accommodates 11,000 spectators, and a church, Santa Maria de Palacio, called “the imperial,” from the tradition that its founder was Constantine the Great (274–337). As the commercial centre of the fertile and well-cultivated plain of the Rioja, Logroño has an important trade in wine.
The district of Logroño was in ancient times inhabited by the Berones or Verones of Strabo and Pliny, and their Varia is to be identified with the modern suburb of the city of Logroño now known as Varea of Barea. Logroño was named by the Romans Juliobriga and afterwards Lucronius. It fell into the hands of the Moors in the 8th century, but was speedily retaken by the Christians, and under the name of Lucronius appears with frequency in medieval history. It was unsuccessfully besieged by the French in 1521, and occupied by them from 1808 to 1813. It was the birthplace of the dumb painter Juan Fernandez Navarrete (1526–1579).
LOGROSCINO (or Lo Groscino), NICOLA (1700?–1763?),
Italian musical composer, was born at Naples and was a pupil
of Durante. In 1738 he collaborated with Leo and others in the
hasty production of Demetrio; in the autumn of the same year
he produced a comic opera L’inganno per inganno, the first of a
long series of comic operas, the success of which won him the
name of “il Dio dell’ opera buffa.” He went to Palermo, probably
in 1747, as a teacher of counterpoint; as an opera composer
he is last heard of in 1760, and is supposed to have died about
1763. Logroscino has been credited with the invention of the
concerted operatic finale, but as far as can be seen from the
score of Il Governatore and the few remaining fragments of
other operas, his finales show no advance upon those of Leo.
As a musical humorist, however, he deserves remembrance, and
may justly be classed alongside of Rossini.
LOGWOOD (so called from the form in which it is imported),
the heart-wood of a leguminous tree, Haematoxylon campechianum,
native of Central America, and grown also in the West
Indian Islands. The tree attains a height not exceeding 40 ft.,
and is said to be ready for felling when about ten years old.
The wood, deprived of its bark and the sap-wood, is sent into
the market in the form of large blocks and billets. It is very
hard and dense, and externally has a dark brownish-red colour;
but it is less deeply coloured within. The best qualities come
from Campeachy, but it is obtained there only in small quantity.
Logwood is used in dyeing (q.v.), in microscopy, in the preparation of ink, and to a small extent in medicine on account of the tannic acid it contains, though it has no special medicinal value, being much inferior to kino and catechu. The wood was introduced into Europe as a dyeing substance soon after the discovery of America, but from 1581 to 1662 its use in England was prohibited by legislative enactment on account of the inferior dyes which at first were produced by its employment.
The colouring principle of logwood exists in the timber in the form of a glucoside, from which it is liberated as haematoxylin by fermentation. Haematoxylin, C16H14O6, was isolated by M. E. Chevreul in 1810. It forms a crystalline hydrate, C16H14O6 + 3H2O, which is a colourless body very sparingly soluble in cold water, but dissolving freely in hot water and in alcohol. By exposure to the air, especially in alkaline solutions, haematoxylin is rapidly oxidized into haematein, C16H12O6, with the development of a fine purple colour. This reaction of haematoxylin is exceedingly rapid and delicate, rendering that body a laboratory test for alkalis. By the action of hydrogen and sulphurous acid, haematein is easily reduced to haematoxylin. It is chemically related to brazilin, found in brazil-wood. Haematoxylin and brazilin, and also their oxidation products, haematin and brazilin, have been elucidated by W. H. Perkin and his pupils (see Jour. Chem. Soc., 1908, 1909).
LOHARU, a native state of India, in the south-east corner of
the Punjab, between Hissar district and Rajputana. Area, 222
sq. m.; pop. (1901) 15,229; estimated gross revenue, £4800.
The chief, whose title is nawab, is a Mahommedan, of Afghan
descent. The nawab Sir Amir-ud-din-Ahmad Khan, K.C.I.E.,
who is a member of the viceroy’s legislative council, was until
1905 administrator and adviser of the state of Maler Kotla.
The town of Loharu had a population in 1901 of 2175.
LÖHE, JOHANN KONRAD WILHELM (1808–1872), German
divine and philanthropist, was born on the 21st of February
1808 in Fürth near Nuremberg, and was educated at the universities
of Erlangen and Berlin. In 1831 he was appointed vicar
at Kirchenlamitz, where his fervent evangelical preaching
attracted large congregations and puzzled the ecclesiastical
authorities. A similar experience ensued at Nuremberg, where
he was assistant pastor of St Egidia. In 1837 he became pastor
in Neuendettelsau, a small and unattractive place, where his life’s
work was done, and which he transformed into a busy and
influential community. He was interested in the spiritual
condition of Germans who had emigrated to the United States,
and built two training homes for missionaries to them. In 1849
he founded the Lutheran Society of Home Missions and in 1853
an institution of deaconesses. Other institutions were added to
these, including a lunatic asylum, a Magdalen refuge, and hospitals
for men and women. In theology Löhe was a strict Lutheran,
but his piety was of a most attractive kind. Originality of
conception, vividness of presentation, fertility of imagination,
wide knowledge of Scripture and a happy faculty of applying
it, intense spiritual fervour, a striking physique and a powerful
voice made him a great pulpit force. He wrote a good deal,
amongst his books being Drei Bücher von der Kirche (1845),
Samenkörner des Gebetes (over 30 editions) and several volumes of
sermons. He died on the 2nd of January 1872.
See his Life, by J. Deinzer (3 vols., Gütersloh, 1873, 3rd ed., 1901).
LOHENGRIN, the hero of the German version of the legend
of the knight of the swan. The story of Lohengrin as we know
it is based on two principal motives common enough in folklore:
the metamorphosis of human beings into swans, and the curious
wife whose question brings disaster. Lohengrin’s guide (the
swan) was originally the little brother who, in one version of “the
Seven Swans,” was compelled through the destruction of his
golden chain to remain in swan form and attached himself to
the fortunes of one of his brothers. The swan played a part
in classical mythology as the bird of Apollo, and in Scandinavian
lore the swan maidens, who have the gift of prophecy and are
sometimes confused with the Valkyries, reappear again and
again. The wife’s desire to know her husband’s origin is a
parallel of the myth of Cupid and Psyche, and bore in medieval
times a similar mystical interpretation. The Lohengrin legend
is localized on the Lower Rhine, and its incidents take place
at Antwerp, Nijmwegen, Cologne and Mainz. In its application
it falls into sharp division in the hands of German and French
poets. By the Germans it was turned to mystical use by being
attached loosely to the Grail legend (see Grail and Perceval);
in France it was adapted to glorify the family of Godfrey de
Bouillon.
The German story makes its appearance in the last stanzas of Wolfram von Eschenbach’s Parzival, where it is related how Parzival’s son, Loherangrîn,[1] was sent from the castle of the Grail to the help of the young duchess of Brabant. Guided by the swan he reached Antwerp, and married the lady on condition that she should not ask his origin. On the breach of this condition years afterwards Loherangrîn departed, leaving sword, horn and ring behind him. Between 1283 and 1290, a Bavarian disciple of Wolfram’s[2] adopted the story and developed it into an epic poem of nearly 8000 lines, incorporating episodes of Lohengrin’s prowess in tournament, his wars with Henry I. against the heathen Hungarians and the Saracens,[3] and incidentally providing a detailed picture of the everyday life of people of high condition. The epic of Lohengrin is put by the anonymous writer into the mouth of Wolfram, who is made to relate it during the Contest of the Singers at the Wartburg in proof of his superiority in knowledge of sacred things over Klingsor the magician, and the poem is thus linked on to German
- ↑ i.e. Garin le Loherin (q.v.), or Garin of Lorraine.
- ↑ Elster (Beiträge) says that the poem is the work of two poets: the first part by a Thuringian wandering minstrel, the second—which differs in style and dialect—by a Bavarian official.
- ↑ Based on material borrowed from the Sächsische Weltchronik (formerly called Repgowische Chronik from its dubious assignment to Eime von Repgow), the oldest prose chronicle of the world in German (c. 1248 or 1260).
