GELL, Sir William (1777-1836), classical scholar and antiquarian, was born at Hopton in Derbyshire in 1777. After the usual preliminary education, he entered Emmanuel College, Cambridge, taking his B.A. degree in 1798, and afterwards becoming a fellow. About the beginning of the century he was sent on a diplomatic mission to Greece; and on his return in 1803 he was knighted. In the following year he published his Topography of Troy and its Vicinity, illustrated and explained by drawings and descriptions. His Geography and Antiquities of Ithaca was published in 1807. In 1810 appeared The Itinerary of Greece, with a Commentary on Pausanias and Strabo, and an account of monuments of antiquity existing in that country. This was followed in 1816 by the Itinerary of the Horea, being a description of the routes of that peninsula, a new edition of which was published in 1823, under the title of Narrative of a Journey in the AIorea. His best known work is Pompeiana, or Observations on the Topography, Edifices, and Ornaments of Pompeii, in which he was assisted by Mr J. P. Gandy. The first part of this was published in 1817-19, and was translated into French in 1828; the second part appeared in 1830-31. It was followed in 1834 by the Topography of Pome and its Vicinity. In Italy, whither he had retired on account of his health, he became acquainted with Queen Caroline, and his noble and disinterested behaviour during her trial exhibits his moral character in a very favourable light. The queen showed her sense of his co-operation in her defence by appointing him one of her chamberlains in 1820. He died at Naples in 1836. His drawings, representing a very large series of views of classical ruins and localities, and executed, if not with much artistic skill, yet with great detail ...

GELLERT, ChristianFürchtegott (1715-1769), German fabulist, hymn-writer, and moral philosopher, was born 4th July 1715 at Hainchen, in the Saxon Erzgebirge. He was educated at the university of Leipsic, where in 1751 he was appointed an extraordinary professor of philosophy, a position which he occupied till his death, 13th December 1769. He wrote a romance, Leben der schινed. Gräfin von G . . . (2 vols., Leipsic, 1746), of little value, and several pastorals and comedies of, if possible, even less. His best works were his Fabeln und Erzählungen and Geistliche Oden und Lieder. Both are marked by a simple and easy directness of style. The latter express the maxims of a liberal piety, and were received by Catholics and Protestants with equal favour. They are still widely popular in Germany. The best known is the hymn entitled “Die Ehre Gottes aus der Natur.” Not a little of Gellert’s fame is due to the time when he lived and wrote. The German literature of tho period was dominated by the pedant Gottsched and his school. A band of high-spirited youths, of whom Gellert was one, resolved to free themselves from the conventional trammels of such dictators, and began that revolution which was finally consummated by Schiller and Goethe. Gellert’s share in the attempt was enhanced by the excellence of his personal character, his gentle piety, and his singular knack of gaining the reverence and love of young people. Part of his influence was also doubtless attributable to his position as a professor, and to his widely popular lectures....

GELLIUS, Aulus, author of the Noctes Atticoe, was born in the first half of the 2d century of the Christian era, most probably in Rome, and died about 180. Nothing is known of his personal history except from incidental notices in his own book. He studied grammar and rhetoric at Rome and philosophy at Athens, after which he returned to Rome, and held there a judicial office. His only work, the Noctes Atticoe, takes its name from having been begun during the long nights of a winter which he spent in Attica. He afterwards continued it at Rome. It is compiled out of an “Adversaria,” or common-place book, in which he had jotted down everything of unusual interest that he heard in conversation or read in books, and incomprises notes on grammar, geometry, philosophy, history, and almost every other branch of knowledge. The work, which is utterly devoid of sequence or arrangement, is divided into twenty books. All these have come down to us except the eighth, of which nothing remains but the index. The Noctes Atticoe is valuable for the insight it affords into the nature of the society and pursuits of those times, and for the numerous excerpts it contains from the works of lost ancient authors.

The editio princeps of Aulus Gellius appeared at Rome in 1469, and was speedily followed by many others in various cities of Italy, especially Venice. The best editions are those of Gronovius (Leyden, 1706), Lion (Gottingen, 1824-1825), and Hertz (Leipsic, 1853). Aulus Gellius has been translated into English by Beloe (London, 1795); into French by the Abbé de Verteuil (Paris, 1776 - 89), and by Victor Verger (Paris, 1820-30);into German by Walter-stern (Lemberg, 1785), and by Weiss, 2 vols. (Leipsic, 1875-76).