the Spectator in the device of Jack of Newberry. The name is also applied to arrangements of words in which the position of the several vocables is to be taken into account in divining the meaning. Thus “I understand you-undertake to overthrow my undertaking ” makes the rebus
| stand | take | to | taking |
| I | you | throw | my; |
or in French
| pir | vent | venir |
| un | vient | d'un |
may be read “un soupir vient souvent d'un souvenir.” A still simpler French rebus is expressed by the two letters G a, which may be read, J'ai grand appétit (G grand, a petit). “Rebus” (or "allusive arms”), in heraldry, is a coat of arms which bears an allusion to the name of the person, -as three castles for Castleton, three cups for Butler, three conies for Coningsby.
RECAMIER, JEANNE FRANÇOISE JULIE ADÉLAÏDE (1777-1840), a famous Frenchwoman in the literary and political
circles of the early 19th century, was born on the 4th of
December 1777 at Lyons. Her maiden name was Bernard.
She was married at fifteen to the banker Jacques Récamier
(d. 1830), who was more than old enough to be her father.
Beautiful, accomplished, with a real love for literature, she
possessed at the same time a temperament which protected
her from scandal, and from the early days of the consulate to
almost the end of the July monarchy her salon in Paris was one
of the chief resorts of literary and political society that pretended
to fashion. The habitués of her house included many former
royalists, with others, such as Bernadotte and General Moreau,
more or less disaffected to the government. This circumstance,
together with her refusal to act as lady-in-waiting to the
Empress Josephine and her friendship for Madame de Staël,
brought her under suspicion. It was through Madame de Staël
that Madame Récamier became acquainted with Benjamin
Constant, whose singular political tergiversations during the
last days of the empire and the first of the restoration have been
attributed to her persuasions. Madame Récamier was eventually
exiled from Paris by Napoleon's orders. After a short stay
at Lyons she proceeded to Rome, and finally to Naples, where
she was on exceedingly good terms with Murat and his wife, who
were then intriguing with the Bourbons. She persuaded
Constant to plead the claims of Murat in a memorandum addressed
to the congress of Vienna, and also induced him to take up a
decided attitude in opposition to Napoleon during the Hundred
Days. Her husband had sustained heavy losses in 1805, and she
visited Madame de Staél at Coppet in Switzerland. There was a
project for her divorce, in order that she might marry Prince
Augustus of Prussia, but though her husband was willing it was
not arranged. In her later days she lost most of the rest of her
fortune; but she continued to receive visitors at the Abbaye-aux-Bois,
the old Paris convent to which she retired in 1814.
Here Chateaubriand was a constant visitor, and in a manner
master of the house; but 'even in old age, ill-health and reduced
circumstances Madame Récamier never lost her attraction.
She seems to have been incapable of any serious attachment,
and although she numbered among her admirers Mathieu de
Montmorency, Lucien Bonaparte, Prince Augustus of Prussia,
Ballanche, J. J. Ampére and Constant, none of them obtained
over her so great an influence as did Chateaubriand, though she
suffered much from his imperious temper. If she had any
genuine affection, it seems to have been for Prosper de Barante,
whom she met at Coppet. She died in Paris on the 11th of
May 1849.
There are well-known portraits of her by Louis David in the galleries of the Louvre, and by Francois Gérard in the possession of the prefecture of the Seine. In 1859 Souvenirs et correspondences tifés des papiers de Madame Récamier was edited by Mme Lenormant. See Mme Lenormant's Madame Récamier, les amis de sa jeunesse et sa correspondence intime (1872); Mme Mohl, Madame Récamier, with a sketch of the history of society in France (1829 and 1862); also Guizot in the Revue des deux mondes for December 1859 and February 1873; H. Noel Williams, Madame Récamier and her Friends (London, 1901); E. Herriott (Engl. trans., by Alys Hallard), Madame Récamier et ses amis (1904) (elaborate and exhaustive).
RECANATI, a city of the Marches, Italy, in the province of
Macerata, 8 m. direct N.N.E. of the city of that name. Pop.
(1901) 14,590 (town), 16,389 (commune). It has a station on
the railway 17½ m. S. of Ancona, and distant 4½ m. from the
town, which is built on a hill, 931 ft. above the sea, and retains
portions of its 15th-century walls and gateways. It was the
birthplace of the poet Leopardi (1798-1837), whose monument
adorns the principal piazza and whose family has collected
in the town a very interesting museum of Leopardiana; it also
contains iine old mansions of the Leopardi, Mazzagalli, Massucci
and Carradori in the main street, and a Gothic cathedral, built
towards the close of the 14th century and dedicated to
S Flavianus, patriarch of Constantinople. The churches of
S Maria sopra Mercanti and San Domenico contain characteristic
examples of the work of Lorenzo Lotto, as also does the new
municipal palace, with a fine old battlemented tower, while the
palace of Cardinal Venier has a fine Renaissance loggia by
Giuliano da Maiano, who was probably responsible for the
designs for the portals of S Agostino and S Domenico. The
older buildings of the town are noteworthy for the curious
terra-cotta work which adorns the majority of them.
Recanati appears as a strong castle in the 10th century or earlier. Round this gathered a community whose petty wars with Osimo (Auximum) called for the interference of Innocent III. in 1198. From Frederick II. it obtained the right of having a port on the Adriatic; and by Gregory IX. it was made a city and the seat of the bishopric transferred from Osimo. This oscillation between Guelf and Ghibelline continued characteristic of Recanati. Urban IV. abolished the “city” and bishopric; Nicholas IV. restored them. John XXII. again, in 1320, removed the bishopric and placed the city under interdict. The interdict was withdrawn in 1328 on payment of a heavy fine, but the bishopric remained in abeyance till 1357. Gregory XII., who on his deposition by the council of Constance was made papal legate of the sees of Macerata and Recanati, died in this city in 1417. The assistance rendered by Recanati to the popes in their struggles with the Sforza seems to have exhausted its resources, and it began to decline. Considerable damage was done by the earthquake of 1741; and the French, who were twice in possession of the city in 1797, pillaged it in 1799.
RECEIPT (M.E. receite, derived through Fr. from Lat. recepta, participle of recipere, to receive), in law, an acknowledgment in writing that a sum of money or other valuable considered has been received by the person signing the acknowledgment in discharge of a debt or other obligation. Such a receipt is prima facie evidence only oi payment, and it may be shown, for example, that it was signed by mistake, or obtained by fraud or misrepresentation. By the Stamp Act of 1891, which repealed and re-enacted other acts, a duty of Id. is imposed on every receipt or form of writing discharging a debt of £2 or upwards; the payment of the duty is denoted by affixing a penny stamp to the document, and the cancelling of the same by the person giving the receipt. By § 103 if a person gives a receipt, liable to duty, not duly stamped, or refuses to give a receipt, liable to duty, duly stamped or, on payment to the amount of £2 or upward, gives a receipt for a less sum than £2 or divides the amount paid with intent to evade the duty, he is liable to a fine of £10. A receipt not duly stamped may be stamped at the Inland Revenue Office within fourteen days on payment of a fine of £5 or within one month on payment of £10.
RECEIVER, in English law, an officer or manager appointed by a court to administer property for its protection, to receive rent or other income and to pay authorized outgoings. Receivers may be either appointed pendente lite or by way of equitable execution, e.g. for the purpose of enabling a judgment creditor to obtain payment of his debt, when the position of the real estate is such that ordinary execution will not reach it. Formerly receivers were appointed only by the court of chancery, but by the Judicature Act 1873 it is now within the power of all
