Chapter II: Part 2

The origin of the name of the instrument is also a matter of
conjecture. Two theories exist--one that cor anglais is a corruption
of _cor angle_, a name given on account of the angular bend of the
early specimens. In that case the name, but not necessarily the
instrument, probably originated in France early in the 18th century,
for Gluck scored for two cors anglais in his Italian version of
_Alceste_ played in Vienna in 1767. When a French version of this
opera was given in Paris two years later, the cor anglais, not being
known or available there, was replaced by oboes. It was not until 1808
that the cor anglais was heard at the Paris Opera, when it was played
by the oboist Vogt in Catel's _Alexandre chez Apelle_. This, however,
proves only that the name was not familiar in France, where the oboe
of the same pitch was called _haute-contre de hautbois_. The bending
of the tube and the development of the cor anglais as solo instrument
originated in Germany, unless the _oboe da caccia_ was identical with
the cor anglais, in which case Italy would be the country of origin.
Thomas Stanesby, junior, made an oboe da caccia in 1740 of straight
pattern in four pieces, having a bent metal crook for the insertion of
the reed and two saddle keys; but the bell was like the bell of the
oboe, not globular like that of the cor anglais, a form to which the
veiled quality of its _timbre_ is due. It is interesting in this
connexion to recall some experiments in bending the cor anglais, which
do not appear to have led to any practical result. A French broadside
(c. 1650), "La Musique," preserved in the British Museum, contains
drawings of many musical instruments in use in the 17th century; among
them are an oboe with keys in a perforated case, and two other wood
wind instruments of the same family, which may be taken to represent
attempts to dispose of the inconvenient length of the _haute-contre_
(1) by bending the tube at right angles for about one quarter of its
length from the mouthpiece, which contains a large double reed, (2)
by bending the tube in the elongated "S" shape of the _corno torto_ or
bass Zinke, for which the drawing in question might be mistaken but
for the bent crook inserted in the end for the reception of the reed,
which, however, is missing. The other hypothesis is that when the cor
anglais was given a bend in order to facilitate the handling, the name
was adopted to mark its resemblance to a kind of hunting-horn said to
be in use in England at the time. This suggestion does not seem to be
a happy one; for if the reference be to the crescent-shaped horn, that
instrument was in use in all countries at various periods before the
17th century, while if it be to the angular form, then a reproduction
of such a horn should be forthcoming to support the statement.

The idea of bending the instrument is attributed to Giovanni or
Giuseppe Ferlendis of Bergamo,[3] brothers and virtuosi on the oboe.
One of these had settled in Salzburg, and both were equally renowned
as performers on the English horn. They visited Venice, Brescia,
Trieste, Vienna, London (in 1795) and Lisbon, where Giuseppe died. In
this case we might expect the name to have been given in Italian,
_corno inglese_; yet Gluck in his Italian edition used the French name
already in 1767, when Giuseppe was but twelve years old. We must await
some more conclusive explanation, but we may suppose that the new name
was bestowed when the instrument assumed a form entirely new to the
family of hautbois or oboes. The cor anglais was well known in England
before 1774, for in a quaint book of travels through England,
published in that year, we read that Signor Sougelder,[4] "an eminent
surgeon of Bristol," was a performer "on the English horn."

The experiment of bending the cor anglais did not prove satisfactory,
for the tube instead of being bored had to be cut out of two pieces of
wood which were then glued together and covered with leather. Even the
most skilful craftsman did not succeed in making the inside of the
tube quite smooth; the roughness of the wood was detrimental to the
tone and gave the cor anglais a veiled, somewhat hoarse quality, and
makers before long reverted to the direct or vertical form. (K. S.)

FOOTNOTES:

[1] See Harleian MS. 2034, f. 207b, British Museum, in the third part
of Randle Holme's _Academy of Armoury_, written before 1688, where an
outline sketch in ink is also given.

[2] See J. Ecorcheville, "Quelques documents sur la musique de la
Grande Ecurie du Roi," _Sammelband intern. Musikges._ ii. 4, pp. 609
and 625. Deeds exist creating charges for four hautbois and musettes
de Poitou in the hand of King John, middle of 14th century, see p.
633.

[3] See Henri Lavoix, _Histoire de l'instrumentation_, p. 111;
Gerber, _Lexikon_, "Giuseppe Ferlendis"; Robert Eitner,
_Quellen-Lexikon der Tonkunstler_, "Gioseffo Ferlendis." Fetis and
Pohl also refer to him.

[4] See _Musical Travels thro' England_ (London, 1774), p. 56.

CORATO, a city of Apulia, Italy, in the province of Bari, 26 m. W. of Bari by steam tramway. Pop. (1901) 41,573. It is situated in the centre of an agricultural district. It contains no buildings of great interest, but is a clean and well-kept town.

CORBAN ([Hebrew: KRBN]), an Aramaic word meaning "a consecrated gift." Josephus uses the word of Nazirites and of the temple treasure of Jerusalem. Such a votive offering lay under a curse if it were diverted to ordinary purposes, like the spoil of Jericho which Achan appropriated (Josh. vii.), or the temple treasure of Delphi which was seized by the Phocians, 356 B.C. The word is found in Mark vii. 11, the usual interpretation of which is that Jesus refers to an abuse--a man might declare that any part of his property which came into his parents' hands was _corban_, consecrated, i.e. that a curse rested on any benefit they might get from it. The Jewish scribes thus fenced the law of vows with a traditional interpretation which made men break the most binding injunctions of the Mosaic Law, in this case the fifth commandment. A totally different explanation of the passage is put forward by J. H. A. Hart in _The Jewish Quarterly Review_ for July 1907, the gist of which is that Jesus commends the Pharisees for insisting that when a man has vowed a vow to God he should pay it even though his parents should suffer.

CORBEIL, WILLIAM OF (d. 1136), archbishop of Canterbury, was born probably at Corbeil on the Seine, and was educated at Laon. He was soon in the service of Ranulf Flambard, bishop of Durham; then, having entered the order of St Augustine, he became prior of the Augustinian foundation at St Osyth in Essex. At the beginning of 1123 he was chosen from among several candidates to be archbishop of Canterbury, and as he refused to admit that Thurstan, archbishop of York, was independent of the see of Canterbury, this prelate refused to consecrate him, and the ceremony was performed by his own suffragan bishops. Proceeding to Rome the new archbishop found that Thurstan had anticipated his arrival in that city and had made out a strong case against him to Pope Calixtus II.; however, the exertions of the English king Henry I. and of the emperor Henry V. prevailed, and the pope gave William the pallium. The archbishop's next dispute was with the papal legate. Cardinal John of Crema, who had arrived in England and was acting in an autocratic manner. Again travelling to Rome, William gained another victory, and was himself appointed papal legate (_legatus natus_) in England and Scotland, a precedent of considerable importance in the history of the English Church. The archbishop had sworn to Henry I. that he would support the claim of his daughter Matilda to the English crown, but nevertheless he crowned Stephen in December 1135. He died at Canterbury on the 21st of November 1136. William built the keep of Rochester Castle, and finished the building of the cathedral at Canterbury, which was dedicated with great pomp in May 1130.

See W. F. Hook, _Lives of the Archbishops of Canterbury_ (1860-1884);
and W. R. W. Stephens, _History of the English Church_ (1901).

CORBEIL, a town of northern France, capital of an arrondissement in the department of Seine-et-Oise, at the confluence of the Essonne with the Seine, 21 m. S. by E. of Paris on the Orleans railway to Nevers. Pop. (1906) 9756. A bridge across the Seine unites the main part of the town on the left bank with a suburb on the other side; handsome boulevards lead to the village of Essonnes (pop. 7255), about a mile to the south-west. St Spire, the only survivor of the formerly numerous churches of Corbeil, dates from the 12th to the 15th centuries. Behind the church there is a Gothic gateway. A monument has been erected to the brothers Galignani, publishers of Paris, who gave a hospital and orphanage to the town. Corbeil is the seat of a sub-prefect, and has tribunals of first instance and commerce and a chamber of commerce. It has important flour-mills, tallow-works, printing-works, large paper-works at Essonnes, and carries on boat and carriage-building, and the manufacture of plaster. The Decauville engineering works are in the vicinity. There is trade in grain and flour.

From the 10th to the 12th century Corbeil was the chief town of a powerful countship, but it was united to the crown by Louis VI.; it continued for a long time to be an important military post in connexion with the commissariat of Paris. In 1258 St Louis concluded a treaty here with James I. of Aragon. Of the numerous sieges to which it has been exposed the most important were those by the Huguenots in 1562, and by Alexander Farnese, prince of Parma, in 1590.

CORBEL (Lat. _corbellus_, a diminutive of _corvus_, a raven, on account of the beak-like appearance; Ital. _mensola_, Fr. _corbeau_, _cul-de-lampe_, Ger. _Kragstein_), the name in medieval architecture for a piece of stone jutting out of a wall to carry any super-incumbent weight. A piece of timber projecting in the same way was called a tassel or a bragger. Thus the carved ornaments from which the vaulting shafts spring at Lincoln are corbels. Norman corbels are generally plain. In the Early English period they are sometimes elaborately carved, as at Lincoln above cited, and sometimes more simply so, as at Stone. They sometimes end with a point apparently growing into the wall, or forming a knot, as at Winchester, and often are supported by angels and other figures. In the later periods the foliage or ornaments resemble those in the capitals. The corbels carrying the arches of the corbel tables in Italy and France were often elaborately moulded, and sometimes in two or three courses projecting over one another; those carrying the machicolations of English and French castles had four courses. The corbels carrying balconies in Italy and France were sometimes of great size and richly carved, and some of the finest examples of the Italian Cinquecento style are found in them. Throughout England, in half-timber work, wood corbels abound, carrying window-sills or oriels in wood, which also are often carved. A "corbel table" is a projecting moulded string course supported by a range of corbels. Sometimes these corbels carry a small arcade under the string course, the arches of which are pointed and trefoiled. As a rule the corbel table carries the gutter, but in Lombard work the arcaded corbel table was utilized as a decoration to subdivide the storeys and break up the wall surface. In Italy sometimes over the corbels will be a moulding, and above a plain piece of projecting wall forming a parapet (see also MASONRY).

CORBET, RICHARD (1582-1635), English bishop and poet, was born in 1582, the son of a nurseryman at Ewell, Surrey. At Oxford, to which he proceeded from Westminster school in 1597, he was noted as a wit. On taking orders he continued to display this talent from the pulpit, and James I., in consideration of his "fine fancy and preaching," made him one of the royal chaplains. In 1620 he became vicar of Stewkley, Berkshire, and in the same year was made dean of Christchurch, Oxford. In 1628 he was made bishop of Oxford, and in 1632 translated thence to the see of Norwich. Corbet was the author of many poems, for the most part of a lively, satirical order, his most serious production being the _Fairies' Farewell_. His verses were first collected and published in 1647. His conviviality was famous, and many stories are told of his youthful merrymaking in London taverns in company with Ben Jonson, who always remained his close friend, and other dramatists. He died at Norwich on the 28th of July 1635.

CORBIE (Lat. _corvus_), a crow or raven. In architecture, "corbie steps" is a Scottish term (cf. CORBEL) for the steps formed up the sides of the gable by breaking the coping into short horizontal beds.

CORBRIDGE, a small market town in the Hexham parliamentary division of Northumberland, England; 3-1/2 m. E. of Hexham, on the north bank of the river Tyne, which is here crossed by a fine seven-arched bridge dating from 1674. Pop. (1901) 1647. Corbridge was formerly of greater importance than at present. Its name, derived from the small river Cor, a tributary of the Tyne, is said to be associated with the Brigantian tribe of Corionototai. About 760 it became the capital of Northumbria; later it was a borough and was long represented in parliament. In 1138 David of Scotland made it a centre of military operations, and it was ravaged by Wallace in 1296, by Bruce in 1312, and by David II. in 1346. Its chief remains of antiquity are a square peel-tower and the cruciform church of St Andrew, of which part of the fabric is of pre-Conquest date, though the building is mainly Early English. Extensive use is made of building materials from the Roman station of _Corstopitum_ (also called Corchester), which lay half a mile west of Corbridge at the junction of the Cor with the Tyne. This site has from time to time yielded many valuable relics, notably a silver dish, discovered in 1734, 148 oz. in weight and ornamented with figures of deities; but the first-rate importance of the station was only revealed by careful excavations undertaken in 1907 seq. There were then unearthed remains of several buildings fronting a broad thoroughfare, one of which is the largest Roman building, except the baths at Bath, yet discovered in England. Two of these buildings were granaries, and indicate the importance of Corstopitum as a base of the northward operations of Antoninus Pius. After his conquests had been lost, and Corstopitum ceased to be a military centre, its military buildings passed into civilian occupation, of which many evidences have been found. A fine hoard of gold coins, wrapped in lead-foil and hidden in a wall, was discovered in 1908. Corstopitum ceased to exist early in the 5th century, and the site was never again occupied.

CORBULO, GNAEUS DOMITIUS (1st century A.D.), Roman general, was the half-brother of Caesonia, one of the wives of the emperor Caligula. In the reign of Tiberius he held the office of praetor, and was appointed to the superintendence of the roads and bridges. Under Claudius he was governor of lower Germany (A.D. 47). He punished the Frisii who refused to pay the tribute, and was on the point of advancing against the Chauci, but was recalled by the emperor and ordered to withdraw behind the Rhine. In order to provide employment for his soldiers, Corbulo made them cut a canal from the Mosa (Meuse) to the northern branch of the Rhine, which still forms one of the chief drains between Leiden and Sluys, and before the introduction of railways was the ordinary traffic road between Leiden and Rotterdam. Soon after the accession of Nero, Vologaeses (Vologasus), king of Parthia, overran Armenia, drove out Rhadamistus, who was under the protection of the Romans, and set his own brother Tiridates on the throne. Corbulo was thereupon sent out to the East with full military powers. After some delay, he took the offensive in 58, and, reinforced by troops from Germany, attacked Tiridates. Artaxata and Tigranocerta were captured, and Tigranes, who had been brought up in Rome and was the obedient servant of the government, was installed king of Armenia. In 61 Tigranes invaded Adiabene, an integral portion of the Parthian kingdom, and a conflict between Rome and Parthia seemed unavoidable. Vologaeses, however, thought it better to come to terms. It was agreed that both the Roman and Parthian troops should evacuate Armenia, that Tigranes should be dethroned, and the position of Tiridates recognized. The Roman government declined to accede to these arrangements, and L. Caesennius Paetus, governor of Cappadocia, was ordered to settle the question by bringing Armenia under direct Roman administration. The protection of Syria in the meantime claimed all Corbulo's attention. Paetus, a weak and incapable man, suffered a severe defeat at Rhandea (62), where he was surrounded and forced to capitulate and to evacuate Armenia. The command of the troops was again entrusted to Corbulo. In 63, with a strong army, he crossed the Euphrates, but Tiridates declined to give battle and concluded peace. At Rhandea he laid down his diadem at the foot of the emperor's statue, promising not to resume it until he received it from the hand of Nero himself in Rome. In 67 disturbances broke out in Judaea, but Nero, jealous of Corbulo's success and popularity, ordered Vespasian to take command of the forces and summoned Corbulo to Greece. On his arrival at Cenchreae, the port of Corinth, messengers from Nero met Corbulo, and ordered him to commit suicide. Without hesitation he obeyed, exclaiming, "I have deserved it." Whether he had really given any grounds for suspicion is unknown; but there is no doubt, so great was his popularity with the soldiers and such the hatred felt for Nero, that he could easily have seized the throne. Corbulo wrote an account of his Asiatic experiences, which is lost.

See Tacitus, _Annals_, xii.-xv.; Dio Cassius lix. 15, lx. 30, lxii.
19-23, lxiii. 6, 17, lxvi. 3; H. Schiller, _Geschichte des romischen
Kaiserreichs unter der Regierung des Nero_ (1872); E. Egli, "Feldzuge
in Armenien von 41-63," in M. Budinger's _Untersuchungen zur romischen
Kaisergeschichte_, i. (1868); Mommsen, _Hist. of the Roman Provinces_,
ii. (1886); for the Armenian campaigns see B. W. Henderson in
_Classical Review_ (April, May, June, 1901); in general D. T.
Schoonover, _A Study of Cn. Domitius Corbulo_ (Chicago, 1909).

CORD (derived through the Fr. _corde_, from the Lat. _chorda_, Gr. [Greek: chorde], the string of a musical instrument), a length of twisted or woven strands, in thickness coming between a rope and a string, a smaller kind of rope (q.v.). From the use of such a cord for measuring, the word is applied to a quantity of cut wood, differing according to locality. The variant "chord," which, in spelling, reverts to the original Latin, is used in particular senses, as, in physiology, for such cord-like structures as the vocal chords; in the case of the "umbilical cord," the other spelling is usually retained. In mathematics a "chord" is a straight line joining any two points on the same curve, and, in music, the word is used of several musical notes sounded simultaneously and in harmony (q.v.). In this last sense, "chord" is properly a shortened form of "accord," agreement, from Late Lat. _accordare_, and the spelling with _h_ is due to a confusion.

CORDAY D'ARMONT, MARIE ANNE CHARLOTTE (1768-1793), French revolutionary heroine, the murderess of Marat, born at St Saturnin des Lignerets, near Seez in Normandy, was descended from a noble but poor family, and numbered among her ancestors the dramatist Corneille. Charlotte Corday was educated in the convent of the Holy Trinity at Caen, and then sent to live with an aunt. Here she saw hardly any one but her relative, and passed her lonely hours in reading the works of the _philosophes_, especially Voltaire and the Abbe Raynal. Another of her favourite authors was Plutarch, from whose pages she doubtless imbibed the idea of classic heroism and civic virtue which prompted the act that has made her name famous. On the outbreak of the Revolution she began to study current politics, chiefly in the papers issued by the party afterwards known as the Girondins. On the downfall of this party, on May 31, 1793, many of the leaders took refuge in Normandy, and proposed to make Caen the headquarters of an army of volunteers, at the head of whom Felix de Wimpffen, who commanded the army assembled for the defence of the coasts at Cherbourg, was to have marched upon Paris. Charlotte attended their meetings, and heard them speak; but we have no reason to believe that she saw any of them privately, till the day when she went to ask for introductions to friends of theirs in Paris. She saw that their efforts in Normandy were doomed to fail. She had heard of Marat as a tyrant and the chief agent in their overthrow, and she had conceived the idea of going alone to Paris and assassinating him,--doubtless thinking that this would break up the party of the Terrorists and be the signal of a counter-revolution, and ignorant of the fact that Marat was ill almost to the point of death, and that others were more influential than he.

Apparently she had thought of going to Paris in April, before the fall of the Girondins, for she had then procured a passport which she used in July. It contained the usual description of the bearer, and ran thus: _Laissez passer la citoyenne Marie, &c., Corday, agee de 24 ans, taille de 5 pieds 1 pouce, cheveux et sourcils chatains, yeux gris, front eleve, nez long, bouche moyenne, menton rond fourchu, visage ovale._ Arrived in Paris she first attended to some business for a friend at Caen, and then she wrote to Marat: "Citizen, I have just arrived from Caen. Your love for your native place doubtless makes you desirous of learning the events which have occurred in that part of the republic. I shall call at your residence in about an hour; have the goodness to receive me and to give me a brief interview. I will put you in a condition to render great service to France." On calling she was refused admittance, and wrote again, promising to reveal important secrets, and appealing to Marat's sympathy on the ground that she herself was persecuted by the enemies of the republic. She was again refused an audience, and it was only when she called a third time (July 13) that Marat, hearing her voice in the antechamber, consented to see her. He lay in a bathing tub, wrapped in towels, for he was suffering from a horrible disease which had almost reduced him to a state of putrefaction. Our only source of information as to what followed is Charlotte's own confession. She spoke to Marat of what was passing at Caen, and his only comment on her narrative was that all the men she had mentioned should be guillotined in a few days. As he spoke she drew from her bosom a dinner-knife (which she had bought the day before for two francs) and plunged it into his left side. It pierced the lung and the aorta. He cried out, "_A moi, ma chere amie!_" and expired. Two women rushed in, and prevented Charlotte from escaping. A crowd collected round the house, and it was with difficulty that she was escorted to the prison of the Abbaye. On being brought before the Revolutionary Tribunal she gloried in her act, and when the indictment against her was read, and the president asked her what she had to say in reply, her answer was, "Nothing, except that I have succeeded." Her advocate, Claude Francois Chauveau Lagarde, put forward in vain the plea of insanity. She was sentenced to death, and calmly thanked her counsel for his efforts on her behalf, adding that the only defence worthy of her was an avowal of the act. She was then conducted to the Conciergerie, where at her own desire her portrait (now in the museum of Versailles) was painted by the artist Jean Jacques Hauer. She preserved her perfect calmness to the last. When she saw the guillotine, she placed herself in position under the fatal blade without assistance from any one. The knife fell, and one of the executioners held up her head by the hair, and had the brutality to strike it with his fist. Many believed they saw the dead face blush,--probably an effect of the red stormy sunset. It was the 17th of July 1793. It is difficult to analyse the character of Charlotte Corday; but there was in it much that was noble and exalted. Her mind had been formed by her studies on a pagan type. To C. J. M. Barbaroux and the Girondins of Caen she wrote from her prison, anticipating happiness "with Brutus in the Elysian Fields" after her death, and with this letter she sent a simple loving farewell to her father, revealing a tender side to her character that otherwise we would hardly have looked for in such a woman. Lamartine called her _l'ange de l'assassinat_, and Vergniaud said, "_Elle nous perd, mais elle nous apprend a mourir._"

See _OEuvres politiques de Charlotte Corday_ (Caen, 1863; some letters
and an _Adresse aux Francais amis des lois el de la paix_), with a
supplement printed in the same year; Louvet de Couvrai, _Memoires_
(ed. Aulard, Paris, 1889); Alphonse Esquiros, _Charlotte Corday_ (2nd
ed., 2 vols., Paris, 1841); Cheron de Villiers, _Marie Anne Charlotte
Corday_ (Paris, 1865); Casimir Perier, "La Jeunesse de Charlotte
Corday" (_Revue des deux mondes_, 1862); C. Vatel, _Dossiers du proces
criminel de Charlotte de Corday ... extraits des archives imperiales_
(Paris, 1861), and _Dossier historique de Charlotte Corday_ (Paris,
1872); Austin Dobson, _Four Frenchwomen_ (London, 1890); A. Ducos,
_Les Trois Girondines, Mme Roland, Charlotte Corday ..._ (Paris,
1896); Dr Cabanes, "La vraie Charlotte Corday," in _Le Cabinet secret
de l'histoire_ (4 vols., 1897-1900). Her tragic history was the
subject of two anonymous tragedies, _Charlotte Corday_ (1795), said to
be by the Conventional F. J. Gamon, and _Charlotte Corday_ (Caen,
1797), neither of which have any merit; another by J. B. Salles is
published by C. Vatel in _Charlotte de Corday et les Girondins_
(1864-1872). See further bibliographical articles in M. Tourneux,
_Bibl. de l'hist. de Paris ..._ (vol. iv., 1906), and in the
_Bibliographie des femmes celebres_ (3 vols., Turin and Rome,
1892-1905); and also E. Defrance, _Charlotte Corday et la mort de
Marat_ (1909).

CORDELIERS, CLUB OF THE, or SOCIETY OF THE FRIENDS OF THE RIGHTS OF MAN AND OF THE CITIZEN, a popular society of the French Revolution. It was formed by the members of the district of the Cordeliers, when the Constituent Assembly suppressed the 60 districts of Paris to replace them with 48 sections (21st of May 1790). It held its meetings at first in the church of the monastery of the Cordeliers,--the name given in France to the Franciscan Observantists,--now the Dupuytren museum of anatomy in connexion with the school of medicine. From 1791, however, the Cordeliers met in a hall in the rue Dauphine. The aim of the society was to keep an eye on the government; its emblem on its papers was simply an open eye. It sought as well to encourage revolutionary measures against the monarchy and the old regime, and it was it especially which popularized the motto "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity." It took an active part in the movement against the monarchy of the 20th of June and the 10th of August 1792; but after that date the more moderate leaders of the club, Danton, Fabre d'Eglantine, Camille Desmoulins, seem to have ceased attending, and the "_enrages_" obtained control, such as J. R. Hebert, F. N. Vincent, C. P. H. Ronsin and A. F. Momoro. Its influence was especially seen in the creation of the revolutionary army destined to assure provisions for Paris, and in the establishment of the worship of Reason. The Cordeliers were combated by those revolutionists who wished to end the Terror, especially by Danton, and by Camille Desmoulins in his journal _Le Vieux Cordelier_. The club disowned Danton and Desmoulins and attacked Robespierre for his "moderation," but the new insurrection which it attempted failed, and its leaders were guillotined on the 24th of March 1794, from which date nothing is known of the club. We know little of its composition.

The papers emanating from the Cordeliers are enumerated in M.
Tourneux, _Bibliographie de l'histoire de Paris pendant la Revolution_
(1894), i. (on the trial of the Hebertists) Nos. 4204-4210, ii. Nos.
9795-9834 and 11,813. See also A. Bougeart, _Les Cordeliers, documents
pour servir a l'histoire de la Revolution_ (Caen, 1891); G. Lenotre,
_Paris revolutionnaire_ (Paris, 1895); G. Tridon, _Les Hebertists,
plainte contre une calomnie de l'histoire_ (Paris, 1864). The
last-named author was condemned to four months' prison; his work was
reprinted in 1871. The inventory of the pictures found in 1790 in the
monastery of the Cordeliers was published by J. Guiffrey in _Nouvelles
archives de l'art francais_, viii., 2nd series, iii. (1880).
(R. A.*)

CORDERIUS, the Latinized form of name used by MATHURIN CORDIER (c. 1480-1564), French schoolmaster, a native of Normandy or Perche. He possessed special tact and liking for teaching children, and taught first at Paris, where Calvin was among his pupils, and, after a number of changes, finally at Geneva, where he died on the 8th of September 1564. He wrote several books for children; the most famous is his _Colloquia_ (_Colloquiorum scholasticorum libri quatuor_), which has passed through innumerable editions, and was used in schools for three centuries after his time. He also wrote: _Principia Latine loquendi scribendique, sive selecta quaedam ex Epistolis Ciceronis_; _De corrupti sermonis apud Gallos emendatione et Latine loquendi Ratione_; _De syllabarum quantitate_; _Conciones sacrae viginti sex Galliae_; _Catonis disticha de moribus_ (with Latin and French translation); _Remontrances et exhortations au roi et aux grands de son royaume_.

See monograph by E. A. Berthault, _De M. Corderio et creatis apud
Protestantes litterarum studiis_ (1875).

CORDES, a town of southern France, in the department of Tarn, 15 m. N.W. of Albi by road. Pop. (1906) 1619. Cordes, which covers the summit and slopes of an isolated hill, was a bastide founded by Raymond VII., count of Toulouse, in the first half of the 13th century. It preserves its medieval aspect to a remarkable degree, a large number of houses of the 13th and 14th centuries, with decorated fronts, forming its chief attraction. A church of the same periods and remains of the original ramparts are also to be seen.

CORDILLERA, a Spanish term for a range or chain of mountains, derived from the Old Spanish _cordilla_, the diminutive of _cuerda_, a cord or rope. The name was first given to the Andes ranges of South America, _Las Cordilleras de los Andes_, and applied to the extension of the system into Mexico. In North America the parallel ranges of mountains running between and including the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevada are known as the "Cordilleras," and that part of the western continent crossed by them has been termed the "Cordilleran region." Although the name has been applied to the eastern mountain system of Australia, the word is not, outside America, used as a generic term for parallel ranges of mountains.

CORDITE, the name given to the smokeless propellant in use in the British army and navy. The material is produced in the form of cylindrical rods or strings of varying thicknesses by pressing the material, whilst in a soft and pasty state, through dies or perforations in a steel plate by hydraulic or screw pressure, hence the name cordite. The thickness or size of the rods varies from about 1 mm. diameter to 5 or more mm. according to the nature of the charge for which it is intended. The smallest diameter is used for revolver cartridge and the largest for heavy guns. When first devised by the Ordnance Committee, presided over by Sir Frederick Abel, in 1891, this explosive consisted of 58% of nitro-glycerin, 37% of gun-cotton, and 5% of mineral jelly. This variety is now known as Cordite Mark 1. At the present time a modification is made which contains gun-cotton 65%, nitro-glycerin 30%, and mineral jelly 5%. This is known as Cordite M.D. The advantages of Cordite M.D. over Mark 1 are slightly reduced rate of burning, higher velocities and more regular pressure in the gun, and lower temperature.

Cordite of either mark is a perfectly waterproof substance, containing only traces of water remaining from the manufacturing processes. It has a density of about 1.56 at the ordinary temperature (15 deg. C.), and, as its coefficient of expansion is small, this density does not change to any serious extent under climatic temperature variations. A rod may be bent to a moderate extent without breaking, and Cordite M.D. especially shows considerable elasticity. It can be impressed by the nail and cut with a knife, but is not in the least sticky, nor does the nitro-glycerin exude to any appreciable extent. It can be obtained in a finely-divided state by scraping with a sharp knife, or on a new file, or by grinding in a mill, such as a coffee-mill, but can scarcely be pounded in a mortar. Cordite is of a brownish colour in mass, but is much paler when finely ground or scraped. The rods easily become electrified by gentle friction with a dry substance. Like all colloidal substances it is an exceedingly bad conductor of heat. A piece ignited in air burns with a yellowish flame. With the smaller sizes, about 2 mm. diameter or less, this flame may be blown out, and the rod will continue to burn in a suppressed manner without actual flame, fumes containing oxides of nitrogen being emitted. Temperature appears to have an effect on the rate of burning. When much cooled it certainly burns more slowly than when at the ordinary air temperature, and is also more difficult to ignite. Rods of moderate thickness, say from 5 mm. diameter, will continue to burn under water if first ignited in air and the burning portion slowly immersed. The end of a rod of cordite may be struck a moderately heavy blow on an anvil without exploding or igniting. The rod will first flatten out. A _sharp_ blow will then detonate or explode the portion immediately under the hammer, the remainder of the rod remaining quite intact. Bullets may be fired through a bundle or package of cordite without detonating or inflaming it. This is of course a valuable quality. The exact temperature at which substances ignite or take fire is in all cases difficult to determine with any exactness. Cordite is not _instantly_ ignited on contact with a flame such as that of a candle, because, perhaps, of the condensation of some moisture from the products of burning of the candle upon it. A blow-pipe flame or a red-hot wire is more rapid in action. The ignition temperature may be somewhere in the region of 180 deg. C.

All the members of this class of explosive when kept for some time at (for them) moderately high temperatures, such as the boiling-point of water (100 deg. C.), show signs of decomposition; oxides of nitrogen are liberated, and some complex oxidation processes are started. Carefully prepared gun-cotton and nitro-glycerin will, however, withstand this temperature for a long time without serious detriment, excepting that nitro-glycerin is slightly volatilized. When incorporated in cordite, however, the nitro-glycerin appears to be much less volatile than when free at this temperature. Under reduced pressure (3 or 4 in. only of mercury instead of 30) it is possible to distil away a considerable amount of nitro-glycerin from cordite at 100 deg. C. It is very doubtful whether at ordinary temperatures and pressures any nitro-glycerin whatever evaporates.

Cordite may be kept in contact with clean, dry metals, wood, paper, and a number of ordinary substances without deterioration. In contact with damp and easily oxidizable metals all the substances of the gun-cotton class are liable to a slight local action, but the colloid nature, and probably also the contained mineral jelly, protect cordite considerably in these circumstances. Ammonia has a deleterious action, but even this proceeds but slowly. Cordite does not appear to change when kept under water.

The manufacturing processes comprise: drying the gun-cotton and nitro-glycerin; melting and filtering the mineral jelly; weighing and mixing the nitro-glycerin with the gun-cotton; moistening this mixture with acetone until it becomes a jelly; and then incorporating in a special mixing mill for about three hours, after which the weighed amount of mineral jelly is added and the incorporation continued for about one hour or until judged complete. The incorporating or mixing machine is covered as closely as possible to prevent too great evaporation of the very volatile acetone. Before complete incorporation the mixture is termed, in the works, "paste," and, when finally mixed, "dough."

The right consistency having been produced, the material is placed in a steel cylinder provided with an arrangement of dies or holes of regulated size at one end, and a piston or plunger at the other. The plunger is worked either by hydraulic power or by a screw (driven from ordinary shafting). Before reaching and passing through the holes in the die, the material is filtered through a disk of fine wire gauze to retain any foreign substances, such as sand, bits of wood or metal, or unchanged fibres of cellulose, &c., which might choke the dies or be otherwise dangerous. The material issues from the cylinders in the form of cord or string of the diameter of the holes of the die. The thicker sizes are cut off, as they issue, into lengths (of about 3 ft.), it being generally arranged that a certain number of these--say ten--should have, within narrow limits, a definite weight. The small sizes, such as those employed for rifle cartridges, are wound on reels or drums, as the material issues from the press cylinders, in lengths of many yards.

Some of the solvent or gelatinizing material (acetone) is lost during the incorporating, and more during the pressing process and the necessary handling, but much still remains in the cordite at this stage. It is now dried in heated rooms, where it is generally spread out on shelves, a current of air passing through carrying the acetone vapour with it. In the more modern works this air current is drawn, finally, through a solution of a substance such as sodium bisulphite; a fixed compound is thus formed with the acetone, which by suitable treatment may be recovered. The time taken in the drying varies with the thickness of the cordite from a few days to several weeks. For several reasons it is desirable that this process should go on gradually and slowly.

After drying, all the various batches of cordite of the same size are carefully "blended," so that any slight differences in the manufacture of one batch or one day's output may be equalized as much as possible. Slight differences may arise from the raw materials, cotton waste or glycerin, or in the making of these into gun-cotton or nitro-glycerin respectively. To help in controlling the blending, each "make" of gun-cotton and nitro-glycerin is "marked" or numbered, and carries its mark to the cordite batch of which it is an ingredient. The history of each box of large-sized or reel of small-sized cordite is therefore known up to the operation of blending and packing. The final testing is by firing proofs, as in the case of the old gunpowders.

The gun-cotton employed for cordite is made in the usual way (see GUN-COTTON), with the exception of treating with alkali. It is also after complete washing with water gently pressed into small cylinders (about 3 in. diameter and 4 in. high) whilst wet, and these are carefully dried before the nitro-glycerin is added. The pressure applied is only sufficient to make the gun-cotton just hold together so that it is easily mixed with the nitro-glycerin. The mineral jelly or vaseline is obtained at a certain stage of distillation of petroleum, and is a mixture of hydrocarbons, paraffins, olefines and some other unsaturated hydrocarbons, possibly aromatic, which no doubt play a very important part as preservatives in cordite.

The stability of cordite, that is, its capability of keeping without chemical or ballistic changes, is judged of by certain "heat tests." The Abel heat test consists in subjecting a weighed quantity, 2 grams, of the finely divided cordite contained in a test tube, to a temperature of 70 deg. C. maintained constant by a water bath. The test tube is about 6 X 3/4 in., and dips into the water sufficiently to immerse about 2 in., viz. the part containing the cordite. In the upper free portion a piece of filter-paper impregnated with a mixture of potassium iodide and starch paste is suspended by a platinum wire from the stopper of the tube. A portion of the test paper is moistened with a solution of glycerin to render it more sensitive than the dry part. A faint brown colour appearing on the moistened portion indicates that some oxides of nitrogen have been evolved from the cordite. This brown tint is compared with a standard, and the time taken before the standard tint appears is noted. The time fixed upon as a test of relative stability is an arbitrary one determined by examination of well-known specimens. Should the cordite or other explosive contain traces of mercury salts, such as mercuric chloride, which is sometimes added as a preservative, this test is rendered nugatory, and no coloration may appear (or only after a long exposure), although the sample may be of indifferent stability. It is now customary to examine specially for mercury, either by heating the explosive in contact with gold leaf or silver foil, or by burning the substance and examining the flame in the spectroscope.

The method of examination known as the vacuum silvered vessel process is probably not interfered with by the presence of very small quantities of mercury. It consists in heating 50 grams of the finely divided explosive in a Dewar's silvered vacuum glass bulb to a rigidly constant temperature of 80 deg. C. for many hours. A sensitive thermometer having its bulb immersed in the centre of the cordite shows when the temperature rises above 80 deg.. Such a rise indicates internal oxidation or decomposition of the explosive; it is accompanied by an evolution of nitrogen dioxide, NO2, the depth of colour of which is noted through a side tube attached to the bulb. As all explosives of this class would in time decompose sufficiently to give these indications, time periods or limits have been fixed at which an appreciable and definite rise in temperature and production of red fumes indicate relative stability or instability. (W. R. E. H.)

CORDOBA, GONZALO FERNANDEZ DE (1453-1515), Spanish general and statesman, usually spoken of by the Italianized form of his Christian name as GONSALVO DE CORDOBA, or as "the Great Captain," was the second son of Don Pedro Fernandez de Cordoba, count of Aguilar, and of his wife Elvira de Herrera, who belonged to the family of Enriquez, the hereditary admirals of Castile, a branch of the royal house. Gonzalo was born at Montilla near the city of Cordova (Cordoba) on the 16th of March 1453. The father died when he and his elder brother, Don Alonso, were mere boys. The counts of Aguilar carried on an hereditary feud with the rival house of Cabra, and the children were carried by their vassals into the faction fights of the two families. As a younger son Gonzalo had his fortune to make, but he was generously aided by the affection of his elder brother, who was very wealthy. War and service in the king's court offered the one acceptable career outside the church to a gentleman of his birth.

He was first attached to the household of Don Alphonso, the king's brother, and upon his death devoted himself to Isabella, afterwards the queen. During the civil war, and the conflict with Portugal which disturbed the first years of her reign, he fought under the grand master of Santiago, Alonso de Cardenas. After the battle of Albuera, the grand master gave him especial praise, saying that he could always see Gonzalo to the front because he was conspicuous by the splendour of his armour. Indeed the future Great Captain, who, as a general, was above all things astute and patient, could, and habitually did, display the most reckless personal daring, going into a fight as if he loved it, and having a shrewd sense that a reputation for intrepidity, a free-handed profusion, and the personal magnificence which strikes the eye, would secure him the devotion of his soldiers. During the ten years' war for the conquest of Granada he completed his apprenticeship under his brother, the count of Aguilar, the grand master of Santiago, and the count of Tendilla, of whom he always spoke as his masters. It was a war of surprises and defences of castles or towns, of skirmishes, and of ambuscades in the defiles of the mountains. The military engineer and the "guerrillero" were about equally employed. Gonzalo's most distinguished single feat was the defence of the advanced post of Illora, but he commanded the queen's escort when she wished to take a closer view of Granada, and he beat back a sortie of the Moors under her eyes. When Granada surrendered, he was one of the officers chosen to arrange the capitulation, and on the peace he was rewarded by a grant of land.

So far he was only known as an able subordinate, but his capacity could not be hidden from such an excellent judge of character as Isabella, to whom as a woman he appealed by a chivalrous union of devotion and respect. When, therefore, the Catholic sovereigns decided to support the Aragonese house of Naples against Charles VIII. of France, Gonzalo was chosen by the influence of the queen, and in preference to older men, to command the Spanish expedition. It was in Italy that he won the title of the Great Captain; Guicciardini says that it was given him by the customary arrogance of the Spaniards, but it was certainly accepted as just by all the soldiers of the time of whatever nationality. A detailed account of his campaigns cannot be given here. He held the command in Italy twice. In 1495 he was sent with a small force of little more than five thousand men to aid Ferdinand of Naples to recover his kingdom, and he returned home after achieving success, in 1498. After a brief interval of service against the conquered Moors who had risen in revolt, he returned to Italy in 1501. Ferdinand of Spain had entered into his iniquitous compact with Louis XII. of France for the spoliation and division of the kingdom of Naples. The Great Captain was chosen to command the Spanish part of this robber coalition. As general and as viceroy of Naples he remained in Italy till 1507. During his first command he was mostly employed in Calabria in mountain warfare which bore much resemblance to his former experience in Granada. There was, however, a material difference in the enemy. The French forces, commanded by the Scotsman Stuart d'Aubigny, consisted largely of Swiss pikemen, and of their own men-at-arms. With his veterans of the Granadine war, foot soldiers armed with sword and buckler, or arquebuses and crossbows, and light cavalry, trained to unsleeping vigilance, capable of long marches, and of an endurance unparalleled among the soldiers of the time, he could carry on a guerrillero warfare which wore down his opponents, who suffered far more than the Spaniards from the heat. But he saw clearly that this was not enough. His experience in Seminara showed him that something more was wanted on the battlefield. The action was lost mainly because King Ferdinand, disregarding the advice of Gonzalo, persisted in fighting a pitched battle with inferior numbers, some of whom were untrustworthy Neapolitans. The Spanish foot behaved excellently, but the result showed that in the open field their loose formation and their swords put them at a disadvantage as against a charge of heavy cavalry or pikemen. Gonzalo therefore introduced a much more strict formation, and adopted the pike as the weapon of a part of his foot. The division of the Spanish infantry into the "battle" or main central body of pikemen, and the wings (_alas_) of "shot" to be employed in outflanking the enemy, was primarily due to the Great Captain.

The French were expelled by 1498 without another battle. When the Great Captain reappeared in Italy he had first to perform the congenial task of driving the Turk from Cephalonia, then to aid in robbing the king of Naples, Frederick, brother of his old ally Ferdinand. When the king of Naples had been despoiled, the French and Spaniards quarrelled over the booty. The Great Captain now found himself with a much outnumbered army in the presence of the French. The war was divided into two phases very similar to one another. During the end of 1502 and the early part of 1503 the Spaniards stood at bay in the entrenched camp at Barletta near the Ofanto on the shores of the Adriatic. He resolutely refused to be tempted into battle either by the taunts of the French or the discontent of his own soldiers. Meanwhile he employed the Aragonese partisans in the country, and flying expeditions of his own men, to harass the enemy's communications. When he was reinforced, and the French committed the mistake of scattering their forces too much to secure supplies, he took the offensive, pounced on the enemy's depot of provisions at Cerignola, took a strong position, threw up hasty field works, and strengthened them with a species of wire entanglements. The French made a headlong front attack, were repulsed, assailed in flank, and routed. The later operations on the Garigliano were very similar, and led to the total expulsion of the French from Naples. Gonzalo remained as governor of Naples till 1507. But he had become too great not to arouse the jealousy of such a typical king of the Renaissance as Ferdinand the Catholic. The death of the queen in 1504 had deprived him of a friend, and it must be allowed that he was profuse in rewarding his captains and his soldiers out of the public treasury. Ferdinand loaded him with titles and fine words, but recalled him so soon as he could, and left him unemployed till his death on the 2nd of December 1515.

The Great Captain is sometimes spoken of as the first of modern generals. The expression is uncritical, for modern generalship arose from many sides, but he was emphatically a general. There is much in his methods which bears a curious likeness to those of the duke of Wellington; Barletta, for instance, has a distinct resemblance to the Torres Vedras campaign, and the battle on the Garigliano to Assaye. As an organizer he founded the Spanish infantry of the 16th and 17th centuries, and he gave the best proof of his influence by forming a school of officers. The best generals of Charles V. were either the pupils of the Great Captain or were trained by them.

There is no life of Gonzalo de Cordoba written by a scholar who was
also a good judge of war. The dull _Cronica del Gran Capitan_ gives
the bare events of his campaigns rather wearisomely but fully. Paulus
Govius, _Vitae illustrium virorum_, translated by Domenichi (Florence,
1550), is elegant and very readable. Don Jose Quintana includes him in
his _Espanoles celebres_ (_Rivadeneyra Biblioteca de autores
espanoles_, vol. xix., Madrid, 1846-1880); and Prescott collected the
authorities, and made good use of them in his _Ferdinand and
Isabella_. See also P. du Poncet, _Histoire de Gonsalve de Cordoue_
(Paris, 1714). The _Gonsalve de Cordoue, ou Grenade reconquise_ of
Florian (Paris, 1791) is a romance. (D. H.)