RAVENNA. 724 BAVENSTEIN. The population of Kavenna (commune) was, in 1881, 00,573; in 1901, 89,957. HiSTOKY. Ravenna is one of the oldest towns in Italy. In Augustan times the Roman Adriatic fleet was stationed liere and theie was consider- able commerce. In 404 the Emperor Honorius made this, then a city on the sea, his abiding place because it was well defended. .Some years later it became an arehiepiscopal see. Ravenna attained its distinctive prominence after the fall of the Roman Empire. It was seized by King Odoacer, and passed (493) into possession of the Ostrogoth Theodoric and became a magnificent seat of royal power. It was taken by Belisarius in 540 (539?). and was a place of official im- portance imder the Greek emperors until 752 (see Ravenna, Exakchate of) ; it was next ruled by the Lombards. It soon fell into the hands of Pepin the Short, who turned it over to the Papal sway. Late in the thirteenth century it fell under the sway of the Polenta family. In 1441 it became subject to Venice, under whose regime it pros]iered greatly. In 1509 it was taken by Pope .Julius II., and it remained a Papal posses- sion until 1797.. After being under Frencli con- trol for 17 years it was restored to Papal do- minion by the Congress of Vienna, and became a part of the Italian kingdom in IStiO. Consult: Quast. Die nltchristUchen Bauwerke von Ravenna (Berlin. 1842); Cardoni, Ravenna antica (Faenza, 1879) ; Diehl, Ravenne: etudes d'archMogie bi/zantine (Paris, 1885) ; Gregoro- vius, "Von Ravenna bis Mentana," in Wnnder- jahre in Italien, vol. iv. (5th ed., Leipzig, 1892) ; Goetz, Ravenna (ib., 1901). RAVENNA. A village and the county-seat of Portage County, Ohio, 30 miles southeast of Cleveland ; on the Erie, the Pennsylvania, and the Baltimore and Ohio railroads (Map: Ohio, H 3). It is in the lake region of northeastern Ohio, and has important agricultural interests. There are also iron works, machine shops, boiler works, foundries, and manufactories of flour, lumber products, brick and tile, electrical sup- plies, chairs, etc. Population, in 1890. 3417; in 1900, 4003. RAVENNA, ExARcn.^TE of. The designation of that part of Italy which was under the rule of the Byzantine emperors from 568 to 752. The capital of the governor or exarch (q.v.) was at Ravenna, and for a short time he ruled over the whole of Italy. When in 568 the Lombards began to invade Italy, which had been conquered by Narses (q.v.) in 553, the old Roman names and divisions rapidlv disappeared, and new ones arose. A high military functionary, the exarch, was sent from Constantinople to resist the bar- barians, the first one being appointed some time beween 572 and 584. The Lombards soon con- quered large portions of Italy, so that the vari- ous parts of the exarchate were no longer con- terminous, there being finally seven separate strips of territory, the chief of which situ- ated about Genoa, and known as Liguria. was taken by the Lombards in 640. In 752 Aistulf, King of the Lombards, captured Ra- venna, and the exarchate ceased to exist. The government of the exarch was always a military one and almost independent of all control, due to the difficulty of communication with Constan- tinople. The name exarchate continued to be used for the territorv around Ravenna, which had been given to the Papacy by Pepin in 755. as late as the twelfth century. Consult ; Diehl, Etudes sur I'administratiou byzantine dims I'exarchat de Ravenne (Paris, 1888) ; Hartmann, Untersuchungen zuv Geschicltte dev bgzantini- schen evwattung in Italien (Liepzig, 1889). RAVENSBURG, rii'vens-lxJorK. A town in Wiirttemberg, Germany, situated in a fertile val- ley, on the Schussen, 52 miles by rail south by west of L'lm ( JNlap : Germany, C 5 ) . It is mediaeval in appearance. The leading industries are the spinning and weaving of woolen and linen fabrics. Ravensburg, founded in the eleventh century by the Welfs, became a free Imperial city in 1280. It belonged to Bavaria from 1803 to 1810, when it passed to Wiirttemberg. Popu- lation, in 1900, 13,444. RA'VENSCROFT, Edward. An English dramatist, of the seventeenth century, best known for his polemic with Dryden. His plays were re- markably successful translations or remodelings of old plays, ilamamouchi, played first in 1G71, adapts iloli&re's Bourgeois gentil honniie ; The Wrangling Lovers (1676) is an imitation of Thomas Corneille's Engagements du hasard; i<caramoiich is a eontaminatio of the Mariage force and the Fourberies de Scapin ; and in The Canterbury Guests (1694) Ravenscroft actually composed a play almost entirely from his own previous work. RAVENSCROFT, TnoiiAS (c.I592-c.l635). An English composer. He was born near Loudon, received his musical education in Saint Paul's choir, and had the degi'ee of bachelor of music conferred on him in 1607. In 1611 ap- peared his Melisinata, ilusicall Phansies, etc., a collection of 23 part-songs, some of them of great beauty; and three years later he brought out another collection of part-songs under the title of A Brief Discourse, an essay on the old musical modes. Turning his attention to psalmody, he published in 1621 a collection of psalm tunes for four voices entitled The Whole Book of Psalms, composed into Four Parts by Sundry Authors to 8uch Tunes as Have Been, and are L'sually Sung in England. Scotland, Walesi, Ger- many, Italy. France, and the yetherlands. This was the first publication of its kind and innu- merable similar works of subsequent date have been largely indebted to it. Each of the 150 psalms has a distinct melod,v assigned it. Two collections of secular songs similar to the 3Ie- lismata. and entitled Pammelia and Dcutcromelia, have been assigned to Ravenscroft ; but it is probable that only a few of these songs were com- ]iosed by him. while he may have revised and edited the whole. A selection from his works was printed by the Roxburgh Club in 1822. He died in London. RAVENSTEIN, rii'vcn-stin, Ernst Geobq I 1S34 — ). A German-English geographer and cartographer, born at Frankfort-on-the-Main. He became, when eighteen years old, a pupil of Dr. A. Petermann. the celebrated geographer of Gotha. Removing to England, he was for twenty years ( 1855-75) in the service of the Topographical De- partment of the War Office. He served for years on the Councils of the Royal Statistical and Roval Geographical Societies, and was professor of geography at Bedford College in 1882-83. He was thoroughlv instructed in the German school
