NICANDER, Carl August, one of the ablest poets of Sweden, was born at Strenguäs, on the 20th March, 1799. He received his education at the university of Upsala. It was in 1820 that he first came before the public as an author; and not long afterwards by his powerful tragedy "Runesvärdet" (the Runic Sword) he succeeded in gaining a foremost place among the younger poets of his native country. A subsequent work named "Runor" (the Runes), fully sustained his already high reputation; nor was that reputation diminished by "Enzio," published in 1825, and the "Death of Tasso," for which he obtained a prize medal from the Swedish Academy. In 1827 he went abroad and visited Italy. An interesting account of his tour afterwards appeared under the title of "Memories of the South." Nicander died on the 7th February, 1839. He was in all senses of the expression a true poet. His productions are rich in the essential requirements of the lyric muse, and both as regards form and matter deserve the highest praise.—J. J.
NICCOLI, Niccolò, a very eminent reviver of learning, born in Florence in 1364, his father being a merchant; died 23rd January, 1437. He made an enormous number of transcripts, still extant, from old MSS.; was active in discovering ancient authors and collecting works of antiquity, and took the chief part in getting Filelfo and other learned men settled in Florence. He was the first man in modern Europe who founded a public library, having bequeathed to his native city his collection of eight hundred MSS. Cosmo de' Medici carried out this bequest by paying off Niccoli's debts, and placed the collection in the convent of St. Mark, where it formed the commencement of the Biblioteca Marciana. Niccoli, learned in Greek, Latin, history, cosmography, and biblical study, was liberal in assisting others with his materials, and is credited by his eulogists with numerous moral and social virtues. It appears, however, that he was unreserved in criticism and censure, and he had violent enemies who have left a very different picture of his character. A short treatise on Latin spelling is the only work ascribed to him.—W. M. R.
NICCOLINI, Giovanni Battista, dramatic poet, and perpetual secretary of the Florentine Academy of Fine Arts; born at the Baths of San Giuliano, a village near Pisa, 31st October, 1783; died in Florence, 20th September, 1861. His family, though poor, cared for his education; his mother, Settimia da Filicaja, claimed descent from the poet of the same name. Having quitted the university of Pisa, Niccolini in 1807 became attached to the Florentine Academy of Fine Arts, as librarian and professor of history and mythology. After the re-establishment of the grand ducal government, he found favour with Ferdinando III., and was constituted palace librarian; but shortly resumed his more independent though similar functions in the academy, and no sooner did an inheritance place him above the reach of want, than he gave himself entirely to literary composition, and produced in succession those numerous dramas which have made his name famous in Italy and throughout Europe. One of his earliest tragedies, "Nabucco," has a political significance; the dramatis personæ representing Napoleon I., Pius VII., Mme. Lætitia, Maria Louisa, &c. Amongst his most renowned works are "Antonio Foscarini;" "Giovanni da Procida;" "Arnaldo da Brescia," with its fierce love of liberty, not included in the "Œuvres Complètes," published by Lemonnier in 1847; and "Filippo Strozzi," popular in Tuscany before its appearance there was permitted either in print or on the stage. In his latter years Niccolini was engaged on an important prose work, the history of the house of Hapsburg, often announced as on the eve of publication, yet still unpublished when death overtook its aged author. A grand public funeral and a tomb in Santa Croce closed his career; but though his end had come not unblessed by ecclesiastical rites, two priests alone mingled with the train of military and civic functionaries who paid the last honours to Niccolini; and when the friars of Santa Croce had concluded a brief service for the dead, his funeral oration was pronounced by Professor Vannucci, his own personal friend and a man of established literary reputation.—C. G. R.
NICCOLO DI PISA. See Pisani.
NICEPHORUS: the name of three Eastern emperors—
Nicephorus I., who succeeded to the purple on the dethronement
of the infamous Irene in 802, bore a character stained with
repulsive vices. In his reign commenced the first great reverses
of the Eastern empire. Unsuccessful in war, he was compelled
to see his provinces invaded and laid waste. Heraclea on the
Euxine was destroyed by the Arabs, who also took Cyprus,
devastated Rhodes, and compelled Nicephorus to pay tribute,
807. In such circumstances it was virtually a relief when,
four years afterwards, his army was utterly exterminated by the
Bulgarians, and he himself, who commanded in person, was
slain. His death was no loss to the empire.
Nicephorus II. (Phocas), who succeeded Romanus II. in
963, united, we are told, in the popular opinion the characters
of a hero and a saint. To the latter appellation his claims were
sufficiently doubtful; but his military prowess was unquestioned.
In the preceding reign he had recovered Candia from the Arabs;
and after his accession, which he owed to his marrying the late
emperor's widow, he conquered Cyprus, Cilicia, and Antioch.
His career, however, was cut short by the conspiracy of the
celebrated John Zimisces, who assassinated Nicephorus in 969.
Nicephorus III. (Botoniates), an ambitious and successful
general, who was raised by the army to imperial dignity in 1078.
Wearied of a ruler who had abandoned the cares of government
to an incapable and unworthy minister, the troops deposed
Michael VII., and proclaimed Botoniates in his stead. But the
period of his rale was brief. By another of the sudden revolutions
so common in those troublous times, Alexius Comnenus,
afterwards Alexius I., made himself master of Constantinople,
and Nicephorus had to exchange the throne for a monastery.
This occurred in 1081.—J. J.
NICEPHORUS, Patriarch of Constantinople, was born about 758. His father Theodorus was secretary of state to Constantine Copronymus; and for his attachment to images in worship was imprisoned, deposed, and exiled. Nicephorus received his father's office. At the second Nicene synod, 787, he defended images, and his party became dominant. Displeased with the intrigues of court, he withdrew to a convent of the Thracian Bosphorus; whence he was called in 806 to the patriarchate, on the death of Tarasius. According to custom he addressed a letter of salutation to Leo III. bishop of Rome, 811. In 814 he opposed the emperor Leo Armenius, when the latter issued an edict against images. Nicephorus continued inflexible in his attachment to images, notwithstanding entreaties and threats on the part of the emperor; while he tried in vain to induce the latter to alter his proceedings. In 815 he was deposed, and chose for his residence the convent of St. Theodore which he had himself founded; where he died on the 2nd June, 828. His life was written by Ignatius in part, and continued by Theophanes. As a writer he has been much praised. He is one of the best Byzantine historians, showing comprehensive knowledge, historical and doctrinal. His style is good, and his language well-chosen, without pomposity or affectation. But his judgment was greatly obscured by his love of images. In this and other respects he was dependent on tradition. His works are—"Breviarium historicum," reaching from the death of the Emperor Mauricius to the marriage of Leo IV. with Irene, i.e. 602-770; "Chronologia compendiaria tripartita," from the commencement of human history to the time of the writer himself; "Antirrhetici libri adversus Mammonam et Iconomachos;" "Stichometria librorum sacroram;" "Confessio fidei ad Leonem III;" "Canones ecclesiastici, xvii.;" "Fragmentum de sex synodis," &c. These and other works have been printed at different times, but some are still in MS., and no complete edition has ever been published; neither that of Combefis nor that of Bandurius having been given to the world, though promised.—S. D.
NICEPHORUS BLEMMIDAS, presbyter, belonging to the first half of the thirteenth century. He erected a church at his own cost at Nica, of which he was presbyter; and appears to have lived a good and exemplary life. Theodore Lascaris, the emperor, offered him the patriarchate of Constantinople, which he declined. The years of his birth and death are alike unknown. Various treatises which he wrote have been published; but many more are in MS. The subject which occupied most of his thoughts seems to have been the procession of the Holy Ghost, which was agitated between the Greeks and Latins in his day. In his "Opusculum de processione Spiritus Sancti," &c., he advocates the view of the Latins; but in "De processione Spiritus Sancti, libri ii.," he adopts the Greek opinion.—S. D.
NICEPHORUS CALLISTUS, a Greek ecclesiastical writer, was born towards the close of the thirteenth, and died about the middle of the fourteenth century. His principal work is his ecclesiastical history, in twenty-three books, of which but eighteen are extant. These embrace the period from Christ to the death of Phocas, 610. Summaries or argumenta of the remaining
