surface of the ground, and clear of stumps, roots, weeds, &c. According to the New English Dictionary, “grub” may be referred to an ablaut variant of the Old Teutonic grab-, to dig, cf. “grave.” Skeat (Etym. Dict. 1898) refers it rather to the root seen in “grope,” “grab,” &c., the original meaning “to search for.” The earliest quotation of the slang use of the word in the sense of food in the New English Dictionary is dated 1659 from Ancient Poems, Ballads, &c., Percy Society Publications. “Grub-street,” as a collective term for needy hack-writers, dates from the 17th century and is due to the name of a street near Moorfields, London, now Milton Street, which was as Johnson says “much inhabited by writers of small histories, dictionaries and temporary poems.”
GRUBER, JOHANN GOTTFRIED (1774–1851), German critic
and literary historian, was born at Naumburg on the Saale, on
the 29th of November 1774. He received his education at the
town school of Naumburg and the university of Leipzig, after
which he resided successively at Göttingen, Leipzig, Jena and
Weimar, occupying himself partly in teaching and partly in
various literary enterprises, and enjoying in Weimar the friendship
of Herder, Wieland and Goethe. In 1811 he was appointed
professor at the university of Wittenberg, and after the division
of Saxony he was sent by the senate to Berlin to negotiate the
union of the university of Wittenberg with that of Halle. After
the union was effected he became in 1815 professor of philosophy
at Halle. He was associated with Johann Samuel Ersch in the
editorship of the great work Allgemeine Encyklopädie der Wissenschaften
und Künste; and after the death of Ersch he continued
the first section from vol. xviii. to vol. liv. He also succeeded
Ersch in the editorship of the Allgemeine Literaturzeitung. He
died on the 7th of August 1851.
Gruber was the author of a large number of works, the principal of which are Charakteristik Herders (Leipzig, 1805), in conjunction with Johann T. L. Danz (1769–1851), afterwards professor of theology at Jena; Geschichte des menschlichen Geschlechts (2 vols., Leipzig, 1806); Wörterbuch der altklassischen Mythologie (3 vols., Weimar, 1810–1815); Wielands Leben (2 parts, Weimar, 1815–1816), and Klopstocks Leben (Weimar, 1832). He also edited Wieland’s Sämtliche Werke (Leipzig, 1818–1828).
GRUMBACH, WILHELM VON (1503–1567), German
adventurer, chiefly known through his connexion with the
so-called “Grumbach feuds” (Grumbachsche Händel), the last
attempt of the German knights to destroy the power of the
territorial princes. A member of an old Franconian family,
he was born on the 1st of June 1503, and having passed some
time at the court of Casimir, prince of Bayreuth (d. 1527), fought
against the peasants during the rising in 1524 and 1525. About
1540 Grumbach became associated with Albert Alcibiades, the
turbulent prince of Bayreuth, whom he served both in peace
and war. After the conclusion of the peace of Passau in 1552,
Grumbach assisted Albert in his career of plunder in Franconia
and was thus able to take some revenge upon his enemy, Melchior
von Zobel, bishop of Würzburg. As a landholder Grumbach
was a vassal of the bishops of Würzburg, and had held office
at the court of Conrad of Bibra, who was bishop from 1540
to 1544. When, however, Zobel was chosen to succeed Conrad
the harmonious relations between lord and vassal were quickly
disturbed. Unable to free himself and his associates from the
suzerainty of the bishop by appealing to the imperial courts he
decided to adopt more violent measures, and his friendship with
Albert was very serviceable in this connexion. Albert’s career,
however, was checked by his defeat at Sievershausen in July
1553 and his subsequent flight into France, and the bishop took
advantage of this state of affairs to seize Grumbach’s lands.
The knight obtained an order of restitution from the imperial
court of justice (Reichskammergericht), but he was unable to
carry this into effect; and in April 1558 some of his partisans
seized and killed the bishop. Grumbach declared he was
innocent of this crime, but his story was not believed, and he
fled to France. Returning to Germany he pleaded his cause in
person before the diet at Augsburg in 1559, but without success.
Meanwhile he had found a new patron in John Frederick,
duke of Saxony, whose father, John Frederick, had been obliged
to surrender the electoral dignity to the Albertine branch of his
family. Chafing under this deprivation the duke listened
readily to Grumbach’s plans for recovering the lost dignity,
including a general rising of the German knights and the deposition
of Frederick II., king of Denmark. Magical charms were
employed against the duke’s enemies, and communications
from angels were invented which helped to stir up the zeal of
the people. In 1563 Grumbach attacked Würzburg, seized and
plundered the city and compelled the chapter and the bishop to
restore his lands. He was consequently placed under the
imperial ban, but John Frederick refused to obey the order of the
emperor Maximilian II. to withdraw his protection from him.
Meanwhile Grumbach sought to compass the assassination of the
Saxon elector, Augustus; proclamations were issued calling
for assistance; and alliances both without and within Germany
were concluded. In November 1566 John Frederick was placed
under the ban, which had been renewed against Grumbach
earlier in the year, and Augustus marched against Gotha.
Assistance was not forthcoming, and a mutiny led to the capitulation
of the town. Grumbach was delivered to his foes, and,
after being tortured, was executed at Gotha on the 18th of April
1567.
See F. Ortloff, Geschichte der Grumbachschen Händel (Jena, 1868–1870), and J. Voigt, Wilhelm von Grumbach und seine Händel (Leipzig, 1846–1847).
GRUMENTUM, an ancient town in the centre of Lucania,
33 m. S. of Potentia by the direct road through Anxia, and 52 m.
by the Via Herculia, at the point of divergence of a road eastward
to Heraclea. It seems to have been a native Lucanian town,
not a Greek settlement. In 215 B.C. the Carthaginian general
Hanno was defeated under its walls, and in 207 B.C. Hannibal
made it his headquarters. In the Social War it appears as a
strong fortress, and seems to have been held by both sides at
different times. It became a colony, perhaps in the time of
Sulla, at latest under Augustus, and seems to have been of some
importance. Its site, identified by Holste from the description
of the martyrdom of St Laverius, is a ridge on the right bank
of the Aciris (Agri) about 1960 ft. above sea-level, 12 m. below
the modern Saponara, which lies much higher (2533 ft.). Its
ruins (all of the Roman period) include those of a large amphitheatre
(arena 205 by 197 ft.), the only one in Lucania, except
that at Paestum. There are also remains of a theatre. Inscriptions
record the repair of its town walls and the construction
of thermae (of which remains were found) in 57–51 B.C., the
construction in 43 B.C., of a portico, remains of which may be
seen along an ancient road, at right angles to the main road,
which traversed Grumentum from S. to N.
See F. P. Caputi in Notizie degli scavi (1877), 129, and G. Patroni, ibid. (1897) 180. (T. As.)
GRÜN. Hans Baldung (c. 1470–1545), commonly called
Grün, a German painter of the age of Dürer, was born at Gmünd
in Swabia, and spent the greater part of his life at Strassburg and
Freiburg in Breisgau. The earliest pictures assigned to him are
altarpieces with the monogram H. B. interlaced, and the date
of 1496, in the monastery chapel of Lichtenthal near Baden.
Another early work is a portrait of the emperor Maximilian,
drawn in 1501 on a leaf of a sketch-book now in the print-room at
Carlsruhe. The “Martyrdom of St Sebastian” and the “Epiphany”
(Berlin Museum), fruits of his labour in 1507, were painted for
the market-church of Halle in Saxony. In 1509 Grün purchased
the freedom of the city of Strassburg, and resided there till 1513,
when he moved to Freiburg in Breisgau. There he began a
series of large compositions, which he finished in 1516, and placed
on the high altar of the Freiburg cathedral. He purchased anew
the freedom of Strassburg in 1517, resided in that city as his
domicile, and died a member of its great town council 1545.
Though nothing is known of Grün’s youth and education, it may be inferred from his style that he was no stranger to the school of which Dürer was the chief. Gmünd is but 50 m. distant on either side from Augsburg and Nuremberg. Grün prints were often mistaken for those of Dürer; and Dürer himself was well acquainted with Grün’s woodcuts and
