DENIS
722
DENMARK
tember, 1729; d. at Vienna 29 Sept., 1800. He re-
ceived his early training in the gymnasium of Passau,
conducted by the Jesuits, and became a member
of the Society of Jesus at Vienna in 1747. For some
years he taught Latin and rhetoric, first at Graz, then
at Hagcnfurt. After four more years devoted to the
study of tlieology at Graz he was ordained priest in
1757, and Ijegan preaching in Pressburg. In 1759 he
was made professor of belles-lettres at the famous
Theresian Academy in Vienna where he remained
until 1773, when the Society of Jesus was suppressed.
Denis now became assistant librarian of the Garelli
Library, connected with the Theresianum, and when
the academy ceased to exist in 1784, he was appointed
assistant librarian of the imperial court library and
in 1791 was advanced to be chief librarian, receiving
at the same time the title of privy councillor. He is
specially known as a poet, as he was one of the chief
members of the group of so-called bards whose aim
was to revive German patriotism by treating subjects
connected with Germanic antiquity. Confusing Ger-
manic and Celtic materials they conceived themselves
as bards, in the belief that these were ancient German
poets, and adopted fanciful bardic names. Thus
Denis called himself "the bard Sined", the anagram
of his name. They were all admirers of Klop-
stock and of Ossian, whose poems had only a few
years before been made known by the Scotchman
Macpherson, and which had been translated into Ger-
man in 1764. Ossian was really the inspiration of the
bardic movement. Denis's first poems appeared in
1760 under the title "Poetische Bilder der meisten
kriegerischen Vorgange in Europa seit dem Jahre
1756". They are poems celebrating the events of
the Seven Years War, and, as the German poems of
a Jesuit, created cjuite a stir. His German transla-
tion of Ossian appeared in three volumes (1768-
1769). A second collection of poems, "Die Lieder
Sineds des Barden", followed in 1772. A new edition,
including his version of Ossian, was published at Vi-
enna in five volumes under the title "Ossian und
Sineds Lieder" (Vienna, 1784-85). Besides the purely
bardic poems these collections contain many poems
composed for special occasions, for Denis was held
in high esteem by the C'ourt.. A number of religious
poems had been published separately as "Geistliche
Lieder" in 1774. The quality of these poetical
efforts is not high, but Denis certainly deserves
praise for his efforts to bring the literature of Aus-
tria into contact with that of northern Germany.
For both Klopstock and Gellert he felt great enthusi-
asm, and largely helped to make them known in
.Vustria.
As a bibliographer he compiled a number of im- portant works, notably: "Einleitung in die Bucher- kunde", part I, bibliography (1777); part II, "Lit- teraturgeschichte ", (1778); "Die Merkwiirdigkeiten der Garellischen Bibliothek" (Vienna, 1780); and "Wiens Buchdruckergeschichte bis MDLX" (Vienna, 1782-83). His posthumous works were published by his pupil J. F. de Retzer, "Nachlese zu Sineds Lie- dern" (Vioiinu, 1802).
HoFM\-.\ Willi ^^■<i:^l'f Dmis, ein Britrag zuT
deuUiU hiihlc des XVIII. Jahr-
httnd' '■' I ' I . I I i - ' : M > \' i, iu Kurschner, Deutsche Nntwnnl-I a ,,. \ : \ M I, I i'J .-ipl-
Arthuh F. J. Remy.
Denis, Joseph (baptized Jacques), b. 6 November, 1657, at Three Rivers, Canada; d. 25 January, 1736. He was the first Canadian to join the Recollects of the Friars Minor. His father, Pierre Denis de la Ronde and his mother Catherine Leneuf de la Poterie, were na- tives of Normandy. In 1669 he entered the seminary at Quebec and on 9 May, 1677, joined the Recollects in the same city, taking in religion the name of Joseph. When professed he went to France to study theology. After being ordained he rctu.rued to Canada in 1682,
where in 1685 he completed the installation of the
Recollects at He Percee. He founded the house of
the order at Plaisance in 1689 and that at Montreal in
1692. After holding the office of provincial commis-
sary, superior of the convent of Quebec, and master
of novices, he was named, in 1709, superior of the
Recollects and parish priest of Three Rivers, where
he rebuilt in stone the old church. In 1719 he car-
ried to France, to be forwarded to Rome, the Acts of
Brother Didace (Les actes du tres-religieux Frere
Didace), a Canadian Recollect whose confessor he was
for many years. He died shortly after his return
to New France.
Odohic-M. Jouve.
Denman, William, publisher, b. in Edinburgh, Scotland, 17 March, 1784; d. in Brooklyn, New York, U. S. A., 12 September, 1870. His father was a Ger- man, his mother an Alsatian, and he claimed to have been in the English army before he emigrated to New York in 1824. He was an associate of William E. Andrews, the London publisher, and after settling down in New York, he began, in conjimction with George Pardow, on 2 April, 1825, the publication of "The Truth Teller", the first Catholic paper issued there. It was a weekly, and for a time enjoyed considerable local influence which gave Denman polit- ical prominence. Tainted, however, with the prevail- ing error of trusteeism, it lost the support of the local ecclesiastical authorities, rival publications were started and its prestige waned until he sold the paper 31 March, 1855, to the proprietors of " The Irish Amer- ican", who merged it in that journal a short time after. Three of his sons were in the United States ser\'ice: Adjutant Frederick J. Denman, of the Artil- lery, killed by accident in Texas in 1854; Ensign Joseph A. Denman, of the Navy, died 1862; Colonel Charles L. Denman, who served in the Mexican War and as consul in South America, died 17 March, 1893. The youngest son, William, was for some years editor of the New York "Tablet".
U. S. Cath. Hist. Soc, Hist. Records and Studies (New York, Jan., 1903), III, part I.
Thomas F. Meehan.
Denmark (Lat. Dania). — This kingdom had for- merly a much larger extent than at present. It once included the southern provinces of Sweden: Skane, Halland, Blekinge, Bohuslan (till 1658); the Duchies of Schleswig (Sonderjylland) and Holstein (till 1864) ; the Kingdom of Norway (from 1537 till 1814). The present kingdom comprises 16,000 square miles (be- tween lat. 54° 33' and 57° 45' N. ; long. 8° 4' and 15° 10' E.). It now includes the northern part of Jutland (anciently the Cimbric Chersonese) between the North Sea, Skager Rack, and Cattegat, whose southern part borders on the German Empire ; the islands which lie between the Baltic and Cattegat (partly also in the latter) — Zealand (Sjalland), Falster, Moen, Laaland, Fiinen (Fyan), Mvo, Samso, Anholt, Laeso — together with a few smaller isles (Amager, Saltholm, Seiero, etc.) and Bornholm, which lies far towards the east in the Baltic. To this must be added the group of the Faroe Islands (q. v.), situated in the Atlantic Ocean, 180 miles north-west of the Shetland Islands and 410 miles west from Bergen, and finally Iceland (q. v.), whose northern coast is washed by the Arctic Ocean, and which, though very extensi\-e (40,000 square miles), is but thinly inhabited (80.000 souls). Ice- land is verj^ loosely connected with Denmark, is inde- pendent in its laws and government, and since 1874 has its own constitution. Other Danish possessions are Greenland (q v.), which in size is almost a conti- nent, but is very sparsely settled (only 12,000 souls), and the three islands in the West Indies, St. Croix, St. John, and St. Thomas, with a total area of 120 squarQ miles and a population of 30,000.
