Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 13.djvu/402

386 E I S I west of Arnsberg. Among the principal buildings are the town-church, the synagogue, the hospital, the orphanage, the poorhouse, and the new town-house. There is a real school of the first class, and a commercial school for the province. Iserlohn is one of the most important manu facturing towns in Westphalia. Its chamber of commerce was founded in 1850. Both in the town and neighbour hood there are numerous foundries and works for iron, brass, steel, and bronze, while the manufactures include wire, needles and pins, fish-hooks, machinery, umbrella- frames, thimbles, bits, furniture, chemicals, coffee-mills, and pinchbeck and britannia-metal goods. A part of the town has recently been endangered by the calamine mines beneath. Iserlohn is a very old town, its guild of armourers being referred to as " ancient" in 1443. The population in 1875 was 16,838. ISERNTA, a town of Italy, capital of a district in the province of Campobasso, is pleasantly situated among the Apennines, 54 miles north-east of Naples. The town, which is closely built and dirty, consists chiefly of one long narrow street running along the crest of a hill from south-west to north-east, near the middle of which are an ancient arch and a fine old marble fountain. Of the numerous Roman antiquities in and near the town the most considerable is the subterranean aqueduct, which may be traced for the distance of about a mile, and which is still used to supply the fountains and manufactories of Isernia with water. There is also a fine old Roman bridge just outside the town. On a hill half a mile distant is a chapel, once much frequented, to the saints Cosmas and Damian. Isernia has manufactures of woollens, paper, pottery, and tiles. It is the seat of a bishop, and of a civil arid criminal court. Population in 1875, 9006. Isernia is the ancient Samnite town Isernia, which was con quered and colonized by the Romans about 264 B.C. The massive polygonal walls which form the basis of the present walls in nearly their entire circuit are attributed to the Samnites. During the social war Isernia was captured by the allied Italians, and became for a time their headquarters, and at the conclusion of the war was so severely chastized by the Romans as to be almost deserted. Its fortification in the Middle Ages seems to have been an occasion for destroying many of the Roman remains, a result which numerous earthquakes have helped to attain. That of 1805 overthrew the cathedral and did much damage. In 1799 Isernia was stormed by the French, and in 1860 it was sacked and suffered fearful atrocities during a Bourbonist insurrection. ISHMAEL (?#$$&, "God hears"; lo-fjuajX), the son of Abraham by his Egyptian concubine Hagar, was born when his father was eighty-six years old, received circum cision along with Isaac when thirteen years of age, and some three or four years later (apparently in his sixteenth year) was, on account of the jealousy of Sarah, who had seen him " playing " (Hebrew), turned out of doors along with his mother. It had been foretold to his mother before his birth that he should be " a wild ass among men," and that he should dwell " before the face of " (that is, to the eastward of) his brethren. It is subsequently stated that after leaving his father s roof he "grew, and became an archer, and dwelt in the wilderness of Paran, and his mother took him a wife out of the land of Egypt." It is also related that he was present at the burial of Abraham. His twelve sons are enumerated by their "villages" and "encampments" in Gen xxv., where also (ver. 18) their locality is indicated by the expressions that " they dwelt from Havilah unto Shur that is east of Egypt, and he settled to the eastward of his brethren" (Heb.). Of the twelve names given, only a few have historical associations apart from the Biblical records. Nebajoth and Kedar suggest the Nabatsei and Cedrei of Pliny (v. 12), the first- mentioned of whom were an important Arab people after the time of Alexander, and for some time both before and after the Christian era formed an independent kingdom (Nabatene). Dumah may perhaps be the same as the Domata of Pliny (vi. 32) and the Aov/x,c$a, or Aou/xcu $a of Ptolemy (v. 19, 7 ; viii. 22, 3), and Jetur is obviously the Iturtea of classical geographers. The word " Ishmaelite " is sometimes used in Scripture in a wide sense, which includes such families as the Midianites (Judg. viii. 24), who, according to Gen. xxv., are children of Keturah. On the other hand, no connexion is alleged between the Ishmaelites and the Hagarites (1 Chr. v. 10) or Hagarenea (Ps. Ixxxiii. 7), the Aypcuoi of Ptolemy and Strabo. According to the Mahometan Arabs, who recognize Ishmael as their ancestor, he lies buried with his mother in the Kaaba in Mecca. ISHPEMING, a city and township in Marquette county, Michigan, U.S., is situated in the heart of the Lake Superior iron-fields, about 15 miles west of Lake Superior, and 400 miles north of Chicago, with which it is connected by rail. The export of iron-ore in 1880 was 700,000 tons, valued at $3,500,000, while the lumbering and other industries are proportionately extensive. There are two blast furnaces, with a daily capacity of 60 tons of pig iron. Ishpeming was incorporated as a city in 1873. In 1880 the population of the city was 6,039, and of the township 1,967. ISIDORUS HISPALENSIS, or ISIDORE OF SEVILLE, one of the most influential writers of the early portion of the Middle Ages, flourished during the latter part of the 6th and the early part of the 7th century. The exact date of his birth is unknown ; he died 636 A.D. Of the parti culars of his life, specially of the earlier portion, little is known with certainty. He was the son of a wealthy and distinguished native of Cartagena, named Severianus, and his elder brother, Leander, was bishop of Seville. Isidore succeeded his brother in his bishopric at the beginning of the 7th century, and acquired high renown in the church, not only by his conduct of his see, but by his numerous theological, historical, and scientific works. His learning and eloquence are celebrated by his contemporaries, and his reputation was even greater in the succeeding ages. During the latter portion of the period which historians are accustomed to call the Dark Ages, extending from the 7th to the 10th century, the writings of Isidore furnished mental pabulum to all students and scholars; and, though one can find in them little of real value and no originality, they have at least the merit of having served to keep alive, even in a form far from adequate, some remnants of the older culture and learning. The most elaborate of his writings, that entitled Etymologiarum Libri XX., or some times Origines, is an encyclopaedic work, eclectic in character, and presenting in dry compendious form the sum of the knowledge of the age on all branches of scientific research. Later writers make continual references to the Etymologies, which served for long as the general text-book. The arrangement of materials in the twenty books is unsystematic, and on most matters of scientific experience it is evident that the writer depends on second hand information. Perhaps the most interesting of the books are the fifth, containing a sketch of universal history, and the ninth, on language. Various smaller writings of ( Isidore, such as the two works Differcntiarum, the two books on synonyms, and the short tractate De Natura Rerum, are supplementary to the Etymologies, and carry out in detail what is there given in epitome. The tract De Natura Rerum is specially interesting as contain ing the sum of physical philosophy during this period of the Middle Ages. Of Isidore s many writings on theo logical subjects no detailed account can be given. The works of Isidore have been published with preface by F. Arevalo, S. Isidori Hispalcnsis C2)isc. Opera omnia, 7 vols. 4to, Rome, 1797-1803 (2 vols. of Prolegomena). The Do Natura llcrum has been edited separately by G. Becker, Berlin, 1857. See