FThis is the sixth letter of the English alphabet as it was
of the Latin. In the ordinary Greek alphabet the symbol
has disappeared, although it survived far into historical
times in many Greek dialects as Ϝ, the digamma, the
use of which in early times was inductively proved by Bentley,
when comparatively little was known of the local alphabets
and dialects of Greece. The so-called stigma ϛ, which serves
for the numeral 6, is all that remains to represent it. This
symbol derives its name from its resemblance in medieval MSS.
to the abbreviation for στ. The symbol occupying the same position
in the Phoenician alphabet was Vau (
), which seems
to be represented by the Greek Υ, the Latin V, at the end of
the early alphabet. Many authorities therefore contend that
F is only a modification of the preceding symbol E and has
nothing to do with the symbol Vau. In some early Latin
inscriptions F is represented by ||, as E is by ||. It must be
admitted that the resemblance between the sixth symbol of
the Phoenician alphabet and the corresponding symbol of the
European alphabet is not striking. But the position of the
limbs of symbols in early alphabets often varies surprisingly.
In Greek, besides Ϝ we find for f in Pamphylia (the only Greek
district in Asia which possesses the symbol) 
, and in Boeotia,
Thessaly, Tarentum, Cumae and on Chalcidian vases of Italy the
form 
, though except at Cumae and on the vases the form F
exists contemporaneously with or even earlier. At the little
town of Falerii (Civita Castellana), whose alphabet is undoubtedly
of the same origin as the Latin, F takes the form 
. Though
uncertain, therefore, it seems not impossible that the original
symbol of the Phoenician alphabet, which was a consonant like
the English w, may have been differentiated in Greek into two
symbols, one indicating the consonant value w and retaining
the position of the Phoenician consonant Vau, the other having
the vowel value u, which ultimately most dialects changed to
a modified sound like French u or German ü. Be this as it may,
the value of the symbol Ϝ in Greek was w, a bilabial voiced
sound, not the labio-dental unvoiced sound which we call f.
When the Romans adopted the Greek alphabet they took over
the symbols with their Greek values. But Greek had no sound
corresponding to the Latin f, for φ was pronounced p-h, like the
final sound of lip in ordinary English or the initial sound of pig
in Irish English. Consequently in the very old inscription
on a gold fibula found at Praeneste and published in 1887 (see
Alphabet) the Latin f is represented by FB. Later, as Latin
did not use F for the consonant written as v in vis, &c. , H was
dropped and F received a new special value in Latin as representative
of the unvoiced labio-dental spirant. In the Oscan
and Umbrian dialects, whose alphabet was borrowed from
Etruscan, a special form appears for f, viz. 
, the old form
being kept for the other consonant v (i.e. English w). The
has generally been asserted to be developed out of the second
element in the combination FB, its upper and lower halves
being first converted into lozenges, 
, which naturally changed
to when inscribed without lifting the writing or incising implement.
Recent discoveries, however, make this doubtful
(see Alphabet). (P. Gi.)
FABBRONI, ANGELO (1732–1803), Italian biographer, was
born at Marradi in Tuscany on the 25th of September 1732.
After studying at Faenza he entered the Roman college founded
for the education of young Tuscans. On the conclusion of his
studies he continued his stay in Rome, and having been introduced
to the celebrated Jansenist Bottari, received from him the canonry
of Santa Teresa in Trastevere. Some time after this he was
chosen to preach a discourse in the pontifical chapel before
Benedict XIV. and made such a favourable impression that the
pontiff settled on him an annuity, with the possession of which
Fabbroni was able to devote his whole time to study. He was
intimate with Leopold I., grand-duke of Tuscany, but the Jesuits
disliked him on account of his Jansenist views. Besides his
other literary labours he began at Pisa in 1771 a literary journal,
which he continued till 1796. About 1772 he made a journey to
Paris, where he formed the acquaintance of Condorcet, Diderot,
d’Alembert, Rousseau and most of the other eminent Frenchmen
of the day. He also spent four months in London. He died at
Pisa on the 22nd of September 1803.
The following are his principal works:—Vitae Italorum doctrina excellentium qui saeculis XVII. et XVIII. floruerunt (20 vols., Pisa, 1778–1799, 1804–1805), the last two vols., published posthumously, contain a life of the author; Laurentii Medicei Magnifici Vita (2 vols., Pisa, 1784), a work which served as a basis for H. Roscoe’s Life of Lorenzo dei Medici; Leonis X. pontificis maximi Vita (Pisa, 1797); and Elogi di Dante Alighieri, di Angelo Poliziano, di Lodovico Ariosto, e di Torq. Tasso (Parma, 1800).
FABER, the name of a family of German lead-pencil manufacturers.
Their business was founded in 1760 at Stein, near
Nuremberg, by Kaspar Faber (d. 1784). It was then inherited by
his son Anton Wilhelm (d. 1819). Georg Leonhard Faber succeeded
in 1810 (d. 1839), and the business passed to Johann Lothar
von Faber (1817–1896), the great-grandson of the founder. At
the time of his assuming control about twenty hands were employed,
under old-fashioned conditions, and owing to the invention
of the French crayons Contés of Nicolas Jacques Conté (q.v.)
competition had reduced the entire Nuremberg industry to a low
ebb (see Pencil). Johann introduced improvements in machinery
and methods, brought his factory to the highest state of efficiency,
and it became a model for all the other German and Austrian manufacturers.
He established branches in New York, Paris, London
and Berlin, and agencies in Vienna, St Petersburg and Hamburg,
and made his greatest coup in 1856, when he contracted for the
exclusive control of the graphite obtained from the East Siberian
mines. Faber had also branched out into the manufacture of
water-colour and oil paints, inks, slates and slate-pencils, and
engineers’ and architects’ drawing instruments, and built
additional factories to house his various industries at New York
and at Noisy-le-Sec, near Paris, and had his own cedar mills
in Florida. For his services to German industry he received a
patent of nobility and an appointment as councillor of state.
After the death of his widow (1903) the business was inherited
by his grand-daughter Countess Otilie von Faber-Castell and her
husband, Count Alexander.
FABER, BASIL (1520—c. 1576), Lutheran schoolmaster and
theologian, was born at Sorau, in lower Lusatia, in 1520. In
1538 he entered the university of Wittenberg, studying as
pauper gratis under Melanchthon. Choosing the schoolmaster’s
profession, he became successively rector of the schools at
Nordhausen, Tennstadt (1555), Magdeburg (1557) and Quedlinburg
(1560). From this last post he was removed in December
1570 as a Crypto-Calvinist. In 1571 he was appointed to the
Raths-gymnasium at Erfurt, not as rector, but as director
(Vorsteher). In this situation he remained till his death in 1575
or 1576. His translation of the first twenty-five chapters of
Luther’s commentary on Genesis was published in 1557; in other
ways he promoted the spread of Lutheran views. He was a
contributor to the first four of the Magdeburg Centuries. He is
best known by his Thesaurus eruditionis scholasticae (1571;
last edition, improved by J. H. Leich, 1749, folio, 2 vols.); this
was followed by his Libellus de disciplina scholastica (1572).
See Wagenmann and G. Müller in Herzog-Hauck’s Realencyklopädie (1898). (A. Go.*)
FABER, FREDERICK WILLIAM (1814–1863), British hymn writer and theologian, was born on the 28th of June 1814 at Calverley, Yorkshire, of which place his grandfather, Thomas Faber, was vicar. He attended the grammar school of Bishop Auckland for a short time, but a large portion of his boyhood was spent in Westmorland. He afterwards went to Harrow
