HIROSHIMA

hiroshima, a city and seaport of japan, capital of the government of its name in central nippon. pop. (1903) 113,545. it is very beautifully situated on a small plain surrounded by hills, the bay being studded with islands. in its general aspect it resembles osaka, from which it is 190 m. w. by rail, and next to that place and hiogo it is the most important commercial centre on the inland sea. the government has an area of about 3000 sq. m., with a population of about 1,500,000. hiroshima is famous all over japan owing to its association with the neighbouring islet of itaku-shima, "island of light," which is dedicated to the goddess bentin and regarded as one of the three wonders of japan. the chief temple dates from the year 587, and the island, which is inhabited largely by priests and their attendants, is annually visited by thousands of pilgrims. but the hallowed soil is never tilled, so that all provisions have to be brought from the surrounding districts. hirpini (from an oscan or sabine stem _hirpo-_, "wolf"), an inland samnite tribe in the south of italy, whose territory was bounded by that of the lucani on the s., the campani on the s.w., the appuli (apuli) and frentani on the e. and n.e. on the n. we find them, politically speaking, identified with the pentri and caraceni, and with them constituting the samnite alliance in the wars of the 4th century b.c. (see samnites). the roman policy of separation cut them off from these allies by the foundation of beneventum in 268 b.c., and henceforward they are a separate unit; they joined hannibal in 216 b.c., and retained their independence until, after joining in the social war, which in their part of italy can hardly be said to have ceased till the final defeat of the samnites by sulla in 83 b.c., they received the roman franchise. of their oscan speech, besides the evidence of their place-names, only a few fragments survive (r. s. conway, _the italic dialects_, pp. 170 ff.; and for _hirpo-_, ib. p. 200). in the ethnology of italy the hirpini appear from one point of view as the purest type of safine stock, namely, that in which the proportion of ethnica formed with the suffix _-no-_ is highest, thirty-three out of thirty-six tribal or municipal epithets being formed thereby (e.g. _caudini_, _compsani_) and only one with the suffix -_ti_- (_abellinates_), where it is clearly secondary. on the significance of this see sabini. (r. s. c.) hirsau (formerly _hirschau_), a village of germany, in the kingdom of wurttemberg, on the nagold and the pforzheim-horb railway, 2 m. n. of calw. pop. 800. hirsau has some small manufactures, but it owes its origin and historical interest to its former benedictine monastery, _monasterium hirsaugiense_, at one period one of the most famous in europe. its picturesque ruins, of which only the chapel with the library hall are still in good preservation, testify to the pristine grandeur of the establishment. it was founded about 830 by count erlafried of calw, at the instigation of his son, bishop notting of vercelli, who enriched it with, among other treasures, the body of st aurelius. its first occupants (838) were a colony of fifteen monks from fulda, disciples of hrabanus maurus and walafrid strabo, headed by the abbot liudebert. during about a century and a half, under the fostering care of the counts of calw, it enjoyed great prosperity, and became an important seat of learning; but towards the end of the 10th century the ravages of the pestilence combined with the rapacity of its patrons, and the selfishness and immorality of its inmates, to bring it to the lowest ebb. after it had been desolate and in ruins for upwards of sixty years it was rebuilt in 1059, and under abbot william--wilhelm von hirsau--abbot from 1069 to 1091, it more than regained its former splendour. by his _constitutiones hirsaugienses_, a new religious order, the ordo hirsaugiensis, was formed, the rule of which was afterwards adopted by many monastic establishments throughout germany, such as those of blaubeuren, erfurt and schaffhausen. the friend and correspondent of pope gregory vii., and of anselm of canterbury, abbot william took active part in the politico-ecclesiastical controversies of his time; while a treatise from his pen, _de musica et tonis_, as well as the _philosophicarum et astronomicarum institutionum libri iii._, bears witness to his interest in science and philosophy. about the end of the 12th century the material and moral welfare of hirsau was again very perceptibly on the decline; and it never afterwards again rose into importance. in consequence of the reformation it was secularized in 1558; in 1692 it was laid in ruins by the french. the _chronicon hirsaugiense_, or, as in the later edition it is called, _annales hirsaugienses_ of abbot trithemius (basel, 1559; st gall, 1690), is, although containing much that is merely legendary, an important source of information, not only on the affairs of this monastery, but also on the early history of germany. the _codex hirsaugiensis_ was edited by a. f. gfrorer and printed at stuttgart in 1843. see steck, _das kloster hirschau_ (1844); helmsdorfer, _forschungen zur geschichte des abts wilhelm von hirschau_ (gottingen, 1874); weizsacker, _fuhrer durch die geschichte des klosters hirschau_ (stuttgart, 1898); sussmann, _forschungen zur geschichte des klosters hirschau_ (halle, 1903); giseke, _die hirschauer wahrend des investiturstreits_ (gotha, 1883); c. h. klaiber, _das kloster hirschau_ (tubingen, 1886); and baer, _die hirsauer bauschule_ (freiburg, 1897).