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FABER, Frederick William (1814-63). English divine. rector of Elton, Huntingdonshire in 1843. Joined R.C. Church becoming superior of the Oratory of S. Philip Neri, now at Brompton. A popular preacher, best known by his hymns which included Hark, Hark, my soul.
FABER, Jacobus (c.1455-1536). French divine. Ordained priest, and professor of theology in Paris. After retirement in 1507 he wrote a number of works in Biblical criticism which show Calvinistic views. He was tutor to one of Franmcis I's sons. Chief works were translations of Aristotle, of the New Testament, 1523 and a complete edition of the Bible, 1530.
FABER, Jpohn (d.1756). English engraver. Studied mezzotint engraving under his father, and became as an engraver of portraits. His best known engravings are Kneller's portraits of the members of the Kit-Kat Club 1731-35.
FABERT, Abraham De (1599-1660). French soldier. He entered the army in 1615 and became known for his innovative seige-engineering. Made marshal of France in 1658.
FABIUS. One of the oldest patrician Roman families who supervised the ancient festival of Lupercalia. Marcus Fabius Ambustus, pontifex maximus in 390 B.C. the election of his 3 sons as consular tribunes led to the capture of Rome by the Gauls. Quintus Fabius Maximus defeated the Etruscans at the Vadimonian Lake, 310 B.C. and won the battle of Sentinum, 295 B.C. Q. Fabius Vibulanus was consul with his two brothers from 485 to 479 B.C. Gaius Fabius Pictor executed the first recorded Roman painting, 302 B.C. Quintus Fabius Pietor (254 B.C.) compiled the earliest known Roman history which was used extensively by Livy and later writers.
FABIUS MAXIMUS QUINTUS (d. 203 B.C.) Roman general. Sent to Carthage in 218 B.C. to offer peace or war, Was appointed with dictatorial powers to the command of the Roman forces after their defeat by the Carthaginians at Lake Trasimenus, 217 B.C. Using delaying tactics, (which gained him the surname CUNCTATOR the delayer) he avoided pitched battles with Hannibal and wore down the offensive power of the Carthaginians, giving the Romans time to reconsolidate their forces. He thus forced Hannibal to retreat. He later opposed the aggressive tactics of Scipio.
FABRE, Ferdinand (1827-98). French novelist. Studied theology, medicine and law in turn before producing his first novel, Les Courbezos, 1862. Was curator of the Mazarin library. Depicted the people and manners of the Cevennes e.g. Le Cheurier, and excelled in studies of clerical life e.g. L'Abbe Rigrane, 1873 and Mon Oncle Celestos, 1881.
FABRE, Jean Henri (1823-1915). French entomologist. Born into great poverty he became a schoolmaster. Became Professor of Philosophy in the Lycee at Avignon. His lifelong study of insects and publications of same earned for him the title of the insect's Homer. His publications, 10 volumes of Souvenirs Entomologigues, are remarkable for their painstaking observations on living insects, especially the habits and instincts of wasps and bees.
FABRE D'EGLANTINE, Philippe Francois Nazaire (1750-94). French politician. He was a member of the National Convention and president of the club of the Cordeliers and for a time part-time secretary to Danton. He is remembered for his naming of the months for the revolutionary calendar, 1793 and for the famous song, I' pleut, il pleut, bergare, renire te blancs moutons. He ended his life on the guillotine.
FABRICIUS, Geronimo (1537-1619). Italian anatomist. He was professor of surgery and anatomy at Padua where he introduced improvements into surgical techniques. His publications were widely read. He was a founder of embryology. He discovered the valves in the veins. William Harvey who studied under him at Padua used this knowledge in considering the circulation of the blood.
FABRICIUS, Johann Albert (1668-1736) German astronomer. He was assistant to his father David Fabricius who discovered the star Mira. He published his discovery of the solar spots and stated that the sun rotates on its axis in 1611.
FABRICIUS LUSCINUS, Gaius. Roman General. Founder of the Roman branch of the Fabrician clan. Won notable victories over the enemies of Rome, and twice acted as envoy in the war against Pyrrhus. His tactfullness brought satisfactory terms of peace after the Roman defeat at Heaclea in 280 B.C. He became censor in 275 B.C. and tried to check luxury and extravagance. He died in poverty.
FABRITIUS, Carel (d. 1654). Dutch artist. A pupil of Rembrandt, living in Delft, he became a member of the painters' guild in 1652, and was the teacher of Vermeer. Two of his most famous portraits are that of a soldier, and the lovely Goldfinch.
FABRIZI, nicola (1804-85). Italian patriot. He was implicated in the Carbonari insurrection of 1831 and in Mazzini's expedition to Savoy. He fled to Spain where he fought against the Carlists, 1837; then to Malta, where he assisted the Sicilian insurrection of 1848. He fought at Venice and Rome; retired to Malta for a time, then in 1860 raised a revolt in Sicily. After joining forces with Garibaldi, he was made governor of Messina and war minister. He opposed the Rome campaign of 1862, but fought at Mentana in 1867.
FABRONI, Angelo (1732-1803). Italian biographer.Became prior of San Lorenzo, Glorence in 1767, and was appointed totor to the sons of Leopold, grand duke of Tuscany in 1773. His chief work was Vitae Italorum Doctrina Excellentium qui Saeculis, XVII et XVIII floruerunt, 1778-1805 which took 20 volumes.
FAED, Thomas (1826-1900). Scottish painter. He came to London in 1852 becoming A.R.A., 1861 and R.A. in 1864. He was known for his paintings on Scottish life.
FAGAN, James Bernard (1873-1933). British dramatist. He was an actor in the companies of Frank Benson and herbert Tree. His first play was The Rebel, 1899, The Prayer of the Sword, 1904, Under Which King, 1905, The Earth, 1909, A Merry Devil, 1909, And So To Bed, 1926, The Greater Love, 1927, and The Improper duchess, 1932.He returned to acting in 1913, and produced many plays in London, the provinces and New York.
FAGUET, Emile (1847-1916) French critic. Professor of poetry at the university of Paris 1897 and a member of the Academy in 1900. He was a literary critic to the Revue Bleue and the Journal des debats. He published La Tragedie au XVIc; Politiques efMoralistes due XIXc Diecle; monographs on Voltaire, Flaubert and Zola; and a short History of French Literatures from the 17th century.
FAHRENHEIT, Gabriel Daniel (1686-1736) German physicist. He lived chiefly in England and Holland where he studied physics and constructed meteorological instruments notably an improved hygrometer. His name is remembered by the Fahrenheit thermometric scale used by meteorologists.
FA-HSIEN, Chinese traveller. A Buddhist monk, he set out in 399 from the ancient capital Hsian-fu, Shensi, on a pilgrimage to India. Crossing the Gobi desert to Khotan, he crossed the Hindu Kush and remained in northern India for 10 years, visiting Peshawar and the Ganges cities. He travelled by sea in 412 to Ceylon and from there returned home in 414.
FAIDHERBE, Louis Leon Cesar (1813-89). French soldier. He entered the engineers in 1840 and saw service in Algiers. As governor of Senegal 1854-65 he was a pioneer in the acquisition by France of African colonies. Made general in 1863 he returned to France in 1870 to lead the army of the north after the disasters at Sedan and Metz. He was beaten at St. Quentin. for a while he sat in the National Assembly, and in 1879 was elected to the Senate. He was also an Egyptologist.
FAIDIT, Gaucelm (d.c.1220) French troubadour. He attracted the patronage of Rich the Lion Heart by his singing. About 70 of his poems have been preserved including a beautiful song of sorrow in memory of Richard, and Le Triomphe de l'Amour, which Petrarch initated.
FAIN, Agathon Jean Francois (1778-1837). French historian. He became secretary to Napoleon in 1806 and first secretary of the cabinet under Louis Philippe. He wrote Memoires and Manuscrits, 1823-28. These cover French history in detail throughout the First Empire and throw valuable light on the life of Napoleon.
FAIRBAIRN, Andrew Martin (1838-1912). British theologian. For several year he was a Congregational minister at Bathgatae and Aberdeen. He became principal of the Airedale Congregational college, Bradford, in 1877 and in 1889 first principal of Mansfield College, Oxford. He published numerous books, among them The Place of Christ in Modern Theology, 1893, and Philosophy of the Christian Religion, 1902.
FAIRBAIRN, Sir William (1789-1874). British engineer. He started in 1817 an engineering business at Manchester, in partnership with James Lillie. This proved successful. In 1835 he opened a shipbuilding works at Millwall for iron boat construction. He invented a riveting machine, superintended the construciton of the Metal and Conway bridges, and introduced improvements in locomotive construction. He was made a baronet in a1869.
FAIRBANKS, Thaddeus [1796-1886]. American inventor. He founded with his brother Erastus [1792-1864], in 1824, a manfactury of stoves and ploughs designed by himself. His best known inventions were a cast iron plough, 1826, and an improved lever weighing machine, 1831. Erastus was governor of Vermont, as also was his son, Horace, [1820-88].
FAIRFAX, Ferdinando Fairfax, , 2nd Baron [1584-1648]. English soldier. While young he served against Spain in the Netherlands. Succeeding his father as Baron Fairfax of Cameron, a Scottish title dating from 1627 he became a member of the Long Parliament in 1640, and was chosen to command the parliamentary forces in Yorkshire when war began in 1642. He had one or two minor successes, but was beaten at Adwalton Moor, and driven from the field at Marston Moor.
FAIRFAX, Thomas Fairfax, 3rd Baron (1612-71). English soldier. He saw military service in the Netherlands. In 1640 he served against the Scots and was knighted, but when the civil war began in 1642, he and his father were prominent among the king's opponents. He was prsent at the siege of Newcastle and at the battle of Marston Moor. On the passing of the self-denying ordinance, 1644, Fairfax was made commander-in-chief of the parliamentary armies, and led the New Model Army to victory at Naseby. At the end of the first period of the war, he was something of a national hero, but he had little sympathy with the policy of the more violent of the army leaders. He helped, however, to put down the royalist rising in 1648, and was appointed one of the judges to try Charles, but when the trial began he refused to sit, his wife protesting on his behalf from the public gallery, and in 1650 he resigned his position as head of the army to Cromwell, receiving a pension of 5,000 pounds a year. In 1659 he came from retirement and helped Monk to place Charles II on the throne, going as head of the deputation to the Hague. He was elected as M.P. for Yorkshire to the new Parliament, but took no further part in affairs. He wrote translations of the Psalms of David, some poetry and two accounts of his campaigns. His correspondence was published 1848-49.
FAIRFAX, Sir James Reading (1834-1919). Australian newspaper proprietor. He joined the staff of his father's paper, the Sydney Morning Herald, in 1851, becoming a partner 5 years later. He devoted the remainder of his life to the management of The Herald, and the Sydney Mail which he founded. Knighted in 1898, his son Sir James Osward Fairfax (1863-1928), succeeded him as director of The Sydney Morning Herald, and The Sydney Mail.
FAITHFULL, Emily (1835-95) English publicist. She devoted the greater part of her life to advocating the claims of women to remunerative employment. She founded in 1860 a printing office in which women were employed and for which she secured the approval of Queen Victoria. Later she formed the Victoria Press and was appointed printer and publisher in ordinary to the queen, starting in 1863, The Victoria Magazine. Her novel Change upon Change appeared in 1868, and her lectures in the U.S.A. 1872-73, were reproduced in her Three Visits to America 1884.
FAITHORNE, William (1626-91). English engraver. He studied under Robert Peake and John Payne. Imrpisoned in Aldersgate by the Roundheads in the Civil War, he pursued his art in prison, and on his liberation proceeded to Paris, becoming a pupil of Robert Nanteuil. He set upas a print-seller near Temple Bar, London, in 1650. He engraved portraits of most of the conspicuous figures of the Commonwealth and Restoration, drew portraits in crayon, and wrote The Art of Graving and Etching, 1662.
FALCK, Anton Reinhard (1777-1843).Dutch statesman. He was one of the chief advocates of a separate Dutch kingdom, taking a leading part in the rising of 1813 which led to the separation of the Netherlands from France and in the separation in 1859 of Holland from Belgium.
FALCONE, Aniello (1600-65)Italian painter. Born in Naples he became famous as a spirited painter of battle scenes. With a band of friends and pupils known as the "Company of Death", he played a leading part in the insurrection of Masaniello, 1647.
FALCONER, Hugh (1808-65). British palaeontologist. He went to Calcutta as doctor to the East India Co. There he discovered many remains of giant mammals such as the mastodon; in later life he discovered an exactly similar fossil fauna in England and on the continent. Falconer was responsible for the introduction of cinchona bark (the remedy for malaria), and of the tea plant, 1834.
FALGUIERE, Jean Alexandre Joseph (1831-1900). French sculptor. He won the Prix de Rome in 1859. His work was at first classical in manner, but afterwards became strongly realistic. A marble statue of Tarcisus, martyr, and his statues of Lafayette, of Balzac, and of Joan of Arc, and his Triumph of the Republic on the Arc de Triomphe, Paris, were his chief works. As a painter he is represented by Les Lutteurs.
FALIERI, Marino (1279-1355). Venetian noble. He defeated the Hungarians at Zara, 1346, and was elected doge of Venice in 1354. After the defeat of the Venetian fleet by the Genoese in the same year he planned a popular rising which would make him prince, but he was arrested, and executed.
FALK, Paul Ludwig Adalbert (1827-1900). German statesman. He was appointed Prussian minister for education in 1872, and introduced the May Laws which declared the right of the state to supervise all schools. Roman Catholic opposition forced his resignation in 1879.
FALKENHAYN,Erich von (1861-1922). German soldier. He was appointed Minister for war in 1913, and chief of the General staff in 1914, and was responsible for the control of the armies in the field. He retained this position until after the failure at Verdun in the summer of 1916. Appointed commander-in-chief of the ninth Army in 1916, he drove the Rumanians across the Transylvanian Alps, and later directed the Turkish operations in Palestine and Mesopotamia. He commanded the German forces in Lithuania in 1919. He was regarded by many as one of the ablest strategists produced by Germany during World War I.
FALKLAND, Lucius Cary, 2nd Viscount (c.1609-43). English royalist. In 1633, he succeeded his father as Viscount Falkland, having inherited from his grandfather, Sir Lawrence Tanfield 1625 the estate of Great Tew in Oxfordshire, where he kept open house for the greatest poets of his day. His political career began in 1640, with his election as MP for Newport. He opposed ship money, voted for the execution of Strafford, and at first opposed the claims of the clergy, but he broke with the future parliamentary leaders over the Root and Branch Bill and the grand remonstrance, and in 1642 was made by Charles I a secretary of state. He fought at Edgehill, but as unhappy a royalist, as he'd been a parliamentarian, he deliberately sought and found death at the Battle of Newbury in 1643.
FALLIERES, Clement Armand (1841-1931). French statesman. He was elected a deputy1876. He held offices in a succession of ministries, and became a senator 1890, was President of the Senate 1899-1906, and was elected President of the Republic 1906. He did much to cement the Franco- British and the Franco -Russian alliance. He retired in 1913.
FALLOPIUS, Gabriello (1523-62). Italian anatomist. The discoverer of the functions of the fallopian tubes, he became professor of anatomy at Ferrara. He later held the chairs of anatomy, surgery, and botany at Padua University. He published in 1561 his Observationes Anatomicae, and his collected works, Opera Genuina Omnia in 1584.
FALLOUX, Frederic Alfred Pierre (1811-86). French politician. He became a deputy in 1846 and in 1849 Minister of education. An ultra-Catholic, he was responsible for the Loi Falloux of 1850, which provided that any priest or member of any ecclesiastical order might teach in either primary or secondary schools without pedagogic qualifications. His attempts after 1871 to reconcile the Orleanist factions with the partisans of the Comte de Chambord, head of the other branch of the house of Bourbon, failed and in addition antagonized the church
FANNING, Edmund (1737-1818). American soldier. He served under the British government earning local unpopularity by his subservience and malpractices. He raised in 1777 a Loyalist regiment, subsequently fleeing to Nova Scotia. Governor of Prince Edward Island in 1787, he became Major-General in 1794 and general in the British Army in 1808. On a voyage in the Pacific in 1798 he discovered the Fanning islands.
FANNING, John Thomas (1837-1911). American engineer. He was for many years one of the leading authorities on hydraulics, being concerned in the construction of numerous waterworks and similar undertakings in the USA. His posts included that of chief engineer of the water power company of St. Anthony Falls. His Treatise on Hydraulic and Water Supply Engineering, 1877, was long the most authoritative American book on the subject.
FANSHAWE, Sir Richard (1608-66). English writer. He was appointed in 1635 Secretary to the embassy at Madrid. During the Civil War he was secretary to the prince of Wales and in 1648 treasurer of the Navy under Prince Rupert. While in captivity after the battle of Worcester, he occupied himself with his famous translation of the Lusiads of Camoens, 1655. After the restoration he sat in parliament from 1661 until his death which took place at Madrid. His other writings include original poems, and translations of the Pastor Fido of Guarini, 1647, and of Fiestas de Aranjuez by Antonio de Mendoza.
FANTI, Manfredo (1806-65). Italian soldier. He was early involved with the Italian revolutionaries, fleeing to France after the insurrection at Modena in 1831 and to Spain, where he fought against the Carlists, after Mazzini's expedition to Savoy in 1833. He commanded a brigade for Piedmont against Austria in 1848-49, and was largely responsible for the successes of the war with Austria, 1859,and for the reorganization of the Piedmontese army that followed. Minister of war under Cavour in 1860, he led the Army against the papal and Neapolitan forces. He resigned in 1861.
FANTIN-LATOUR, Ignace Henri Jean theodore (1836-1904). French painter. He first exhibited at the Salon in 1861, obtaining his first award in 1876. He achieved a striking triumph with his portraits. Simple and unaffected in arrangement, cool and reticent in color, his pictures show a refined and exquisite delicate art. Fantin was known as an unsurpassed painter of flowers before his genius in portraiture was revealed.