GABLER, JOHANN PHILIPP (1753–1826), German Protestant theologian of the school of J. J. Griesbach and J. G. Eichhorn, was born at Frankfort-on-Main on the 4th of June 1753. In 1772 he entered the university of Jena as a theological student. In 1776 he was on the point of abandoning theological pursuits, when the arrival of Griesbach inspired him with new ardour. After having been successively Repetent in Göttingen and teacher in the public schools of Dortmund (Westphalia) and Altdorf (Bavaria), he was, in 1785, appointed second professor of theology in the university of Altdorf, whence he was translated to a chair in Jena in 1804, where he succeeded Griesbach in 1812. Here he died on the 17th of February 1826. At Altdorf Gabler published (1791–1793) a new edition, with introduction and notes, of Eichhorn’s Urgeschichte; this was followed, two years afterwards, by a supplement entitled Neuer Versuch über die mosaische Schöpfungsgeschichte. He was also the author of many essays which were characterized by much critical acumen, and which had considerable influence on the course of German thought on theological and Biblical questions. From 1798 to 1800 he was editor of the Neuestes theologisches Journal, first conjointly with H. K. A. Hänlein (1762–1829), C. F. von Ammon (1766–1850) and H. E. G. Paulus, and afterwards unassisted; from 1801 to 1804 of the Journal für theologische Litteratur; and from 1805 to 1811 of the Journal für auserlesene theologische Litteratur.
Some of his essays were published by his sons (2 vols., 1831); and a memoir appeared in 1827 by W. Schröter.
GABLETS (diminutive of “gable”), in architecture, triangular
terminations to buttresses, much in use in the Early English
and Decorated periods, after which the buttresses generally
terminated in pinnacles. The Early English gablets are generally
plain, and very sharp in pitch. In the Decorated period they
are often enriched with panelling and crockets. They are
sometimes finished with small crosses, but oftener with finials.
GABLONZ (Czech, Jablonec), a town of Bohemia, Austria,
94 m. N.E. of Prague by rail. Pop. (1900) 21,086, mostly
German. It is the chief seat of the glass pearl and imitation
jewelry manufacture, and has also an important textile industry,
and produces large quantities of hardware, papier mâché and
other paper goods.
GABORIAU, ÉMILE (1833–1873), French novelist, was born
at Saujon (Charente Inférieure) on the 9th of November 1833.
He became secretary to Paul Féval, and, after publishing some
novels and miscellaneous writings, found his real gift in L’Affaire
Lerouge (1866), a detective novel which was published in the
Pays and at once made his reputation. The story was produced
on the stage in 1872. A long series of novels dealing with the
annals of the police court followed, and proved very popular.
Among them are: Le Crime d’Orcival (1867), Monsieur Lecoq
(1869), La Vie infernale (1870), Les Esclaves de Paris (1869),
L’Argent des autres (1874). Gaboriau died in Paris on the 28th
of September 1873.
GABRIEL (Heb. גַּבְרִיאֵל, man of God), in the Bible, the
heavenly messenger (see Angel) sent to Daniel to explain the vision of the ram and the he-goat, and to communicate the prediction of the Seventy Weeks (Dan. viii. 16, ix. 21). He was also employed to announce the birth of John the Baptist to Zacharias, and that of the Messiah to the Virgin Mary (Luke i. 19, 26). Because he stood in the divine presence (see Luke i. 19; Rev.
viii. 2; and cf. Tobit xii. 15), both Jewish and Christian writers generally speak of him as an archangel. In the Book of Enoch “the four great archangels” are Michael, Uriel, Suriel or Raphael,
and Gabriel, who is set over “all the powers” and shares the work of intercession. His name frequently occurs in the Jewish literature of the later post-Biblical period. Thus, according to the Targum Pseudo-Jonathan, he was the man who showed the way to Joseph (Gen. xxxvii. 15); and in Deut. xxxiv. 6 it is affirmed that he, along with Michael, Uriel, Jophiel, Jephephiah and the Metatron, buried the body of Moses. In the Targum on 2 Chron. xxxii. 21 he is named as the angel who destroyed the
host of Sennacherib; and in similar writings of a still later period he is spoken of as the spirit who presides over fire, thunder, the ripening of the fruits of the earth and similar processes. In the Koran great prominence is given to his function as the medium
of divine revelation, and, according to the Mahommedan interpreters, he it is who is referred to by the appellations “Holy Spirit” and “Spirit of Truth.” He is specially commemorated in the calendars of the Greek, Coptic and Armenian churches.
GABRIEL HOUNDS, a spectral pack supposed in the North of
England to foretell death by their yelping at night. The legend
is that they are the souls of unbaptized children wandering
through the air till the day of judgment. They are also sometimes
called Gabriel or Gabble Ratchet. A very prosaic explanation
of this nocturnal noise is given by J. C. Atkinson in
his Cleveland Glossary (1868). “This,” he writes, “is the name
for a yelping sound heard at night, more or less resembling
the cry of hounds or yelping of dogs, probably due to large
flocks of wild geese which chance to be flying by night.”
See further Joseph Lucas, Studies in Nidderdale (1882), pp. 156-157.
GABRIELI, GIOVANNI (1557–1612?), Italian musical composer,
was born at Venice in 1557, and was a pupil of his uncle
Andrea, a distinguished musician of the contrapuntal school
and organist of St Mark’s. He succeeded Claudio Merulo as
first organist of the same church in 1585, and died at Venice
either in 1612 or 1613. He was remarkable for his compositions
for several choirs, writing frequently for 12 or 16 voices, and is
important as an early experimenter in chromatic harmony.
It was probably for this reason that he made a special point of
combining voices with instruments, being thus one of the founders
of choral and orchestral composition. Among his pupils was
Heinrich Schütz; and the church of St Mark, from the time of
the Gabrielis onwards down to that of Lotti, became one of the
most important musical schools in Europe.
See also Winterfeld, Johann Gabrieli und seine Zeit (1834).
GABUN, a district on the west coast of Africa, one of the
colonies forming French Congo (q.v.). It derives its designation
from the settlements on the Gabun river or Rio de Gabão. The
Gabun, in reality an estuary of the sea, lies immediately north of
the equator. At the entrance, between Cape Joinville or Santa
Clara on the N. and Cape Pangara or Sandy Point on the S., it
has a width of about 10 m. It maintains a breadth of some 7 m.
for a distance of 40 m. inland, when it contracts into what is
known as the Rio Olambo, which is not more than 2 or 3 m.
from bank to bank. Several rivers, of which the Komo is
the chief, discharge their waters into the estuary. The Gabun
was discovered by Portuguese navigators towards the close of the
15th century, and was named from its fanciful resemblance to a
gabão or cabin. On the small island of Koniké, which lies about
the centre of the estuary, scanty remains of a Portuguese fort have
been discovered. The three principal tribes in the Gabun are the
Mpongwe, the Fang and the Bakalai.
GACE BRULÉ (d. c. 1220), French trouvère, was a native of
Champagne. It has generally been asserted that he taught
Thibaut of Champagne the art of verse, an assumption which is
based on a statement in the Chroniques de Saint-Denis: “Si
fist entre lui [Thibaut] et Gace Brulé les plus belles chançons et
les plus délitables et melodieuses qui onque fussent oïes.” This
has been taken as evidence of collaboration between the two
poets. The passage will bear the interpretation that with those
of Gace the songs of Thibaut were the best hitherto known.
Paulin Paris, in the Histoire littéraire de la France (vol. xxiii.),
quotes a number of facts that fix an earlier date for Gace’s songs.
Gace is the author of the earliest known jeu parti. The interlocutors
are Gace and a count of Brittany who is identified with
Geoffrey of Brittany, son of Henry II. of England. Gace appears
to have been banished from Champagne and to have found
refuge in Brittany. A deed dated 1212 attests a contract between
Gatho Bruslé (Gace Brulé) and the Templars for a piece of land
in Dreux. It seems most probable that Gace died before 1220, at
the latest in 1225.
See Gédéon Busken Huet, Chansons de Gace Brulé, edited for the Société des anciens textes français (1902), with an exhaustive introduction. Dante quotes a song by Gace, Ire d’amor qui en mon cuer repaire, which he attributes erroneously to Thibaut of Navarre (De vulgari eloquentia, p. 151, ed. P. Rajna, Florence, 1895).
