MAESTLIN, Michael, a distinguished German astronomer, the teachler of Kepler, was born at Goppingen in 1550, and died on the 20th of December, 1631. He was educated at the university of Tübingen; and while still a young man, embraced the Copernican system of astronomy, of which he was one of the earliest advocates, as well as one of the most active and zealous, he delivered lectures upon it in different parts of Europe; and it is believed that one of these lectures was the means of impressing the truth of that system on the mind of Galileo. Yet Mästlin wrote and published astronomical works, in which the phenomena of the heavens were described according to the system of Ptolemy, in compliance with prevailing notions. In 1580 he was appointed professor of mathematics in the university of Heidelberg; and in 1584 he obtained the same appointment in the university of Tübingen, the seat of his early studies. He was one of the first to observe the temporary star of 1604. His chief claim to distinction is considered to be the fact that he was the instructor in mathematics and astronomy of Kepler, who studied at Tübingen during Mästlin's professorship, and was much encouraged by him in those researches which ultimately led to the great discovery of the laws of the planetary motions.—W. J. M. R.
MAFFEI, Francesco Scipione, Marquis, an eminent Italian writer, born in Verona of an ancient and distinguished family, 1st June, 1675; died of asthma, 11th February, 1755. Maffei's literary talents were displayed early; he was enrolled among the Areadi in Rome at the age of twenty-seven, and, on returning to Verona, gained some distinction by a critique on Corneille's Rodogune. He fought among the Bavarian troops allied with France in the Spanish war of succession, and distinguished himself at t he battle of Donawert in 1704. He then went back to his native city, and devoted himself to literature. His first important work was "The Code of Chivalry," 1710, written on the occasion of a quarrel in which his brother was engaged against the practice of duelling, which he denounced as contrary to religion, good sense, and social interests. He aimed at reforming the Italian theatre, then sunk in buffoonery; and in 1713 produced his tragedy of "Merope," which achieved a signal success, and passed through numberless editions and translations. Voltaire's tragedy of the same name was modelled upon Maffei's; which, however, the French author criticized as well as admired. In 1732 Maffei undertook a European tour of four years' duration, and was universally welcomed. In England he was made an LL.D., and a member of the Royal Society. A book which he published in 1742 on the doctrine of grace, and his expressed approval of moderate usurious interest, involved him in controversy with the jansenists, who prevailed on the Venetian senate to exile Maffei, then past seventy years of age; he was recalled, however, at the end of four months. He was moral, liberal, and public-spirited; but was weakly greedy of fame, self-admiring, and pragmatic. His works are extremely numerous and miscellaneous, the complete edition of 1790 amounting to eighteen volumes. "Verona Illustrata," 1721-32, is one of the most noted; a "Diplomatic History," 1727, is also highly esteemed, being the introduction to a work which he never completed. There are also two comedies; a translation in blank verse of the first book of the Iliad; three books against the existence of magic; writings on electricity and other questions of physical science. Maffei was, moreover, one of the three originators of the first Italian literary journal, the Giornale dei Letterati, in which he wrote from 1710 to 1719.—W. M. R.
MAGEE, William, D.D., an eminent Irish divine, the author of the well-known work on the Atonement, was born of humble parents in 1765. He received his education at the university of Dublin, where he was a servitor. After being for some time assistant-professor of oriental languages, about 1806 he became senior fellow and professor of mathematics. His treatise on the Atonement, consisting of two sermons with notes—subsequently much extended—was first published in 1801. In consequence of the celebrity it attained, the author was made dean of Cork in 1813. In 1819 he was appointed bishop of Raphoe, and in 1822 he was promoted to be archbishop of Dublin. He died of paralysis at Redesdale-house, near Stillorgan, August 18, 1831.—D. W. R.
MAGELLAN or MAGALHAENS, Fernando de, an illustrious navigator, whose place in the records of discovery is due to the fact of his being the first to find a passage from the Atlantic into the Pacific ocean, and to cross the last-named body of water. One of the vessels that composed his fleet returned to Europe by way of the Cape of Good Hope, thus accomplishing the first circumnavigation of the globe. Magellan was a native of Portugal. He was born at Villa de Sabroza, about 1470. He became familiar, early in life, both with the theory and practice of navigation; and was engaged in the service of his country at Malacca, in the East Indies, about 1510. He served subsequently in the African wars, fighting bravely at Azamor in Morocco. Returning to Portugal in 1512, Magellan filled various offices about the court; but discontent at the poor estimation in which his services were held led him to the determination of leaving his own country, and seeking the patronage of the rival court of Spain. With this view he repaired, in 1517, first to Seville—where he married the daughter of a distant relative—and thence to Valladolid, where the Spanish court was then located. The trade with the East, for the spices and other rich productions of that favoured region, engrossed at that time a large share of public attention. Magellan offered to conduct a fleet to the Moluccas by a westerly route, and thus obtain more directly and cheaply the spices which the Portuguese drew from the same region by the way of India and the Cape of Good Hope. He had numerous interviews at Valladolid with the ministers of the Spanish king—Charles I., afterwards the Emperor Charles V.; and finally arranged with them, in 1518, the terms on which the proposed expedition (the design of which was mainly commercial) was to be conducted. A fleet of five ships, carrying in all two hundred and thirty men, was fitted out in the following year, and Magellan sailed on September 20, 1519, from the harbour of San Lucar on the coast of Andalusia. After a brief stay at Rio Janeiro he pursued his way southward along the shores of the American continent, until he reached Port San Julian, in lat. 49°, where he passed the winter—May to September—of 1520. During his stay at this place, Magellan's determination and firmness were severely tested in quelling a dangerous mutiny on the part of the officers under his command, who had from the first obeyed with reluctance the orders of one who was not their own countryman, and the far-seeing boldness of whose enterprise they were perhaps unable adequately to appreciate. The method which he employed was unhappily stained by an act which no necessity can justify—the deliberate assassination, by the hands of a subordinate, of the captain of the Vittoria, one of the ships of his fleet. The common sailors were throughout devoted to the service of their commander, the mutiny quelled, Magellan left Port St. Julian in the middle of October, and on the 21st of that month entered the strait which has since borne his name. He cleared the strait on November 28. One of his ships had deserted him while in the strait, and another had been previously lost; so that his fleet was now reduced to three vessels. With these he sailed across the vast Pacific Ocean, and reached the Philippine Islands on the 16th March, 1521, having occupied three months and twenty days in this previously untried navigation. Magellan was favourably received by the native king of Zebu, one of the Philippine group. This barbarian monarch declared himself a willing vassal of the king of Spain, received baptism at the hands of Magellan, and readily availed himself of the imprudently offered services of his visitor for the purpose of protection against his enemies. The adventure in which Magellan now engaged cost him his life. Advancing with a chosen band of followers into the territories of a neighbouring chieftain, he was surrounded by an overwhelming force; he fell, after a prolonged defence, beneath a shower of stones, and received his death from the blow of a lance. With true barbarian caprice the king of Zebu now adopted an altered course of conduct, and shortly after massacred such of the surviving Spaniards as remained on shore. Those who were on shipboard, too few in number to man three vessels, burnt one of their ships and proceeded in search of the Moluccas. They reached the island of Tidore, where they stayed to refit. One of the two remaining vessels subsequently endeavoured to recross the Pacific; and, returning to the Moluccas, became a prize to the Portuguese settlers there. The other vessel, the Vittoria, now under the command of Sebastian del Cano, crossing the Indian seas, doubled the Cape of Good Hope, and finally returned to Europe, having made the circuit of the globe in the term of three years and fourteen days. This ship, drawn upon shore, was long preserved.—W. H.
