Chapter 11

Authorities.—Studies on Diderot by Scherer (1880); by E. Faguet (1890); by Sainte-Beuve in theCauseries du lundi; by F. Brunetière in theÉtudes critiques, 2nd series, may be consulted. In English, Diderot has been the subject of a biography by John Morley [Viscount Morley of Blackburn] (1878). See also Karl Rosenkranz,Diderots Leben und Werke(1866). For a discussion of the authenticity of the posthumous works of Diderot see R. Dominic in theRevue des deux mondes(October 15, 1902).

(J. Mo.)

DIDIUS SALVIUS JULIANUS, MARCUS,Roman emperor for two months (March 28-June 2) during the yeara.d.193. He was the grandson of the famous jurist Salvius Julianus (under Hadrian and the Antonines), and the son of a distinguished general, who might have ascended the throne after the death of Antoninus Pius, had not his loyalty to the ruling house prevented him. Didius filled several civil and military offices with distinguished success, but subsequently abandoned himself to dissipation. On the death of Pertinax, the praetorian guards offered the throne to the highest bidder. Flavius Sulpicianus, the father-in-law of Pertinax and praefect of the city, had already made an offer; Didius, urged on by the members of his family, his freedmen and parasites, hurried to the praetorian camp to contend for the prize. He and Sulpicianus bid against each other, and finally the throne was knocked down to Didius. The senate and nobles professed their loyalty; but the people made no attempt to conceal their indignation at this insult to the state, and the armies of Britain, Syria and Illyricum broke out into open revolt. Septimius Severus, the commander of the Pannonian legions, was declared emperor and hastened by forced marches to Italy. Didius, abandoned by the praetorians, was condemned and executed by order of the senate, which at once acknowledged Severus.

Authorities.—Dio Cassius lxxiii. 11-17, who was actually in Rome at the time; Aelius Spartianus,Didius Julianus; Julius Capitolinus,Pertinax; Herodian ii.; Aurelius Victor,De Caesaribus, 19; Zosimus i. 7; Gibbon,Decline and Fall, chap. 5.

DIDO,orElissa, the reputed founder of Carthage (q.v.), in Africa, daughter of the Tyrian king Metten (Mutto, Methres, Belus), wife of Acerbas (more correctly Sicharbas; Sychaeus in Virgil), a priest of Hercules. Her husband having been slain by her brother Pygmalion, Dido fled to Cyprus, and thence to the coast of Africa, where she purchased from a local chieftain Iarbas a piece of land on which she built Carthage. The city soon began to prosper and Iarbas sought Dido’s hand in marriage, threatening her with war in case of refusal. To escape from him, Dido constructed a funeral pile, on which she stabbed herself before the people (Justin xviii. 4-7). Virgil, in defiance of the usually accepted chronology, makes Dido a contemporary of Aeneas, with whom she fell in love after his landing in Africa, and attributes her suicide to her abandonment by him at the command of Jupiter (Aeneid, iv.). Dido was worshipped at Carthage as a divinity under the name of Caelestis, the Roman counterpart of Tanit, the tutelary goddess of Carthage. According to Timaeus, the oldest authority for the story, her name was Theiosso, in Phoenician Helissa, and she was called Dido from her wanderings, Dido being the Phoenician equivalent ofπλανῆτις(Etymologicum Magnum,s.v.); some modern scholars, however, translate the name by “beloved.” Timaeus makes no mention of Aeneas, who seems to have been introduced by Naevius in hisBellum Poenicum, followed by Ennius in hisAnnales.

For the variations of the legend in earlier and later Latin authors, see O. Rossbach in Pauly-Wissowa’sRealencyclopädie, v. pt. 1 (1905); O. Meltzer’sGeschichte der Karthager, i. (1879), and his article in Roscher’sLexikon der Mythologie.

DIDON, HENRI(1840-1900), French Dominican, was born at Trouvet, Isère, on the 17th of March 1840. He joined the Dominicans, under the influence of Lacordaire, in 1858, and completed his theological studies at the Minerva convent at Rome. The influence of Lacordaire was shown in the zeal displayed by Didon in favour of a reconciliation between philosophy and science. In 1871 his fame had so much grown that he was chosen to deliver the funeral oration over the murdered archbishop of Paris, Monseigneur G. Darboy. He also delivered somediscourses at the church of St Jean de Beauvais in Paris on the relations between science and religion; but his utterances, especially on the question of divorce, were deemed suspicious by his superiors, and his intimacy with Claude Bernard the physiologist was disapproved. He was interdicted from preaching and sent into retirement at the convent of Corbara in Corsica. After eighteen months he emerged, and travelled in Germany, publishing an interesting work upon that country, entitledLes Allemands(English translation by R. Ledos de Beaufort, London, 1884). On his return to France in 1890 he produced his best known work,Jésus-Christ(2 vols., Paris), for which he had qualified himself by travel in the Holy Land. In the same year he became director of the Collège Albert-le-Grand at Arcueil, and founded three auxiliary institutions, École Lacordaire, École Laplace and École St Dominique. He wrote, in addition, several works on educational questions, and augmented his fame as an eloquent preacher by discourses preached during Lent and Advent. He died at Toulouse on the 13th of March 1900.

See the biographies by J. de Romano (1891), and A. de Coulanges (Paris, 1900); and especially the work of Stanislas Reynaud, entitledLe Père Didon, sa vie et son œuvre(Paris, 1904).

DIDOT,the name of a family of learned French printers and publishers.François Didot(1689-1757), founder of the family, was born at Paris. He began business as a bookseller and printer in 1713, and among his undertakings was a collection of the travels of his friend the Abbé Prévost, in twenty volumes (1747). It was remarkable for its typographical perfection, and was adorned with many engravings and maps.François Ambroise Didot(1730-1804), son of François, made important improvements in type-founding, and was the first to attempt printing on vellum paper. Among the works which he published was the famous collection of French classics prepared by order of Louis XVI. for the education of the Dauphin, and the folio edition ofL’Art de vérifier les dates.Pierre François Didot(1732-1795), his brother, devoted much attention to the art of type-founding and to paper-making. Among the works which issued from his press was an edition in folio of theImitatio Christi(1788).Henri Didot(1765-1852), son of Pierre François, is celebrated for his “microscopic” editions of various standard works, for which he engraved the type when nearly seventy years of age. He was also the engraver of theassignatsissued by the Constituent and Legislative Assemblies and the Convention.Didot Saint-Léger, second son of Pierre François, was the inventor of the paper-making machine known in England as the Didot machine.Pierre Didot(1760-1853), eldest son of François Ambroise, is celebrated as the publisher of the beautiful “Louvre” editions of Virgil, Horace and Racine. The Racine, in three volumes folio, was pronounced in 1801 to be “the most perfect typographical production of all ages.”Firmin Didot(1764-1836), his brother, second son of François Ambroise, sustained the reputation of the family both as printer and type-founder. He revived (if he did not invent—a distinction which in order of time belongs to William Ged) the process of stereotyping, and coined its name, and he first used the process in his edition of Callet’sTables of Logarithms(1795), in which he secured an accuracy till then unattainable. He published stereotyped editions of French, English and Italian classics at a very low price. He was the author of two tragedies—La Reine de PortugalandLa Mort d’Annibal; and he wrote metrical translations from Virgil, Tyrtaeus and Theocritus.Ambroise Firmin Didot(1790-1876) was his eldest son. After receiving a classical education, he spent three years in Greece and in the East; and on the retirement of his father in 1827 he undertook, in conjunction with his brother Hyacinthe, the direction of the publishing business. Their greatest undertaking was a new edition of theThesaurus Graecae linguaeof Henri Estienne, under the editorial care of the brothers Dindorf and M. Hase (9 vols., 1855-1859). Among the numerous important works published by the brothers, the 200 volumes forming theBibliothèque des auteurs grecs,Bibliothèque latine, andBibliothèque françaisedeserve special mention. Ambroise Firmin Didot was the first to propose (1823) a subscription in favour of the Greeks, then in insurrection against Turkish tyranny. Besides a translation of Thucydides (1833), he wrote the articles “Estienne” in theNouvelle Biographie générale, and “Typographie” in theEncy. mod., as well asObservations sur l’orthographie française(1867), &c. In 1875 he published a very learned and elaborate monograph on Aldus Manutius. His collection of MSS., the richest in France, was said to have been worth, at the time of his death, not less than 2,000,000 francs.

DIDRON, ADOLPHE NAPOLÉON(1806-1867), French archaeologist, was born at Hautvillers, in the department of Marne, on the 13th of March 1806. At first a student of law, he began in 1830, by the advice of Victor Hugo, a study of the Christian archaeology of the middle ages. After visiting and examining the principal churches, first of Normandy, then of central and southern France, he was on his return appointed by Guizot secretary to the Historical Committee of Arts and Monuments (1835); and in the following years he delivered several courses of lectures on Christian iconography at the Bibliothèque Royale. In 1839 he visited Greece for the purpose of examining the art of the Eastern Church, both in its buildings and its manuscripts. In 1844 he originated theAnnales archéologiques, a periodical devoted to his favourite subject, which he edited until his death. In 1845 he established at Paris a special archaeological library, and at the same time a manufactory of painted glass. In the same year he was admitted to the Legion of Honour. His most important work is theIconographie chrétienne, of which, however, the first portion only,Histoire de Dieu(1843), was published. It was translated into English by E. J. Millington. Among his other works may be mentioned theManuel d’iconographie chrétienne grecque et latine(1845), theIconographie des chapiteaux du palais ducal de Venise(1857), and theManuel des objets de bronze et d’orfèvrerie(1859). He died on the 13th of November 1867.

DIDYMI,orDidyma(mod.Hieronta), an ancient sanctuary of Apollo in Asia Minor situated in the territory of Miletus, from which it was distant about 10 m. S. and on the promontory Poseideion. It was sometimes calledBranchidaefrom the name of its priestly caste which claimed descent from Branchus, a youth beloved by Apollo. As the seat of a famous oracle, the original temple attracted offerings from Pharaoh Necho (in whose army there was a contingent of Milesian mercenaries), and the Lydian Croesus, and was plundered by Darius of Persia. Xerxes finally sacked and burnt it (481b.c.) and exiled the Branchidae to the far north-east of his empire. This exile was believed to be voluntary, the priests having betrayed their treasures to the Persian; and on this belief Alexander the Great acted 150 years later, when, finding the descendants of the Branchidae established in a city beyond the Oxus, he ordered them to be exterminated for the sin of their fathers (328). The celebrated cult-statue of Apollo by Canachus, familiar to us from reproductions on Milesian coins, was also carried to Persia, there to remain till restored by Seleucus I. in 295, and the oracle ceased to speak for a century and a half. The Milesians were not able to undertake the rebuilding till about 332b.c., when the oracle revived at the bidding of Alexander. The work proved too costly, and despite a special effort made by the Asian province nearly 400 years later, at the bidding of the emperor Caligula, the structure was never quite finished: but even as it was, Strabo ranked the Didymeum the greatest of Greek temples and Pliny placed it among the four most splendid and second only to the Artemisium at Ephesus. In point of fact it was a little smaller than the Samian Heraeum and the temple of Cybele at Sardis, and almost exactly the same size as the Artemisium. The area covered by the platform measures roughly 360 × 160 ft.

When Cyriac of Ancona visited the spot in 1446, it seems that the temple was still standing in great part, although thecellahad been converted into a fortress by the Byzantines: but when the next European visitor, the Englishman Dr Pickering, arrived in 1673, it had collapsed. It is conjectured that the cause was the great earthquake of 1493. The Society of Dilettanti sent two expeditions to explore the ruins, the first in 1764 under Richard Chandler, the second in 1812 under Sir Wm. Gell; and the French“Rothschild Expedition” of 1873 under MM. O. Rayet and A. Thomas sent a certain amount of architectural sculpture to the Louvre. But no excavation was attempted till MM. E. Pontremoli and B. Haussoullier were sent out by the French Schools of Rome and Athens in 1895. They cleared the western façade and theprodomos, and discovered inscriptions giving information about other parts which they left still buried. Finally the site was purchased by, and the French rights were ceded to, Dr Th. Wiegand, the German explorer of Miletus, who in 1905 began a thorough clearance of what is incomparably the finest temple ruin in Asia Minor.

The temple was a decastyle peripteral structure of the Ionic order, standing on seven steps and possessing double rows of outer columns 60 ft. high, twenty-one in each row on the flanks. It is remarkable not only for its great size, but (inter alia) for (1) the rich ornament of its column bases, which show great variety of design; (2) its various developments of the Ionic capital,e.g.heads of gods, probably of Pergamene art, spring from the “eyes” of the volutes with bulls’ heads between them; (3) the massive building two storeys high at least, which served below forprodomos, and above for a dispensary of oracles (χρησμογράφιαmentioned in the inscriptions) and a treasury; two flights of stairs called “labyrinths” in the inscriptions, led up to these chambers; (4) the pylon and staircase at the west; (5) the frieze of Medusa heads and foliage. Two outer columns are still erect on the north-east flank, carrying their entablature, and one of the inner order stands on the south-west. The fact that the temple was never finished is evident from the state in which some bases still remain at the west. There were probably no pedimental sculptures. A sacred way led from the temple to the sea at Panormus, which was flanked with rows of archaic statues, ten of which were excavated and sent to the British Museum in 1858 by C. T. Newton. Fragments of architectural monuments, which once adorned this road, have also been found. Modern Hieronta is a large and growing Greek village, the only settlement within a radius of several miles. Its harbour is Kovella, distant about 2½ m., and on the N. of the promontory.

See Dilettanti Society,Ionian Antiquities, ii. (1821); C. T. Newton,Hist. of Discoveries, &c. (1862) andTravels in the Levant, ii. (1865); O. Rayet and A. Thomas,Milet et le Golfe Latmique(1877); E. Pontremoli and B. Haussoullier,Didymes(1904).

(D. G. H.)

DIDYMIUM(from the Gr.διδυμος, twin), the name given to the supposed element isolated by C. G. Mosander from cerite (1839-1841). In 1879, however, Lecoq de Boisbaudran showed that Mosander’s “didymium” contained samarium; while the residual “didymium,” after removal of samarium, was split by Auer v. Welsbach (Monats. f. Chemie, 1885, 6, 477) into two components (known respectively as neodymium and praseodymium) by repeated fractional crystallization of the double nitrate of ammonium and didymium in nitric acid.Neodymium(Nd) forms the chief portion of the old “didymium.” Its salts are reddish violet in colour, and give a characteristic absorption spectrum. It forms oxides of composition Nd2O3and Nd2O5, the latter being obtained by ignition of the nitrate (B. Brauner). The atomic weight of neodymium is 143.6 (B. Brauner,Proc. Chem. Soc., 1897-1898, p. 70).Praseodymium(Pr) forms oxides of composition Pr2O3, Pr2O5,xH2O (B. Brauner), and Pr4O7. The peroxide, Pr4O7, forms a dark brown powder, and is obtained by ignition of the oxalate or nitrate. The sesquioxide, Pr2O3, is obtained as a greenish white mass by the reduction of the peroxide. The salts of praseodymium are green in colour, and give a characteristic spark spectrum. The atomic weight of praseodymium is 140.5.

DIDYMUS(?309-?394), surnamed “the Blind,” ecclesiastical writer of Alexandria, was born about the year 309. Although he became blind at the age of four, before he had learned to read; he succeeded in mastering the whole circle of the sciences then known; and on entering the service of the Church he was placed at the head of the Catechetical school in Alexandria, where he lived and worked till almost the close of the century. Among his pupils were Jerome and Rufinus. He was a loyal follower of Origen, though stoutly opposed to Arian and Macedonian teaching. Such of his writings as survive show a remarkable knowledge of scripture, and have distinct value as theological literature. Among them are theDe Trinitate,De Spiritu Sancto(Jerome’s Latin translation),Adversus Manichaeos, and notes and expositions of various books, especially the Psalms and the Catholic Epistles.

See Migne,Patrol. Graec.xxxix.; O. Bardenhewer,Patrologie, pp. 290-293 (Freiburg, 1894).

DIDYMUS CHALCENTERUS(c. 63b.c.-a.d.10), Greek scholar and grammarian, flourished in the time of Cicero and Augustus. His surname (Gr.Χαλκέντερος, brazen-bowelled) came from his indefatigable industry; he was said to have written so many books (more than 3500) that he was unable to recollect their names (βιβλιολάθας). He lived and taught in Alexandria and Rome, where he became the friend of Varro. He is chiefly important as having introduced Alexandrian learning to the Romans. He was a follower of the school of Aristarchus, upon whose recension of Homer he wrote a treatise, fragments of which have been preserved in the Venetian Scholia. He also wrote commentaries on many other Greek poets and prose authors. In his work on the lyric poets he treated of the various classes of poetry and their chief representatives, and his lists of words and phrases (used in tragedy and comedy and by orators and historians), of words of doubtful meaning, and of corrupt expressions, furnished the later grammarians with valuable material. His activity extended to all kinds of subjects: grammar (orthography, inflexions), proverbs, wonderful stories, the law-tablets (ἄξονες) of Solon, stones, and different kinds of wood. His polemic against Cicero’sDe republica(Ammianus Marcellinus xxii. 16) provoked a reply from Suetonius. In spite of his stupendous industry, Didymus was little more than a compiler, of little critical judgment and doubtful accuracy, but he deserves recognition for having incorporated in his numerous writings the works of earlier critics and commentators.

See M. W. Schmidt,De Didymo Chalcentero(1853) andDidymi Chalcenteri fragmenta(1854); also F. Susemihl,Geschichte der griech. Literatur in der Alexandrinerzeit, ii. (1891); J. E. Sandys,History of Classical Scholarship, i. (1906).

DIE,a town of south-eastern France, capital of an arrondissement in the department of Drôme, 43 m. E.S.E. of Valence on the Paris-Lyon railway. Pop. (1906) 3090. The town is situated in a plain enclosed by mountains on the right bank of the Drôme below its confluence with the Meyrosse, which supplies power to some of the industries. The most interesting structures of Die are the old cathedral, with a porch of the 11th century supported on granite columns from an ancient temple of Cybele; and the Porte St Marcel, a Roman gateway flanked by massive towers. The Roman remains also include the ruins of aqueducts and altars. Die is the seat of a sub-prefect, and of a tribunal of first instance. The manufactures are silk, furniture, cloth, lime and cement, and there are flour and saw mills. Trade is in timber, especially walnut, and in white wine known asclairette de Die. The mulberry is largely grown for the rearing of silkworms. Under the Romans, Die (Dea Augusta Vocontiorum) was an important colony. It was formerly the seat of a bishopric, united to that of Valence from 1276 to 1687 and suppressed in 1790. Previous to the revocation of the edict of Nantes in 1685 it had a Calvinistic university.

DIE(Fr.dé, from Lat.datum, given), a word used in various senses, for a small cube of ivory, &c. (seeDice), for the engraved stamps used in coining money, &c., and various mechanical appliances in engineering. In architecture a “die” is the term used for the square base of a column, and it is applied also to the vertical face of a pedestal or podium.

The fabrics known as “dice” take their name from the rectangular form of the figure. The original figures would probably be perfectly square, but to-day the same principle of weaving is applied, and the name dice is given to all figures of rectangular form. The different effects in the adjacent squares or rectangles are due to precisely the same reasons as those explained in connexion with the ground and the figure of damasks. The same weaves are used in both damasks and dices, but simplerweaves are generally employed for the commoner classes of the latter. The effect is, in every case, obtained by what are technically called warp and weft float weaves. The illustration B shows the two double damask weaves arranged to form a dice pattern, while A shows a similar pattern made from two four-thread twill weaves. C and D represent respectively the disposition of the threads in A and B with the first pick, and the solid marks represent the floats of warp. The four squares, which are almost as pronounced in the cloth as those of a chess-board, may be made of any size by repeating each weave for the amount of surface required. It is only in the finest cloths that the double damask weaves B are used for dice patterns, the single damask weaves and the twill weaves being employed to a greater extent. This class of pattern is largely employed for the production of table-cloths of lower and medium qualities. The term damask is also often applied to cloths of this character, and especially so when the figure is formed by rectangles of different sizes.

DIEBITSCH, HANS KARL FRIEDRICH ANTON,count von Diebitsch and Narden, called by the Russians Ivan Ivanovich, Count Diebich-Zabalkansky (1785-1831), Russian field-marshal, was born in Silesia on the 13th of May 1785. He was educated at the Berlin cadet school, but by the desire of his father, a Prussian officer who had passed into the service of Russia, he also did the same in 1801. He served in the campaign of 1805, and was wounded at Austerlitz, fought at Eylau and Friedland, and after Friedland was promoted captain. During the next five years of peace he devoted himself to the study of military science, engaging once more in active service in the War of 1812. He distinguished himself very greatly in Wittgenstein’s campaign, and in particular at Polotzk (October 18 and 19), after which combat he was raised to the rank of major-general. In the latter part of the campaign he served against the Prussian contingent of General Yorck (von Wartenburg), with whom, through Clausewitz, he negotiated the celebrated convention of Tauroggen, serving thereafter with Yorck in the early part of the War of Liberation. After the battle of Lützen he served in Silesia and took part in negotiating the secret treaty of Reichenbach. Having distinguished himself at the battles of Dresden and Leipzig he was promoted lieutenant-general. At the crisis of the campaign of 1814 he strongly urged the march of the allies on Paris; and after their entry the emperor Alexander conferred on him the order of St Alexander Nevsky. In 1815 he attended the congress of Vienna, and was afterwards made adjutant-general to the emperor, with whom, as also with his successor Nicholas, he had great influence. By Nicholas he was created baron, and later count. In 1820 he had become chief of the general staff, and in 1825 he assisted in suppressing the St Petersburgémeute. His greatest exploits were in the Russo-Turkish War of 1828-1829, which, after a period of doubtful contest, was decided by Diebitsch’s brilliant campaign of Adrianople; this won him the rank of field-marshal and the honorary title of Zabalkanski to commemorate his crossing of the Balkans. In 1830 he was appointed to command the great army destined to suppress the insurrection in Poland. He won the terrible battle of Gróchow on the 25th of February, and was again victorious at Ostrolenka on the 26th of May, but soon afterwards he died of cholera (or by his own hand) at Klecksewo near Pultusk, on the 10th of June 1831.

See Belmont (Schümberg),Graf Diebitsch(Dresden, 1830); Stürmer,Der Tod des Grafen Diebitsch(Berlin, 1832); Bantych-Kamenski,Biographies of Russian Field-Marshals(in Russian, St Petersburg, 1841).

DIEDENHOFEN(Fr.Thionville), a fortified town of Germany, in Alsace-Lorraine, dist. Lorraine, on the Mosel, 22 m. N. from Metz by rail. Pop. (1905) 6047. It is a railway junction of some consequence, with cultivation of vines, fruit and vegetables, brewing, tanning, &c. Diedenhofen is an ancient Frank town (Theudonevilla, Totonisvilla), in which imperial diets were held in the 8th century; was captured by Condé in 1643 and fortified by Vauban; capitulated to the Prussians, after a severe bombardment, on the 25th of November 1870.

DIEKIRCH,a small town in the grand duchy of Luxemburg, charmingly situated on the banks of the Sûre. Pop. (1905) 3705. Its name is said to be derived from Dide or Dido, granddaughter of Odin and niece of Thor. The mountain at the foot of which the town lies, now called Herrenberg, was formerly known as Thorenberg, or Thor’s mountain. On the summit of this rock rises a perennial stream which flows down into the town under the name of Bellenflesschen. Diekirch was an important Roman station, and in the 14th century John of Luxemburg, the blind king of Bohemia, fortified it, surrounding the place with a castellated wall and a ditch supplied by the stream mentioned. It remained moreorless fortified until the beginning of the 19th century when the French during their occupation levelled the old walls, and substituted the avenues of trees that now encircle the town. Diekirch is the administrative centre of one of the three provincial divisions of the grand duchy. It is visited during the summer by many thousand tourists and travellers from Holland, Belgium and Germany.

DIELECTRIC,in electricity, a non-conductor of electricity; it is the same as insulator. The “dielectric constant” of a medium is its specific inductive capacity, and on the electromagnetic theory of light it equals the square of its refractive index for light of infinite wave length (seeElectrostatics;Magneto-Optics).

DIELMANN, FREDERICK(1847- ), American portrait and figure painter, was born at Hanover, Germany, on the 25th of December 1847. He was taken to the United States in early childhood; studied under Diez at the Royal Academy at Munich; was first an illustrator, and became a distinguished draughtsman and painter of genre pictures. His mural decorations and mosaic panels for the Congressional library, Washington, are notable. He was elected in 1899 president of the National Academy of Design.

DIEMEN, ANTHONY VAN(1593-1645), Dutch admiral and governor-general of the East Indian settlements, was born at Kuilenburg in 1593. He was educated in commerce, and on entering the service of the East India Company speedily attained high rank. In 1631 he led a Dutch fleet from the Indies to Holland, and in 1636 he was raised to the governor-generalship. He came into conflict with the Portuguese, and took their possessions in Ceylon and Malacca from them. He greatly extended the commercial relationships of the Dutch, opening up trade with Tong-king, China and Japan. As an administrator also he showed ability, and the foundation of a Latin school and several churches in Batavia is to be ascribed to him. Exploring expeditions were sent to Australia under his auspices in 1636 and 1642, and Abel Tasman named after him (Van Diemen’s Land) the island now called Tasmania. Van Diemen died at Batavia on the 19th of April 1645.

DIEPENBECK, ABRAHAM VAN(1599-1675), Flemish painter, was born at Herzogenbusch, and studied painting at Antwerp, where he became one of Rubens’s “hundred pupils.” But he was not one of the cleverest of Rubens’s followers, and he succeeded, at the best, in imitating the style and aping the peculiarities of his master. We see this in his earliest pictures—a portrait dated 1629 in the Munich Pinakothek, and a “Distribution of Alms” of the same period in the same collection. Yet even at this time there were moments when Diepenbeck probably fancied that he might take another path. A solitary copperplate executed with his own hand in 1630 represents a peasant sitting under a tree holding the bridle of an ass, and this is a minute and finished specimen of the engraver’s art which shows that the master might at one time have hoped to rival the animal draughtsmen who flourished in the schools of Holland. However, large commissions now poured in upon him; he was asked for altarpieces, subject-pieces and pagan allegories. He was tempted to try the profession of a glass-painter, and at last he gave up everyother occupation for the lucrative business of a draughtsman and designer for engravings. Most of Diepenbeck’s important canvases are in continental galleries. The best are the “Marriage of St Catherine” at Berlin and “Mary with Angels Wailing over the Dead Body of Christ” in the Belvedere at Vienna, the first a very fair specimen of the artist’s skill, the second a picture of more energy and feeling than might be expected from one who knew more of the outer form than of the spirit of Rubens. Then we have the fine “Entombment” at Brunswick, and “St Francis Adoring the Sacrament” at the museum at Brussels, “Clelia and her Nymphs Flying from the Presence and Pursuit of Porsenna” in two examples at Berlin and Paris, and “Neptune and Amphitrite” at Dresden. In all these compositions the drawing and execution are after the fashion of Rubens, though inferior to Rubens in harmony of tone and force of contrasted light and shade. Occasionally a tendency may be observed to imitate the style of Vandyck, for whom, in respect of pictures, Diepenbeck in his lifetime was frequently taken. But Diepenbeck spent much less of his leisure on canvases than on glass-painting. Though he failed to master the secrets of gorgeous tinting, which were lost, apparently for ever in the 16th century, he was constantly employed during the best years of his life in that branch of his profession. In 1635 he finished forty scenes from the life of St Francis of Paula in the church of the Minimes at Antwerp. In 1644 he received payment for four windows in St Jacques of Antwerp, two of which are still preserved, and represent Virgins to whom Christ appears after the Resurrection. The windows ascribed to him at St Gudule of Brussels were executed from the cartoons of Theodore van Thulden. On the occasion of his matriculation at Antwerp in 1638-1639, Diepenbeck was registered in the guild of St Luke as a glass-painter. He resigned his membership in the Artist Club of the Violette in 1542, apparently because he felt hurt by a valuation then made of drawings furnished for copperplates to the engraver Pieter de Jode. The earliest record of his residence at Antwerp is that of his election to the brotherhood (Sodalität) “of the Bachelors” in 1634. It is probable that before this time he had visited Rome and London, as noted in the work of Houbraken. In 1636 he was made a burgess of Antwerp. He married twice, in 1637 and 1652. He died in December 1675, and was buried at St Jacques of Antwerp.

DIEPPE,a seaport of northern France, capital of an arrondissement in the department of Seine-Inférieure, on the English Channel, 38 m. N. of Rouen, and 105 m. N.W. of Paris by the Western railway. Pop. (1906) 22,120. It is situated at the mouth of the river Arques in a valley bordered on each side by steep white cliffs. The main part of the town lies to the west, and the fishing suburb of Le Pollet to the east of the river and harbour. The sea-front of Dieppe, which in summer attracts large numbers of visitors, consists of a pebbly beach backed by a handsome marine promenade. Dieppe has a modern aspect; its streets are wide and its houses, in most cases, are built of brick. Two squares side by side and immediately to the west of the outer harbour form the nucleus of the town, the Place Nationale, overlooked by the statue of Admiral A. Duquesne, and the Place St Jacques, named after the beautiful Gothic church which stands in its centre. The Grande Rue, the busiest and handsomest street, leads westward from the Place Nationale. The church of St Jacques was founded in the 13th century, but consists in large measure of later workmanship and was in some portions restored in the 19th century. The castle, overlooking the beach from the summit of the western cliff, was erected in 1435. The church of Notre-Dame de Bon Secours on the opposite cliff, and the church of St Remy, of the 16th and 17th centuries, are other noteworthy buildings. A well-equipped casino stands at the west end of the sea-front. The public institutions include the subprefecture, tribunals of first instance and commerce, a chamber of commerce, a communal college and a school of navigation.

Dieppe has one of the safest and deepest harbours on the English Channel. A curved passage cut in the bed of the Arques and protected by an eastern and a western jetty gives access to the outer harbour, which communicates at the east end by a lockgate with the Bassin Duquesne and the Bassin Bérigny, and at the west end by the New Channel, with an inner tidal harbour and two other basins. Vessels drawing 20 ft. can enter the new docks at neap tide. A dry-dock and a gridiron are included among the repairing facilities of the port. The harbour railway station is on the north-west quay of the outer harbour alongside which the steamers from Newhaven lie. The distance of Dieppe from Newhaven, with which there has long been daily communication, is 64 m. The imports include silk and cotton goods, thread, oil-seeds, timber, coal and mineral oil; leading exports are wine, silk, woollen and cotton fabrics, vegetables and fruit and flint-pebbles. The average annual value of imports for the five years 1901-1905 was £4,916,000 (£4,301,000 for the years 1896-1900); the exports were valued at £9,206,000 (£7,023,000 for years 1896-1900). The industries comprise shipbuilding, cotton-spinning, steam-sawing, the manufacture of machinery, porcelain, briquettes, lace, and articles in ivory and bone, the production of which dates from the 15th century. There is also a tobacco factory of some importance. The fishermen of Le Pollet, to whom tradition ascribes a Venetian origin, are among the main providers of the Parisian market. The sea-bathing attracts many visitors in the summer. Two miles to the north-east of the town is the ancient camp known as the Cité de Limes, which perhaps furnished the nucleus of the population of Dieppe.

It is suggested on the authority of its name, that Dieppe owed its origin to a band of Norman adventurers, who found its “diep” or inlet suitable for their ships, but it was unimportant till the latter half of the 12th century. Its first castle was probably built in 1188 by Henry II. of England, and it was counted a place of some consideration when Philip Augustus attacked it in 1195. By Richard I. of England it was bestowed in 1197 on the archbishop of Rouen in return for certain territory in the neighbourhood of the episcopal city. In 1339 it was plundered by the English, but it soon recovered from the blow, and in spite of the opposition of the lords of Hantot managed to surround itself with fortifications. Its commercial activity was already great, and it is believed that its seamen visited the coast of Guinea in 1339, and founded there a Petit Dieppe in 1365. The town was occupied by the English from 1420 to 1435. A siege undertaken in 1442 by John Talbot, first earl of Shrewsbury, was raised by the dauphin, afterwards Louis XI., and the day of the deliverance continued for centuries to be celebrated by a great procession and miracle plays. In the beginning of the 16th century Jean Parmentier, a native of the town, made voyages to Brazil and Sumatra; and a little later its merchant prince, Jacques Ango, was able to blockade the Portuguese fleet in the Tagus. Francis I. began improvements which were continued under his successor. Its inhabitants in great number embraced the reformed religion; and they were among the first to acknowledge Henry IV., who fought one of his great battles at the neighbouring village of Arques. Few of the cities of France suffered more from the revocation of the edict of Nantes in 1685; and this blow was followed in 1694 by a terrible bombardment on the part of the English and Dutch. The town was rebuilt after the peace of Ryswick, but the decrease of its population and the deterioration of its port prevented the restoration of its commercial prosperity. During the 19th century it made rapid advances, partly owing to Marie Caroline, duchess of Berry, who brought it into fashion as a watering-place; and also because the establishment of railway communication with Paris gave an impetus to its trade. During the Franco-German War the town was occupied by the Germans from December 1870 till July 1871.

See L. Vitet,Histoire de Dieppe(Paris, 1844); D. Asseline,Les Antiquités et chroniques de la ville de Dieppe, a 17th-century account published at Paris in 1874.

DIERX, LÉON(1838- ), French poet, was born in the island of Réunion in 1838. He came to Paris to study at the Central School of Arts and Manufactures, and subsequently settled there, taking up a post in the education office. He became a disciple of Leconte de Lisle and one of the most distinguished of the Parnassians. In the death of Stéphane Mallarmé in 1898 he was acclaimed “prince of poets” by “les jeunes.” His works include:Poèmes et poésies(1864);Lèvres closes(1867);Paroles d’un vaincu(1871);La Rencontre, a dramatic scene (1875) andLes Amants(1879). HisPoésies complètes(1872) were crowned by the French Academy. A complete edition of his works was published in 2 vols., 1894-1896.

DIES, CHRISTOPH ALBERT(1755-1822), German painter, was born at Hanover, and learned the rudiments of art in his native place. For one year he studied in the academy of Dusseldorf, and then he started at the age of twenty with thirty ducats in his pocket for Rome. There he lived a frugal life till 1796. Copying pictures, chiefly by Salvator Rosa, for a livelihood, his taste led him to draw and paint from nature in Tivoli, Albano and other picturesque places in the vicinity of Rome. Naples, the birthplace of his favourite master, he visited more than once for the same reasons. In this way he became a bold executant in water-colours and in oil, though he failed to acquire any originality of his own. Lord Bristol, who encouraged him as a copyist, predicted that he would be a second Salvator Rosa. But Dies was not of the wood which makes original artists. Besides other disqualifications, he had necessities which forced him to give up the great career of an independent painter. David, then composing his Horatii at Rome, wished to take him to Paris. But Dies had reasons for not accepting the offer. He was courting a young Roman whom he subsequently married. Meanwhile he had made the acquaintance of Volpato, for whom he executed numerous drawings, and this no doubt suggested the plan, which he afterwards carried out, of publishing, in partnership with Méchan, Reinhardt and Frauenholz, the series of plates known as theCollection de vues pittoresques de l’Italie, published in seventy-two sheets at Nuremberg in 1799. With so many irons in the fire Dies naturally lost the power of concentration. Other causes combined to affect his talent. In 1787 he swallowed by mistake three-quarters of an ounce of sugar of lead. His recovery from this poison was slow and incomplete. He settled at Vienna, and lived there on the produce of his brush as a landscape painter, and on that of his pencil or graver as a draughtsman and etcher. But instead of getting better, his condition became worse, and he even lost the use of one of his hands. In this condition he turned from painting to music, and spent his leisure hours in the pleasures of authorship. He did not long survive, dying at Vienna in 1822, after long years of chronic suffering. From two pictures now in the Belvedere gallery, and from numerous engraved drawings from the neighbourhood of Tivoli, we gather that Dies was never destined to rise above a respectable mediocrity. He followed Salvator Rosa’s example in imitating the manner of Claude Lorraine. But Salvator adapted the style of Claude, whilst Dies did no more than copy it.

DIEST,a small town in the province of Brabant, Belgium, situated on the Demer at its junction with the Bever. Pop. (1904) 8383. It lies about half-way between Hasselt and Louvain, and is still one of the five fortified places in Belgium. It contains many breweries, and is famous for the excellence of its beer.

DIESTERWEG, FRIEDRICH ADOLF WILHELM(1790-1866), German educationist, was born at Siegen on the 29th of October 1790. Educated at Herborn and Tübingen universities, he took to the profession of teaching in 1811. In 1820 he was appointed director of the new school at Mörs, where he put in practice the methods of Pestalozzi. In 1832 he was summoned to Berlin to direct the new state-schools seminary in that city. Here he proved himself a strong supporter of unsectarian religious teaching. In 1846 he established the Pestalozzi institution at Pankow, and the Pestalozzi societies for the support of teachers’ widows and orphans. In 1850 he retired on a pension, but continued vigorously to advocate his educational views. In 1858 he was elected to the chamber of deputies as member for the city of Berlin, and voted with the Liberal opposition. He died in Berlin on the 7th of July 1866. Diesterweg was a voluminous writer on educational subjects, and was the author of various school text-books.

DIET,a term used in two senses, (1) food or the regulation of feeding (seeDietaryandDietetics), (2) an assembly or council (Fr.diète; It.dieta; Low Lat.diaeta; Ger.Tag). We are here concerned only with this second sense. In modern usage, though in Scotland the term is still sometimes applied to any assembly or session, it is practically confined to the sense of an assembly of estates or of national or federal representatives. The origin of the word in this connotation is somewhat complicated. It is undoubtedly ultimately derived from the Greekδίαιτα(Lat.diaeta), which meant “mode of life” and thence “prescribed mode of life,” the English “diet” or “regimen.” This was connected with the verbδιαιτᾶν, in the sense of “to rule,” “to regulate”; compare the office ofδιαιτητήςat Athens, anddieteta, “umpire,” in Late Latin. In both Greek and Latin, too, the word meant “a room,” from which the transition to “a place of assembly” and so to “an assembly” would be easy. In the latter sense the word, however, actually occurs only in Low Latin, Du Cange (Glossarium,s.v.) deriving it from the late sense of “meal” or “feast,” the Germans being accustomed to combine their political assemblies with feasting. It is clear, too, that the worddiaetaearly became confused with Lat.dies, “day” (Ger.Tag), “especially a set day, a day appointed for public business; whence, by extension, meeting for business, an assembly” (Skeat). Instances of this confusion are given by Du Cange,e.g.diaetafordieta, “a day’s journey” (also an obsolete sense of “diet” in English), anddietafor “the ordinary course of the church,”i.e.“the daily office,” which suggests the original sense ofdiaetaas “a prescribed mode of life.”

The word “diet” is now used in English for theReichstag, “imperial diet” of the old Holy Roman Empire; for theBundestag, “federal diet,” of the former Germanic confederation; sometimes for theReichstagof the modern German empire; for theLandtage, “territorial diets” of the constituent states of the German and Austrian empires; as well as for the former or existing federal or national assemblies of Switzerland, Hungary, Poland, &c. Although, however, the word is still sometimes used of all the above, the tendency is to confine it, so far as contemporary assemblies are concerned, to those of subordinate importance. Thus “parliament” is often used of the GermanReichstagor of the Russian Landtag, while theLandtag,e.g.of Styria, would always be rendered “diet.” In what follows we confine ourselves to the diet of the Holy Roman Empire and its relation to its successors in modern Germany.

The origin of the diet, or deliberative assembly, of the Holy Roman Empire must be sought in theplacitumof the Frankish empire. This represented the tribal assembly of the Franks, meeting (originally in March, but after 755 in May, whence it is called the Campus Maii) partly for a military review on the eve of the summer campaign, partly for deliberation on important matters of politics and justice. By the side of this larger assembly, however, which contained in theory, if not in practice, the whole body of Franks available for war, there had developed, even before Carolingian times, a smaller body composed of the magnates of the Empire, both lay and ecclesiastical. The germ of this smaller body is to be found in the episcopal synods, which, afforced by the attendance of lay magnates, came to be used by the king for the settlement of national affairs. Under the Carolingians it was usual to combine the assembly of magnates with thegeneralis conventusof the “field of May,” and it was in this inner assembly, rather than in the general body (whose approval was merely formal, and confined to matters momentous enough to be referred to a general vote), that the centre of power really lay. It is from the assembly of magnates that the diet of medieval Germany springs. The general assembly became meaningless and unnecessary, as the feudal array gradually superseded the old levyen masse, in which each freeman had been liable to service; and after the close of the 10th century it no longer existed.

The imperial diet (Reichstag) of the middle ages might sometimes contain representatives of Italy, theregnum Italicum; but it was practically always confined to the magnates of Germany, theregnum Teutonicum. Upon occasion a summons to the diet might be sent even to the knights, but the regular members were the princes (Fürsten), both lay and ecclesiastical. In the 13thcentury the seven electors began to disengage themselves from the prince as a separate element, and the Golden Bull (1356) made their separation complete; from the 14th century onwards the nobles (both counts and other lords) are regarded as regular members; while after 1250 the imperial and episcopal towns often appear through their representatives. By the 14th century, therefore, the originally homogeneous diet of princes is already, at any rate practically if not yet in legal form, divided into three colleges—the electors, the princes and nobles, and the representatives of the towns (though, as we shall see, the latter can hardly be reckoned as regular members until the century of the Reformation). Under the Hohenstaufen it is still the rule that every member of the diet must attend personally, or lose his vote; at a later date the principle of representation by proxy, which eventually made the diet into a mere congress of envoys, was introduced. By the end of the 13th century the vote of the majority had come to be regarded as decisive; but in accordance with the strong sense of social distinctions which marks German history, the quality as well as the quantity of votes was weighed, and if the most powerful of the princes were agreed, the opinion of the lesser magnates was not consulted. The powers of the medieval diet extended to matters like legislation, the decision upon expeditions (especially theexpeditio Romana), taxation and changes in the constitution of the principalities or the Empire. The election of the king, which was originally regarded as one of the powers of the diet, had passed to the electors by the middle of the 13th century.

A new era in the history of the diet begins with the Reformation. The division of the diet into three colleges becomes definite and precise; the right of the electors, for instance, to constitute a separate college is explicitly recognized as a matter of established custom in 1544. The representatives of the towns now become regular members. In the 15th century they had only attended when special business, such as imperial reform or taxation, fell under discussion; in 1500, however, they were recognized as a separate and regular estate, though it was not until 1648 that they were recognized as equal to the other estates of the diet. The estate of the towns, or college of municipal representatives, was divided into two benches, the Rhenish and the Swabian. The estate of the princes and counts, which stood midway between the electors and the towns, also attained, in the years that followed the Reformation, its final organization. The vote of the great princes ceased to be personal, and began to be territorial. This had two results. The division of a single territory among the different sons of a family no longer, as of old, multiplied the voting power of the family; while in the opposite case, the union of various territories in the hands of a single person no longer meant the extinction of several votes, since the new owner was now allowed to give a vote for each of his territories. The position of the counts and other lords, who joined with the princes in forming the middle estate, was finally fixed by the middle of the 17th century. While each of the princes enjoyed an individual vote, the counts and other lords were arranged in groups, each of which voted as a whole, though the whole of its vote (Kuriatstimme) only counted as equal to the vote of a single prince (Virilstimme). There were six of these groups; but as the votes of the whole college of princes and counts (at any rate in the 18th century) numbered 100, they could exercise but little weight.

The last era in the history of the diet may be said to open with the treaty of Westphalia (1648). The treaty acknowledged that Germany was no longer a unitary state, but a loose confederation of sovereign princes; and the diet accordingly ceased to bear the character of a national assembly, and became a mere congress of envoys. The “last diet” which issued a regular recess (Reichsabschied—the term applied to theactaof the diet, as formally compiled and enunciated at its dissolution) was that of Regensburg in 1654. The next diet, which met at Regensburg in 1663, never issued a recess, and was never dissolved; it continued in permanent session, as it were, till the dissolution of the Empire in 1806. This result was achieved by the process of turning the diet from an assembly of principals into a congress of envoys. The emperor was represented by twocommissarii; the electors, princes and towns were similarly represented by their accredited agents. Some legislation was occasionally done by this body; aconclusum imperii(so called in distinction from the oldrecessus imperiiof the period before 1663) might slowly (very slowly—for the agents, imperfectly instructed, had constantly to refer matters back to their principals) be achieved; but it rested with the various princes to promulgate and enforce theconclusumin their territories, and they were sufficiently occupied in issuing and enforcing their own decrees. In practice the diet had nothing to do; and its members occupied themselves in “wrangling about chairs”—that is to say, in unending disputes about degrees and precedences.

In the Germanic Confederation, which occupies the interval between the death of the Holy Roman Empire and the formation of the North German Confederation (1815-1866), a diet (Bundestag) existed, which was modelled on the old diet of the 18th century. It was a standing congress of envoys at Frankfort-on-Main. Austria presided in the diet, which, in the earlier years of its history, served, under the influence of Metternich, as an organ for the suppression of Liberal opinion. In the North German Confederation (1867-1870) a new departure was made, which has been followed in the constitution of the present German empire. Two bodies were instituted—aBundesrat, which resembles the old diet in being a congress of envoys sent by the sovereigns of the different states of the confederation, and aReichstag, which bears the name of the old diet, but differs entirely in composition. The new Reichstag is a popular representative assembly, based on wide suffrage and elected by ballot; and, above all, it is an assembly representing, not the several states, but the whole Empire, which is divided for this purpose into electoral districts. Both as a popular assembly, and as an assembly which represents the whole of a united Germany, the new Reichstag goes back, one may almost say, beyond the diet even of the middle ages, to the days of the old Teutonic folk-moot.

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