at the end of which he quitted the military service, retired to Italy, and there painted pictures, and wrote romances. At the restoration the count was received favourably by Louis XVIII., and appointed director of the national museums in the place of Denon. At the remodeling of the Institute Forbin was nominated by royal ordonnance, March 22, 1816, one of the ten academiciens libres of the newly-organized Académie des beaux arts. Afterwards he was made officer, and subsequently commander of the legion of honour, and gentleman of the royal chamber. Forbin's real business was the restoration of the royal collections. He brought together the best of the works remaining in the royal collections, after Paris had been obliged to disgorge the spoils of the emperor's campaigns, and succeeded in purchasing various separate works or private collections (and some of them were of great value), and thus rapidly restored the galleries of the Louvre to a very honourable condition. At the head of a commission of artists and men of science, he visited Greece, Constantinople, Syria, and Egypt, to search for ancient sculpture and whatever else might serve to enrich the museum; and published at Paris in 1819, "Voyage dans le Levant en 1817 et 1818." Another object to which he devoted himself was the formation of a museum of Etruscan antiquities, and the improvement of the Egyptian collection. He also sought to render the collections of Greek and Græco-Roman sculptures more complete for the purposes of study, by forming a supplementary collection of casts of the most important monuments in foreign collections. Lastly, to him is due the formation of the gallery of the Luxembourg—a collection of paintings by living native painters. In the midst of his career of activity Count Forbin was in 1828 struck with paralysis, which ended in the decay of his faculties. M. de Forbin survived till February 23, 1841, his hours being amused by the care of his friends, and his own efforts with the pencil. He painted a large number of pictures, chiefly views of buildings, scenery, and historical landscapes, which have found a place in private, and some in the national collections; but his pictures, though evidently the production of a man of cultivated mind, hold only an inferior place as works of art.—J. T—e.
FORBIN, Claude, Chevalier de, born in 1656 of a distinguished family in Provence, rose to eminence as a naval commander. Having entered the service in early life, he accompanied the expedition to Messina under marshal de Vivonne in 1675; and, in the course of the next ten years, besides being employed for a short time in the army, he held a commission under the American viceroy, count d'Estrées, and took part in the operations of the famous Admiral Duquesne against the Barbary pirates. But the most interesting portion of his history was his service in Siam. A Greek adventurer, named Constance Faulcon, who went abroad under the auspices of the English East India Company, had settled in that country, and gained the favour of its sovereign. By his ability and prudence he succeeded in awakening at the Siamese court some relish for European civilization; and, being desirous of introducing also the Roman catholic religion, he sought the assistance of Louis XIV., who readily undertook to further the design. The Chevalier Chaumont was sent out as ambassador, accompanied by Forbin and a few French troops; a treaty was concluded, which opened the way for the admission of the jesuit teachers; and when Faulcon's influence also induced the Siamese monarch to take into his service a portion of the French armament, Forbin was appointed generalissimo. His power was ere long augmented by an application of the king for additional soldiers from France, and by the control which the chevalier received over two of the most important fortresses of the kingdom. But the hope of establishing European arts and customs in that district of Asia was speedily clouded by dissensions between Faulcon and Forbin. A powerful confederacy under one of the discontented Siamese nobles, roused anew the slumbering native prejudices; and the king was taken prisoner by the insurgent chief, who assumed the regency, and set himself to eradicate the foreign institutions and the christian worship. Faulcon, with many of his coadjutors, perished in the struggle; and Forbin returned to his native land in 1687, having spent about two years in the East. He lived till 1734, his last days being spent in retirement, which he devoted to acts of piety and beneficence. His Memoirs were published at Amsterdam four years before his death; they contain graphic notices of the scenes through which he had passed. He was a generous-hearted man and an able officer.—W. B.
FORBISHER. See Frobisher.
FORBONNAIS. See Veron.
FORCELLINI, Egidio, a celebrated Italian philologer, born at Féner, near Feltro, on the 26th of August, 1688. The family was so very poor, that his father was unable to provide him with an education. Egidio was compelled to wait for a favourable opportunity that would enable him to get into some place of instruction; and having finally through interest entered the seminary at Padua, Forcellini earnestly devoted all his time to the study of the Latin language, in which he had the fortune of being assisted by the far-famed lexicographer Facciolati, who afterwards became his intimate friend and collaborator. His first literary labours occupied him for four years, helping his master in the compiling of a dictionary known by the name of Calepino, a work that secured for him Facciolati's esteem and affection. The success of that first literary production, suggested the framing of a vocabulary on a more extensive plan, by which not merely the words, but their etymology should be scientifically given. He was, however, interrupted in that laborious work by the duties attached to the professorship of belles-lettres, which he filled with distinction, first at Ceneda, then in the seminary of Padua. In the year 1731 Forcellini obtained from the bishop of that city the liberty to devote the whole of his time to his favourite philological pursuits. After eleven years of constant application, Forcellini was again forced to suspend his work, being ordered by his superiors to resume his ecclesiastical duties. Cardinal Rezzonico, aware of the importance of Forcellini's studies, released him from any duty whatever, until he had completed the compilation of his lexicon, which appeared for the first time in 1771. In it we see displayed an immense and universal knowledge in every art and science of which the Romans left records; a thorough acquaintance with their religion, customs, and laws; of ancient geography and history; and almost an intuitive power of explaining the most dubious and obscure sentences used in the classics, besides a very extensive knowledge of numismatics and lapidary inscriptions. But modest and almost ignorant of his real merit, Forcellini associated in this work his teacher and benefactor, Facciolati, whose name he introduced in the title-page of his lexicon in these words—"Consilio et cura celeb. Jacopi Facciolati," and, although the most distinguished literary characters of Italy, such as Valsecchi and Morgagni, eagerly sought after his counsels in various branches of knowledge, yet he preserved to the last an even tenor of affable humility that, combined with a suavity of manners, endeared him to every one of his numerous admirers. Having resigned his professorship at Padua, Forcellini retired to Fener, his native place, where he died at an advanced age on the 4th of April, 1768.—A. C. M.
* FORCHHAMMER, Johann Georg, Ph.D., was born July 26, 1794, at Husum in Schleswig. In 1822 he became docent, and in the following year lecturer on chemistry and mineralogy at the university of Copenhagen. In 1829 he was made professor of chemistry and mineralogy at the polytechnic school of Copenhagen, and in 1835 professor of mineralogy at the university of Copenhagen, and teacher of physics and chemistry at the naval school. He was chosen a fellow of the Royal Danish Society of Science in 1825. He published a paper on manganese in 1820, and a treatise on crystallography in 1833. Among his various researches are a method of analyzing silicates, mineralogical and geological investigations of the composition of porcelain-earth, and its formation from felspar; on the action of common salt in the formation of minerals; on permanent changes of level, &c.—C. E. L.
* FORCHHAMMER, Paul Wilhelm, a German philologist, was born at Husum, Schleswig, in 1803. Having completed his education at Kiel, he undertook an archæological journey into Italy and Greece, and after his return was appointed to the chair of archæology at Kiel. In 1838-39 he again travelled in Greece, Asia Minor, and Egypt. The results of these travels have been published in a number of learned monographs and treatises, among which we note "Hellenica," "Topography of Athens," and "Description and Map of the Plain of Troy," published in the Transactions of the Geographical Society.—K. E.
FORD, John, an English dramatic writer, was born probably at Islington in Devonshire, early in April, 1586, as we find the register of his baptism in the church of that parish upon the 17th of April in that year. We have very scanty materials
