and other valuable pieces of gold and silver plate. The cathedral library has some curious old MSS., including a deed of gift made by Alphonso II. of Asturias in 812, and a collection of illuminated documents of the 12th century, called the Libro gótico. On the Sierra de Naranco is the ancient Santa Maria de Naranco, originally built by Ramiro I. of Asturias in 850 as a palace, and afterwards turned into a church. Higher up the hill is San Miguel de Lino, also of the 9th century; and on the road to Gijón, about a mile outside the town, is the Santullano or church of St Julian, also of very early date. Few towns in Spain have better schools for primary and higher education, and there are a literary and scientific institute, a meteorological observatory, a school for teachers, a school of art, adult classes for artisans, an archaeological museum and several public libraries. Oviedo is the centre of a thriving trade in agricultural products; its other industries are marble-quarrying, and the manufacture of arms, cotton and woollen fabrics, iron goods, leather and matches.
Oviedo, founded in the reign of Fruela (762), became the fixed residence of the kings of the Asturias in the time of Alphonso II., and continued to be so until about 924, when the advancing reconquest of Spain from the Moors led them to remove their capital to Leon. From that date the history of the city was comparatively uneventful, until the Peninsular War, when it was twice plundered by the French—under Ney in 1809 and under Bonnet in 1810.
OVIEDO Y VALDÉS, GONZALO FERNÁNDEZ DE (1478–1557),
Spanish historian, was born at Madrid in August 1478.
Educated at the court of Ferdinand and Isabella, in his thirteenth year he became page to their son, the Infante Don John, was present at the siege of Granada, and there saw Columbus previous to his voyage to America. On the death of Prince John (4th of October 1497), Oviedo went to Italy, and there acted as secretary to Gonzalo Fernandez de Cordoba. In 1514 he was appointed supervisor of gold-smeltings at San Domingo, and on his return
to Spain in 1523 was appointed historiographer of the Indies. He paid five more visits to America before his death, which took place at Valladolid in 1557.
Besides a romance of chivalry entitled Claribalte (1519) Oviedo wrote two extensive works of permanent value: La General y natural historta de las Indias and Las Qiiinquagenas de la nobleza de España. The former work was first issued at Toledo (1526) in the form of a summary entitled La Natural hystoria de las Indias; the first part of La Historia general de las Indias appeared at Seville in 1535; but the complete work was not published till 1851–1855, when it was edited by J. A. de los Rios for the Spanish Academy of History. Though written in a diffuse style, it embodies a mass of curious information collected at first hand, and the incomplete Seville edition was widely read in the English and French versions published by Eden and Poleur respectively in 1555 and 1556. Las Casas describes it as “containing almost as many lies as pages,” and Oviedo undoubtedly puts the most favourable interpretation on the proceedings of his countrymen; but, apart from a patriotic bias which is too obvious to be misleading, his narrative is both trustworthy and interesting. In his Quinquagenas he indulges in much lively gossip concerning eminent contemporaries; this collection of quaint, moralizing anecdotes was first published at Madrid in 1880, under the editorship of Vicente de la Fuente.
OVOLO (adapted from Ital. uovolo, diminutive of uovo, an egg; other foreign equivalents are Fr. ove, échine, quart de rond; Lat. echinus), in architecture, a convex moulding known also as the echinus, which in Classic architecture was invariably carved with the egg and tongue. In Roman and Italian work the moulding is called by workmen a quarter round. It must not be confounded with the echinus of the Greek Doric capital, as this was of a more varied form and of much larger dimensions than the ovolo, which was only a subordinate moulding.
OWATONNA, a city and the county-seat of Steele county, Minnesota, U.S.A., on the Straight river, in the S.E. part of the state, about 67 m. S. of Minneapolis and St Paul. Pop. (1900) 5561, of whom 1160 were foreign-born; (1905, state census) 5651. It is served by the Chicago, Milwaukee & St Paul, the Chicago & North-Western, the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific and the Minneapolis, Rochester & Dubuque (electric) railways.
Four fine steel bridges span the river at or near the city. Among the public buildings are a handsome county court-house, a city
hall, an armoury, a city hospital and a public library. Owatonna
is the seat of the Pilisbury Academy (Baptist), the Sacred Heart
Academy (Roman Catholic) and the Canfield Commercial
School, and immediately west of the city is the State Public
School for Dependent and Neglected Children (1886). The city’s
commercial importance is largely due to its situation in a rich
dairying and farming district, for which it is the shipping centre.
It has also various manufactures. There are valuable mineral
springs in the vicinity. The municipality owns and operates
the water-works. Owatonna was settled about 1855, was incorporated
as a village in 1865, was chartered as a city in 1875
and received a new charter in 1909. Its name is a Sioux word
meaning “straight,” the river having been previously named
Straight river.
OWEGO, a village and the county-seat of Tioga county. New York, U.S.A., on the Owego Creek and on the N. side of the Susquehanna river, 21 m. W. of Binghamton. Pop. (1910, U.S. census) 4633. It is served by the Erie, the Lehigh Valley and the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western railways; a branch of the last connects with Ithaca, N.Y. Owego occupies the site of an Indian (probably Tuscarora) village named “Ah-wa-ga,” which was destroyed by General James Clinton in 1779. The name, of which “Owego” is a corruption, is said to mean
“where the valley widens.” A white settlement and trading
post were set up here in 1785, and the village of Owego was
incorporated in 1827.
OWEN, SIR HUGH (1804–1881), Welsh educationist, was
born near Talyfoel Ferry, Anglesey, on the 14th of January 1804. Educated at a private school at Carnarvon, he became clerk in 1825 to a barrister in London. In 1836 he entered the office of the Poor Law Commission, eventually becoming chief clerk of the Poor Law Board, and retiring in 1872 to devote himself exclusively to educational work. As early as 1839 he had become secretary for an association to start a National school
in Islington, and in 1843 he had published A Letter to the Welsh People on the need of educational activity, which was widely read. Successful in arousing the interest of the British and
Foreign School Society, he became in 1846 honorary secretary
of its newly-formed branch, the Cambrian School Society. He
was one of the founders of the Bangor Normal College, for the
training of teachers, and of the University College of Wales at
Aberystwith, of which for many years he was honorary secretary
and treasurer. He was for three years a member of the London
School Board. His scheme for secondary education, formulated
in 1881, was almost wholly adopted after his death in the Welsh
Intermediate Education Act of 1889. The revival of the Honourable
Cymrodorion Society, the National Eisteddfod Association
and the Social Science Section of the National Eisteddfod was
due to Owen. He was knighted in recognition of his service to
Welsh education in August 1881, but died at Mentone on the
20th of November. A bronze statue was erected at Carnarvon in
1888 by public subscription.
OWEN, JOHN [Ovenus or Audoenus] (c. 1560–1622), Welsh epigrammatist, was born at Plas Dhu, Carnarvonshire, about 1560. He was educated under Dr Bilson at Winchester School, and at New College, Oxford. He was a fellow of his college from 1584 to 1591, when he became a schoolmaster, first at Trelleck, near Monmouth, and then at Warwick, where he was master of the school endowed by Henry VIII. He became distinguished for his perfect mastery of the Latin language, and for the humour, felicity and point of his epigrams. The Continental scholars and wits of the day used to call him " the British Martial." He was a staunch Protestant besides, and could not resist the temptation of turning his wit against the Roman Catholic Church. This practice caused his book to be placed on the Index prohibitorius in 1654, and led a rich old uncle of the Roman Catholic communion to cut him out of his will. When the poet died in 1622, his countryman and relative. Bishop Williams of Lincoln, who is said to have supported him in his later years, erected a monument to his memory in St Paul’s cathedral with a Latin epitaph.
Owen’s Epigrammata are divided into twelve books, of which the first four were published in 1606, and the rest at four different
