FRITZLAR

fritzlar, a town of germany, in the prussian province of hesse-cassel, on the left bank of the eder, 16 m. s.w. from cassel, on the railway wabern-wildungen. pop. (1905) 3448. it is a prettily situated old-fashioned place, with an evangelical and two roman catholic churches, one of the latter, that of st peter, a striking medieval edifice. as early as 732 boniface, the apostle of germany, established the church of st peter and a small benedictine monastery at frideslar, "the quiet home" or "abode of peace." before long the school connected with the monastery became famous, and among its earlier scholars it numbered sturm, abbot of fulda, and megingod, second bishop of wurzburg. when boniface found himself unable to continue the supervision of the society himself, he entrusted the office to wigbert of glastonbury, who thus became the first abbot of fritzlar. in 774 the little settlement was taken and burnt by the saxons; but it evidently soon recovered from the blow. for a short time after 786 it was the seat of the bishopric of buraburg, which had been founded by boniface in 741. at the diet of fritzlar in 919 henry i. was elected german king. in the beginning of the 13th century the village received municipal rights; in 1232 it was captured and burned by the landgrave conrad of thuringia and his allies; in 1631 it was taken by william of hesse; in 1760 it was successfully defended by general luckner against the french; and in 1761 it was occupied by the french and unsuccessfully bombarded by the allies. as a principality fritzlar continued subject to the archbishopric of mainz till 1802, when it was incorporated with hesse. from 1807 to 1814 it belonged to the kingdom of westphalia; and in 1866 passed with hesse cassel to prussia. friuli (in the local dialect, _furlanei_), a district at the head of the adriatic sea, at present divided between italy and austria, the italian portion being included in the province of udine and the district of portogruaro, and the austrian comprising the province of gorz and gradiska, and the so-called idrian district. in the north and east friuli includes portions of the julian and carnic alps, while the south is an alluvial plain richly watered by the isonzo, the tagliamento, and many lesser streams which, although of small volume during the dry season, come down in enormous floods after rain or thaw. the inhabitants, known as furlanians, are mainly italians, but they speak a dialect of their own which contains celtic elements. the area of the country is about 3300 sq. m.; it contains about 700,000 inhabitants. friuli derives its name from the roman town of _forum julii_, or _forojulium_, the modern cividale, which is said by paulus diaconus to have been founded by julius caesar. in the 2nd century b.c. the district was subjugated by the romans, and became part of gallia transpadana. during the roman period, besides forum julii, its principal towns were concordia, aquileia and vedinium. on the conquest of the country by the lombards during the 6th century it was made one of their thirty-six duchies, the capital being forum julii or, as they called it, civitas austriae. it is needless to repeat the list of dukes of the lombard line, from gisulf (d. 611) to hrothgaud, who fell a victim to his opposition to charlemagne about 776; their names and exploits may be read in the _historia langobardorum_ of paulus diaconus, and they were mainly occupied in struggles with the avars and other barbarian peoples, and in resisting the pretensions of the lombard kings. the discovery, however, of gisulf's grave at cividale, in 1874, is an interesting proof of the historian's authenticity. charlemagne filled hrothgaud's place with one of his own followers, and the frontier position of friuli gave the new line of counts, dukes or margraves (for they are variously designated) the opportunity of acquiring importance by exploits against the bulgarians, slovenians and other hostile peoples to the east. after the death of charlemagne friuli shared in general in the fortunes of northern italy. in the 11th century the ducal rights over the greater part of friuli were bestowed by the emperor henry iv. on the patriarch of aquileia; but towards the close of the 14th century the nobles called in the assistance of venice, which, after defeating the archbishop, afforded a new illustration of aesop's well-known fable, by securing possession of the country for itself. the eastern part of friuli was held by the counts of gorz till 1500, when on the failure of their line it was appropriated by the german king, maximilian i., and remained in the possession of the house of austria until the napoleonic wars. by the peace of campo formio in 1797 the venetian district also came to austria, and on the formation of the napoleonic kingdom of italy in 1805 the department of passariano was made to include the whole of venetian and part of austrian friuli, and in 1809 the rest was added to the illyrian provinces. the title of duke of friuli was borne by marshal duroc. in 1815 the whole country was recovered by the emperor of austria, who himself assumed the ducal title and coat of arms; and it was not till 1866 that the venetian portion was again ceded to italy by the peace of prague. the capital of the country is udine, and its arms are a crowned eagle on a field azure. see manzano, _annali del friuli_ (udine, 1858-1879); and _compendio di storia friulana_ (udine, 1876); antonini, _il friuli orientale_ (milan, 1865); von zahn, _friaulische studien_ (vienna, 1878); pirona, _vocabolario friulino_ (venice, 1869); and l. fracassetti, _la statistica etnografica del friuli_ (udine, 1903). (t. as.) froben [frobenius], joannes (c. 1460-1527), german printer and scholar, was born at hammelburg in bavaria about the year 1460. after completing his university career at basel, where he made the acquaintance of the famous printer johannes auerbach (1443-1513), he established a printing house in that city about 1491, and this soon attained a european reputation for accuracy and for taste. in 1500 he married the daughter of the bookseller wolfgang lachner, who entered into partnership with him. he was on terms of friendship with erasmus (q.v.), who not only had his own works printed by him, but superintended frobenius's editions of st jerome, st cyprian, tertullian, hilary of poitiers and st ambrose. his _neues testament_ in greek (1516) was used by luther for his translation. frobenius employed hans holbein to illuminate his texts. it was part of his plan to print editions of the greek fathers. he did not, however, live to carry out this project, but it was very creditably executed by his son jerome and his son-in-law nikolaus episcopius. frobenius died in october 1527. his work in basel made that city in the 16th century the leading centre of the german book trade. an extant letter of erasmus, written in the year of frobenius's death, gives an epitome of his life and an estimate of his character; and in it erasmus mentions that his grief for the death of his friend was far more poignant than that which he had felt for the loss of his own brother, adding that "all the apostles of science ought to wear mourning." the epistle concludes with an epitaph in greek and latin.