GIA
( H4)
GIL
The ferammarians are very much imbarrafs'd to fettle the Nature and Character of the Gerunds : 'Tis certain, they arc no Verbs, nor diltincl Moods of Verbs, in regard they do not mark any Judgment, or Affirmation of the Mind, which is the Nature of a Verb.— And befide, they have Cafes, which Verbs have not. See Verb.
Some therefore will have them to be Adjectives paffive, whofe Substantive is the Infinitive of the Verb: On this foot- ing they denominate them Verhal Nouns, or Names formed of Verbs and retaining the ordinary Regimen thereof. See Noun.
Thus, fay they, tempus eft legend! libros, or hbrorum, is as much as to fay, tempts eft tb legere libros, vel Hbrorum. Eut others Hand up againft. this Decifion.
The Word is form'd of the Latin Gerundivus, and that from the Verb gcrere, to bear.
GESSES, in the Furniture belonging to an Hawk. See Jesses.
GESTATION, the Time of a Woman's going with Child ; or the Interval between Conception, and Delivery. See Delivery ; fee alfo Forrus, and Conception.
Gestation is alfo a Term in the antient Medicine, ufed for a fort of Exercife. See Exercise.
Aftlepiades firft brought FricYions, and Gcfiation into Practice.™ The Defign of Geflation was to recover Strength after a Feaver, &c, was gone.
It con lifted in making the Patient walk, or ride in a Cha- riot, or in a Boat ; or even in rocking him in his Bed, if he could not indure a more violent Agitation.
GESTICULATION, the Aa of making indecent or un- fuitablc Gettures, or in too great Number. See Gesture.
Gefiiculation is a grievous Fault in an Orator.
GESTURE, a Motion of the Body, intended to Signify fome Idea, or Paffion of the Mind.
§>uintilian defines Gefture, tonus corporis moms ££? con- ■formatio. GeftttreS are a kind of Natural Language which fupplics the life of Speech in thofe naturally dumb. The Mimes and <Pantomim.es were great Proficients in the Style of Gefture. See Mime, and Pantomime.
Geftnre confifls principally in the Actions of the Hands, and Face. See Action, and Pronunciation.
GlAGH, or Jeijagh, a Cycle of twelve Years, in ufe among the ftttrks and Catbayans. See Cycle;
Each Year of th& Giagb bears the Name of fome Ani- mal : The firft, that of a Moufe ; the fecond, that of a Bul- lock 5 the third, of a Lynx, or Leopard; the fourth, of a Hare; the fifth, of a Crocodile; the fixth, of a Serpent; the feventh, of a Horfe; the eighth, of a Sheep; the ninth, of a Monkey; the tenth, of a Hen 5 the eleventh, of a Dogj and the twelfth, of a Hog.
They alfo divide the Day into twelve Parts, which they call Giagb's ; and diftinguifh them by the Names of the fame Animals.
Each Gidgb contains two of our Hours, and is divided in- to eight Kehy as many there are Quarters of Hours in our Day.
GIANT, or Gyant, a Man of extraordinary, enormous Stature and Bulk. See Stature.
The Reality of Giants^ and of Nations of Giants, is much controverted among the Learned. Travellers, Hiftorians, and Relations both facred and profane furnifri various In- ftances thereof; a great Part of which, Naturalifts and An-
tiquaries
fet aiide.
Thofe among the Antients who fpeak of Giants-, as Hi- ftorians, and affirm there were fuch Things, are Ceefar, de Seilo Gal/ico, L. I. ZacitiiS, de Morib. Germanor. gtf An* nal. Z. II. Florus, L. III. c. 3. St. Auguftin de C/vit. 'Dei L. XV. c. 9. and Saxo Grammaticus, at the End of his Pre- face : And among the Moderns, Hieron.Magius, Mifcellan. de GigantibuS' Cha/Jagnonns, de Gigantibus^ Kircher Mtind. Subterran. L. VIII. S. II. c. 4. and fo many others ; that Stepbanius in his Notes on Saxo Grammaticus, affirms no- thing can be more extravagant than to deny, or allegorize the Authorities we have thereof. — ■
Mr. tDerbam obferves that though we read of Giants be- fore the Flood, Gen. vi. 4. and more plainly after it, Numb. x jii, 33 • yet 'tis highly probable, the Size of Man has al- ways been the fame from the Creation 3 for as to the Ne- philim, Gen. v\. the Antients vary about them; fome tak- ing them for Monitors of Impiety, Atheifm, Rapine, Ty- ranny : And as to thoie Num. xiii. which were evidently fpoke of as Men of a Gigantic Size, 'tis probable the Fears of the Spies might add thereto.
But be this as it will, 'tis manifeft that in both thefe Places Giants are fpoken off aa Rarities and Wonders of the Age, not of the common Stature : And fuch Inftances we have had in all Ages; excepting fome fabulous Relations; fuch as we take to be that of 'Tbeittoboccbits, who is laid to be dug up Anno 1 <5 1 3 , and to have been higher than the Tro- ubles, and z6 Foot long : And no better we fuppofe the Giants to have been, which OLMagnus gives an Account of in his 5 th Book, fuch as Hartben and Starcbater among
the Men ; and among the Women, Rcpcrta eft (faith he)
- Puella — iii capitc vulncrata, mortua induta chlamyde pur-
purea, longitudinis cubitorum 50, latitudinis inter bmueros quatuor. Ol. Mag. JHift. L. 5. c. 2.
But, as for the more credible Relations of Goliath (whofe Height was fix Cubits, and a Span, 1 Sam. xvii. 4. which, according to BiiKop Cumberland, is fomewhat above eleven Feet Englijb ) 5 of Afaximinus the Emperor (who was nine Foot high), and others in Auguftus and other Reigns, of about the fame Hight : To which might be added the Dimenfions of a Skeleton, dug up lately in the Palace of a 'Roman Camp near St. Albans by an Urn inferibed Mar- cus Antoninus ; of which an Account is given by Mr. Cbe- feldon, who judg'd by the Dimenfions of the Bones, that the Perfon was eight Foot high. c Pbilof. Tranfatl N u 333. For thefe antique Examples and Relations, we fay, they may be match'd, nay sutdone, with modern Examples; of which we have divers in J. Ludolpb. Comment, in Hi ft. JEthiop. Z. 1. c. 2. 5. 22. Magus, Conriugius, D. Hackewill, and others ; which laft relates from Naunez,, of Porters and Archers belonging to the Emperor of China, of Fifteen Foot high ; and others from 'Purcbas, of ten and twelve Foot high, and more. See the Learned Author's Apolog. p. 208.
GIBBOUS, in Medicine, is ufed to denote a Perion bunch'd or hump-back'd. See Vertebra.
That Part of the Liver out of which the Vena Cava arifes, is alfo called the gibbous Part. See Liver.
Gibbous is alfo ufed in reference to the enlightened Parts of the Moon, while flie is moving from Full to the firif. Quarter, and from the laft Quarter to Full again ; for all that time the dark Part appears horned, and takated, and the light one bunch'd out, Convex, or Gibbous. See Pha- ses, and Moon.
GIBELINS, Gieellins, or Gieelling, a famous Fa- ction in Italy, oppofite to the Guelpbs. See Goelph.
The Guelpbs, and Gibellins ravaged, and laid walle Italy for a long Series of Years ; fo that the Hiftory of the Country, for the fpace of two Centuries, is Only a Detail of their mutual Violences, and mortal W,irs.
We have but a very obfeure Accunt, of their Origin, and the Reafon of their Names: The Generality of Authors af- firm, that they arole about the Year 1240, upon the Empe- ror Frideric the Second's being excommunicated by Pope Gregory the Ninth.
That Prince, fay they, making a Tour among the Cities of Italy, gave the Name Gibelins to fuch as he found well affected to him 3 and that of Guelpbs to thofe who adhered to the Pope.
But as to the Reafon, and Signification of thofe Words, there is a deep Silence : Gibelin might pofiibly be form'd of Gbcbieder, Imperator ; whence guabtedolijken, imperiofe. Of Gbebicdelin, the Italians might make, by Corruption, Gibelin ; fo that Gibelins, in this Light, mould be the fame with ImperiaJifts, or fuch as follow'd the Emperor's Party.
By the way, fome Writers maintain, that the two Fa- ctions arofe ten Years before 5 tho' ftill under the fame Pope, and Emperor.
Other Hiftorians relate, that Conrad III 1 marching into Italy, in the Year 1 139, againft the Neapolitans, Roger, Count of Naples and Sicily, in order to defend his States, called to his Afuftance Guelpb, Duke of 'Bavaria ; and that one Day when the two Armies were ready to join Battle, the Bava- rians cried out in Higb-2)utch, Hie Guelph ; or as others fay in Flemijb, Hier Guelpl\ that is, Here Guelph : And that the Imperialists anfwer'd, on their Side, with the Words Hie, or Hier, Gibelin, bere Gibelin; calling the Emperor by the Name of the Place where he had been bred.
Hornius refers the Names to the War in 1140, between Henry the Proud, Duke of Bavaria, and Saxony ; and Con- rad the Third, Duke of Suabia: The two Princes being preparing to engage near the Town of Winsberg, the Bava- rians began to cry out, Guelpb, which was the Name of Duke Henry's Brother, and the Partisans of the Emperor, Weiblingen, the Name of the Place where that Prince was born and bred in the Dutchy of Wirtenberg^ whofe Surname he bore : From which Weiblingen, the Italians at length form'd Gibelin.
This Account is connrm'd by Martin Cruftm : Initium Gibelins (Weibelince a <Patria Conradi Regis) 0$ Welfia; concert ationis. Conrad being of Weiblingen, that Word, fays Crujius, gave rife to Gibellivgue, and that to Gibelling, Gibelins, Gibellini.
<Platina t on the other Hand, affures us, that the Name Gibelins arofe from that of a German at 'Piftoya; whofe Brother, named Guelpb, gave likewife his Name to the op- pofite Faction ; the two Brethren, it feems, bearing an ir- reconcilable Hatred.
Others maintain, that the Emperor gave the Appellation Gibelins to thole of his Party, from the German Word Gipfel, Signifying Ridge, or Top ; by reafon the Empire refted on them, as the Rafters of a Houfe lean on the Ridge, which joins them a-top.
Krtins.,
