in St Petersburg. He preached at times in the German Lutheran church, wrote his first tragedies, and in 1817 was appointed professor of German literature and history at a training college in connexion with the university. Owing to an outburst of jealousy against Germans in Russia, culminating in police supervision, Raupach left St Petersburg in 1822 and undertook a journey to Italy. The literary fruits of his travels were Hirsemenzels Briefe aus und über Italien (1823). He next visited Weimar, but, being coldly received by Goethe, abandoned his idea of living there and settled in 1824 in Berlin. Here he spent the remainder of his life, writing for the stage, which for twenty years he greatly influenced, if not wholly controlled, in the Prussian capital. He died at Berlin on the 18th of March 1852.
Raupach was a prolific writer of both tragedies and comedies; of the former, Die Fürsten Chawansky (1818), Der Liebe Zauberkreis (1824), Die Leibeigenen, oder Isidor und Olga (1826), Rafaele (1828), Der Nibelungenhort (1834) and Die Schule des Lebens (1841), and of the latter Die Schleichhändler (1828) and Der Zeitgeist (1830) are pieces which have enjoyed great popularity owing to their skilful dramatic handling. On the other hand, the historical dramas with which his name is chiefly associated, Die Hohenstaufen (1837–38), a cyclus of 15 dramatic pieces founded on Friedrich von Raumer's Geschichte der Hohenstaufen, as also the trilogy Cromwell (1841–44), are superficial in treatment. Raupach had a great knowledge of theatrical effect and situations, but he contorts historical facts in order to suit his political hobby, which was the separation of church and state.
Raupach's collected dramas appeared under the title Dramatische Werke ernster Gattung (16 vols., 1830–43) and Dramatische Werke komischer Gattung (4 vols., 1829–35). For his life see Pauline Raupach, Raupach, eine biographische Skizze (1853); also K. Goedeke, Grundriss zur Geschichte der deutschen Dichtung, 2nd ed. (1905), vol. viii., pp. 646–668.
RAVAILLAC, FRANÇOIS (1578-1610), the assassin of Henry IV. of France, was born near Angoulême. He was of humble origin and began life as a valet de chambre, but afterwards became a lawyer and also teacher of a school. After having been imprisoned by his creditors, he sought admission to the recently founded order of Feuillants, but after a short probation was dismissed as a visionary. An application for admission to the Society of Jesus was equally unsuccessful in 1606. His disappointments fostered a fanatical temperament, and rumours that the king was intending to make war upon the pope suggested to him the idea of assassination, which he carried out on the 14th of May 1610. In the course of his trial he was frequently put to the torture, but persistently (and it is now believed truly) denied that he had been prompted by any one or had any accomplices. Sentence of death was carried out on the 27th of May following.
See Jules Loiseleur, Ravaillac et ses complices (1873), and E. Lavisse, Histoire de France, tome vi. (Paris, 1905).
RAVAISSON-MOLLIEN, JEAN GASPARD FÉLIX (1813-1900), French philosopher and archaeologist, was born at Namur on the 23rd of October 1813. After a successful course of study at the Collège Rollin, he proceeded to Munich, where he attended the lectures of Schelling, and took his degree in philosophy in 1836. In the following year he published the first volume of his famous work Essai sur la metaphysique d'Aristote, to which in 1846 he added a supplementary volume. This work not only criticizes and comments on the theories of Aristotle and the Peripatetics, but also deduces from them a modern philosophical system. In 1838 he received the degree of doctor, and became professor of philosophy at Rennes. From 1840 he was inspector-general of public libraries, and in 1860 became inspector-general in the department of higher education. He was also a member of the Academy, and of the Academy of Moral and Political Science, and curator of the Department of Antiquities at the Louvre (from 1870). He died in Paris on the 18th of May 1900. In philosophy, he was one of the school of Cousin, with whom, however, he was at issue in many important points. The act of consciousness, according to him, is the basis of all knowledge. These acts of consciousness are manifestations of will, which is the motive and creative power of the intellectual life. The idea of God is a cumulative intuition given by all the various faculties of the mind, in its observation of harmony in nature and in man. This theory had considerable influence on speculative philosophy in France during the later years of the 19th century.
Ravaisson's chief philosophical works are: “Les Fragments philosophiques de Hamilton” (in the Revue des Deux Mondes, November, 1840); Rapport sur le stoicisme (1851); La Philosophie en France au dix-neuvième siècle (1868; 3rd ed., 1889); Morale et métaphysique (1893). Eminent as a philosopher, Ravaisson was also an archaeologist, and contributed articles on ancient sculpture to the Revue Archéologique and the Mémoires de l'Académie des Inscriptions. In 1871 he published a monograph on the Venus of Milo.
See Renouvier, in L'Année philosophique (Paris, 1868); Dawriac, “Ravaisson philosophe et critique” (La Critique philosophique, 1885, vol. ii.).
RAVANASTRON, an Indian stringed instrument played with a bow, used by wandering pilgrims. A Hindu tradition affirms that the musical bow was invented before 3000 B.C. by Ravanon, king of Ceylon, and that the instrument for which he invented it was named after him Ravanastron.[1] Judging from precedent, it is probable that the ravanastron of the present day has changed little, if at all, for many centuries. It consists of half a round gourd, over which is fixed a sound-board of skin or parchment; to this primitive body without incurvation is attached a neck about twice the length of the body. The strings are either one or four in number, the pegs being set in the sides of the neck. The bridge is primitive and either straight or slightly arched, so that in bowing more than one string sounds at once.
The ravanastron is regarded by some writers as the first ancestor of the violin, on account of the alleged invention of the bow for use with it. This theory can only be accepted by those who consider the bow, which after all was common to such inferior instruments as the rebec, as of paramount importance, and the structural features of the instrument itself, the box sound-chest with ribs, which have always belonged to the most artistic types of instruments, such as the cithara and the guitar-fiddle, as of secondary importance. (K. S.)
RAVELLO, a village of Campania, Italy, in the province of Salerno, about 3 m. N.N.E. of Amalfi by road, 1227 ft. above sea-level. It commands a magnificent view. Pop. (1901) 1851. The history of Ravello cannot be traced beyond the 9th century. In the 11th it was called Rebellum, because it refused to acknowledge the sovereignty of Amalfi, and in the 13th, when at the height of its prosperity, it had 36,000 inhabitants. The Palazzo Rufolo, begun in the 11th century, has two lofty towers and beautiful Saracenic decoration in the courtyard. The ex-cathedral of S. Pantaleo, almost entirely modernized, has fine bronze doors by Barisanus of Trani (1179), and two pulpits in Cosmatesque work. The larger, supported by six columns resting on the backs of lions, was made in 1272 by Nicolaus of Foggia; the bust over the entrance to it is said to be a portrait of Sigilgaita Rufolo. The smaller, of the same date, is simpler, and has curious representations of Jonah and the whale. The parish church of S. Giovanni in Toro, spoilt by restorations in the 18th century, contains a splendid pulpit in Cosmatesque work, supported on four pillars, and the crypt some 14th-century frescoes. In front of it is the porch of the Palazzo dell' Afflitto, composed of ancient fragments. S. Maria Immacolata is another Romanesque church.
See A. Avena, Monumenti dell' Arte Meridionale (Naples, 1902), i. 349 sqq.
RAVEN (O.E. hræfn, Icel. hrafn, Dan. ravn, Du. raaf, Ger. Rabe), the largest of the birds of the order Passeres, and a member of the family Corvidae, probably the most highly developed of all birds. Quick-sighted, sagacious and bold, the raven preys on the spoils of fishers and hunters, as also on weakly
- ↑ An illustration appears in Sonnerat's Voyages aux Indes orientales (Paris, 1806), vol. i. p. 182.
