Codex diplomaticus Raetiae (5 vols., Coire, 1848–1886); W. Coxe,
Travels in Switzerland, vol. ii. of the 1789 London edition; E. Dunant,
La Réunion des Grisons à la Suisse (1798–1799) (Basel, 1899);
G. Fient, Das Prättigau (2nd ed., Davos, 1897); P. Foffa, Das bündnerische Münsterthal
(Coire, 1864); F. Fossati, Codice diplomatico della Rezia
(originally published in the Periodico of the
Società storica a Comense at Como; separate reprint, Como, 1901);
R. A. Ganzoni, Beiträge zur Kenntnis d. bündnerischen Referendums
(Zürich, 1890); Mrs Henry Freshfield, A Summer Tour in the Grisons
(London, 1862); C. and F. Jecklin, Der Anteil Graubündens am Schwabenkrieg (1499)
(Davos, 1899); C. von Moor, Geschichte von Curraetien
(2 vols., Coire, 1870–1874), and Wegweiser (Coire,
1873); E. Lechner, Das Thal Bergell (2nd ed., Leipzig, 1874);
G. Leonhardi, Das Poschiavinothal (Leipzig, 1859); A. Lorria and
E. A. Martel, Le Massif de la Bernina (Upper Engadine and Val
Bregaglia) (Zürich, 1894); P. C. von Planta, Das alte Raetien (Berlin,
1872); Die curraetischen Herrschaften in d. Feudalzeit (Bern, 1881);
Geschichte von Graubünden (Bern, 1892); and Chronik d. Familie von Planta (Zürich, 1892); W. Plattner, Die Entstehung d. Freistaates der 3 Bünde (Davos, 1895), R. von Reding-Biberegg, Der Zug Suworoffs durch die Schweiz in 1799 (Stans, 1895); N. Salis-Soglio,
Die Familie von Salis (Lindau, 1891); G. Theobald, Das Bündner Oberland (Coire, 1861), and Naturbilder aus den rhätischen Alpen
(3rd ed., Coire, 1893); N. Valaer, Johannes von Planta (d. 1572)
(Zürich, 1888); R. Wagner and L. R. von Salis, Rechtsquellen d. Cant. Graubünden (Basel, 1877–1892); F. Jecklin, Materialen zur Standes- und Landesgeschichte Gem. iii. Bünde (Graubünden),
1464–1803 (pt. i., Regesten, was published at Basel in 1907). See also
Coire, Engadine, Jenatsch and Valtellina. (W. A. B. C.)
GRISWOLD, RUFUS WILMOT (1815–1857), American editor and compiler, was born in Benson, Vermont, on the 15th of
February 1815. He travelled extensively, worked in newspaper
offices, was a Baptist clergyman for a time, and finally became
a journalist in New York City, where he was successively a
member of the staffs of The Brother Jonathan, The New World
(1839–1840) and The New Yorker (1840). From 1841 to 1843
he edited Graham’s Magazine (Philadelphia), and added to
its list of contributors many leading American writers. From
1850 to 1852 he edited the International Magazine (New York),
which in 1852 was merged into Harper’s Magazine. He died in
New York City on the 27th of August 1857. He is best known
as the compiler and editor of various anthologies (with brief
biographies and critiques), such as Poets and Poetry of America
(1842), his most popular and valuable book; Prose Writers of America
(1846); Female Poets of America (1848); and Sacred Poets of England and America
(1849). Of his own writings his
Republican Court: or American Society in the Days of Washington
(1854) is the only one of permanent value. He edited the first
American edition of Milton’s prose works (1845), and, as literary
executor, edited, with James R. Lowell and N. P. Willis, the
works (1850) of Edgar Allan Poe. Griswold’s great contemporary
reputation as a critic has not stood the test of time; but he
rendered a valuable service in making Americans better acquainted
with the poetry and prose of their own countrymen.
See Passages from the Correspondence and Other Papers of Rufus W. Griswold (Cambridge, Mass., 1898), edited by his son William McCrillis Griswold (1853–1899).
GRIVET, a monkey, Cercopithecus sabaeus, of the guenon
group, nearly allied to the green monkey. It is common throughout
equatorial Africa. The chin, whiskers and a broad band
across the forehead, as well as the under-parts, are white, and
the head and back olive-green. These monkeys are very
commonly seen in menageries.
GROAT (adapted from the Dutch groot, great, thick; cf.
Ger. Groschen; the Med. Lat. grossus gives Ital. grosso,
Fr. gros, as names for the coin), a name applied as early as the
13th century on the continent of Europe to any large or thick
coin. The groat was almost universally a silver coin, but its
value varied considerably, as well at different times as in different
countries. The English groat was first coined in 1351, of a value
somewhat higher than a penny. The continuous debasement
of both the penny and the groat left the latter finally worth four
pennies. The issue of the groat was discontinued after 1662,
but a coin worth fourpence was again struck in 1836. Although
frequently referred to as a groat, it had no other official designation
than a “fourpenny piece.” Its issue was again discontinued
in 1856. The groat was imitated in Scotland by a coin struck
by David II. in 1358. In Ireland it was first struck by Edward
IV. in 1460.
GROCER, literally one who sells by the gross, a wholesale
dealer; the word is derived through the O. Fr. form, grossia,
from the Med. Lat. grossarius, defined by du Cange,
Glossarium, s.v. Grossares, as solidae mercis propola. The name,
as a general one for dealers by wholesale, “engrossers” as
opposed to “regrators,” the retail dealers, is found with the
commodity attached; thus in the Munimenta Gildhallae (“Rolls”
series) ii. 1.304 (quoted in the New English Dictionary) is found
an allusion to grossours de vin, cf. groser of fysshe, Surtees Misc.
(1888) 63, for the customs of Malton (quoted ib.). The specific
application of the word to one who deals either by wholesale
or retail in tea, coffee, cocoa, dried fruits, spices, sugar and all
kinds of articles of use or consumption in a household is connected
with the history of the Grocers’ Company of London, one of the
twelve “great” livery companies. In 1345 the pepperers and
the spicers amalgamated and were known as the Fraternity
of St Anthony. The name “grocers” first appears in 1373 in
the records of the company. In 1386 the association was
granted a right of search over all “spicers” in London, and in
1394 they obtained the right to inspect or “garble” spices and
other “subtil wares.” Their first charter was obtained in 1428;
letters patent in 1447 granted an extension of the right of search
over the whole county, but removed the “liberties” of the
city of London. They sold all kinds of drugs, medicines, ointments,
plasters, and medicated and other waters. For the
separation of the apothecaries from the grocers in 1617 see
Apothecary. (See further Livery Companies.)
See The Grocery Trade, by J. Aubrey Rees (1910).
GROCYN, WILLIAM (1446?–1519), English scholar, was born
at Colerne, Wiltshire, about 1446. Intended by his parents
for the church, he was sent to Winchester College, and in 1465
was elected to a scholarship at New College, Oxford. In 1467
he became a fellow, and had among his pupils William Warham,
afterwards archbishop of Canterbury. In 1479 he accepted the
rectory of Newton Longville, in Buckinghamshire, but continued
to reside at Oxford. As reader in divinity in Magdalen College
in 1481, he held a disputation with John Taylor, professor of
divinity, in presence of King Richard III., and the king acknowledged
his skill as a debater by the present of a buck and five
marks. In 1485 he became prebendary of Lincoln cathedral.
About 1488 Grocyn left England for Italy, and before his return
in 1491 he had visited Florence, Rome and Padua, and studied
Greek and Latin under Demetrius Chalchondyles and Politian.
As lecturer in Exeter College he found an opportunity of indoctrinating
his countrymen in the new Greek learning.
Erasmus says in one of his letters that Grocyn taught Greek at Oxford before his visit to Italy. The Warden of New College, Thomas Chaundler, invited Cornelius Vitelli, then on a visit to Oxford, to act as praelector. This was about 1475, and as Vitelli was certainly familiar with Greek literature, Grocyn may have learnt Greek from him. He seems to have lived in Oxford until 1499, but when his friend Colet became dean of St Paul’s in 1504 he was settled in London. He was chosen by his friend to deliver lectures in St Paul’s; and in this connexion he gave a singular proof of his honesty. He had at first denounced all who impugned the authenticity of the Hierarchia ecclesiastica ascribed to Dionysius the Areopagite, but, being led to modify his views by further investigation, he openly declared that he had been completely mistaken. He also counted Linacre, William Lily, William Latimer and More among his friends, and Erasmus writing in 1514 says that he was supported by Grocyn in London, and calls him “the friend and preceptor of us all.” He held several preferments, but his generosity to his friends involved him in continual difficulties, and though in 1506 he was appointed on Archbishop Warham’s recommendation master or warden of All Hallows College at Maidstone in Kent, he was still obliged to borrow from his friends, and even to pledge his plate as a security. He died in 1519, and was buried in the collegiate church at Maidstone. Linacre acted as his executor, and expended the money he received in gifts
