(New York, 1901); Sanford Niles, History and Civil Government of
Minnesota (Chicago, 1897); and the Legislative Manual, published
biennially by the state at St Paul.
MINNOW (Leuciscus phoxinus), the smallest British fish of the Cyprinoid family, readily distinguished by its very minute scales. The ordinary name is derived from the common Indo-European word for “little” (cf. Lat., minor), and “minnow” is popularly identified with any tiny fish; in America it is given to small forms of the Gambusia and Notropis genera, &c. The British minnow abounds in lakes, rivers and brooks, swimming in schools, and shifting its ground in search of food, in the shape of every kind of animal and vegetable substance. It ranges from Scandinavia to south Europe, and from Ireland to north-east Asia, attaining an elevation of nearly 8000 ft. in the Alps. Its size varies from between 2 and 3 in. to as much as 4 or 5 in. The minnow is commonly used by anglers for bait, and is useful in ponds as food for trout, perch or pike.
MINO DI GIOVANNI (1431–1484), called Da Fiesole, Italian sculptor, was born at Poppi in the Casentino. He had property at Fiesole. Vasari’s account of him is very inaccurate. Mino was a friend and fellow-worker with Desiderio da Settignano and Matteo Civitale, all three being about the same age. Mino’s sculpture is remarkable for its finish and delicacy of details, as well as for its spirituality and strong devotional feeling. Of Mino’s earlier works, the finest are in the duomo of Fiesole, the altarpiece and tomb of Bishop Salutati, executed before 1466. In the Badia of Florence are an altarpiece and the tombs of Bernardo Giugni (1466) and the Margrave Hugo (1481), all sculptured in white marble, with life-sized recumbent effigies and attendant angels. The pulpit in Prato Cathedral, in which he collaborated with Antonio Rossellino, finished in 1473, is very delicately sculptured with bas-reliefs of great minuteness, but somewhat weakly designed. Soon after the completion of this work Mino went to Rome, where he executed the tomb of Pope Paul II. (now in the crypt of St Peter’s), the tomb of Francesco Tornabuoni in S. Maria sopra Minerva, and a beautiful little marble tabernacle for the holy oils in S. Maria in Trastevere. There can be little doubt that he was also the sculptor of several monuments in S. Maria del Popolo, especially those of Bishop Gomiel and Archbishop Rocca (1482), and the marble reredos given by Pope Alexander VI. Some of Mino’s portrait busts and profile bas-reliefs are preserved in the Bargello at Florence; they are full of life and expression, though without the extreme realism of Verrocchio and other sculptors of his time.
See Vasari, Milanesi’s ed. (1878–1882); Perkins’s Italian Sculptors, Winckelmann and D'Agincourt, Storia della scultura (1813); Hans Semper, Architekten der Renaissance (Dresden, 1880); Wilhelm Bode, Die italienische Plastik (Berlin, 1893).
MINOR, ROBERT CRANNELL (1839–1904), American artist, was born in New York city on the 30th of April 1839, and received his art training in Paris under Diaz, and in Antwerp under Joseph Van Luppen. His paintings are characteristic of the Barbizon school, and he was particularly happy in his sunset and twilight effects; but it was only within a few years of his death that he began to have a vogue among collectors. In 1897 he was elected a member of the National Academy of Design, New York. After 1900 he lived at Waterford, Connecticut, where he died on the 4th of August 1904.
MINOR (Lat. for smaller, lesser), a word used both as an adjective and as a substantive for that which is less than or inferior to another, and often correlatively opposed to that to which “major” is applied in the same connotation. Among the numerous special uses of the word the following may be mentioned: “Minor Friars,” sometimes known as “Minorites,” i.e. the name (fratres minores, lesser brothers) given by St Francis to the order he founded (see Franciscans); “minor canons” are clergymen attached to a cathedral or collegiate church who read and sing the daily service. In some cathedrals they are known as “vicars choral”; they are not members of the chapter. (For the distinction between holy and minor orders in Christian hierarchy see Orders.) The name “Minor Prophets” is used collectively of the twelve prophetical books of the Old Testament from Hosea to Malachi inclusive. (For the distinction in music between major and minor intervals, and for other applications of the correlative term, see Music and Harmony.) In the categorical syllogism (q.v.) in logic, the minor term is that term which forms the subject of the conclusion, the minor premiss is that which contains the minor term. In law, a “minor” is a person under legal age (see Infant).
In mathematics, the “minor of a determinant” is the determinant formed by erasing an equal number of the rows and columns of the original determinant. If one column and row be erased there is formed the first minor; if two rows and columns the second minor, and so on. The minor axis of a central conic section is the shorter of the two principal axes; it may also be regarded as the line joining the two imaginary foci. In astronomy, the term minor planets is given to the members of the solar system which have their orbits between those of Mars and Jupiter (see Planets, Minor).
MINORCA (Menorca), the second in size of the group of Spanish islands in the Mediterranean Sea, known as the Balearic Islands (q.v.), 27 m. E.N.E. of Majorca. Pop. (1900), 371,512; area, 260 sq. m. The coast is deeply indented, especially on the north, with numerous creeks and bays—that of Port Mahon (17,144) being one of the finest in the Mediterranean, if not the best of them all, according to the popular rhyme—
| “ | Junio, Julio, Agosto y puerto Mahon |
| Los mejores puertos del Mediterraneo son”— |
“June, July, August and Port Mahon are the best harbours of the Mediterranean” (see Port Mahon). The ports Addaya, Fornelle, Ciudadela and Nitja may also be mentioned. The surface of the island is uneven, flat in the south and rising irregularly towards the centre, where the mountain El Toro—probably so called from the Arabic tor, a height, though the natives have a legend of a toro or bull—has an altitude of 1207 ft. The climate is not so equable as that of Majorca, and the island is exposed in autumn and winter to the violence of the north winds. Its soil is of very unequal quality; that of the higher districts being light, fine, and fertile, and producing regular harvests without much labour, while that of the plains is chalky, scanty, and unfit for pasture or the plough. Some of the valleys have a good alluvial soil; and where the hills have been terraced they are cultivated to the summit. The wheat and barley raised in the island are sometimes sufficient for home consumption; there is rarely a surplus. The Hedysarum coronarium, or zulla, as it is called by the Spaniards, is largely cultivated for fodder. Wine, oil, potatoes, hemp and flax are produced in moderate quantities; fruit of all kinds, including melons, pomegranates, figs and almonds, is abundant. The caper plant is common throughout the island, growing on ruined walls. Horned cattle, sheep and goats are reared, and small game abound. Stone of various kinds is plentiful. In the district of Mercadal and in Mount Santa Agueda are found fine marbles and porphyries; lime and slate are also abundant. Lead, copper and iron might be worked were it not for the scarcity of fuel. There are manufactures of the wool, hemp and flax of the island; and formerly there was a good deal of boat-building; but agriculture is the chief industry. An excellent road, constructed in 1713–1715 by Brigadier-General Richard Kane, to whose memory a monument was erected at the first milestone, runs through the island from south-east to north-west, and connects Port Mahon with Ciudadela. Ciudadela (8611), which was the capital of the island till Port Mahon was raised to that position by the English, still possesses considerable remains of its former importance.
MINOS, a semi-legendary king of Crete, son of Zeus and Europa. By his wife, Pasiphaë, he was the father of Ariadne, Deucalion, Phaedra and others. He reigned over Crete and the islands of the Aegean three generations before the Trojan War. He lived at Cnossus for periods of nine years, at the end of which he retired into a sacred cave, where he received instruction from Zeus in the legislation which he gave to the island. He was the author of the Cretan constitution and the founder of its naval
