Chapter 6

Besides the works already mentioned, de Gérando left many others, of which we may indicate the following:—Considérations sur diverses méthodes d’observation des peuples sauvages(Paris, 1801);Éloge de Dumarsais,—discours qui a remporté le prix proposé par la seconde classe de l’Institut National(Paris, 1805);Le Visiteur de pauvre(Paris, 1820);Instituts du droit administratif(4 vols., Paris, 1830);Cours normal des instituteurs primaires ou directions relatives à l’éducation physique, morale, et intellectuelle dans les écoles primaires(Paris, 1832);De l’éducation des sourds-muets(2 vols., Paris, 1832);De la bienfaisance publique(4 vols., 1838). A detailed analysis of theHistoire comparée des systèmeswill be found in theFragments philosophiquesof M. Cousin. In connexion with his psychological studies, it is interesting that in 1884 the French Anthropological Society reproduced his instructions for the observation of primitive peoples, and modern students of the beginnings of speech in children and the cases of deaf-mutes have found useful matter in his works. See also J.P. Damiron,Essai sur la philosophie en France au XIXesiècle.

GERANIACEAE,in botany, a small but very widely distributed natural order of Dicotyledons belonging to the subclass Polypetalae, containing about 360 species in 11 genera. It is represented in Britain by two genera,Geranium(crane’s-bill) andErodium(stork’s-bill), to which belong nearly two-thirds of the total number of species. The plants are mostly herbs, rarely becoming shrubby, with generally simple glandular hairs on the stem and leaves. The opposite or alternate leaves have a pair of small stipules at the base of the stalk and a palminerved blade. The flowers, which are generally arranged in a cymose inflorescence, are hermaphrodite, hypogynous, and, except inPelargonium, regular. The parts are arranged in fives. There are five free sepals, overlapping in the bud, and, alternating with these, five free petals. InPelargoniumthe flower is zygomorphic with a spurred posterior sepal and the petals differing in size or shape. InGeraniumthe stamens are obdiplostemonous,i.e.an outer whorl of five opposite the petals alternates with an inner whorl of five opposite the sepals; at the base of each of the antisepalous stamens is a honey-gland. InErodiumthe members of the outer whorl are reduced to scale-like structures (staminodes), and inPelargoniumfrom two to seven only are fertile. There is no satisfactory explanation of this break in the regular alternation of successive whorls; the outer whorl of stamens arises in course of development before the inner, so that there is no question of subsequent displacement. There are five, or sometimes fewer, carpels, which unite to form an ovary with as many chambers, in each of which are one or two, rarely more, pendulous anatropous ovules, attached to the central column in such a way that the micropyle points outwards and the raphe is turned towards the placenta. The long beak-like style divides at the top into a corresponding number of slender stigmas.

1, Flower after removal of petals.

2, Fruit after splitting. 1 and 2 about natural size.

3, Floral diagram, the dots opposite the inner stamens represent honey-glands.

The larger-flowered species ofGeraniumare markedly protandrous, the outer stamens, inner stamens and stigmas becoming functional in succession. For instance, in meadow crane’s-billG. pratense, each whorl of stamens ripens in turn, becoming erect and shedding their pollen; as the anthers wither the filaments bend outwards, and when all the anthers have diverged the stigmas become mature and ready for pollination. By this arrangement self-pollination is prevented and cross-pollination ensured by the visits of bees which come for the honey secreted by the glands at the base of the inner stamens.

In species with smaller and less conspicuous flowers, such asG. molle, the flowers of which are only1⁄3to ½ in. in diameter, self-pollination is rendered possible, since the divisions of the stigma begin to separate before the outer stamens have shed all their pollen; the nearness of the stigmas to the dehiscing anthers favours self-pollination.

In the ripe fruit the carpels separate into five one-seeded portions (cocci), which break away from the central column, either rolling elastically outwards and upwards or becoming spirally twisted. In most species ofGeraniumthe cocci split open on the inside and the seeds are shot out by the elastic uptwisting (fig. 1); inErodiumandPelargoniumeach coccus remains closed, and the long twisted upper portion separates from the central column, forming an awn, the distribution of which is favoured by the presence of bristles or hairs. The embryo generally fills the seed, and the cotyledons are rolled or folded on each other.

Geraniumis the most widely distributed genus; it has 160 species and is spread over all temperate regions with a few species in the tropics. Three British species—G. sylvaticum,G. pratenseandG. Robertianum(herb-Robert)—reach the arctic zone, whileG. patagonicumandG. magellanicumare found in the antarctic.Erodiumcontains 50 species (three are British), most of which are confined to the Mediterranean region and west Asia, though others occur in America, in South Africa and West Australia.Pelargonium, with 175 species, has its centre in South Africa; the well-known garden and greenhouse “geraniums” are species ofPelargonium(seeGeranium).

GERANIUM,the name of a genus of plants, which is taken by botanists as the type of the natural order Geraniaceae. The name, as a scientific appellation, has a much more restricted application than when taken in its popular sense. Formerly the genusGeraniumwas almost conterminous with the order Geraniaceae. Then as now the geranium was very popular as a garden plant, and the species included in the original genus became widely known under that name, which has more or less clung to them ever since, in spite of scientific changes which have removed the large number of them to the genusPelargonium. This result has been probably brought about in some degree by an error of the nurserymen, who seem in many cases to have acted on the conclusion that the group commonly known asScarlet Geraniumswere really geraniums and not pelargoniums, and were in consequence inserted under the former name in their trade catalogues. In fact it may be said that, from a popular point of view, the pelargoniums of the botanist are still better known as geraniums than are the geraniums themselves, but the term “zonal Pelargonium” is gradually making its way amongst the masses.

The species ofGeraniumconsist mostly of herbs, of annual or perennial duration, dispersed throughout the temperate regions of the world. They number about 160, and bear a considerable family resemblance. The leaves are for the most part palmately-lobed, and the flowers are regular, consisting of five sepals, five imbricating petals, alternating with five glandules at their base, ten stamens and a beaked ovary. Eleven species are natives of the British Isles and are popularly known as crane’s-bill.G. Robertianumis herb-Robert, a common plant in hedgebanks.G. sanguineum, with flowers a deep rose colour, is often grown in borders, as are also the double-flowered varieties ofG. pratense. Many others of exotic origin form handsome border plants in our gardens of hardy perennials; amongst theseG. armenum,G. Endressi,G. ibericumand its varietyplatypetalumare conspicuous.

From these regular-flowered herbs, with which they had been mixed up by the earlier botanists, the French botanist L’Heritier in 1787 separated those plants which have since borne the name ofPelargonium, and which, though agreeing with them in certain points of structure, differ in others which are admitted to be of generic value. One obvious distinction ofPelargoniumis that the flowers are irregular, the two petals which stand uppermost being different—larger, smaller or differently marked—from the other three, which latter are occasionally wanting. This difference of irregularity the modern florist has done very much to annul, for the increased size given to the flowers by high breeding has usually been accompanied by the enlargement of the smaller petals, so that a very near approach to regularity has been in some cases attained. Another well-marked difference, however, remains inPelargonium: the back or dorsal sepal has a hollow spur, which spur is adnate,i.e.joined for its whole length with the flower-stalk; while inGeraniumthere is no spur. This peculiarity is best seen by cutting clean through the flower-stalk just behind the flower, when inPelargoniumthere will be seen the hollow tube of the spur, which in the case ofGeraniumwill not be found, but the stalk will appear as a solid mass. There are other characters which support those already pointed out, such as the absence of the glandules, and the declination of the stamens; but the features already described offer the most ready and obvious distinctions.

To recapitulate, the geraniums properly so-called are regular-flowered herbs with the flower-stalks solid, while many geraniums falsely so-called in popular language are really pelargoniums, and may be distinguished by their irregular flowers and hollow flower-stalks. In a great majority of cases too, the pelargoniums so commonly met with in greenhouses and summer parterres are of shrubby or sub-shrubby habit.

The various races of pelargoniums have sprung from the intermixture of some of the species obtained from the Cape. The older show-flowered varieties have been gradually acquired through a long series of years. The fancy varieties, as well as the French spotted varieties and the market type, have been evolved from them. The zonal or bedding race, on the other hand, has been more recently perfected; they are supposed to have arisen from hybrids betweenPelargonium inquinansandP. zonale. In all the sections the varieties are of a highly ornamental character, but for general cultivation the market type is preferable for indoor purposes, while the zonals are effective either in the greenhouse or flower garden. Some of the Cape species are still in cultivation—the leaves of many of them being beautifully subdivided, almost fern-like in character, and some of them are deliciously scented;P. quercifoliumis the oak-leaf geranium. The ivy-leaf geranium, derived fromP. peltatum, has given rise to an important class of both double- and single-flowered forms adapted especially for pot culture, hanging baskets, window boxes and the greenhouse. Of late years the ivy-leaf “geraniums” have been crossed with the “zonals,” and a new race is being gradually evolved from these two distinct groups.

The best soil for pelargoniums is a mellow fibrous loam with good well-rotted stable manure or leaf-mould in about the proportion of one-fifth; when used it should not be sifted, but pulled to pieces by the hand, and as much sand should be added as will allow the water to pass freely through it. The large-flowered and fancy kinds cannot bear so much water as most soft-wooded plants, and the latter should have a rather lighter soil.

All the pelargoniums are readily increased by cuttings made from the shoots when the plants are headed down after flowering, or in the spring, when they will root freely in a temperature of 65° to 70°. They must not be kept too close, and must be very moderately watered. When rooted they may be moved into well-drained 3-in. pots, and when from 6 to 8 in. high, should have the points pinched out in order to induce them to push out several shoots nearer the base. These shoots are, when long enough, to be trained in a horizontal direction; and when they have made three joints they should have the points again pinched out. These early-struck plants will be ready for shifting into 6-in. pots by the autumn, and should still be trained outwards. The show varieties after flowering should be set out of doors in a sunny spot to ripen their wood, and should only get water enough to keep them from flagging. In the course of two or three weeks they will be ready to cut back within two joints of where these were last stopped, when they should be placed in a frame or pit, and kept close and dry until they have broken. When they have pushed an inch or so, turn them out of their pots, shake off the old soil, trim the straggling roots, and repot them firmly in smaller pots if practicable; keep them near the light, and as the shoots grow continue to train them outwardly. They require to be kept in a light house, and to be set well up to the glass; the night temperature should range about 45°; and air should be given on all mild days, but no cold currents allowed, nor more water than is necessary to keep the soil from getting parched. The young shoots should be topped about the end of October, and when they have grown an inch or two beyond this, they may be shifted into 7-in. pots for flowering. The shoots must be kept tied out so as to be fully exposed to the light. If required to flower early they should not be stopped again; if not until June they may be stopped in February.

The zonal varieties, which are almost continuous bloomers, are of much value as decorative subjects; they seldom require much pruning after the first stopping. For winter flowering,young plants should be raised from cuttings about March, and grown on during the summer, but should not be allowed to flower. When blossoms are required, they should be placed close up to the glass in a light house with a temperature of 65°, only just as much water being given as will keep them growing. For bedding purposes the zonal varieties are best struck towards the middle of August in the open air, taken up and potted or planted in boxes as soon as struck, and preserved in frames or in the greenhouse during winter.

The fancy varieties root best early in spring from the half-ripened shoots; they are slower growers, and rather more delicate in constitution than the zonal varieties, and very impatient of excess of water at the root.

GERARD(d. 1108), archbishop of York under Henry I., began his career as a chancery clerk in the service of William Rufus. He was one of the two royal envoys who, in 1095, persuaded Urban II. to send a legate and Anselm’s pallium to England. Although the legate disappointed the king’s expectations, Gerard was rewarded for his services with the see of Hereford (1096). On the death of Rufus he at once declared for Henry I., by whom he was nominated to the see of York. He made difficulties when required to give Anselm the usual profession of obedience; and it was perhaps to assert the importance of his see that he took the king’s side on the question of investitures. He pleaded Henry’s cause at Rome with great ability, and claimed that he had obtained a promise, on the pope’s part, to condone the existing practice of lay investiture. But this statement was contradicted by Paschal, and Gerard incurred the suspicion of perjury. About 1103 he wrote or inspired a series of tracts which defended the king’s prerogative and attacked the oecumenical pretensions of the papacy with great freedom of language. He changed sides in 1105, becoming a stanch friend and supporter of Anselm. Gerard was a man of considerable learning and ability; but the chroniclers accuse him of being lax in his morals, an astrologer and a worshipper of the devil.

See theTractatus Eboracensesedited by H. Bochmer inLibelli de lite Sacerdotii et Imperii, vol. iii. (in theMonumenta hist. Germaniae, quarto series), and the same author’sKirche und Staat in England und in der Normandie(Leipzig, 1899).

(H. W. C. D.)

GERARD(c.1040-1120), variously surnamedTum,Tunc,TenqueorThom, founder of the order of the knights of St John of Jerusalem (q.v.), was born at Amalfi about the year 1040. According to other accounts Martigues in Provence was his birthplace, while one authority even names the Château d’Avesnes in Hainaut. Either as a soldier or a merchant, he found his way to Jerusalem, where a hospice had for some time existed for the convenience of those who wished to visit the holy places. Of this institution Gerard became guardian or provost at a date not later than 1100; and here he organized that religious order of St John which received papal recognition from Paschal II. in 1113, by a bull which was renewed and confirmed by Calixtus II. shortly before the death of Gerard in 1120.

GERARD OF CREMONA(c.1114-1187), the medieval translator of Ptolemy’s Astronomy, was born at Cremona, Lombardy, in or about 1114. Dissatisfied with the meagre philosophies of his Italian teachers, he went to Toledo to study in Spanish Moslem schools, then so famous as depositories and interpreters of ancient wisdom; and, having thus acquired a knowledge of the Arabic language, he appears to have devoted the remainder of his life to the business of making Latin translations from its literature. The date of his return to his native town is uncertain, but he is known to have died there in 1187. His most celebrated work is the Latin version by which alone Ptolemy’sAlmagestwas known to Europe until the discovery of the originalΜεγάλη Σύνταξις. In addition to this, he translated various other treatises, to the number, it is said, of sixty-six; among these were theTablesof “Arzakhel,” or Al Zarkala of Toledo, Al FarabiOn the Sciences(De scientiis), Euclid’sGeometry, Al Farghani’sElements of Astronomy, and treatises on algebra, arithmetic and astrology. In the last-named latitudes are reckoned from Cremona and Toledo. Some of the works, however, with which he has been credited (including theTheoriaorTheorica planetarum, and the versions of Avicenna’sCanon of Medicine—the basis of the numerous subsequent Latin editions of that well-known work—and of theAlmansoriusof Abu Bakr Razi) are probably due to a later Gerard, of the 13th century, also called Cremonensis but more precisely de Sabloneta (Sabbionetta). This writer undertook the task of interpreting to the Latin world some of the best work of Arabic physicians, and his translation of Avicenna is said to have been made by order of the emperor Frederic II.

See Pipini, “Cronica,” in Muratori,Script. rer. Ital.vol. ix.; Nicol. Antonio,Bibliotheca Hispana vetus, vol. ii.; Tiraboschi,Storia della letteratura Italiana, vols. iii. (333) and iv.; Arisi,Cremona literata; Jourdain, Recherches sur ...l’origine des traductions latines d’Aristote; Chasles,Aperçu historique des méthodes en géométrie, and inComptes rendus de l’Académie des Sciences, vol. xiii. p. 506; J.T. Reinaud,Géographie d’Aboulféda, introduction, vol. i. pp. ccxlvi.-ccxlviii.; Boncompagni,Della vita e delle opere di Gherardo Cremonese e di Gherardo da Sabbionetta(Rome, 1851). Much of the work of both the Gerards remains in manuscript, as in Paris, National Library, MSS. Lat. 7400, 7421; MSS. Suppl. Lat. 49; Rome, Vatican library, 4083, and Ottobon, 1826; Oxford, Bodleian library, Digby, 47, 61. The Vatican MS. 2392 is stated to contain a eulogy of “Gerard of Cremona” and a list of “his” translations, apparently confusing the two scholars. The former’s most valuable work was in astronomy; the latter’s in medicine.

(C. R. B.)

GÉRARD, ÉTIENNE MAURICE,Count(1773-1852), French general, was born at Damvilliers (Meuse), on the 4th of April 1773. He joined a battalion of volunteers in 1791, and served in the campaigns of 1792-1793 under Generals Dumouriez and Jourdan. In 1795 he accompanied Bernadotte as aide-de-camp. In 1799 he was promotedchef d’escadron, and in 1800 colonel. He distinguished himself at the battles of Austerlitz and Jena, and was made general of brigade in November 1806, and for his conduct in the battle of Wagram he was created a baron. In the Spanish campaign of 1810 and 1811 he gained special distinction at the battle of Fuentes d’Onor; and in the expedition to Russia he was present at Smolensk and Valutina, and displayed such bravery and ability in the battle of Borodino that he was made general of division. He won further distinction in the disastrous retreat from Moscow. In the campaign of 1813, in command of a division, he took part in the battles of Lützen and Bautzen and the operations of Marshal Macdonald, and at the battle of Leipzig (in which he commanded the XI. corps) he was dangerously wounded. After the battle of Bautzen he was created by Napoleon a count of the empire. In the campaign of France of 1814, and especially at La Rothière and Montereau, he won still greater distinction. After the first restoration he was named by Louis XVIII. grand cross of the Legion of Honour and chevalier of St Louis. In the Hundred Days Napoleon made Gérard a peer of France and placed him in command of the IV. corps of the Army of the North. In this capacity Gérard took a brilliant part in the battle of Ligny (seeWaterloo Campaign), and on the morning of the 18th of June he was foremost in advising Marshal Grouchy to march to the sound of the guns. Gérard retired to Brussels after the fall of Napoleon, and did not return to France till 1817. He sat as a member of the chamber of deputies in 1822-1824, and was re-elected in 1827. He took part in the revolution of 1830, after which he was appointed minister of war and named a marshal of France. On account of his health he resigned the office of war minister in the October following, but in 1831 he took the command of the northern army, and was successful in thirteen days in driving the army of Holland out of Belgium. In 1832 he commanded the besieging army in the famous scientific siege of the citadel of Antwerp. He was again chosen war minister in July 1834, but resigned in the October following. In 1836 he was named grand chancellor of the Legion of Honour in succession to Marshal Mortier, and in 1838 commander of the National Guards of the Seine, an office which he held till 1842. He became a senator under the empire in 1852, and died on the 17th of April in the same year.

GÉRARD, FRANÇOIS,Baron(1770-1837), French painter, was born on the 4th of May 1770, at Rome, where his father occupied a post in the house of the French ambassador. At the age of twelve Gérard obtained admission into the Pension du Roi at Paris. From the Pension he passed to the studio ofPajou (sculptor), which he left at the end of two years for that of the painter Brenet, whom he quitted almost immediately to place himself under David. In 1789 he competed for the Prix de Rome, which was carried off by his comrade Girodet. In the following year (1790) he again presented himself, but the death of his father prevented the completion of his work, and obliged him to accompany his mother to Rome. In 1791 he returned to Paris; but his poverty was so great that he was forced to forgo his studies in favour of employment which should bring in immediate profit. David at once availed himself of his help, and one of that master’s most celebrated pictures—Le Pelletier de St Fargeau—may owe much to the hand of Gérard. This painting was executed early in 1793, the year in which Gérard, at the request of David, was named a member of the revolutionary tribunal, from the fatal decisions of which he, however, invariably absented himself. In 1794 he obtained the first prize in a competition, the subject of which was “The Tenth of August,” and, further stimulated by the successes of his rival and friend Girodet in the Salons of 1793 and 1794, Gérard (nobly aided by Isabey the miniaturist) produced in 1795 his famous “Bélisaire.” In 1796 a portrait of his generous friend (in the Louvre) obtained undisputed success, and the money received from Isabey for these two works enabled Gérard to execute in 1797 his “Psyché et l’Amour.” At last, in 1799, his portrait of Madame Bonaparte established his position as one of the first portrait-painters of the day. In 1808 as many as eight, in 1810 no less than fourteen portraits by him, were exhibited at the Salon, and these figures afford only an indication of the enormous numbers which he executed yearly; all the leading figures of the empire and of the restoration, all the most celebrated men and women of Europe, sat to Gérard. This extraordinary vogue was due partly to the charm of his manner and conversation, for hissalonwas as much frequented as his studio; Madame de Staël, Canning, Talleyrand, the duke of Wellington, have all borne witness to the attraction of his society. Rich and famous, Gérard was stung by remorse for earlier ambitions abandoned; at intervals he had indeed striven to prove his strength with Girodet and other rivals, and his “Bataille d’Austerlitz” (1810) showed a breadth of invention and style which are even more conspicuous in “L’Entrée d’Henri IV” (Versailles)—the work with which in 1817 he did homage to the Bourbons. After this date Gérard declined, watching with impotent grief the progress of the Romantic school. Loaded with honours—baron of the empire, member of the Institute, officer of the legion of honour, first painter to the king—he worked on sad and discouraged; the revolution of 1830 added to his disquiet; and on the 11th of January 1837, after three days of fever, he died. By his portraits Gérard is best remembered; the colour of his paintings has suffered, but his drawings show in uninjured delicacy the purity of his line; and those of women are specially remarkable for a virginal simplicity and frankness of expression.

M. Ch. Lenormant published in 1846Essai de biographie et de critique sur François Gérard, a second edition of which appeared in 1847; and M. Delécluze devoted several pages to the same subject in his workLouis David, son école et son temps.

GÉRARD, JEAN IGNACE ISIDORE(1803-1847), French caricaturist, generally known by the pseudonym of Grandville—the professional name of his grandparents, who were actors—was born at Nancy on the 13th of September 1803. He received his first instruction in drawing from his father, a miniature painter, and at the age of twenty-one came to Paris, where he soon afterwards published a collection of lithographs entitledLes Tribulations de la petite propriété. He followed this by Les Plaisirs de toutâge andLa Sibylle des salons; but the work which first established his fame wasMétamorphoses du jour, published in 1828, a series of seventy scenes in which individuals with the bodies of men and faces of animals are made to play a human comedy. These drawings are remarkable for the extraordinary skill with which human characteristics are represented in animal features. The success of this work led to his being engaged as artistic contributor to various periodicals, such asLa Silhouette,L’Artiste,La Caricature,Le Charivari; and his political caricatures, which were characterized by marvellous fertility of satirical humour, soon came to enjoy a general popularity. Besides supplying illustrations for various standard works, such as the songs of Béranger, the fables of La Fontaine,Don Quixote,Gulliver’s Travels,Robinson Crusoe, he also continued the issue of various lithographic collections, among which may be mentionedLa Vie privée et publique des animaux,Les Cent Proverbes,L’Autre MondeandLes Fleurs animées. Though the designs of Gérard are occasionally unnatural and absurd, they usually display keen analysis of character and marvellous inventive ingenuity, and his humour is always tempered and refined by delicacy of sentiment and a vein of sober thoughtfulness. He died of mental disease on the 17th of March 1847.

A short notice of Gérard, under the name of Grandville, is contained in Théophile Gautier’sPortraits contemporains. See also Charles Blanc,Grandville(Paris, 1855).

GERARD, JOHN(1545-1612), English herbalist and surgeon, was born towards the end of 1545 at Nantwich in Cheshire. He was educated at Wisterson, or Willaston, 2 m. from Nantwich, and eventually, after spending some time in travelling, took up his abode in London, where he exercised his profession. For more than twenty years he also acted as superintendent of the gardens in London and at Theobalds, in Hertfordshire, of William Cecil, Lord Burghley. In 1596 he published a catalogue of plants cultivated in his own garden in Holborn, London, 1039 in number, inclusive of varieties of the same species. Their English as well as their Latin names are given in a revised edition of the catalogue issued in 1599. In 1597 appeared Gerard’s well-knownHerball, described by him in its preface as “the first fruits of these mine own labours,” but more truly an adaptation of theStirpium historiae pemptadesof Rembert Dodoens (1518-1585), published in 1583, or rather of a translation of the whole or part of the same by Dr Priest, with M. Lobel’s arrangement. Of the numerous illustrations of theHerballsixteen appear to be original, the remainder are mostly impressions from the wood blocks employed by Jacob Theodorus Tabernaemontanus in hisIcones stirpium, published at Frankfort in 1590. A second edition of theHerball, with considerable improvements and additions, was brought out by Thomas Johnson in 1633, and reprinted in 1636. Gerard was elected a member of the court of assistants of the barber-surgeons in 1595, by which company he was appointed an examiner in 1598, junior warden in 1605, and master in 1608. He died in February 1612, and was buried at St Andrews, Holborn.

See Johnson’s preface to his edition of theHerball; andA Catalogue of Plants cultivated in the Garden of John Gerard in the years 1596-1599, edited with Notes, References to Gerard’s Herball, the Addition of modern Names, and a Life of the Author, by Benjamin Daydon Jackson, F.L.S., privately printed (London, 1876, 4to).

GÉRARDMER,a town of north-eastern France, in the department of Vosges, 33 m. E.S.E. of Epinal by rail. Pop. (1906) of the town, 3993; of the commune, 10,041. Gérardmer is beautifully situated at a height of 2200 ft. at the eastern end of the small Lake of Gérardmer (285 acres in extent) among forest-clad mountains. It is the chief summer-resort of the French Vosges and is a centre for excursions, among which may be mentioned those to the Höhneck (4481 ft.), the second highest summit in the Vosges, the Schlucht, the mountain pass from France to Germany, and, nearer the town, the picturesque defile of Granges, watered by the Vologne, which at one point forms the cascade known as the Saut des Cuves. The town itself, in which the chief object of interest is the huge lime-tree in the market-place, carries on cloth-weaving, bleaching, wood-sawing and the manufacture of wooden goods; there is trade in the cheeses (géromés) manufactured in the neighbourhood. Gérardmer is said to owe its name to Gerard of Alsace, 1st duke of Lorraine, who in the 11th century built a tower on the bank of the lake ormer, near which, in 1285, a new town was founded.

GERASA(mod.GerashorJerash), a city of Palestine, and a member of the league known as the Decapolis (q.v.), situated amid the mountains of Gilead, about 1757 ft. above the sea, 20 m. from the Jordan and 21 m. N. of Philadelphia. Of its origin nothing is known; it has been suggested that it represents the biblical Ramoth Gilead. From Josephus we learn that itwas captured by Alexander Jannaeus (c.83B.C.), rebuilt by the Romans (c.A.D.65), burned by the Jews in revenge for the massacre at Caesarea, and again plundered and depopulated by Annius, the general of Vespasian; but, in spite of these disasters, it was still in the 2nd and 3rd centuries of the Christian era one of the wealthiest and most flourishing cities of Palestine. It was a centre of Greek civilization, devoted especially to the worship of Artemis, and producing famous teachers, of whom Stephen the Byzantine mentions Ariston, Kerykos and Plato. As late as 1121 the soldiers of Baldwin II. found it defended by a castle built by a king of Damascus; but at the beginning of the following century the Arabian geographer Yaqut speaks of it as deserted and overthrown. The ruins of Jerash, discovered about 1806, and since then frequently visited and described, still attest the splendour of the Roman city. They are distributed along both banks of the Kerwan, a brook which flows south through the Wadi-ed-Dēr to join the Zerka or Jabbok; but all the principal buildings are situated on the level ground to the right of the stream. The town walls, which can still be traced and indeed are partly standing, had a circuit of not more than 2 m., and the main street was less than half a mile in length; but remains of buildings on the road for fully a mile beyond the south gate, show that the town had outgrown the limit of its fortifications. The most striking feature of the ruins is the profusion of columns, no fewer than 230 being even now in position; the main street is a continuous colonnade, a large part of which is still entire, and it terminates to the south in a forum of similar formation. Among the public buildings still recognizable are a theatre capable of accommodating 6000 spectators, a naumachia (circus for naval combats) and several temples, of which the largest was probably the grandest structure in the city, possessing a portico of Corinthian pillars 38 ft. high. The desolation of the city is probably due to earthquake; and the absence of Moslem erections or restorations seems to show that the disaster took place before the Mahommedan period.

The town is now occupied by a colony of Circassians, whose houses have been built with materials from the earlier buildings, and there has been much destruction of the interesting ruins. “The country of the Gerasenes” (Matt. viii. 28 and parallels; other readings, Gadarenes, Gergesenes) must be looked for in another quarter—on the E. coast of the Sea of Galilee, probably in the neighbourhood of the modern Khersa (C.W. Wilson inRecovery of Jerusalem, p. 369).

(R. A. S. M.)

GÉRAULT-RICHARD, ALFRED LÉON(1860- ), French journalist and politician, was born at Bonnétable in the department of Sarthe, of a peasant family. He began life as a working upholsterer, first at Mans, then at Paris (1880), where his peasant and socialist songs soon won him fame in the Montmartre quarter. Lissagaray, the communist, offered him a position onLa Bataille, and he became a regular contributor to the advanced journals, especially toLa Petite République, of which he became editor-in-chief in 1897. In 1893 he foundedLe Chambard, and was imprisoned for a year (1894) on account of a personal attack upon the president, Casimir-Périer. In January 1895 he was elected to the chamber as a Socialist for the thirteenth arrondissement of Paris. He was defeated at the elections of 1898 at Paris, but was re-elected in 1902 and in 1906 by the colony of Guadeloupe.

GERBER, ERNST LUDWIG(1746-1819), German musician, author of a famous dictionary of musicians, was born at Sondershausen in the principality of Schwarzburg-Sondershausen on the 29th of September 1746. His father, Henry Nicolas Gerber (1702-1775), a pupil of J.S. Bach, was an organist and composer of some distinction, and under his direction Ernst Ludwig at an early age had made great progress in his musical studies. In 1765 he went to Leipzig to study law, but the claims of music, which had gained additional strength from his acquaintanceship with J.A. Hiller, soon came to occupy almost his sole attention. On his return to Sondershausen he was appointed music teacher to the children of the prince, and in 1775 he succeeded his father as court organist. Afterwards he devoted much of his time to the study of the literature and history of music, and with this view he made himself master of several modern languages. HisHistorisch-biographisches Lexikon der Tonkünstlerappeared in 1790 and 1792 in two volumes; and the first volume of what was virtually an improved and corrected edition of this work was published in 1810 under the titleNeues historisch-biographisches Lexikon der Tonkünstler, followed by other three volumes in 1812, 1813 and 1814. Gerber also contributed a number of papers to musical periodicals, and published several minor musical compositions. He died at Sondershausen on the 30th of June 1819.

GERBERON, GABRIEL(1628-1711), French Jansenist monk, was born on the 12th of August 1628 at St Calais, in the department of Sarthe. At the age of twenty he took the vows of the Benedictine order at the abbey of Ste Melaine, Rennes, and afterwards taught rhetoric and philosophy in several monasteries. His open advocacy of Jansenist opinions, however, caused his superiors to relegate him to the most obscure houses of the order, and finally to keep him under surveillance at the abbey of St Germain-des-Prés at Paris. Here he wrote a defence of the doctrine of the Real Presence against the Calvinists in the form of an apology for Rupert, abbot of Deutz (Apologia pro Ruperto abbate Tuitensi, Paris, 1669). In 1676 he published at Brussels, under the name of “Sieur Flore de Ste Foi” hisMiroir de la piété chrétienne, an enlarged edition of which appeared at Liége in the following year. This was condemned by certain archbishops and theologians as the repetition of the five condemned propositions of Jansen, and Gerberon defended it, under the name of “Abbé Valentin” inLe Miroir sans tache(Paris, 1680). He had by this time aroused against him the full fury of the Jesuits, and at their instigation a royal provost was sent to Corbie to arrest him. He had, however, just time to escape, and fled to the Low Countries, where he lived in various towns. He was invited by the Jansenist clergy to Holland, where he wrote another controversial work against the Protestants:Défense de l’Église Romain contre la calomnie des Protestants(Cologne, 1688-1691). This produced unpleasantness with the Reformed clergy, and feeling himself no longer safe he returned to Brussels. In 1700 he published his history of Jansenism (Histoire générale du Jansénisme), a dry work, by which, however, he is best remembered. He adhered firmly to the Augustinian doctrine of Predestination, and on the 30th of May 1703 he was arrested at Brussels at the instance of the archbishop of Malines, and ordered to subscribe the condemnation of the five sentences of Jansen. On his refusal, he was handed over to his superiors and imprisoned in the citadel of Amiens and afterwards at Vincennes. Every sort of pressure was brought to bear upon him to make his submission, and at last, broken in health and spirit, he consented to sign a formula which the cardinal de Noailles claimed as a recantation. Upon this he was released in 1710. The first use he made of his freedom was to write a work (which, however, his friends prudently prevented him from publishing),Le Vaine Triomphe du cardinal de Noailles, containing a virtual withdrawal of the compulsory recantation. He died at the abbey of St Denis on the 29th of March 1711.

GERBERT, MARTIN(1720-1793), German theologian, historian and writer on music, belonged to the noble family of Gerbert von Hornau, and was born at Horb on the Neckar, Württemberg, on the 12th (or 11th or 13th) of August 1720. He was educated at Freiburg in the Breisgau, at Klingenau in Switzerland and at the Benedictine abbey of St Blasien in the Black Forest, where in 1737 he took the vows. In 1744 he was ordained priest, and immediately afterwards appointed professor, first of philosophy and later of theology. Between 1754 and 1764 he published a series of theological treatises, their main tendency being to modify the rigid scholastic system by an appeal to the Fathers, notably Augustine; from 1759 to 1762 he travelled in Germany, Italy and France, mainly with a view to examining the collections of documents in the various monastic libraries. In 1764 he was elected prince-abbot of St Blasien, and proved himself a model ruler both as abbot and prince. His examination of archives during his travels had awakened in him a taste for historical research, and under his rule StBlasien became a notable centre of the methodical study of history; it was here that Marquard Herrgott wrote hisMonumenta domus Austriacae, of which the first two volumes were edited, for the second edition, by Gerbert, who also published aCodex epistolaris Rudolphi I., Romani regis(1772) andDe Rudolpho Suevico comite de Rhinfelden, duce et rege, deque ejus familia(1785). It was, however, in sacramental theology, liturgiology, and notably ecclesiastical music that Gerbert was mainly interested. In 1774 he published two volumesDe cantu et musica sacra; in 1777,Monumenta veteris liturgiae Alemannicae; and in 1784, in three volumes,Scriptores ecclesiastici de musica sacra, a collection of the principal writers on church music from the 3rd century till the invention of printing. The materials for this work he had gathered during his travels, and although it contains many textual errors, its publication has been of great importance for the history of music, by preserving writings which might either have perished or remained unknown. His interest in music led to his acquaintance with the composer Gluck, who became his intimate friend.

As a prince of the Empire Gerbert was devoted to the interests of the house of Austria; as a Benedictine abbot he was opposed to Joseph II.’s church policy. In the Febronian controversy (seeFebronianism) he had early taken a mediating attitude, and it was largely due to his influence that Bishop Hontheim had been induced to retract his extreme views.

In 1768 the abbey of St Blasien, with the library and church, was burnt to the ground, and the splendid new church which rose on the ruins of the old (1783) remained until its destruction by fire in 1874, at once a monument of Gerbert’s taste in architecture and of his Habsburg sympathies. It was at his request that it was made the mausoleum of all the Austrian princes buried outside Austria, whose remains were solemnly transferred to its vaults. In connexion with its consecration he published hisHistoria Nigrae Silvae, ordinis S. Benedicti coloniae(3 vols., St Blasien, 1783).

Gerbert, who was beloved and respected by Catholics and Protestants alike, died on the 3rd of May 1793.

See Joseph Bader,Das ehemalige Kloster St Blasien und seine Gelehrtenakademie(Freiburg-im-Breisgau, 1874), which contains a chronological list of Gerbert’s works.

GERBIL,orGerbille, the name of a group of small, elegant, large-eyed, jumping rodents typified by the North AfricanGerbillus aegyptiacus(orgerbillus), and forming a special subfamily,Gerbillinae, of the rat tribe orMuridae. They are found over the desert districts of both Asia and Africa, and are classed in the generaGerbillus(orTatera),Pachyuromys,Meriones,PsammomysandRhombomys, with further divisions into subgenera. They have elongated hind-limbs and long hairy tails; and progress by leaps, in the same manner as jerboas, from which they differ in having five hind-toes. The cheek-teeth have transverse plates of enamel on the crowns; the number of such plates diminishing from three in the first tooth to one or one and a half in the third. The upper incisor teeth are generally marked by grooves. Gerbils are inhabitants of open sandy plains, where they dwell in burrows furnished with numerous exits, and containing large grass-lined chambers. The IndianG. indicusproduces at least a dozen young at a birth. All are more or less completely nocturnal.

GERENUK,the Somali name of a long-necked aberrant gazelle, commonly known as Waller’s gazelle (Lithocranius walleri), and ranging from Somaliland to Kilimanjaro. The long neck and limbs, coupled with peculiarities in the structure of the skull, entitle the gerenuk, which is a large species, to represent a genus. The horns of the bucks are heavy, and have a peculiar forward curvature at the tips; the colour of the coat is red-fawn, with a broad brown band down the back. Gerenuk are browsing ruminants, and, in Somaliland, are found in small family-parties, and feed more by browsing on the branches and leaves of trees and shrubs than by grazing. Frequently they raise themselves by standing on their hind-legs with the fore-feet resting against the trunk of the tree on which they are feeding. Their usual pace is an awkward trot, not unlike that of a camel; and they seldom break into a gallop. The Somali form has been separated asL. sclateri, but is not more than a local race. (SeeAntelope.)

GERGOVIA(mod.Gergovie), in ancient geography, the chief town of the Arverni, situated on a hill in the Auvergne, about 8 m. from the Puy de Dôme, France. Julius Caesar attacked it in 52B.C., but was beaten off; some walls and earthworks seem still to survive from this period. Later, when Gaul had been subdued, the place was dismantled and its Gaulish inhabitants resettled 4 m. away in the plain at the new Roman city of Augustonemĕtum (mod.Clermont-Ferrand).

GERHARD, FRIEDRICH WILHELM EDUARD(1795-1867), German archaeologist, was born at Posen on the 29th of November 1795, and was educated at Breslau and Berlin. The reputation he acquired by hisLectiones Apollonianae(1816) led soon afterwards to his being appointed professor at the gymnasium of Posen. On resigning that office in 1819, on account of weakness of the eyes, he went in 1822 to Rome, where he remained for fifteen years. He contributed to Platner’sBeschreibung der Stadt Rom, then under the direction of Bunsen, and was one of the principal originators and during his residence in Italy director of theInstituto di corrispondenza archeologica, founded at Rome in 1828. Returning to Germany in 1837 he was appointed archaeologist at the Royal Museum of Berlin, and in 1844 was chosen a member of the Academy of Sciences, and a professor in the university. He died at Berlin on the 12th of May 1867.

Back to Index Next