GEIKIE

geikie, walter (1795-1837), scottish painter, was born at edinburgh on the 9th of november 1795. in his second year he was attacked by a nervous fever by which he permanently lost the faculty of hearing, but through the careful attention of his father he was enabled to obtain a good education. before he had the advantage of the instruction of a master he had attained considerable proficiency in sketching both figures and landscapes from nature, and in 1812 he was admitted into the drawing academy of the board of scottish manufactures. he first exhibited in 1815, and was elected an associate of the royal scottish academy in 1831, and a fellow in 1834. he died on the 1st of august 1837, and was interred in the greyfriars churchyard, edinburgh. owing to his want of feeling for colour, geikie was not a successful painter in oils, but he sketched in india ink with great truth and humour the scenes and characters of scottish lower-class life in his native city. a series of etchings which exhibit very high excellence were published by him in 1829-1831, and a collection of eighty-one of these was republished posthumously in 1841, with a biographical introduction by sir thomas dick lauder, bart. geiler (or geyler) von kaisersberg, johann (1445-1510), "the german savonarola," one of the greatest of the popular preachers of the 15th century, was born at schaffhausen on the 16th of march 1445, but from 1448 passed his childhood and youth at kaisersberg in upper alsace, from which place his current designation is derived. in 1460 he entered the university of freiburg in baden, where, after graduation, he lectured for some time on the _sententiae_ of peter lombard, the commentaries of alexander of hales, and several of the works of aristotle. a living interest in theological subjects, awakened by the study of john gerson, led him in 1471 to the university of basel, a centre of attraction to some of the most earnest spirits of the time. made a doctor of theology in 1475, he received a professorship at freiburg in the following year; but his tastes, no less than the spirit of the age, began to incline him more strongly to the vocation of a preacher, while his fervour and eloquence soon led to his receiving numerous invitations to the larger towns. ultimately he accepted in 1478 a call to the cathedral of strassburg, where he continued to work with few interruptions until within a short time of his death on the 10th of march 1510. the beautiful pulpit erected for him in 1481 in the nave of the cathedral, when the chapel of st lawrence had proved too small, still bears witness to the popularity he enjoyed as a preacher in the immediate sphere of his labours, and the testimonies of sebastian brant, beatus rhenanus, johann reuchlin, melanchthon and others show how great had been the influence of his personal character. his sermons--bold, incisive, denunciatory, abounding in quaint illustrations and based on texts by no means confined to the bible,--taken down as he spoke them, and circulated (sometimes without his knowledge or consent) by his friends, told perceptibly on the german thought as well as on the german speech of his time. among the many volumes published under his name only two appear to have had the benefit of his revision, namely, _der seelen paradies von waren und volkomnen tugenden_, and that entitled _das irrig schaf_. of the rest, probably the best-known is a series of lectures on his friend seb. brant's work, _das narrenschiff_ or the _navicula_ or _speculum fatuorum_, of which an edition was published at strassburg in 1511 under the following title:--_navicula sive speculum fatuorum praestantissimi sacrarum literarum doctoris joannis geiler keysersbergii_. see f.w. von ammon, _geyler's leben, lehren und predigten_ (1826); l. dacheux, _un reformateur catholique a la fin du xv^e siecle_, j.g. de k. (paris, 1876); r. cruel, _gesch. der deutschen predigt_, pp. 538-576 (1879); p. de lorenzi, _geiler's ausgewahlte schriften_ (4. vols., 1881); t.m. lindsay, _history of the reformation_, i. 118 (1906); and g. kawerau in herzog-hauck, _realencyklopadie_, vi. 427.