of divinity; and shortly afterwards he was released from his monastic vows on the intervention of the emperor. In 1788 he brought out his tragedy of Sidney, an exposé of the tyranny of James II. and of the fanaticism of the papists in England. This was attacked so violently as profane and revolutionary that he was compelled to resign his office and seek refuge in Silesia. In Breslau he met with a cordial reception from G. W. Korn the publisher, and was, moreover, subsequently employed by the prince of Carolath-Schönaich as tutor to his sons. In 1791 Fessler was converted to Lutheranism and next year contracted an unhappy marriage, which was dissolved in 1802, when he married again. In 1796 he went to Berlin, where he founded a humanitarian society, and was commissioned by the freemasons of that city to assist Fichte in reforming the statutes and ritual of their lodge. He soon after this obtained a government appointment in connexion with the newly-acquired Polish provinces, but in consequence of the battle of Jena (1806) he lost this office, and remained in very needy circumstances until 1809, when he was summoned to St Petersburg by Alexander I., to fill the post of court councillor, and the professorship of oriental languages and philosophy at the Alexander-Nevski Academy. This office, however, he was soon obliged to resign, owing to his alleged atheistic tendencies, but he was subsequently nominated a member of the legislative commission. In 1815 he went with his family to Sarepta, where he joined the Moravian community and again became strongly orthodox. This cost him the loss of his salary, but it was restored to him in 1817. In November 1820 he was appointed consistorial president of the evangelical communities at Saratov and subsequently became chief superintendent of the Lutheran communities in St Petersburg. Fessler’s numerous works are all written in German. In recognition of his important services to Hungary as a historian, he was in 1831 elected a corresponding member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. He died at St Petersburg on the 15th of December 1839.
Fessler was a voluminous writer, and during his life exercised great influence; but, with the possible exception of the history of Hungary, none of his books has any value now. He did not pretend to any critical treatment of his materials, and most of his historical works are practically historical novels. He did much, however, to make the study of history popular. His most important works are—Die Geschichten der Ungarn und ihrer Landsassen (10 vols. Leipzig, 1815–1825); Marcus Aurelius (3 vols., Breslau, 1790–1792; 3rd edition, 4 vols., 1799); Aristides und Themistokles (2 vols., Berlin, 1792; 3rd edition, 1818); Attila, König der Hunnen (Breslau, 1794); Mathias Corvinus (2 vols., Breslau, 1793–1794); and Die drei grossen Könige der Hungarn aus dem Arpadischen Stamme (Breslau, 1808).
See Fessler’s Rückblicke auf seine siebzigjährige Pilgerschaft (Breslau, 1824; 2nd edition, Leipzig, 1851).
FESTA, CONSTANZO (c. 1495–1545), Italian singer and
musical composer, became a member of the Pontifical choir in
Rome in 1517, and soon afterwards maestro at the Vatican.
His motets and madrigals (the first book of which appeared in
1537) excited Dr Burney’s warm praise in his History of Music;
and, among other church music, his Te Deum (published in
1596) is still sung at important services in Rome. His madrigal,
called in English “Down in a flow’ry vale,” is well known.
FESTINIOG (or Ffestiniog), a town of Merionethshire,
North Wales, at the head of the Festiniog valley, 600 ft. above
the sea, in the midst of rugged scenery, near the stream Dwyryd,
31 m. from Conway. Pop. of urban district (1901), 11,435.
There are many large slate quarries in this parish, especially
at Blaenau Festiniog, the junction of three railways, London &
North Western, Great Western and Festiniog, a narrow-gauge
line between Portmadoc and Duffws. This light railway runs
at a considerable elevation (some 700 ft.), commanding a view
across the valley and lake of Tan y Bwlch. Lord Lyttelton’s
letter to Mr Bower is a well-known panegyric on Festiniog.
Thousands of workmen are employed in the slate quarries.
The Cynfael falls are famous. Near are Beddau gwyr Ardudwy
(the graves of the men of Ardudwy), memorials of a fight to
recover women of the Clwyd valley from the men of Ardudwy.
Near, too, is a rock named “Hugh Lloyd’s pulpit” (Lloyd lived
in the time of Charles I., Cromwell and Charles II.).
FESTOON (from Fr. feston, Ital. festone, from a Late Lat. festo,
originally a “festal garland,” Lat. festum, feast), a wreath or
garland, and so in architecture a conventional arrangement of
flowers, foliage or fruit bound together and suspended by ribbons,
either from a decorated knot, or held in the mouths of lions,
or suspended across the back of bulls’ heads as in the Temple
of Vesta at Tivoli. The “motif” is sometimes known as a “swag.”
It was largely employed both by the Greeks and Romans and
formed the principal decoration of altars, friezes and panels.
The ends of the ribbons are sometimes formed into bows or
twisted curves; when in addition a group of foliage or flowers
is suspended it is called a “drop.” Its origin is probably due
to the representation in stone of the garlands of natural flowers,
&c., which were hung up over an entrance doorway on fête days,
or suspended round the altar.
FESTUS (? Rufus or Rufius), one of the Roman writers of
breviaria (epitomes of Roman history). The reference to the
defeat of the Goths at Noviodunum (A.D. 369) by the emperor
Valens, and the fact that the author is unaware of the constitution
of Valentia as a province (which took place in the same year)
are sufficient indication to fix the date of composition. Mommsen
identifies the author with Rufius Festus, proconsul of Achaea
(366), and both with Rufius Festus Avienus (q.v.), the translator
of Aratus. But the absence of the name Rufius in the best MSS.
is against this. Others take him to be Festus of Tridentum,
magister memoriae (secretary) to Valens and proconsul of Asia,
where he was sent to punish those implicated in the conspiracy
of Theodorus, a commission which he executed with such
merciless severity that his name became a byword. The work
itself (Breviarium rerum gestarum populi Romani) is divided
into two parts—one geographical, the other historical. The
chief authorities used are Livy, Eutropius and Florus. It is
extremely meagre, but the fact that the last part is based on the
writer’s personal recollections makes it of some value for the
history of the 4th century.
Editions by W. Förster (Vienna, 1873) and C. Wagener (Prague, 1886); see also R. Jacobi, De Festi breviarii fontibus (Bonn, 1874), and H. Peter, Die geschichtliche Litt. über die römische Kaiserzeit ii. p. 133 (1897), where the epitomes of Festus, Aurelius Victor and Eutropius are compared.
FESTUS, SEXTUS POMPEIUS, Roman grammarian, probably
flourished in the 2nd century A.D. He made an epitome of the
celebrated work De verborum significatu, a valuable treatise
alphabetically arranged, written by M. Verrius Flaccus, a
freedman and celebrated grammarian who flourished in the
reign of Augustus. Festus gives the etymology as well as the
meaning of every word; and his work throws considerable light
on the language, mythology and antiquities of ancient Rome.
He made a few alterations, and inserted some critical remarks
of his own. He also omitted such ancient Latin words as had
long been obsolete; these he discussed in a separate work now lost,
entitled Priscorum verborum cum exemplis. Of Flaccus’s work
only a few fragments remain, and of Festus’s epitome only one
original copy is in existence. This MS., the Codex Festi Farnesianus
at Naples, only contains the second half of the work
(M-V) and that not in a perfect condition. It has been published
in facsimile by Thewrewk de Ponor (1890). At the close of
the 8th century Paulus Diaconus abridged the abridgment.
From his work and the solitary copy of the original attempts
have been made with the aid of conjecture to reconstruct the
treatise of Festus.
Of the early editions the best are those of J. Scaliger (1565) and Fulvius Ursinus (1581); in modern times, those of C. O. Müller (1839, reprinted 1880) and de Ponor (1889); see J. E. Sandys, History of Classical Scholarship, vol. i. (1906).
FÉTIS, FRANÇOIS JOSEPH (1784–1871), Belgian composer
and writer on music, was born at Mons in Belgium on the 25th
of March 1784, and was trained as a musician by his father, who
followed the same calling. His talent for composition manifested
