Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 14.djvu/810

NTTNrVAK. 688 NUREMBEBG. of the mouth of the Yukon (Map: Alaska, B 3). It is 55 milps loiifj, 45 miles wide, and has an area of aliout l:il)U >nuaie miles. It is but little known, ami inhabited only by Eskimos, who trade in skins and ivmv. NUN OF KENT. See Bahton, Elizabeth. NUN'S PRIEST'S TALE, The. One of Chaucer's Vuiih ibiini Talts. The source of the tale is a short fable by Marie de France, en- larged later into the old French "Koman de Re- nart," and a similar story is found in .Esop's Fables. Chanticleer, being carried otf by a fox, escapes by inducing the latter to open his mouth to berate his pursuers. This slender nar- rative is ampliticd by many instances of signifi- cant dreams. NURAGHE, nwra'ga, or NURHAG, nijor- hag'. riic name of ancient tovir>. in the shape of truncated cones, three thousand of which in greater or less state of preservation are scattered about the island of Sardinia. They are built of granite, limestone, basalt, porphyry, sandstone, and schist. Some of the stones in the lower courses are of great size; they lune been roughly hewn and were laid up without cement. The en- trances are small and low and the interiors are divided into two or three stories each with a dome- shaped ceiling. The upper chambers are reached by means of spiral staircases and are lighted through loopholes, and there is supposed to have been a terrace on tlie sununit. They are to be compared with the talyots of Majorca and :Mi- norca, the "burgs' or 'dims' in the north of Scot- land, and in the Shetland Islands; and with the round towers of Irclaiiil, Imth as to structure and function. Skeletons and deposits made with the dead have been found in them, but their original authors and purpose are not known. Consult: Petit Radel, iira(jhes (Paris, 1820- 28); Spano. yiiiaflhi lU Sardefina (18G7); Fer- guson. Histon/ of h'lide Stone Monument n (Lon- don, 1872) ; LamlK'rt. Handbook to the Mediter- ranean (ib.. ISSJ i . NUR-ED-BIN EL-BETRUJI, noor-ed-den' el-bt-triin'je. An Arabian astronomer of the twelfth century, born in Morocco, and also known by the name Aljietragius. He is mostly known for his opposition to the e])icycle theory of Ptole- my, although he did not substitute anything bet- ter. Consult Al]>etra;iii Arnbix I'Innetanim Theo- lieii I'husieis h'alionibus Probata (Venice, 1531). NUREDDIN-MAHMUD. noo red-den' m;"i- mund'. .Mai.kk Ai. .i>F.i. (lll(i-74). A iMohani- medan ruler of Syria, born at Damascus. His father. Oniad-ed-din Zengi. originally Oovernor of Mosul and l)iarl)ekr on behalf of the Seljuk sultans, had established his indei«'ndence. and ex- tended his authority over Xorthern Syria, in- cluding Iloms, Kdessa, and Aleppo. Xurcddin succeeded him about 1145 and changed the seat of government from Mosul to Aleppo. The feudal Latin States had been established in Syria ns a result of the First Crusade, and Count .Toi'e- IjTi, Prince of Kdessa, tried to regain the terri- tories which he had previously lost, but was signally defeated under the walls of Edessa. This was one of the chief occasions of the Second Crusade. Nureddin defeated the Cru- saders before Damascus, and finally compelled them to abandon the enterprise. He next con- quered Tripolis and . tioch, the prince of the latter territory being defeated and slain in a bloody contlict near Kugia (.June 29, 1149), and before 1151 all the Christian strongholds in Syria were in his possession. An illness, which pros- trated him in 1159, enabled the Christians to recover some of their lost territories, and Nureddin. in attempting their resubjeetion, was totally defeated near the Lake of Gennesaret by Baldwin 111., King of .leru.salem ; but he re- sumed the oflensivc. defeated the Christian princes of Tripolis and Antioch. making prisoners of both, and again invaded Palestine. Jlean- whilc. he had obtiiined the sanction of the Caliph of Bagdad to his ])roject to seize Kgypt from the cfteminate Fatimites and a large army un<ler his lieutenant, ghirkoh, speedily overran Egypt. Shirkoh was succeeded by his nephew, the cele- brated Saladin (q.v.), who completed the eon- quest of the country. Xureddin, becoming jeal- ous of Saladin, was preparing to marcli into Egvpt in |)erson, when he died at Damascus, ilay 15,' 1174. NUREMBERG, nii'rem-berg (Ger. Niirnberg, uurn'bOrK I . Tlie second city of Bavaria. Ger- many, situated on the Pegnitz, about 95 miles north-northwest of Munich (Map: Germany. D 4). It cimsists of the inner town (still partly walled, and divided by the river into the two parts Sehalderseite and Loienzerseite, named after its two principal churches) and a number of suburbs where the chief industrial establish- ments of the city are found. The inner town, with its red-roofed houses and gables facing the street, its numerous eluirches. and its iuchitectu- ral monuments, is of unusual interest. Nurem- berg being the (mly large city in Germany which lias preserved its media'val appearance to such a remarkable degree. Its fine samjdes of domes- tic architecture date mostly from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the period of its fullest political and artistic develo])ment. when Diirer, Kraft. Vischer, Stoss. and others made it the centre of German art. The Church of Saint Lawrence, the finest in the city, was originally built in the thirteenth century, and was restored in the nineteenth cen- tury. It is Gothic in style, with beautiful stained glass windows, and has a remarkable stone Ci- borium with figures supposed to be those of -Adam Kraft and his two pupils. Saint Sel)aldus is con- sidered one of the finest Gothic churches of t^er- many. It was built in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries and was recently restored. It contains >nme of the best samjdes of the work of Nurem- berg artists, notably the tomb of Saint Sebaldus by Peter 'ischer. the Sihreyer Mcmument by .Vlam Kraft, and the Last .Judgment over the southern entrance, by the same artist. Worthy of mention are also the Marienkirche. with its fine portal, paintings by Wolgenuith, and its curious dock, and the Gothic Church of Saint .John. .mong the examples of secular architecture, the K:iiserbnrg deserves to be considered first, as the nucleus of the city. It was prcibal)ly founded by Henry II. It was enlarged by Frederick Har- barossa. and is now used in its restored form as a royal residence. It is sitmited on a rock at the northern end of the old town and contains many objects of art. .t the foot of the castle hill stands the town hall, built in Italian Renaissance in l(!lli-22 and restored In 1884-89. Its ihambers are decorated with frescoes and paintings by