Page:Imperialdictiona02eadi Brandeis.pdf/584

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
GAM
550
GAM

were banished. The nobles got the upper hand for a time; but the citizens of Pisa rose in arms against them in 1369, recalled the exiles, and elected Pietro Gambacorta, nephew of the unfortunate Francesco, captain-general of the republic. Pietro succeeded in obtaining from the emperor a full recognition of the independence of the town, upon payment of a large sum of money, which Charles IV. of Germany coveted more than power. The government of Pietro Gambacorta restored tranquillity and happiness to Pisa for many years. He allied himself with Florence in behalf of Tuscan freedom against the old enemies of the democracy of Central Italy, the Visconti. But the latter managed to corrupt some of the confidential officers of Gambacorta, and with the aid of a band of soldiers from Lucca, assailed the captain-general as he came forward to offer them peace and pardon, and killed him on the spot, 21st October, 1392. His two sons were made prisoners, and afterwards poisoned. Giovanni, the nephew of Pietro, however, signally avenged his death. Though he had not been very popular during his uncle's rule, he was now acknowledged as the chief of the democratic party, and was consequently elected supreme magistrate when the people through a successful insurrection had driven out of the town the aristocracy, and the troops of the Visconti. The latter, on perceiving the impossibility of longer preserving their sway over Pisa, and being still in possession of the fortresses of the republic, determined to sell it to the Florentines. The bargain was immediately struck, and Gambacorta, turning traitor to his native town, came to an agreement with the government of Florence, by which he made ample provision for himself and his family. He opened the gates of the town to its new masters in October, 1406; thus converting into a dependency of the Florentine republic, the proud municipality, which had for many centuries exercised so mighty an influence in the traffic of the Mediterranean.—A. S., O.

GAMBARA, Lattanzio, was born at Brescia about 1541, and was the scholar of Girolamo Romanino, whose daughter he married; he studied also with Antonio Campi at Cremona. Gambara was the best fresco painter of Brescia, and executed many works there, though he was killed by a fall from a scaffolding when only thirty-two years old, in 1574. His oil pictures are very scarce; but such of his frescoes as remain are well executed, and are distinguished for their fine colour and their skilful drawing and foreshortenings. A life of this painter by Federigo Nicoli-Cristiani was published at Brescia in 1807.— (Memorie storiche della vita e delle pitture di Lattanzio Gambara; Ridolfi, Maravigle, &c.; Brognoli, Guida di Brescia.)—R. N. W.

GAMBARA, Lorenzo, an Italian poet, was born at Brescia in 1506. From his writings we learn that for many years he was the favourite of Cardinal Farnese at Padua and at Rome, and that he travelled through Germany with that prelate. Manutius Giraldus and Lipsius, eminent Latinists, extol the merits of Gambara, but Muret treats him with contempt. His principal work is a poem entitled "De Navigatione Christophori Colombi, libri iv." He died in 1596.—A. C. M.

GAMBARA, Veronica, sovereign of Correggio, born at Prat-Albuino, near Brescia, November 29, 1485. She received a very careful education, and applied herself to the study of Greek and Latin. The bent of her mind led her particularly to the reading of sacred works, and she became very well versed in the Bible and the Fathers. Whilst scarcely ten years of age she composed a sonnet, which she dedicated to the celebrated Bembo, who professed for her the purest and most unbounded friendship. In the year 1508 she gave her hand to Gilbert, lord of Correggio, to whom she bore two children; but after ten years of happiness, she was left a widow. Veronica mourned her loss to the last moment of her existence, and inspired by her grief, wrote many poetical pieces, particularly some beautiful octaves on the vanity of all earthly things, which have been highly praised by Tiraboschi and Zirardini. She was present at the coronation of the Emperor Charles V. at Bologna, and entertained him twice as her guest at her villa near Correggio, together with Molza, Bembo, and Mauro. Ariosto mentions Veronica in the most flattering terms. Her memory is still revered at Correggio, where she died on the 13th of June, 1550.—A. C. M.

GAMBART, Jean Felix Adolphe, a French astronomer, was born at Cette, in May, 1800, and died in Paris on the 23d of July, 1836. After serving for a short time in the navy, he became a pupil of the celebrated astronomer Bouvard, and obtained in 1819 the appointment of assistant at the observatory of Marseilles, to the office of director of which he was promoted in 1822. From that time he became remarkable for his success in searching for comets, of which he discovered thirteen in the course of about eleven or twelve years. The comet, well-known as "Biela's" to whose movements great interest is attached, on account of their being held to show the effects of an impeding atmosphere in the interplanetary spaces, was discovered independently in the spring of 1826 by Biela and by Gambart. As Biela's discovery was the earlier by ten days, his name was given to the comet. Gambart was a corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences.—W. J. M. R.

GAMBEY, Henry Prudence, one of the most skilful and ingenious makers of astronomical instruments of the present century, was born at Troyes on the 8th of October, 1787, and died in Paris on the 28th or 29th of January, 1847. After having been for a time an assistant master in the Ecole des Arts et Metiers of Compiégne and afterwards in that of Châlons, he established himself in Paris as a maker of astronomical instruments, and soon became celebrated for the originality of his designs and the accuracy of his workmanship. Amongst the numerous inventions of Gambey may be mentioned a heliostat (an instrument for causing an image of the sun to remain apparently at rest, notwithstanding the apparent diurnal motion of that body) described in the Bulletin de la Societé pour l'Encouragement de l'Industrie Nationale for 1826, and a method of graduating astronomical circles, described in the Comptes Rendus for 1849. Amongst the many important instruments which he made may be specified an equatorial instrument and a large meridian circle in the observatory of Paris. He was a member of the French Board of Longitude and of the Academy of Sciences. His life was written by Arago.—W. J. M. R.

GAMBIER, James, Baron, a distinguished British admiral, born on the 13th of October, 1756, at the Bahamas, the government of which islands was at that time administered by his father. He entered the navy at a very early age, and attained the rank of post-captain in 1778, when he was appointed to the Raleigh of thirty-two guns. Whilst in command of that vessel, he assisted in the repulse of the French from Jersey in 1781, and subsequently was engaged at the reduction of Charlestown in America. On the commencement of the war with France in 1793, Captain Gambier was appointed to the Defence of seventy-four, and joined the Squadron under Lord Howe. His was the first ship to break the enemy's line in the celebrated action off Brest harbour, fought on the 1st of June, 1794. In that year he was given the command of the Prince George of ninety-eight, and made colonel of marines; and in the following year he was promoted to the rank of rear-admiral. Shortly after he became one of the commissioners of the admiralty. In 1799 he became vice-admiral, and the following year he was third in command of the Channel fleet, having his flag on board the Neptune of ninety-eight. The government of Newfoundland was intrusted to him in 1802, which office he held till 1807, when he was recalled to take the command of a fleet collected for the purpose of capturing the navy of Denmark; Lord Cathcart having command of the troops on the occasion. After a bombardment of four days the governor of Copenhagen capitulated, and the whole Danish fleet, together with the stores in the arsenal, were delivered up to the English. For this service Admiral Gambier was created a baron of the United Kingdom, and was offered a pension of £2000 a year, which latter he, however, declined. Lord Gambier was given the command of the Channel fleet in 1809, and made a successful attack on the French fleet in Aix Roads in the same year. In consequence of a dispute with Lord Cochrane, who held a subordinate command on that occasion, with reference to the destruction of the enemy's vessels, he demanded a court-martial, which resulted in his being honourably acquitted. At the conference held at Ghent for concluding a peace with America in 1814, Lord Gambier was selected as one of the commissioners; and the following year he was decorated with the grand cross of the bath. He became admiral of the fleet on the occasion of the accession of William IV., and died on the 19th of April, 1833. In private life Lord Gambier was esteemed as a pious and benevolent man, ever striving to promote the moral and religious principles of those under his command. He compiled a code of naval signals, and was the author of a volume of general instructions for the use of officers.—W. W. E. T.

GAMBLE, John, an English musician of considerable talent in the middle of the seventeenth century. Wood says "he was