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# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Cortland

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​CORTLAND, a city and the county-seat of Cortland county, New York, U.S.A., in the central part of the state, on Tioughnioga river, at the junction of its E. and W. branches. Pop. (1890) 8590; (1900) 9014, of whom 682 were foreign born; (1905) 11,272;(1910) 11,504. It is served by the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western and the Lehigh Valley railways. The Franklin Hatch library and a state normal and training school (opened in 1869) are in Cortland. The city has important manufactories of wire, and wire-cloth and netting (one of the largest in America), cabs, carriages and waggons, iron and steel, wall-paper, dairy supplies, corundum wheels, and clothing. The value of the city’s factory products increased from $3,063,828 in 1900 to $4,574,191 in 1905 or 49.3%. The town of Cortlandville, which formed a part of the Phelps and Gorham Purchase, was first settled in 1792, and until 1829 was a part of the town of Homer; from which in the latter year it was separated, and made the county-seat. In 1900 the village of Cortland in the town of Cortlandville was chartered as a city.
See H. C. Goodwin, Cortland County and the Border Wars of New York (New York, 1859).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Cortona

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​CORTONA, a town and episcopal see of Italy, in the province of Arezzo, 18 m. S. by E. from the town of Arezzo by rail. The ancient and modern names are identical. Pop. (1901) of town, 3579; commune, 29,296. The highest point of Cortona, a medieval castle (Fortezza), is situated 2130 ft. above sea-level on a hill commanding a splendid view, and is approached by a winding road. It is surrounded by its ancient Etruscan walls, which for the greater part of the circuit are fairly well preserved. They are constructed of parallelepipedal blocks of limestone, finely jointed (though the jointing has often been spoilt by weathering), and arranged in regular courses which vary in size in different parts of the enceinte. Near the N.W. angle some of the blocks are 7 to 8½ ft. long and 2½ ft. high, while on the W. side they are a good deal smaller—sometimes only 1 ft. high (see F. Noack in Römische Mitteilungen, 1897, 184). Within the town are two subterranean vaulted buildings in good masonry, of uncertain nature, some other remains under modern buildings, and a concrete ruin known as the “Bagni di Bacco.” The museum of the Accademia Etrusca, a learned body founded by Ridolfino Venuti in 1726, is situated in the Palazzo Pretorio; it contains some Etruscan objects, among which may be specially noted a magnificent bronze lamp with 16 lights, of remarkably fine workmanship, found in 1740, at the foot of the hill, two votive hands and a few other bronzes, and a little gold jewellery. The library has a good MS. of Dante. The cathedral, originally a Tuscan Romanesque building of the 11th-12th centuries, is now a fine Renaissance basilica restored in the 18th century, containing some paintings by Luca Signorelli, a native of the place. Opposite is the baptistery, with three fine pictures by Fra Angelico. S. Margherita, just below the Fortezza, is an ugly modern building occupying the site of a Gothic church of 1294, and containing a fine original rose window and reliefs from the tomb of the saint by Angelo e Francesco di maestro Pietro d’Assisi. Other works by Signorelli are to be seen elsewhere in the town, especially in S. Domenico; Pietro Berettini (Pietro da Cortona, 1596–1669) is hardly represented here at all. Below the town is the massive tomb chamber (originally subterranean, but now lacking the mound of the earth which covered it) known as the Grotta di Pitagora (grotto of Pythagoras). To the E. is the church of S. Maria del Calcinaio, a fine early Renaissance building by Francesco di Giorgio Martini of Siena, with fine stained glass windows.
The foundation of Cortona belongs to the legendary period of Italy. It appears in history as one of the strongholds of the Etruscan power; but in Roman times it is hardly mentioned. Dionysius’s statement that it was a colony (i. 26) is probably due to confusion.
See G. Dennis, Cities and Cemeteries of Etruria (London, 1883), ii. 394 seq.; A. Della Cella, Cortona Antica (Cortona, 1900). (T. As.)
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Corunna (province)

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​CORUNNA, a maritime province in the extreme north-west of Spain; forming part of Galicia, and bounded on the E. by Lugo, S. by Pontevedra, W. and N. by the Atlantic Ocean. Pop. (1900) 653,556; area, 3051 sq. m. The coast of Corunna is exposed to the full force of the Atlantic; it forms one succession of fantastically shaped promontories, divided by bays and estuaries which often extend for many miles inland, with reefs and small islands in their midst. Though well lighted, this coast is very dangerous to navigation, gales and fogs being frequent in winter and spring. The most conspicuous headlands are Cape Ortegal and Cape de Vares, the most northerly points of the Spanish seaboard, and Capes Finisterre and Toriñana in the extreme west. The principal bays are those of Santa Marta, Ferrol and Corunna, on the north; Corcubion, Muros y Noya and Arosa, on the west. Wild and rugged though this region appears to travellers at sea, the mountains which overspread the interior are covered with forests and pastures, and watered by an abundance of small rivers and streams. The climate is mild and singularly equable, but the rainfall is very heavy. All the fruits and vegetables of northern Europe thrive in the sheltered valleys, and the cultivation of cherries, strawberries, peas and onions, for export, ranks among the most profitable local industries. Heavy crops of wheat, rye, maize and sugar-beet are raised. The wines of Corunna are heady and of inferior flavour. Cattle-breeding, once a flourishing industry, had greatly declined by the beginning of the 20th century, owing to foreign competition. All along the coast there are valuable fisheries of sardines, lobsters, cod, hake and other fish. Copper, tin and gold are procured in small quantities, and other minerals undoubtedly exist. The exports consist chiefly of farm produce and fish; the imports, of coal and textiles from England, petroleum from the United States, marble from Italy, salt fish from Norway and Newfoundland, and hides. The principal towns are Corunna, the capital and chief port (pop. 1900, 43,971); Ferrol (25,281), another seaport; Santiago de Compostela (24,120), famous as a place of pilgrimage; Carballo (13,032); Ortigueira (18,426) and Ribeira (12,218). These are described under separate headings. Along the coast there are numerous trading and fishing stations of minor importance. Railway communication is very defective. From Corunna a line passes south-eastward to Lugo and Madrid, and from Santiago another line goes southward to Vigo and Oporto; but the centre and the north-west of the province are, to a great extent, inaccessible except by road; and many, even of the main highways, are ill-constructed and ill-kept. Very few Spanish provinces have so high a birthrate, but the population increases very slowly owing to emigration. For a description of the peasantry, who are distinguished in may respects from those inhabiting other parts of Spain, see Galicia.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Corvey

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​CORVEY, a place in the Prussian province of Westphalia, on the Weser, a mile north of the town of Höxter, with which it communicates by an avenue of lime trees. During the middle ages it was famous for its great Benedictine abbey, which was founded and endowed by the emperor Louis the Pious about 820, and received its name from having been first occupied by a body of monks coming from Corbie in Picardy. The bones of St Vitus, the patron saint of Saxony, were removed thither according to legend in 836, but apart from this attraction, Corvey became the centre of Christianity in Saxony and a nursery of classical studies. The abbot was a prince of the Empire, and Corvey was made a bishopric in 1783. In 1803 the abbey was secularized, in 1815 its lands were given to Prussia, and in 1822 they were bestowed on Victor Amadeus, landgrave of Hesse-Rotenburg, by whom they were bequeathed, in 1834, to Prince Victor of Hohenlohe-Schillingsfürst, duke of Ratibor. The abbey, which is now used as a residence, possesses a magnificent library of 150,000 volumes especially rich in old illustrated works, though the ancient collection due to the literary enthusiasm of the Benedictines is no longer extant. Here in 1517 the manuscript of the five first books of the Annals of Tacitus was discovered. Here Widukind wrote his Res gestae Saxonicae. Here, also, the librarian and poet Hoffmann von Fallersleben lived and worked. The Annales Corbejenses 648–1148 of the monks can be read in the Monumenta Germaniae historica, Band iii. The Chronicon Corbejense, published by A. C. Wedekind in 1823, has been declared by S. Hirsch and Waitz (Kritische Prüfung, Berlin, 1839) to be a forgery.
See P. Wigand, Geschichte der Abtei Korvey (Höxter, 1819); and M. Meyer, Zur ältern Geschichte Corveys und Höxters (Paderborn, 1893).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Corti, Lodovico, Count

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​CORTI, LODOVICO, Count (1823–1888), Italian diplomatist, was born at Gambarano on the 28th of October 1823. Early involved with Benedetto Cairoli in anti-Austrian conspiracies, he was exiled to Turin, where he entered the Piedmontese foreign office. After serving as artillery officer through the campaign of 1848, he was in 1850 appointed secretary of legation in London, whence he was promoted minister to various capitals, and in 1875 ambassador to Constantinople. Called by Cairoli to the direction of foreign affairs in 1878, he took part in the congress of Berlin, but unwisely declined Lord Derby’s offer for an Anglo-Italian agreement in defence of common interests. At Berlin he sustained the cause of Greek independence, but in all other respects remained isolated, and excited the wrath of his countrymen by returning to Italy with “clean hands.” For a time he withdrew from public life, but in 1881 was again sent to Constantinople by Cairoli, where he presided over the futile conference of ambassadors upon the Egyptian question. In 1886 he was transferred to the London embassy, but was recalled by Crispi in the following year through a misunderstanding. He died in Rome on the 9th of April 1888.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Corvus, Marcus Valerius

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​CORVUS, MARCUS VALERIUS (c. 370–270 B.C.), Roman general of the early republican period. According to the legend a raven settled on his helmet during his combat with a gigantic Gaul, and distracted the enemy’s attention by flying in his face. He was twice dictator and six times consul, and occupied the curule chair twenty-one times. In his various campaigns he defeated successively the Gauls, the Volscians, the Samnites, the Etruscans and the Marsians. His most important victory (343) was over the Samnites at Mount Gaurus.
See Livy vii. 26-42, x. 2-11.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Corumbá

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​CORUMBÁ, a town and river port of Brazil on the W. bank of the Paraguay river, 1986 m. above Buenos Aires and 486 m. above the Paraguayan frontier. Pop. (1890) 8414. Corumbá is a fortified military post, has the large Ladario naval arsenal, where small river boats are built and repaired, and is the commercial entrepôt of the state of Matto Grosso. It is near the Bolivian frontier and is strongly garrisoned. Although the climate is extremely hot, the neighbouring country has many large cattle farms. Corumbá is one of the most important places in the interior of Brazil.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Acorn

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​ACORN, the fruit of the oak-tree; a word also used, by analogy with the shape, in nautical language, for a piece of wood keeping the vane on the mast-head. The etymology of the word (earlier akerne, and acharn) is well discussed in the New English Dictionary. It is derived from a word (Goth. akran) which meant “fruit,” originally “of the unenclosed land,” and so of the most important forest produce, the oak. Chaucer speaks of “achornes of okes.” By degrees, popular etymology connected ​the word both with “corn” and “oak-horn,” and the spelling changed accordingly.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Aconcio, Giacomo

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​ACONCIO, GIACOMO (1492–1566?), pioneer of religious toleration, was born at Trent, it is said, on the 7th of September 1492. He was one of the Italians like Peter Martyr and Bernardino Ochino who repudiated papal doctrine and ultimately found refuge in England. Like them, his revolt against Romanism took an extremer form than Lutheranism, and after a temporary residence in Switzerland and at Strassburg, he arrived in England soon after Elizabeth’s accession. He had studied law and theology, but his profession was that of an engineer, and in this capacity he found employment with the English government. He was granted an annuity of £60 on the 27th of February 1560, and letters of naturalization on the 8th of October 1561 (Cal. State Papers, Dom. Ser., Addenda, 1547–1566, p. 495), and was for some time occupied with draining Plumstead marshes, for which object various acts of parliament were passed at this time (Lords’ Journals, vol. i., and Commons’ Journals, vol. i., passim). In 1564 he was sent to report on the fortifications of Berwick (Cal. St. Pap. For. Ser. 1564–1565, passim; Acts P.C., 1558–1570, p. 146); his report is now in the Record Office (C.S.P. For., 1564–1565, No. 512).
But his real importance depends upon his contribution to the history of religious toleration. Before reaching England he had published a treatise on the methods of investigation, De Methodo, hoc est, de recte investigandarum tradendarumque Scientiarum ratione (Basel, 1558, 8vo); and his critical spirit placed him outside all the recognized religious societies of his time. On his arrival in London he had joined the Dutch Reformed Church in Austin Friars, but he was “infected with Anabaptistical and Arian opinions” and was excluded from the sacrament by Grindal, bishop of London. The real nature of his heterodoxy is revealed in his Stratagemata Satanae, published in 1565 and translated into various languages. The “stratagems of Satan” are the dogmatic creeds which rent the Christian church. Aconcio sought to find the common denominator of the various creeds; this was essential doctrine, the rest was immaterial. To arrive at this common basis, he had to reduce dogma to a low level, and his result was generally repudiated. Even Selden applied to Aconcio the remark ubi bene, nil melius; ubi male, nemo pejus. The dedication of such a work to Queen Elizabeth illustrates the tolerance or religious laxity during the early years of her reign. Aconcio found another patron in the earl of Leicester, and died about 1566.
Authorities.—Gough’s Index to Parker Soc. Publ.; Strype’s Grindal, pp. 62, 66; Boyle’s Dictionnaire; G. Tiraboschi, Storia della let. italiana (Florence, 1805–1813); Österreichisches Biogr. Lexikon; Nouvelle biogr. générale; Dict. Nat. Biogr. (A. F. P.)
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Acosta, José de

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​ACOSTA, JOSÉ DE (1539?–1600), Spanish author, was born at Medina del Campo about the year 1539. He joined the Jesuits in 1551, and in 1571 was sent as a missionary to Peru; he acted as provincial of his order from 1576 to 1581, was appointed theological adviser to the council of Lima in 1582, and in 1583 published a catechism in Quichua and Aymara—the first book printed in Peru. Returning to Spain in 1587, and placing himself at the head of the opposition to Acquaviva, Acosta was imprisoned in 1592–1593; on his submission in 1594 he became superior of the Jesuits at Valladolid, and in 1598 rector of the Jesuit college at Salamanca, where he died on the 15th of February 1600. His treatise De natura novi orbis libri duo (Salamanca, 1588–1589) may be regarded as the preliminary draft of his celebrated Historia natural y moral de las Indias (Seville, 1590) which was speedily translated into Italian (1596), French (1597), Dutch (1598), German (1601), Latin (1602) and English (1604) The Historia is in three sections: books I. and II. deal with generalities; books III. and IV. with the physical geography and natural history of Mexico and Peru; books V., VI. and VII. with the religious and political institutions of the aborigines. Apart from his sophistical defence of Spanish colonial policy, Acosta deserves high praise as an acute and diligent observer whose numerous new and valuable data are set forth in a vivid style. Among his other publications are De procuranda salute Indorum libri sex (Salamanca, 1588), De Christo revelato libri novem (Rome, 1590), De temporibus novissimis libri quatuor (Rome, 1590), and three volumes of sermons issued respectively in 1596, 1597 and 1599.
Authorities.—José R. Carricido, El P. José de Acosta y su importancia en la literatura científica española (Madrid, 1899); C. Sommervogel, Bibliothèque de la Compagnie de Jésus, Première Partie (Brussels and Paris, 1890), vol. i., col. 31–42; and Edward Grimston’s translation of the Historia reprinted (1880) for the Hakluyt Society with introduction and notes by Sir Clements R. Markham. (J. F.-K.)
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Acoemeti

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​ACOEMETI (Gr. ἀκοίμητος, sleepless), an order of Eastern monks who celebrated the divine service without intermission day or night. This was done by dividing the communities into choirs, which relieved each other by turn in the church. Their first monastery was established on the Euphrates, in the beginning of the 5th century, and soon afterwards one was founded in Constantinople. Here also, c. 460, was founded by the consular Studius the famous monastery of the Studium, which was put in the hands of the Acoemeti and became their chief house, so that they were sometimes called Studites. At Agaunum (St Maurice in the Valais) a monastery was founded by the Burgundian king Sigismund, in 515, in which the perpetual office was kept up; but it is doubtful whether this had any connexion with the Eastern Acoemeti.
The Constantinopolitan Acoemeti took a prominent part in the Christological controversies of the 5th and 6th centuries, at first strenuously opposing Acacius, patriarch of Constantinople, in his attempted compromise with the monophysites; but afterwards, in Justinian’s reign, falling under ecclesiastical censure for Nestorian tendencies.
See the article in Dictionary of Christian Antiquities; Wetzer und Welte, Kirchenlexicon (2nd ed.); and Herzog-Hauck, Realencyklopädie (3rd ed.); also the general histories of the time.  (E. C. B.)
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Acominatus, Michael

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​ACOMINATUS (Akominatos), MICHAEL (c. 1140–1220), Byzantine writer and ecclesiastic, was born at Chonae (the ancient Colossae). At an early age he studied at Constantinople, and about 1175 was appointed archbishop of Athens. After the capture of Constantinople by the Franks and the establishment of the Latin empire (1204), he retired to the island of Ceos, where he died. He was a versatile writer, and composed homilies, speeches and poems, which, with his correspondence, throw considerable light upon the miserable condition of Attica and Athens at the time. His memorial to Alexis III. Angelus on the abuses of Byzantine administration, the poetical lament over the degeneracy of Athens and the monodes on his brother Nicetas and Eustathius, archbishop of Thessalonica, deserve special mention.
Edition of his works by S. Lambros (1879–1880); Migne, Patrologia Graeca, cxl.; see also A. Ellissen, Michael Akominatos (1886), containing several pieces with German translation; F. Gregorovius, Geschichte der Stadt Athen im Mittelalter, i. (1889); G. Finlay, History of Greece, iv. pp. 133-134 (1877).
His younger brother Nicetas (Niketas), sometimes called Choniates, who accompanied him to Constantinople, took up ​politics as a career. He held several appointments under the Angelus emperors (amongst them that of “great logothete” or chancellor) and was governor of the “theme” of Philippopolis at a critical period. After the fall of Constantinople he fled to Nicaea, where he settled at the court of the emperor Theodorus Lascaris, and devoted himself to literature. He died between 1210 and 1220. His chief work is his History, in 21 books, of the period from 1180 to 1206. In spite of its florid and bombastic style, it is of considerable value as a record (on the whole impartial) of events of which he was either an eye-witness or had heard at first hand. Its most interesting portion is the description of the capture of Constantinople, which should be read with Villehardouin’s and Paolo Rannusio’s works on the same subject. The little treatise On the Statues destroyed by the Latins (perhaps, as we have it, altered by a later writer) is of special interest to the archaeologist. His dogmatic work (Θησαυρὸς Ὀρθοδοξίας, Thesaurus Orthodoxae Fidei), although it is extant in a complete form in MS., has only been published in part. It is one of the chief authorities for the heresies and heretical writers of the 12th century.
Editions: History, editio princeps, H. Wolf (1557); and in the Bonn Corpus Scriptorum Hist. Byz., 1st ed., Bekker (1835); Rhetorical Pieces in C. Sathas, Μεσαιωνίκη Βιβλιοθήκη, i. (1872); Thesaurus in Migne, Patrologia Graeca, cxxxix., cxl.; see also C. A. Sainte-Beuve, “Geoffroy de Villehardouin” in Causeries du Lundi, ix.; S. Reinach, “La fin de l’empire Grec” in Esquisses Archéologiques (1888); C. Neumann, Griechische Geschichtsschreiber im 12. Jahrhundert (1888); Gibbon, Decline and Fall, ch. lx.; and (for both Michael and Nicetas) C. Krumbacher, Geschichte der byzantinischen Litteratur (1897).