See Hakluyt’s Collection, vol. iii.; Hooker’s Supplement to Hollinshed’s Irish Chronicle; Roger Williams, The Actions of the Low Countries, 1618; Bliss’s edition of Wood’s Athenae Oxonienses, vol i. p. 493; North British Review, No. 45; and the Lives of Sir W. Raleigh by Tytler, James Augustus St John, and Edward Edwards.

GILBERT, Nicolas Joseph Laurent (1751—1780), a French poet, was born at Fontenay-le-Chateau in Lorraine, in 1751. Having completed his education at the college of Dôle, he devoted himself for a time to a half scholastic half literary life at Nancy, but at length in 1774 he found his way to the capital. As he had already assumed a hostile and satirical position towards the Encyclopedists, he naturally received a warmer welcome from the conservative party; and as he did not disdain to prostitute his muse to the celebration of the heroic and royal virtues of the despicable Louis XV., he was rewarded with pensions to a considerable amount. He died in October 1780 from the results of a fall from his horse. The satiric force of one or two of his pieces, as Mon apologie (1778), and Le dix-huitième siècle (1775), would alone be sufficient to preserve his reputation, and it has been further increased by the eulogies of those modern writers who, like Alfred de Vigny, consider him a victim to the spite of his philosophic opponents.

Among his other works may be mentioned Les Familles de Darius et d'Éridame, histoire persane (1770), Le Carnaval des Auteurs (1773), Odes nouvelles et patriotiques (1775). Gilbert’s Oeuvres complètes were first published in 1778, and they have since been edited by Mastrella (Paris, 1823) and by Charles Nodier (1840, 1859, &c. ).

GILBERT, or Gilberd, William (c. 1540-1603), was the most distinguished man of science in England during the reign of Queen Elizabeth. He was born at Colchester, where his father was recorder, but was a descendant of an ancient Suffolk family, long resident at Clare. Of his early years no account is left. He entered St John’s College, Cambridge, in 1558, when eighteen years of age, and in due course took the degrees of B.A., M.A., and M.D.; he also became Symson fellow, and in 1569 was elected a senior fellow of his college. After leaving the university he went to the Continent, and, on his return in 1573, settled in London, where for thirty years,—that is, till his death, —he practised as a physician with “great success and applause.” He was admitted to the College of Physicians, and filled various offices in it. He began in 1581 as censor, which duty he discharged for several years; then he became treasurer, consiliarius elect, and, at last, president in 1600. His professional skill and general ability drew the attention of Queen Elizabeth, to him, and she appointed him royal physician. She also settled a pension on him to enable him to prosecute the scientific inquiries to which he was devoted. After this Gilbert seems to have removed to the court, and to have vacated his house, which was “on St Peter’s Hill, between Upper Thames Street and Little Knight-Rider Street.” At this house he seems to have had a society or college, which was broken up and the members dispersed by his promotion. In the year 1600 he published his work on the magnet. In 1603 the queen died, but Gilbert was reappointed by her successor. He did not long enjoy the honour, -however, for he died November 30, 1603, some say at Colchester, others at London. He was buried at Colchester, in the chancel of the church of the Holy Trinity, where a monument was erected to him. To the College of Physicians he bequeathed his books, instruments, and minerals, but he gave his portrait to the School Gallery at Oxford. In it he is represented as tall of stature and of cheerful countenance, “holding in his hand a globe inscribed ‘Terella’; over his head is the inscription ‘1591, aetatis 48;’ and a little below his left shoulder, ‘Magneticarum virtutum primus indagator Gilbertus.’” The date thus given does not tally with the conclusion of the inscription on his tombstone: “Obiit anno Redemptionis Humanae 1603, Novembris ultimo, aetatis suae 63.” If the latter be correct, he was born in 1540; if the former, in 1543.

Gilbert’s principal work is his treatise on magnetism, entitled De Magnete, Magneticisque Corporibus, et de Magno Magnete Tellure, London, 1600 (later editions—Sedan, 1628, 1633; Frankfort, 1629, 1638). The merit of this work consists in its originality, containing, as it does, an account of the author’s experiments on magnets and magnetical bodies, and also the great discovery that the whole earth is nothing but a large magnet, and that it is this which explains, not only the direction of the magnetic needle north and south, but also the variation and dipping or inclination of the needle. Gilbert’s is therefore, not merely the first, but the most important systematic contribution to the science of magnetism, and its merits were freely acknowledged by his contemporaries. A posthumous work of Gilbert’s was edited by his brother, also called William, from two MSS. in the possession of Sir William Boswell; its title is De Mundo Nostro Sublunari Philosophia Nova (Amsterdam, 1651). He is the reputed inventor besides of two instruments to enable sailors “to find out the latitude without seeing of sun, moon, or stars.” An account of these instruments is given in Thomas Blondeville's Théoriques of the Planets (London, 1602). The only writing of Gilbert in English is a short epistle addressed to William Barlowe, printed at the end of his little work entitled Magneticall Advertisements (London, 1616),—a letter -which has hitherto escaped the notice of all the writers about Gilbert. It is of interest both because it shows that he carried on a scientific correspondence with the Continent, and that his book had been very well received, and because he says that he was intending to add six or eight sheets to the book,—an intention, however, which was never earned into effect. The letter is dated 14th February, unfortunately without the year, but it must have been written between 1600 and 1603. In his preface Barlowe says that he had numerous letters from Gilbert, but these have long since disappeared. It is a matter of great regret for the historian of chemistry that Gilbert left nothing on that branch of science, to which he was deeply devoted, “attaining to great exactness therein.” So at least says Fuller, who, in his Worthies of England (among whom he includes Gilbert), prophesied truly how he would be afterwards known: “Mahomet’s tomb at Mecha,” he says, “is said strangely to hang up, attracted by some invisible loadstone; but the memory of this doctor will never fall to the ground, which his incomparable book De Magnete will support to eternity.”

GILBERT of Sempringham, St (c. 1083-1189), founder of the order of Gilbertines (Ordo Gilbertinorum Canonicorum, Ordo Sempringensis), was born about the year 1083 at Sempringham, Lincolnshire, where his father, Jocelyn de Sempringham, a Norman noble who had taken part in the Conquest, had settled. On the completion of a liberal education, received partly in England and partly in France, Gilbert was ordained a priest in 1123, having been presented by his father to the united livings of Sempringham and Tirington. About 1135 he established in the immediate vicinity of his parish church a religious house for the reception of some destitute girls; the rule he prescribed was substantially that of St Benedict, but the restrictions laid upon the communication of the inmates with the outer world were unusually severe. Subsequently the labourers who tilled the lands with which this establishment had been endowed were also formed into a religious community, under a rule resembling that of the Austin Friars, their house being placed close beside that of the nuns. Similar institutions elsewhere were encouraged by various English proprietors, and placed under the superintendence of Gilbert, who at last made application to Pope Eugenius III. to have them all merged in the Cistercian order (1148). This request, however, was refused, and Gilbert continued to act as superior of the monasteries he had founded for many years; although at the time of his death, on the 3d of February 1189, that dignity was held by Roger, one of his disciples. In 1189 the Gilbertines are said to have possessed thirteen monasteries, with almshouses, hospitals, and orphanages attached; and the community numbered in all upwards of 700 male and 1100 female members. At the time of their suppression the total number of Gilbertine houses in England and Wales had increased to about twenty-five. Gilbert, who had sided and suffered with the church in the quarrels between Henry II. and Thomas à Becket, was canonized by Innocent III. in 1202; and his name is commemorated in the martyrologies on the 4th of February. The Gilbertinorum Statuta and a series of Exhortationes ad Fratres are attributed to him (see the Bollandist Acta Sanctorum, Feb. 4).

See Ritter, Gcsch. d. PhU., vii. 437—74: Hauréau, Z‰7. Scolastique, 2d ed., i. 447-78; Stöckl, Phil. d. Mittelalters, i. 272-88.