The Nuttall Encyclopaedia Part 284

LEO, the name of six emperors of the East, of which the chief was Leo III., surnamed the Isaurian, born in Isauria; raised to the imperial throne by the army, defeated by sea and land the Saracens who threatened Constantinople; ruled peacefully for nine years, when he headed the ICONOCLAST MOVEMENT (Q. V.), which provoked hostility and led to the revolt of Italy from the Greek empire; _d_. 741.

LEO, the names of 13 popes: L. I., ST., Pope from 410 to 461; L. II., ST., pope from 682 to 683; L. III., Pope from 795 to 816; L. IV., pope from 847 to 855; L. V., Pope in 903; L.

VI., Pope from 928 to 929; L. VII., Pope from 936 to 939; L.

VIII., Pope from 963 to 965; L. IX., ST., Pope from 1049 to 1054; L. X., pope from 1513 to 1521; L. XI., Pope in 1605; L.

XII., Pope from 1823 to 1829; L. XIII., Pope since 1878. Of these only the following deserve mention:--

LEO I., saint, surnamed the GREAT; was distinguished for his zeal against heretics, presided at two councils, and persuaded Attila to retire from Rome on his invasion of Italy, as he persuaded Genseric four years later to moderate the outrages of his troops in the city; his letters are in evidence of the jurisdiction of the Roman over the universal Church. Festival, Nov. 10.

LEO III., proclaimed Charlemagne emperor of the West in 800; driven in 799 from the papal chair by a conspiracy, he was reinstated by Charlemagne, who next year visited the city and was crowned by him emperor.

LEO IX., saint; was elected at the Diet of Worms in 1048, welcomed at Rome, and applied himself zealously to the reform of Church discipline; being defeated in the field by Guiscard, suffered a 10 years'

imprisonment, fell ill and died.

LEO X., Giovanni de' Medici, son of Lorenzo the Magnificent, sovereign of Florence; was distinguished as a patron of art, science, and letters, and as occupant of the chair of St. Peter at the outbreak of the Reformation, and as by his issue of indulgences for the replenishment of his treasure provoking the movement and rousing the ire of Luther, which set the rest of Europe on fire.

LEO XIII., 257th Pope of Rome, born at Carpineto; distinguished at college in mathematics, physics, and philosophy; took holy orders in 1837, was nuncio to Belgium in 1843, became bishop of Perugia in 1846, cardinal 1853, and Pope in 1878; holds to his rights as Pope both secular and spiritual; believes in the Catholic Church as the only regenerator of society, and hails every show of encroach it makes on the domain of Protestantism as promise of its universal restoration; _b_. 1810.

LEON, an ancient kingdom in the NE. of Spain, united with Castile in 1230, with a capital of the same name 256 m. NW. of Madrid. Also the name of a city in Nicaragua and another in Mexico.

LEONARDO DA VINCI, celebrated painter and sculptor of the Florentine school, born at Vinci in the Val d'Arno; showed early a wonderful apt.i.tude for art; studied under Andrea del Verrocchio, but so surpa.s.sed him in his work as to drive him to renounce the painter's art; his great work, executed by him at Milan, was the famous picture of the "Last Supper," which he painted in oil about 1497 on the wall of the refectory of the Dominican convent of the Madonna delle Grazie; it perished from the dampness of the wall almost as soon as it was finished, but happily copies were taken of it before decay had ruined it; besides, Leonardo did in 1503 at Florence the famous cartoon of the Battle of the Standard; he was a man of imposing personal appearance, of very wide range of ability, and distinguished himself in engineering as well as art; he wrote a "Treatise on Painting," which has been widely translated (1452-1519).

LEONIDAS, king of Sparta from 491 to 480 B.C.; opposed Xerxes, the Persian, who threatened Greece with a large army, and kept him at bay at the Pa.s.s of Thermopylae with 300 Spartans and 5000 auxiliaries till he was betrayed by EPHIALTES (q. v.), when he and his 300 threw themselves valiantly on the large host, and perished fighting to the last man.

LEONIDS, meteors which descend in showers during November in certain years, their chief centre being the constellation Leo.

LEOPARDI, GIACOMO, modern Italian poet, born near Ancona; a precocious genius; an omnivorous reader as a boy, and devoted to literature; of a weakly const.i.tution, he became a confirmed invalid, and died suddenly; had sceptical leanings; wrote lyrics inspired by a certain sombre melancholy (1788-1837).

LEOPOLD I., king of the Belgians, son of the Duke of Saxe-Coburg; in his youth served in the Russian army; visited England in 1815, and married Princess Charlotte, who died two years later; he declined the throne of Greece in 1830, but accepted that of the Belgians in 1831, and proved a wise, firm, const.i.tutional sovereign; in 1832 he married the French princess Louise; he was succeeded by his son Leopold II.

(1790-1865).

LEOPOLD II., king of the Belgians, born at Brussels, son and successor of Leopold I.; has travelled much in Europe and Asia Minor; founded, and is now ruler of, the Congo Free State; married in 1853 the Archd.u.c.h.ess Maria of Austria, by whom he has had three daughters; _b_.

1835.

LEPSIUS, KARL RICHARD, a celebrated Egyptologist, born in Prussian Saxony; took at first to the study of philology under Bopp, but early devoted himself to the study of the antiquities of Egypt; headed in 1842 an expedition of research among the monuments under the king of Prussia, which occupied five years, and was fertile in important results, among others the production of a work in 12 vols. on the subject ent.i.tled "Denkmaleraus Egypten und Ethiopien," issued between 1849 and 1860; he was the author also of works on philology (1810-1884).

LERNaeAN HYDRA, a monster with nine heads, one of them immortal, that infested a swamp near Lernae, and which Hercules was required to slay as one of his twelve labours, only as often as he cut off one head two grew on, but with the a.s.sistance of Iolcus his servant he singed off the eight mortal ones, cut down the ninth, and buried it under a huge rock.

LERWICK (31), the capital of Shetland, on the E. of Mainland; fishing and knitting the chief industries.

LE SAGE, ALAIN RENe, French dramatist and novelist, born at Sarzeau, in Brittany; educated at a Jesuit school at Vannes; went to Paris in 1692; studied the Spanish language and literature, and produced translations of Spanish works and imitations; some of his dramas attained great popularity, and one in particular, the "Turcaret," a satire on the time generally, and not merely, as represented, on financiers of the period, gave offence; but the works by which he is best known are his novels "Le Diable Boiteux" and "Gil Blas," his masterpiece (1668-1747).

LESBOS (36), modern name Mytilene, a mountainous island, the largest on the Asia Minor coast, 10 m. off sh.o.r.e and 20 m. N. of the Gulf of Symrna; has a delightful climate, disturbed by earthquakes, fertile soil, and produces fine olive-oil. In ancient Greek days it was a cradle of literature, the home of Sappho, and famous for its wine; Turkish since 1462, its population is mostly Greek; chief town Castro (12), on the E.

coast.

LESE-MAJESTY, name given to a crime against the sovereign.

LESLIE, name of a Scottish family distinguished in Scottish history as well as for military service in foreign parts.

LESLIE, CHARLES, non-juring controversial divine, born in Dublin, wrote "A Short and Easy Method with the Jews," and another with the Deists (1650-1722).

LESLIE, SIR JOHN, natural philosopher and professor, born at Largo, Fifeshire; educated at St. Andrews and Edinburgh University; visited America in 1788, and returned to London 1790; for fifteen years he was engaged in scientific investigation, invented several instruments, and published his "Inquiry into the Nature of Heat," for which he received the Rumford Medal from the Royal Society; appointed to the chair of Mathematics in Edinburgh in 1805, he was transferred to that of Natural Philosophy in 1819; continued his researches and inventions, and shortly before his death was knighted (1766-1832).

LESPINa.s.sE, a French lady, born in Lyons, famous for her wit, to whom D'Alembert was much attached, and the centre of a learned circle in Paris in her time (1731-1776).

LESSEPS, FERDINAND DE, French diplomatist, born at Versailles; conceived the scheme of connecting the Red Sea with the Mediterranean in 1854, and saw it finished as the Suez Ca.n.a.l in 1869; projected a similar scheme for a ca.n.a.l at Panama, but it ended in failure, disgrace, and ruin to the projectors as well as others (1805-1894).

LESSING, GOTTHOLD EPHRAIM, a German author, and founder of modern German literature, born at Kamenz, Saxony, son of the pastor there; sent to study theology at Leipzig, studied hard; conceived a pa.s.sion for the stage; wrote plays and did criticisms; wrote an essay on Pope; took English authors as his models, revolted against those of France; made it his aim to inaugurate or rather revive a purely German literature, and produced examples regarded as cla.s.sics to this day; his princ.i.p.al dramas, all conceived on the soil, are "Miss Sara Sampson," "Mina von Barnhelm,"

"Emilia Galotti," and "Nathan der Weise," and his princ.i.p.al prose works are his "Fables" and "Laoc.o.o.n," a critical work on art still in high repute (1729-1781).

L'ESTRANGE, SIR ROGER, a zealous Royalist, born in Norfolk; was for his zeal in the royal cause committed to prison; having escaped, he was allowed to live in retirement under Cromwell, but woke up a vigorous pamphleteer and journalist in the old interest at the Restoration, "wounding his Whig foes very sorely, and making them wince"; he translated Josephus, Cicero's "Offices," Seneca's "Morals," the "Colloquies" of Erasmus, and Quevedo's "Visions," his most popular work (1616-1704).

LETHE (i. e. oblivion), in the Greek mythology a stream in the nether world, a draught of the waters of which, generally extended to the ghosts of the dead on their entrance into Pluto's kingdom, obliterated all recollection of the past and its sorrows.

LETO (i. e. the hidden one), one of the t.i.tan brood, who became by Zeus the mother of Apollo and Artemis, and for whose confinement, in her persecution by Hera, Poseidon by a stroke of his trident fixed the till then floating island of Delos to the sea-bottom.

LETTER OF MARQUE, a commission to the captain of a merchant ship or a privateer to make reprisals on an enemy's ships or property.