MENDOZA, Diego Hurtado de, a Spanish statesman, historian, and novelist, born in 1503 or 1504. His grandfather was ambassador of Ferdinand and Isabella to the Holy See; his father, the first count of Tendilla, served against the Moors, and was the first military governor of Granada after the conquest. Diego was the fifth son, and probably acquired his taste for Arabic learning during his early residence at Granada. He studied philosophy and the classical languages at Salamanca; and here, too, it is supposed, he wrote "Lazarillo de Tormes," the first of that series of "picaresque" novels, best represented to the English reader by the latest and best, Gil Blas. Renouncing the clerical profession, he served with the Spanish army in Italy, visiting the principal universities. In 1538 Charles V. appointed him ambassador at Venice. Subsequently he represented the emperor at the council of Trent, but was summoned thence to the more difficult post of imperial plenipotentiary at Rome (1547), where for six years he successfully maintained the imperial policy. His passion for letters, however, manifested itself in the collection of rare Greek and Latin manuscripts, and posterity is indebted to him for a complete edition of Josephus. He returned to Spain shortly before the accession of Philip II. (1554); but soon fell into disgrace, and was exiled to Granada. His leisure was devoted to the composition of verses. He appears to have been equally successful in the old Spanish measure and in the newer Italian style introduced by Boscan and Garcillasso de la Vega. His most important work, however, was written later in life—a history of the war of Granada, waged by the Moors against the tyranny of Philip II. in 1568-70. For this work he had special sources of information through his father, and also through his nephew, who commanded in this war. The work is written with such a generous impartiality towards the Moors, that it was not thought safe to publish it till after his death, the first edition (an incomplete one) being dated 1610. The style is modelled on that of Tacitus and Sallust; the narrative, drawn often from living sources, is picturesque and touching. Mendoza completed this work at the age of seventy. He was recalled to court shortly afterwards; but he died at Madrid in 1675, bequeathing his rich collection of books and manuscripts to the king, who placed them in the Escurial. Both the "War of Granada" and "Lazarillo de Tormes" are reprinted in Baudry's Collection. Of his poetry there is but one edition, published in 1610. Two letters by him are in the Seminario Erudito, 1789.—F. M. W.
MENDOZA, Inigo Lopez de, Marquis of Santillana, born in 1398; died in 1458. Possessed of enormous wealth, the only marquis then living, distinguished in the wars against the Moors, he might have become the first person in the kingdom under Henry IV.; but on the death of his wife (1455) he devoted himself to literature. His works include "Una Serranilla" (Little Mountain song), a beautiful adaptation of the Provençal style; "Comedietta de Ponza," a drama; "Centiloquio," a collection of proverbs; a poem on the death of Alvaro de Luna; and a letter to the constable of Portugal, which forms the earliest attempt at a history of Spanish poetry.—F. M. W.
MENDOZA, Juan Gonzales de, born 1540; died 1617. He spent three years (1580-83) as a missionary in China, and in 1607 was sent to Mexico as vicar apostolic. He was successively bishop of Ciudad Real, and of Popäian, New Granada, where he died. He wrote a "History of China," and a "Description of Chinese Manners;" also a "History of the Discovery of New Mexico."—F. M. W.
MENDOZA, Pedro de, born in 1487; died in 1537. He was sent out by Charles V. of Spain in 1535, as adelantado or governor of the territory between the Rio de la Plata and the Straits of Magellan. He founded the city of Buenos Ayres. The greater portion of his followers perished by famine, disease, and the attacks of the Indians, who burnt the city. Mendoza at last ascended the river for twenty leagues, and found shelter on an island. Being joined by his brother with supplies, he sent out an expedition under Juan de Ayalos in search of provisions. The expedition not returning, Mendoza fell ill with anxiety, and embarked for Spain, but died on the passage.—F. M. W.
MENDOZA, Pedro Gonzalez de, son of Inigo Lopez, surnamed Grand Cardinal of Spain, born in 1428; died in 1495. He attained eminence under Henry IV. of Castile, by whose influence he was made a cardinal; and subsequently exercised equal influence over Isabella, whose right to the succession he espoused. He was successively bishop of Calahorra and Siguenza, chancellor of Castile and Leon, archbishop of Seville and Toledo, and was sometimes called the third king of Spain. His influence was exerted in favour of the Jews, and of the projects of Columbus. He took a vigorous part in the prosecution of the wars against the Moors. On his deathbed he named as his successor Cardinal Ximenez.—F. M. W.
MENECRATES, a physician of considerable repute in the first century. He flourished under the reigns of Tiberius, Caligula, and Claudius, as would appear from an ancient inscription, in which he is called the physician of the Cæsars. He is the reputed author of a work upon the composition of medicines, which Galen characterizes as placing him in the rank of the best writers upon that subject.—W. B—d.
MENEDEMUS, the founder of one of the subordinate Socratic schools of philosophy, called after him the Eretrian, was born of a poor but noble family at Eretria about 350 b.c. He became acquainted with the Socratic doctrines through the teaching of Stilpo at Megara, and the disciples of Phædo at Elis. His own philosophy coincided generally with that of the Megarian school. Holding the essential unity of both the good and the true, he refused (1) to admit any difference between the several virtues, the common element of goodness in all consisting in intellectual insight; (2) to allow that one thing could be predicated of another, hence excluding (like Stilpo) all but identical propositions. He obtained the favour of Antigonus Gonatas, at whose court he died in 277 b.c. According to one story, he starved himself to death through vexation at being unable to obtain from Antigonus the grant of liberty to Eretria. According to another, he died of grief at being expelled from Eretria on account of his friendship with Antigonus. Some traits of his personal character have been preserved. The severity of his morals is said to have given him peculiar influence with his pupils, and he was so keen a disputant as sometimes to argue till he became black in the face.—G.
* MENEGHINI, Giuseppe, a distinguished Italian botanist, and professor at Padua. His chief writings are—"Researches on the Structure of the Stem of Monocotyledonous Plants;" remarks on the physiology of algæ; "Synopsis of Desmidieæ;" monograph of Nostochineæ; remarks on Gaudichaud's theory of merithals; on the metamorphoses of plants; illustrations of Italian and Dalmatian algæ.—J. H. B.
MENGS, Anton Rafael, the most celebrated painter of the eighteenth century, was born in 1728 at Aussig in Bohemia. The son of Ishmael Mengs, a painter employed by Augustus III. at Dresden, he was taught design, and painting in miniature, enamel, and oil by his father, a good teacher but a harsh and unfeeling man, who treated him with great cruelty. In 1741 he was taken to Rome by his father, who kept him during the three years he stayed in that city unceasingly employed in making studies and copies in miniature of the works of Raphael. On his return to Dresden in 1744 the king, Augustus III., was so delighted with these productions that he appointed him court-painter, and gave him a pension in order that he might return to Rome to continue his studies there. At Rome he began to paint original compositions, turned Roman catholic, and married. He repaired to Dresden in 1749, and was well received by the king, who augmented his pension to a thousand dollars and gave him a commission for a large altar-piece. In order to paint this in a satisfactory manner he returned to Rome; but various circumstances delayed its execution, and the breaking out of the Seven Years' war put an end at once to the commission and to his pension, Mengs had begun to study Fresco, and in 1757 he executed his first important work in that manner, the vault of S. Eusebio, and shortly after the still larger and more important one of "Parnasus, or Apollo and the Muses" in the saloon of the Villa Alboni—a work which his contemporaries regarded as equal to the finest productions of the old masters, and which was engraved in his best manner by Raffaelle Morghen. The reputation of Mengs was now so high that he was invited to Spain by Charles III., who treated him with the utmost munificence. With the exception of a visit to Rome at the instance of Pope Clement XIV.—who wished him to paint the ceiling of the Camera de' Papiri in the Vatican, by some considered to be Mengs' most successful work—he remained in Spain from 1761 till 1775, painting whilst there various apartments in the royal palaces, and several easel pictures. "The Apotheosis of Trajan" on the ceiling of one of the principal saloons of the palace, Madrid, was the most important work painted by Mengs in Spain, and is
