GIRGEH, Girga, or Jirjeh, a town of Upper Egypt, situated on the left bank of the Nile, about 9 miles north- west of the ancient city of Abydus. It owes its name to the Coptic monastery of St George or Girgis, and is the seat of a Coptic bishop, possesses eight mosques and a Roman Catholic monastery which ranks as the oldest in Egypt, and numbers from 8000 to 10,000 inhabitants, of whom about 500 are Christians. For a long time it was the capital of the Sa’id, but this rank is now held by Soohag. The worst enemy of Girgeh is the. river, which was a quarter of a mile to the east at the time of Pocoeke’s visit about 1710, but has gradually crept nearer, and is now slowly undermining the very site of the town.
GIRGENTI, a city in the south of Sicily, at the head of a province of its own name, occupies a fine position about 3 miles from the coast on a platform of Mount Camicus, more than 1100 feet above the level of the sea. It lies about 60 miles S. S. E. of Palermo, with which it is connected by a railway 90 miles long. As seen from the lower ground (iirgcnti presents a grandiose but sombre appearance, with its buildings rising in close array from ancient substructiens and the steep rocks of the mountain; but within it is for the most part mean, monotonous, and melancholy, the streets with few exceptions being confined, irregular, steep, and ill-paved, and the houses all presenting the same grey- brown walls, the same reddish roofs, and the same narrow doors and narrow windows. The cathedral, begun in the . 11th century, has still an impressive effect, in spite of the incongruous mixture of styles , but the interior is a typical specimen of modern‘ rococo. The acoustic conditions are sufficiently peculiar: a word spoken in the softest whisper at the entrance can be distinctly heard behind the . choir, 100 paces off. One of the chapels contains the shrine and bears the name of St Gerlando, the first bishop of I (tirgenti ; the altar-piece is a Virgin and Child by Guido - Reni ; and in the north aisle there stands a marble sarco- phagus now used as a font, with fine rilievos, probably of Roman workmanship after a Greek original, representing the story of Hippolytus and thedra. Not only are the archives of the cathedral rich in historic documents of the Norman period, but they profess to contain an autograph letter of the devil himself. Among the other churches, upwards of forty in number, S. Maria dei Greci is worthy of note as preserving two Doric pillars which had belonged to the temple of Zeus Polieus, founded in 570 b.c. by . l’lialaris, and are thus the oldest architectural remains in Girgenti. As the chief town of a province, Girgenti is the residence of a prefect and the military headquarters of the district. It is also the seat of the wealthiest bishopric in Sicily, dating from the pontificate of Urban IL; and it possesses a chamber of commerce and art, an industrial I institute, a lyceum, a gymnasium, a technical school, and an episcopal seminary. Its principal library, Bibliotlieca Lucchesiana, was presented to the town by Don Andrea LuCchese of the family of C‘ampo France; the Casino I Empedocleo, with well-appointed library and reading- rooms, was founded by a number of the wealthier citizens. In the early part of the century Girgenti was a poverty- stricken town, but it has attained a considerable degree of I prosperity since 1850. It lies in the centre of the sulphur district of Sicily, and its port, formerly Mole di Girgenti, now Porto Empedocle, is the principal place of shipment. The harbour has been largely improved since 1870: the pier, originally constructed in the 17th century, in part at least from the ruins of the temple of the Olympian Jupiter, has been extended to a length of 4800 feet, so as to include an area of 330,000 square yards, and the depth, which was only 10 feet on the bar and 16 within, has been greatly increased by dredging. Around the port, which is 3 miles from the city proper, has gathered a cluster of houses and stores, and the spot is defended by a small fort. Almonds and grain are the only important articles of export besides sulphur; but, though the grain-pits hewn out of the rock are of large extent, the actual shipments of grain are not very great. The average value of the annual export of sulphur amounted, between 1868 and 1870, to £411,700, while that of the other articles was less than £15,000 each. The popu- lation of Girgenti was 18,802 in 1871, and that of Porto Empedocle (3691. In the history of Girgenti there is little of note ; the historical interest of the district gathers round the splendid ruins of the older Agrigentum, which lie between Girgcnti and the sea.
See Pic-‘onc, JIcmo/‘ic slorichc Agriyrnti-nc ; De la Sallc’s Voyage pillar“sz uz .b'i'cilc ; Hackcl’s “ llciscskizzen ans Sicilicn,” in Za'tsclu-[ftfilr III-(Us. :u Berlin, 1860 ; tcnan, “ Voyage cn Sicilc," in It'ccuc dcs Dew: JIo/ulcs, Xov. 1875.
GIRODET DE ROUSSY, Anne Louis (1767–1824), better known as Girodet-Trioson, was born at Montargis, January 5, 1767. He lost his parents in early youth, and the care of his fortune and education fell to the lot of his guardian, )I. Trioson, “niédecin de mesdames,” by whom he was in later life adopted. After some preliminary studies under a painter named Luquin, Girodet entered the school of David, and at the age of twenty-two he successfully competed for the Prix de Rome. At Rome he executed his Hippocrate refusant les presents d’Artaxerxes, and Endymion dormant (Louvre), a work which was hailed with acclaniation at the Salon of 1792. The peculiarities which mark Girodet's position as the herald of the romantic move- ment are already evident in his Endymion. The firm—set forms, the grey cold Colour, the hardness of the execution, are proper to one trained in the school of David, but these characteristics harmonize ill with the literary, Sentimental, and picturesque suggestions which the painter has sought to render. The same incongruity marks Girodct’s Danae, and his Quatre Saisons, executed for the king of Spain, (repeated for Compiegne), and shows itSelf to a ludicrous ex- tent in his Fingal (St Petersburg, Leuchtenberg collection), executed for Napoleon I. in 1802. This work unites the defects of the classic and romantic schools, for Girodet’s imagination ardently and exclusively pursued the ideas excited by varied reading both of classic and modern literature, and the impressions which he received from the external world afforded him little stimulus or check; he consequently retained the mannerisms of his master’s practice whilst rejecting all restraint on choice of subject. The credit lost by F ingal Girodet regained in 1806, when he exhibited Scene de Deluge (Louvre), to which (in competi- tion with the Sabines of David) was awarded the decennial prize. This success was followed up in 1808 by the pro- duction of the Reddition de Yienne, and Atala au Tombeau —a work which went far to deserve its immense popularity, by a happy choice of subject, and remarkable freedom from the theatricality of Girodet’s usual manner, which, however, soon came to the front again in his Révolte de Caire (1810). His powers now began to fail, and his habit of working at night and other excesses told upon his constitution ; in the Salon of 1812 be exhibited only a Téte dc Yierge; in 1819 Pygmalion ct Galatée showed a still further decline of strength ; and in 1821—the year in which he produced his portraits of Cathelineau and Bonchamps—Girodet died on 9th December, aged fifty-eight.
The number of his paintings is inconsiderable; but he executed a vast quantity of illustrations, amongst which may be cited those to the bidet Virgil (1798) and to the Louvre Racine (1801—1805). Fifty-four of his designs for Anacrccm were engraved by_M. Chatillon. Girodct wasted much time on literary compOSition, his poem Lc Pciatrc (a string of commonplaccs), together With poor imitations of classical poets, and essays on Io Gc'aw and'Lo Grace, were published after his death (1829), with a biographical notice by his friend M. Coupin de la Couperie ; and M. _Dcle'cluze, in his Louis Darid ct son- tcmps, has also a brief life of Girodet.
