LEO GRAMMATICUS, author of that part of the Byzantine history, extending from the accession of Leo V. in 813 to the death of Romanus Lecapenus in 948 or 949. It was published at Paris in 1655 in the Corpus Hist. Byzantinæ.
LEO of Modena, or more correctly Judah Aryeh, a celebrated Venetian rabbin, was born in 1571, and died in 1648 or 1654. In his youth he is said to have written a poem, which could be read either as Italian or as Hebrew. He was for many years at the head of the synagogue at Venice. In 1617 he completed the publication of the "Biblica Hebraica Rabbinica," in four folio volumes, with targums and rabinnical commentaries. This is the Biblia Hebraica Bragadini of the bibliographers, and is supposed to be very correct. Leo intended to give a Latin version, but was prevented by the inquisitors, who had seen every page of the Hebrew edition before it was printed. His Hebrew-Italian Dictionary was published at Venice, with the addition of grammatical rules, in 1612; and in 1640 he printed at Padua a collection of rabbinical words with Italian explanations. This last is sometimes called a reprint of the first, but its title states that the words are Rabbinical, and "not Hebrew nor Chaldee." Leo also published an account of Jewish rites and customs, which has been translated out of the Italian into French and English.—B. H. C.
LEO of Orvieto or LEO URBEVETANUS, so called from his native place, was probably a monk of the fourteenth century, and wrote two chronicles—one of the emperors, which closes with 1308; and one of the popes, which comes down to 1314. They were published by Jean Lami in 1737.—B. H. C.
LEO of Thessalonica, a prelate and mathematician of the Greek empire, flourished in the ninth century. About 839 he was appointed by the Emperor Theophilus to a professorship of mathematics at Constantinople, and to the archbishopric of Thessalonica. He is stated to have established a system of fire-telegraphs, which proved very useful to the government. On the death of Theophilus, Leo was deprived of his see as an iconoclast. His writings, if any ever existed, have perished, and the dates of his birth and death are unknown.—W. J. M. R.
* LEO, Heinrich, a distinguished German historian, was born at Rudolstadt on 19th March, 1799. After having completed his education in the universities of Breslau, Jena, and Göttingen, he travelled in Italy; and after his return in 1828 was appointed to the chair of universal history at Halle. At one time intimately connected with the liberal and national party of the time (Ludwig Jahn, Follenius, and others), Leo by degrees changed his opinions, quarreled with Hegel and his followers, and has at last become one of the most zealous defenders of legitimacy and absolutism. His numerous works, which are tinged rather too much by his political opinions, mostly refer to the history of the middle ages, The best of them are his "Constitutional History of the Lombardic Cities;" his "History of the Netherlands;" and his "Universal History," third edition, 1849-53, 6 vols. He has also contributed several treatises to the illustration of Anglo-Saxon and Celtic philology.—K. E.
LEO, Joannes Africanus, a learned Moor, author of a celebrated "Description of Africa," which has been translated from the original Arabic into many languages, was born at Grenada about 1476. When sixteen years old, his native town having been captured by Ferdinand and Isabella, he went into Africa and made extensive journeys in its northern parts. The result of his observations was recorded in the description above mentioned, of which an English version was published in 1600. By the efforts of Pope Leo X. he was converted to christianity. He was also the author of a treatise, "De vitis philosophorum Arabum," Zurich, 1664. Died about 1526.—D. W. R.
LEO, Leonardo, the composer, was born at Naples in 1694. He received his musical education at the conservatory of Santo Onofrio, which at that period was in the zenith of its fame. Alessandro Scarlatti was the chief professor, and Durante, Vinci, and Porpora, with a host of other celebrated men, were the fellow-disciples of Leo. At the age of one-and-twenty he composed his first opera, "La Sofonisba," which was produced at the theatre of his native city, and it met with success. Encouraged by the applause with which his first effort was rewarded, the youthful musician was excited to fresh exertions in the same department of his art. He accordingly produced "Caio Gracco," 1720; "Tamerlano," 1722; "Il Timocrate," 1723; "Catone in Utica," 1726; "Argone," 1728; “Il Cioe," 1729; "Arianne e Teso," 1730; "Olimpiade," 1731; "Demofonte," 1732; "Andromacha," 1733; "Le Nozzi de Psiche con amore," 1734; "La Clemenza di Tito," 1735; "Siface," 1737; "La Zingarella," 1738; "Ciro riconosciuto," and "Il Festo Teatrale," 1739; "Achille in Siria," 1740; and "Vologeso," 1744. He also set Metastasio's two oratorios, La Morte di Abele, and Santa Elena al Calvario; besides numerous Te Deums, masses, motets, &c., for the church. Leo was the founder of a school in Naples that very widely spread the fame of his country, and became a nursery for those celebrated singers who afterwards filled the Italian theatres of the different European courts. The solfeggi which he composed for his scholars are yet studied by those who wish to become scientifically acquainted with the art. The ornamental passages in this work are of an unfading kind. Many of them are so unimpaired by age that Rossini has frequently availed himself of them; and not a few of these flowers of song will be found scattered through the operas of the grand mæstro with no unsparing hand. Among the most distinguished disciples of this master are Nicolo Sala author of the celebrated Regoli del Contrapunto Prattico, Pascale Caffaro, Jomelli, Piccini, Salvatore Bertini, and Andreas Fioroni. In respect to the art in which Leo was so distinguished an ornament, it has been justly said that what Alessandro Scarlatti began he continued; and that what Porpora had only indicated he carried into effect and completed. His efforts tended in a great degree to release melody from those restraints by which its beauties were hidden and its elements perverted. It came purified from his hand, and fresh in native grace and truth of expression. His style is elevated without pretension, expressive without extravagance, and grand without inflation. This great musician and reformer of the art died at Naples in 1745, at the age of fifty-one.—E. F. R.
LEON, Juan Ponce de, a Spanish adventurer who, after serving against the Moors in Granada, accompanied Columbus on his second voyage in 1493, and, it is said, was implicated in a rebellion against him. Having assisted in the conquest of Higuey, the eastern portion of the island of Hayti, he was appointed to the command of that province. Thence he planned and executed an expedition against the neighbouring island of Porto Rico, which he subdued, and was appointed governor. Being displaced, owing to disputes in Spain, he fitted out an expedition in search of the fabled fountain which was to bestow perpetual youth. In the course of his voyage he discovered the portion of the American continent to which he gave the name of Florida, but which he supposed to be an island; and also the group of islands known as the Tortegas. Returning to Spain, he received from King Ferdinand in 1514 the command of an expedition against the Caribs, who infested the Spanish islands; but, meeting with a disaster, he soon returned to Porto Rico, being appointed governor a second time. His administration was prosperous; but in 1521 he sailed in quest of fresh conquests in Florida. Wounded in an encounter with the Caribs, he returned to Cuba, where he shortly afterwards died.—F. M. W.
LEON, Luis Ponce de, a Spanish theologian and poet, born in 1528. He early entered the order of St. Augustin; at the age of thirty-four, obtained the chair of St. Thomas Aquinas in the university of Salamanca, and ten years later that of sacred literature. He fell under the censure of the inquisition of Valladolid, for having translated the Song of Solomon into Castilian, and was not released until he had suffered five years' imprisonment, 1576. While in prison he wrote a prose work on "The Names of Christ;" and an exposition of the Book of Job. He afterwards wrote a treatise entitled "The Perfect Wife," and commenced a life of Santa Teresa. Luis de Leon was also a poet of no common genius. Most of his poems are drawn from the Hebrew Scriptures, and possess, says Ticknor, "a classical purity and rigorous finish before unknown in Spanish poetry, and seldom attained since." Other odes are entitled "The Prophecy of the Tagus;" "On a Life of Retirement;" "On Immortality;" "On the Starry Heavens;" and "On the Ascension." He lived fourteen years after his release from prison, in retirement, but widely known and honoured. He continued to preach in the university of Salamanca, and was chosen head of his order just before his death in 1591.—F. M. W.
LEONARDO DA VINCI. See Vinci.
LEONARDO of Pisa (Leonardo Bonacci or Fibonacci), a merchant and mathematician, born about 1170 or 1180, was the first who brought the knowledge of algebra from the East into Europe. His principal works are "Liber Abaci," composed in 1202 and revised in 1228; a treatise on arithmetic and algebra,
