Geschichte der deutschen Historiographie (1885); G. Wolf, Einführung
in das Studium der neueren Geschichte (1910). Leo’s Rectitudines singularum personarum nebst einer einleitenden Abhandlung über Landsiedelung, Landbau, gutsherrliche und bäuerliche Verhältnisse der Angelsachsen, was translated into English by Lord Acton (1852).
(J. Hn.)
LEO, JOHANNES (c. 1494–1552), in Italian Giovanni Leo or
Leone, usually called Leo Africanus, sometimes Eliberitanus
(i.e. of Granada), and properly known among the Moors
as Al Hassan Ibn Mahommed Al Wezaz Al Fasi, was the author
of a Descrizione dell’ Affrica, or Africae descriptio, which long
ranked as the best authority on Mahommedan Africa. Born
probably at Granada of a noble Moorish stock (his father was a
landowner; an uncle of his appears as an envoy from Fez to
Timbuktu), he received a great part of his education at Fez,
and while still very young began to travel widely in the Barbary
States. In 1512 we trace him at Morocco, Tunis, Bugia and
Constantine; in 1513 we find him returning from Tunis to
Morocco; and before the close of the latter year he seems to have
started on his famous Sudan and Sahara journeys (1513–1515)
which brought him to Timbuktu, to many other regions of the
Great Desert and the Niger basin (Guinea, Melli, Gago, Walata,
Aghadez, Wangara, Katsena, &c.), and apparently to Bornu
and Lake Chad. In 1516–1517 he travelled to Constantinople,
probably visiting Egypt on the way; it is more uncertain when
he visited the three Arabias (Deserta, Felix and Petraea),
Armenia and “Tartary” (the last term is perhaps satisfied by
his stay at Tabriz). His three Egyptian journeys, immediately
after the Turkish conquest, all probably fell between 1517 and
1520; on one of these he ascended the Nile from Cairo to Assuan.
As he was returning from Egypt about 1520 he was captured by
pirates near the island of Gerba, and was ultimately presented as
a slave to Leo X. The pope discovered his merit, assigned him
a pension, and having persuaded him to profess the Christian
faith, stood sponsor at his baptism, and bestowed on him (as
Ramusio says) his own names, Johannes and Leo. The new
convert, having made himself acquainted with Latin and Italian,
taught Arabic (among his pupils was Cardinal Egidio Antonini,
bishop of Viterbo); he also wrote books in both the Christian
tongues he had acquired. His Description of Africa was first,
apparently, written in Arabic, but the primary text now remaining
is that of the Italian version, issued by the author at Rome,
on the 10th of March 1526, three years after Pope Leo’s death,
though originally undertaken at the latter’s suggestion. The
Moor seems to have lived on Rome for some time longer, but
he returned to Africa some time before his death at Tunis in
1552; according to some, he renounced his Christianity and
returned to Islam; but the later part of his career is obscure.
The Descrizione dell’ Affrica in its original Arabic MS. is said to have existed for some time in the library of Vincenzo Pinelli (1535–1601); the Italian text, though issued in 1526, was first printed by Giovanni Battista Ramusio in his Navigationi et Viaggi (vol. i.) of 1550. This was reprinted in 1554, 1563, 1588, &c. In 1556 Jean Temporal executed at Lyons an admirable French version from the Italian (Historiale description de l’Afrique); and in the same year appeared at Antwerp both Christopher Plantin’s and Jean Bellere’s pirated issues of Temporal’s translation, and a new (very inaccurate) Latin version by Joannes Florianus, Joannis Leonis Africani de totius Africae descriptione libri i.-ix. The latter was reprinted in 1558, 1559 (Zürich), and 1632 (Leiden), and served as the basis of John Pory’s Elizabethan English translation, made at the suggestion of Richard Hakluyt (A Geographical Historie of Africa, London, 1600). Pory’s version was reissued, with notes, maps, &c., by Robert Brown, E. G. Ravenstein, &c. (3 vols., Hakluyt Society, London, 1896). An excellent German translation was made by Lorsbach, from the Italian, in 1805 (Johann Leos des Afrikaners Beschreibung von Afrika, Herborn). See also Francis Moore’s Travels into the inland parts of Africa (1738), containing a translation of Leo’s account of negro kingdoms. Heinrich Barth intended to have made a fresh version, with a commentary, but was prevented by death; as it is, his own great works on the Sudan are the best elucidation of the Descrizione dell’ Affrica.
Leo also wrote lives of the Arab physicians and philosophers (De viris quibusdam illustribus apud Arabes; see J. A. Fabricius, Bibliotheca Graeca, Hamburg, 1726, xiii. 259-298); a Spanish-Arabic vocabulary, now lost, but noticed by Ramusio as having been consulted by the famous Hebrew physician, Jacob Mantino; a collection of Arabic epitaphs in and near Fez (the MS. of this Leo presented, it is said, to the brother of the king); and poems, also lost. It is stated, moreover, that Leo intended writing a history of the Mahommedan religion, an epitome of Mahommedan chronicles, and an account of his travels in Asia and Egypt. (C. R. B.)
LEO, LEONARDO (1694–1744), more correctly Lionardo
Oronzo Salvatore de Leo, Italian musical composer, was born
on the 5th of August 1694 at S. Vito dei Normanni, near Brindisi.
He became a student at the Conservatorio della Piètà dei Turchini
at Naples in 1703, and was a pupil first of Provenzale and later
of Nicola Fago. It has been supposed that he was a pupil of
Pitoni and Alessandro Scarlatti, but he could not possibly have
studied with either of these composers, although he was undoubtedly
influenced by their compositions. His earliest known
work was a sacred drama, L’Infedeltà abbattuta, performed by
his fellow-students in 1712. In 1714 he produced, at the court
theatre, an opera, Pisistrato, which was much admired. He held
various posts at the royal chapel, and continued to write for the
stage, besides teaching at the conservatorio. After adding comic
scenes to Gasparini’s Bajazette in 1722 for performance at Naples,
he composed a comic opera, La Mpeca scoperta, in Neapolitan
dialect, in 1723. His most famous comic opera was Amor vuol
sofferenze (1739), better known as La Finta Frascatana, highly
praised by Des Brosses. He was equally distinguished as a
composer of serious opera, Demofoonte (1735), Farnace (1737)
and L’Olimpiade (1737) being his most famous works in this
branch, and is still better known as a composer of sacred music.
He died of apoplexy on the 31st of October 1744 while engaged
in the composition of new airs for a revival of La Finta
Frascatana.
Leo was the first of the Neapolitan school to obtain a complete mastery over modern harmonic counterpoint. His sacred music is masterly and dignified, logical rather than passionate, and free from the sentimentality which disfigures the work of F. Durante and G. B. Pergolesi. His serious operas suffer from a coldness and severity of style, but in his comic operas he shows a keen sense of humour. His ensemble movements are spirited, but never worked up to a strong climax.
A fine and characteristic example of his sacred music is the Dixit Dominus in C, edited by C. V. Stanford and published by Novello. A number of songs from operas are accessible in modern editions. (E. J. D.)
LEO (The Lion), in astronomy, the fifth sign of the zodiac
(q.v.), denoted by the symbol ♌︎. It is also a constellation,
mentioned by Eudoxus (4th century B.C.) and Aratus (3rd
century B.C.). According to Greek mythology this constellation
is the Nemean lion, which, after being killed by Hercules, was
raised to the heavens by Jupiter in honour of Hercules. A part
of Ptolemy’s Leo is now known as Coma Berenices (q.v.). α
Leonis, also known as Cor Leonis or the Lion’s Heart, Regulus,
Basilicus, &c., is a very bright star of magnitude 1.23, and parallax
0.02″, and proper motion 0.27″ per annum. γ Leonis is a very
fine orange-yellow binary star, of magnitudes 2 and 4, and
period 400 years. ι Leonis is a binary, composed of a 4th magnitude
pale yellow star, and a 7th magnitude blue star. The
Leonids are a meteoric swarm, appearing in November and
radiating from this constellation (see Meteor).
LEOBEN, a town in Styria, Austria, 44 m. N.W. of Graz
by rail. Pop. (1900) 10,204. It is situated on the Mur, and part
of its old walls and towers still remain. It has a well-known
academy of mining and a number of technical schools. Its
extensive iron-works and trade in iron are a consequence of its
position on the verge of the important lignite deposits of Upper
Styria and in the neighbourhood of the iron mines and furnaces
of Vordernberg and Eisenerz. On the 18th of April 1797 a
preliminary peace was concluded here between Austria and
France, which led to the treaty of Campo-Formio.
LEOBSCHÜTZ (Bohemian Lubczyce), a town of Germany, in
the Prussian province of Silesia, on the Zinna, about 20 m.
to the N.W. of Ratibor by rail. Pop. (1905) 12,700. It has
a large trade in wool, flax and grain, its markets for these
commodities being very numerously attended. The principal
industries are malting, carriage-building, wool-spinning and
glass-making. The town contains three Roman Catholic
