 10th century, under Abd-ar-Rahman III. At his death, it is

recorded by native chroniclers, probably with Arabic exaggeration, that

Cordova contained within its walls 200,000 houses, 600 mosques, 900

baths, a university, and numerous public libraries; whilst on the bank

of the Guadalquivir, under the power of its monarch, there were eight

cities, 300 towns and 12,000 populous villages. A period of decadence

began in 1016, owing to the claims of the rival dynasties which aimed at

succeeding to the line of Abd-ar-Rahman; the caliphate never won back

its position, and in 1236 Cordova was easily captured by Ferdinand III.

of Castile. The substitution of Spanish for Moorish supremacy rather

accelerated than arrested the decline of art, industry and population;

and in the 19th century Cordova never recovered from the disaster of

1808, when it was stormed and sacked by the French. Few cities of Spain,

however, can boast of so long a list of illustrious natives in the

Moorish and Roman periods, and even, to a less extent, in modern times.

It was the birthplace of the rhetorician Marcus Annaeus Seneca, and his

more famous son Lucius (c. 3 B.C.-A.D. 65); of the poet Lucan (A.D.

39-65); of the philosophers Averroes (1126-1198) and Maimonides

(1135-1204); of the Spanish men of letters Juan de Mena (c. 1411-1456),

Lorenzo de Sepulveda (d. 1574) and Luis de Gongora y Argote (1561-1627);

and the painters Pablo de Cespedes (1538-1608) and Juan de Valdes Leal

(1630-1691). The celebrated captain Gonzalo Fernandez de Cordoba (q.v.),

the conqueror of Naples (1495-1498), was born in the neighbouring town

of Montilla.

See _Estudio descriptivo de los monumentos arabes de Granada y

Cordoba_, by R. Contreras (Madrid, 1885); _Cordoba_, a large

illustrated volume of the series _Espana_, by P. de Madrazo

(Barcelona, 1884); _Inscripciones arabes de Cordoba_, by R. Amador de

los Rios y Villalta (Madrid, 1886).

CORDUROY, a cotton cloth of the fustian kind, made like a ribbed velvet.

It is generally a coarse heavy material and is used largely for

workmen's clothes, but some finer kinds are used for ladies' dresses,

&c. According to the _New English Dictionary_ the word is understood to

be of English invention, "either originally intended, or soon after

assumed, to represent a supposed French _corde du roi_." It is said that

a coarse woollen fabric called _duroy_, made in Somerset during the 18th

century, has no apparent connexion with it. From the ribbed appearance

of the cloth the name _corduroy_ is applied, particularly in America, to

a rough road of logs laid transversely side by side, usually across

swampy ground.

CORDUS, AULUS CREMUTIUS, Roman historian of the later Augustan age. He

was the author of a history (perhaps called _Annales_) of the events of

the civil wars and the reign of Augustus, embracing the period from at

least 43-18 B.C. In A.D. 25 he was brought to trial for having eulogized

Brutus and spoken of Cassius as the last of the Romans. His real offence

was a witticism at the expense of Sejanus, who put up two of his

creatures to accuse him in the senate. Seeing that nothing could save

him, Cordus starved himself to death. A decree of the senate ordered

that his works should be confiscated and burned by the aediles. Some

copies, however, were saved by the efforts of Cordus's daughter Marcia,

and after the death of Tiberius the work was published at the express

wish of Caligula. It is impossible to form an opinion of it from the

scanty fragments (H. Peter, _Historicorum Romanorum Fragmenta_, 1883).

According to ancient authorities, the writer was very outspoken in his

denunciations, and his relatives considered it necessary to strike out

the most offensive passages of the work before it was widely circulated

(Quintilian, _Instit._ x. 1, 104). Two passages in Pliny (_Nat. Hist._

x. 74 [37], xvi. 108 [45]) seem to refer to a work of a different nature

from the history--perhaps a treatise on _Admiranda_ or remarkable

things.

See Tacitus, _Annals_, iv. 34, 35; Suetonius, _Tiberius_, 61,

_Caligula_, 16; Seneca, _Suasoriae_, vii., esp. the _Consolatio_ to

Cordus's daughter Marcia; Dio Cassius lvii. 24. There are monographs

by J. Held (1841) and C. Rathlef (1860). Also H. Peter, _Die

geschichtliche Literatur uber die romische Kaiserzeit_ (1897);

Teuffel-Schwabe, _Hist. of Roman Lit._, Eng. trans., 277, 1.

CORELLI, ARCANGELO (1653-1713), Italian violin-player and composer, was

born on the 12th or 13th of February 1653, at Fusignano near Imola, and

died in 1713. Of his life little is known. His master on the violin was

Bassani. Matteo Simonelli, the well-known singer of the pope's chapel,

taught him composition. His first decided success was gained in Paris at

the age of nineteen. To this he owed his European reputation. From Paris

Corelli went to Germany. In 1681 he was in the service of the electoral

prince of Bavaria; between 1680 and 1685 he spent a considerable time in

the house of his friend Farinelli. In 1685 he was certainly in Rome,

where he led the festival performances of music for Queen Christine of

Sweden and was also a favourite of Cardinal Ottoboni. From 1689 to 1690

he was in Modena, the duke of which city made him handsome presents. In

1708 he went once more to Rome, living in the palace of Cardinal

Ottoboni. His visit to Naples, at the invitation of the king, took place

in the same year. The style of execution introduced by Corelli and

preserved by his pupils, such as Geminiani, Locatelli, and many others,

has been of vital importance for the development of violin-playing, but

he employed only a limited portion of his instrument's compass, as may

be seen by his writings, wherein the parts for the violin never proceed

above D on the first string, the highest note in the third position; it

is even said that he refused to play, as impossible, a passage which

extended to A in altissimo in the overture to Handel's _Trionfo del

Tempo_, and took serious offence when the composer played the note in

evidence of its practicability. His compositions for the instrument mark

an epoch in the history of chamber music; for his influence was not

confined to his own country. Even Sebastian Bach submitted to it.

Musical society in Rome owed much to Corelli. He was received in the

highest circles of the aristocracy, and arranged and for a long time

presided at the celebrated Monday concerts in the palace of Cardinal

Ottoboni. Corelli died possessed of a sum of 120,000 marks and a

valuable collection of pictures, the only luxury in which he had

indulged. He left both to his benefactor and friend, who, however,

generously made over the money to Corelli's relations. Corelli's

compositions are distinguished by a beautiful flow of melody and by a

masterly treatment of the accompanying parts, which he is justly said to

have liberated from the strict rules of counterpoint. Six collections of

concerti, sonatas and minor pieces for violin, with accompaniment of

other instruments, besides several concerted pieces for strings, are

authentically ascribed to this composer. The most important of these is

the XII. _Suonati a violino e violone o cimbalo_ (Rome, 1700).

CORELLI, MARIE (1864- ), English novelist, was the daughter of an

Italian father and a Scottish mother, but in infancy was adopted by

Charles Mackay (q.v.), the song-writer and journalist, whose son Eric,

at his death, became her guardian. She was sent to be educated in a

French convent with the object of training her for the musical

profession, and while still a girl composed various pieces of music. But

her journalistic connexion proved a stronger stimulus to expression, and

editors who were friends of her adopted father printed some of her early

poetry. Then she produced what was at least a clever, if not a

remarkably well written, romantic story, on the theme of a

self-revelation connecting the Christian Deity with a world force in the

form of electricity, which was published in 1886 under the title of _A

Romance of Two Worlds_. It had an immediate and large sale, which

resulted, naturally, in her devoting her inventive faculty to satisfy

the public demand for similar work. Thus she wrote in succession a

series of melodramatic romantic novels, original in some aspects of

their treatment, daring in others, but all combining a readable plot

with enough _au fond_ of what the majority demanded in ethical and

religious correctness to suit a widespread contemporary taste; these

were _Vendetta_ (1886), _Thelma_ (1887), _Ardath_ (1889), _The Soul of

Lilith_ (1892), _Barabbas_ (1893), _The Sorrows of Satan_ (1895),--the

very titles were catching,--_The Mighty Atom_ (1896),--which appealed to

all who knew enough of modern science to wish to think it wicked,--and

others, down to _The Master Christian_ (1900), again satisfying the

socio-ethico-religious demand, and _Temporal Power_ (1902), with its

contemporary suggestion from the accession of Edward VII. Miss Corelli

had the advantage of writing quite sincerely and with conviction, amid

what superior critics sneered at as bad style and sensationalism, on

themes which conventional readers nevertheless enjoyed, and round plots

which were dramatic and vigorous. Her popular success was great and

advertised itself. It was helped by a well-spread belief that Queen

Victoria preferred her novels to any other. Reviewers wrote

sarcastically, and justly, of her obvious literary lapses and failings;

she retorted by pitying the poor reviewers and letting it be understood

that no books of hers were sent to the Press for criticism. When she

went to live at Stratford-on-Avon, her personality, and her importance

in the literary world, became further allied with the historic

associations of the place; and in the public life of women writers her

utterances had the _reclame_ which is emphasized by journalistic

publicity. Such success is not to be gauged by purely literary

standards; the popularity of Miss Corelli's novels is a phenomenon not

so much of literature as of literary energy--entirely creditable to the

journalistic resource of the writer, and characteristic of contemporary

pleasure in readable fiction.

CORENZIO, BELISARIO (c. 1558-1643), Italian painter, a Greek by birth,

studied at Venice under Tintoretto, and then settled at Naples, where he

became famous for unscrupulous conduct as a man and rapid execution as

an artist. Though careless in composition and a mannerist in style, he

possessed an acknowledged fertility of invention and readiness of hand;

and these qualities, allied to a certain breadth of conception, seem in

the eyes of his contemporaries to have atoned for many defects. When

Guido Reni came in 1621 to Naples to paint in the chapel of St

Januarius, Corenzio suborned an assassin to take his life. The hired

bravo killed Guido's assistant, and effectually frightened Reni, who

prudently withdrew to Rome. Corenzio, however, only suffered temporary

imprisonment, and lived long enough to supplant Ribera in the good

graces of Don Pedro di Toledo, viceroy of Naples, who made him his court

painter. Corenzio vainly endeavoured to fill Guido's place in the chapel

of St Januarius. His work was adjudged to have been under the mark, and

yet the numerous frescoes which he left in Neapolitan churches and

palaces, and the large wall paintings which still cover the cupola of

the church of Monte Casino are evidence of uncommon facility, and show

that Corenzio was not greatly inferior to the _fa prestos_ of his time.

His florid style, indeed, seems well in keeping with the overladen

architecture and full-blown decorative ornament peculiar to the Jesuit

builders of the 17th century. Corenzio died, it is said, at the age of

eighty-five by a fall from a scaffolding.

CO-RESPONDENT, in law, generally, a person made respondent to, or called

upon to answer, along with another or others, a petition or other

proceeding. More particularly, since the Matrimonial Causes Act 1857,

the term is applied to the person charged by a husband, when presenting

a petition praying for the dissolution of his marriage on the ground of

adultery, with misconduct with his wife, and made, jointly with her, a

respondent to the suit. (See also DIVORCE.)

CORFE CASTLE, a town in the eastern parliamentary division of

Dorsetshire, England, in the district called the Isle of Purbeck,

129-1/2 m. S.W. by W. from London by the London & South-Western railway.

Pop. (1901) 1440. The castle, through which the town is famous, guarded

a gap in the line of considerable hills which rise in the centre of

Purbeck. It is strongly placed on an eminence falling almost sheer on

three sides. Its ruins are extensive, and date for the most part from

the Norman period to the reign of Edward I. There is, however, a trace

of early masonry which may have belonged to the Saxon house where, in

978, King Edward the Martyr was murdered. Corfe Castle was held for the

empress Maud against King Stephen in 1139, was frequently the residence

of King John, and was a stronghold of the barons against Henry III.

Edward II. was imprisoned here for a short period. The castle withstood

a protracted siege by the Parliamentarians in 1643, and fell to them by

treachery in 1646, after which it was dismantled and wrecked. The church

in the town, almost wholly rebuilt, is dedicated to St Edward the

Martyr. The quarrying of Purbeck stone and the raising of potters' clay

are the chief industries.