continual additions of unpublished letters were made, in great part by the same editor, and at last the whole was remodelled on manuscript copies (the originals unfortunately are available for but few) in the edition called Des Grands Ecrivains, which M. de Monmerqué began, but which owing to his death had to be finished by MM. Regnier, Paul Mesnard and Sommer (Paris, 1862–1868). This, which supersedes all others (even a handsome edition published during its appearance by M. Silvestre de Sacy), consists of twelve volumes of text, notes, &c., two volumes of lexicon and an album of énlates. It contains all the published letters to and from Madame de Sévigné, with the replies where they exist, with all those letters to and from Madame de Simiane (many of which had been added to the main body) that contain any interest. To it must be added two volumes (printed uniformly) of Lettres inédites, published by M. Ch. Capmas in 1876 and containing numerous variants and additions from a MS. copy discovered in an old curiosity shop at Dijon. Of less elaborate and costly editions that in the collection Didot (6 vols., Paris v.d.) is the best, though, in common with all others except the Grands Écrivains edition, it contains an adulterated text.
Works on Madame de Sévigné are innumerable. Besides essays by nearly all the great French critics from Sainte-Beuve (Portraits de femmes) to M. Brunetiere (Études critiques), the work of F. Combes, Madame de Sévigné, historian (1885), and G. Boissier’s volume in the Grands Ecrivains Français (1881), should be consulted. The biography by Paul Mesnard is nearly exhaustive, but the most elaborate biographical book is that of Walckenaer (3rd ed., Paris, 1856, 5 vols.), to which should be added the remarkable Histoire de Mme de Sévigné of Aubenas (Paris and St Petersburg, 1842). In English an excellent little book by Miss Thackeray (Ladgy Ritchie) (1881) may be recommended, and also Janet Aldis’s Mme de Sévigné: The Queen of Letter-writers (1907). Most of the editions have portraits. (G. Sa.)
SEVILLE, an inland province of southern Spain, one of the eight provinces into which Andalusia was divided in 1833; bounded on the N. by Badajoz, N.E. by Cordova, S. by Malaga and Cadiz and W. by Huelva. Pop. (1900) 555,256; area 5428 sq. m. The province is bisected by the navigable river Guadalquivir (q.v.), which here receives the Genil and Guadaira on the left, and the Guadalimar on the right. West of the Guadalquivir the surface is broken by low mountain ranges forming part of the Sierra Morena; the eastern districts are comparatively flat and very fertile, except along the frontiers of Cadiz and Malaga, where rise the Sierras of Gibalbin and Algodonales; and there are extensive marshes near the Guadalquivir estuary. Coal, copper, iron ore, silicate of alumina, marble and chalk are the chief mineral products; the province is famous for its oranges, and also exports wheat, barley, oats, maize, olives, oil, wine and chick-peas. Iron-founding and the manufacture of gunpowder and ordnance are carried on by the state, and a great expansion of the other manufactures-leather, pottery, soap, flour, cork products, &c.—took place after 1875 owing to the construction of railways between all the larger towns. Cattle-breeding is an important industry in the plains and marshes. Seville (q.v.) is the capital and chief river-port. Other towns described in separate articles are Écija (pop. 1900, 24,372), Osuna (17,826), Carmona (17,215), Utrera (15,138), Moron de la Frontera (14,190), Marchena (12,468), Lebrija. (10,997).
SEVILLE (Span. Sevilla, Lat. Ispalis or Hispalis, Moorish
Ishbīliya), the capital of the Spanish province of Seville, and the
chief city of Andalusia, on the left bank of the river Guadalquivir,
54 m. from the Atlantic Ocean, and 355 m. by rail S.S.W. of
Madrid. Pop. (1000) 148,315. Seville is an archiepiscopal see,
a port with many thriving industries, and in size the fourth city
in the kingdom, ranking after Madrid, Barcelona and Valencia.
Its history, and its treasures of art and architecture render it
one of the most interesting places in Europe. It is built in a
level alluvial plain, as productive as a garden. Few parts of the
city are more than 30 ft. above sea-level, and owing to the
frequency of floods an elaborate system of defences against the
Guadalquivir and its affluents the Guadaira, Tamarguillo and
Tagarete, was undertaken in 1904. This entailed the construction
(spread over many years) of dykes, walls and surface drains,
the raising of certain streets and railway embankments and the
diversion of the lower Tagarete along a new channel leading into
the Tamarguillo. The climate is pleasant at all seasons except
in summer, when a shade temperature of 116° Fahr. has been
recorded. Water is provided by a British company, and a
smaller quantity is obtained from Carmona, but the supply
is inadequate.
On the right or western bank of the river is the suburb of the Triana, inhabited to a great extent by gipsies. Seville retains its Moorish appearance in the older quarters, although their narrow and tortuous alleys are lighted by electricity, and traversed, wherever they afford room, by electric tramways. In the more modern districts there are broad avenues and boulevards, the chief of which is the beautiful Paseo de los Delicias, along the river and below the city.
The animated and picturesque street-life of Seville has often been painted and described, or even, as in Mozart’s Figaro and Don Giovanni, Rossini’s Barbiere di Siviglia and Bizet’s Carmen, set to music. The townsfolk, and the peasants who have come to town for bull-fights, fairs or carnival, have preserved many of the curious old customs which tend to die out in the other large cities of Spain; they continue to wear the vivid costumes which suit the sunny climate of Andalusia; and their own gaiety, wit and grace of manner are proverbial. Nowhere in Spain are the great Church festivals celebrated with so much splendour; Easter at Seville is especially famous, and at this season the city is usually crowded with foreigners. The stately reserve and formality of Madrid society are almost as unknown here as the feverish industrialism and political passion of Barcelona; or Valencia; loyalty, good humour and light-hearted hedonism have always been characteristic of Seville.
Principal Buildings.—The cathedral, dedicated to Santa Maria de la Sede, is the largest church in the world, after St Peter’s at Rome and the Mezquita at Cordova, being 414 ft. long, 271 ft. wide and 100 ft. high to the roof of the nave. he west front is approached by a high flight of steps, and the platform on which the cathedral stands is surrounded by a hundred shafts of columns from the mosque which formerly occupied the site. The work of building began in 1402 and was finished in 1519, so that the one style of Spanish Gothic is fairly preserved throughout the interior, however much the exterior is spoiled by later additions. Unfortunately the west front remained unfinished until 1827, when the central doorway was completed in a very inferior manner; but this has been renewed in a purer style. The fine relief above it representing the Assumption was added in 1885. At the east end are two Gothic doorways with good sculpture in the tympana; and on the north side the Puerta del Perdon, as it is called, has some exquisite detail over the horse-shoe arch, anda. pair of fine bronze doors. The gateway in the southern façade, designed by Casanova, dates from 1887. The interior forms a parallelogram containing a nave and four aisles with surrounding chapels, a centre dome, 121 ft. high, and at the east end a royal sepulchral chapel, which was an addition of the 16th century. The thirty-two immense clustered columns, the marble floor (1787–1795) and the seventy-four windows filled with painted glass, mostly by Flemish artists of the 16th century, produce an unsurpassed effect of magnificence. The reredos is an enormous Gothic work containing forty-four panels of gilt and coloured wood carvings begun by the Fleming Dancart in 1479 and completed by Spanish artists in 1526; the silver statue of the Virgin is by Francisco Alfaro (1596). The archbishop’s throne and the choir-stalls (1475–1548) are fine pieces of carving, and amongst the notable metal-work are the railings (1519), by Sancho Nufioz, and the lectem by Bartolomé Morel of the same period. The bronze candelabrum for tenebrae, 25 ft. in height, is a splendid work by B. More (1562). In the Sacristia Alta is a silver repoussé reliquary presented by Alphonso the Wise in the 13th century; and in the Sacristia Mayor, which is a good plateresque addition made in 1535 from designs by Diego de Riano (d. 1532), there is a magnificent collection of church plate and vestments, including the famous silver monstrance (1580–1587), 12 ft. high, by Juan de Arfe (Arphe). At the west end of the nave is the grave of Ferdinand, the son of Columbus, and at the east end in the royal chapel (1514–1566) lies the body of St Ferdinand of Castile (1200–1252), which is exposed three times in the year. This chapel also contains the tombs of Alphonso the Wise (1252–1284) and Pedro I. (1350–1369) and a curious life-size image of the Virgin, which was presented to St Ferdinand by St Louis of France in the 15th century. It is in carved wood with movable arms, seated on a silver throne and with hair of spun gold. The chief pictures in the cathedral are the “Guardian Angel,” the “St Anthony,”[1] and other works of Murillo; the “Holy Family” of Alfonso Miguel de Tobar (1678–1738); the “Nativity” and “La Generacion” of Luis de Vargas; Valdes Leal’s “Marriage of the Virgin,” and Guadelupe’s “Descent from the Cross.” In the Sacristia Alta are three fine paintings by Alexo Fernandez, and in the Sala Capitular are a “Conception” by Murillo and a “St Ferdinand” by Francisco Pacheco. The organs (1777 and 1827) are among the largest in the world. A curious and unique ritual is observed by the choir boys on the festivals of Corpus Christi and the Immaculate Conception–a solemn dance with castanets being performed by
- ↑ This was stolen in 1874, sold in New York for £50, and returned by its purchaser. Mr Schaus.
