west coast from Naples to Reggio di Calabria. Pop. (1901) 13,671 (town), 18,150 (commune). It is situated on the isthmus between the gulfs of S Eufemia and of Squillace, the narrowest part of Calabria, 970 ft. above sea-level, and commands a fine view. The ruined castle served as the place of imprisonment of Frederick II.’s son Henry. The place suffered greatly from the earthquake of 1638, which also destroyed the Benedictine abbey of S Eufemia, founded by Robert Guiscard.
NICCOLI, NICCOLO DE’ (1363–1437), Italian humanist,
was born and died at Florence. He was one of the chief figures
in the company of learned men which gathered round Cosimo
de’ Medici, who played the part of Augustus to Niccoli’s Maecenas.
Niccoli’s chief services to classical literature consisted in his
work as a copyist and collator of ancient MSS.; he corrected
the text, introduced divisions into chapters, and made tables
of contents. His lack of critical faculty was compensated by
his excellent taste; in Greek (of which he knew very little)
he had the assistance of Ambrogio Traversari. Many of the
most valuable MSS. in the Laurentian library are by his hand,
amongst them those of Lucretius and of twelve comedies of Plautus.
Niccoli’s private library was the largest and best in Florence;
he also possessed a small but valuable collection of ancient
works of art, coins and medals. He regarded himself as an
infallible critic, and could not bear the slightest contradiction;
his quarrels with Filelfo, Guarino and especially with Traversari
created a great sensation in the learned world at the time. His
hypercritical spirit (according to his enemies, his ignorance of
the language) prevented him from writing or speaking in Latin;
his sole literary work was a short tract in Italian on Latin
Orthography, which he withdrew from circulation after it had
been violently attacked by Guarino.
See the Life in Traversarii Epistolae (ed. L. Mehus, 1759); G. Voigt, Die Wiederbelebung des klassischen Altertums (1893); G. Zippel, Nicolò Niccoli (Florence, 1890).
NICCOLITE, a mineral consisting of nickel arsenide, NiAs,
containing 43·9% nickel and 56·1 % arsenic. Crystals are hexagonal,
but are rare and indistinct. It usually occurs as
compact masses. A characteristic feature is the pale copper-red
colour, with metallic lustre, on the uneven fractured surfaces.
It is opaque and brittle, and the streak is brownish-black. The
specific gravity is 7·5, and the hardness 512. Small quantities
of sulphur, iron and cobalt are usually present, and sometimes
the arsenic is largely replaced by antimony. Antimonial varieties
are known as arite, and form a passage to the isomorphous
species breithauptite (nickel antimonide). Niccolite occurs with
ores of cobalt. silver and copper at Annaberg and Schneeberg in Saxony, at Sangerhausen and Mansfeld in Prussian Saxony and other localities; it has occasionally been found in Cornwall and Scotland. The original arite (aarite) is from Mount Ar (Aar) near Pic du Midi d’Ossau in the Pyrenees.
The names niccolite (J. D. Dana, 1868) and nickeline (F. S. Beudant, 1832) refer to the presence of nickel (Lat. niccolum). Owing to its copper-red colour the mineral is commonly called “copper-nickel,” the German equivalent of which, Kupfernickel, was used as early as 1694. (L. J. S.)
NICE, a city of France, the chief town of the department
of the Alpes Maritimes, and previous to 1860 the capital of
the county of Nice (Nizza) in the kingdom of Sardinia, 739 m.
by rail from Paris. Pop. (1901) 127,027, of whom 105,109
were permanent residents; in winter-time there is a large
influx of visitors. It occupies a fine position at the mouth of
the Paillon (Paglione), a stream (often dried up in summer)
which, after a course of 20 m., enters the northern end of the
Baie des Anges. A steep isolated limestone hill, 308 ft. in
height, running back for some distance from the shore, forms
the historical nucleus of the town. Formerly crowned by a
castle, which, previous to its destruction by the duke of Berwick
in 1706, was one of the strongest fortresses on the coast, it is
now laid out as a public pleasure-ground, and planted with
aloe, cactus, agave and palm. Towards its south-west corner
stands a tower (Tour Bellanda or Clérissy) dating, it is said,
from the 5th century. The old town stretches along the western
base of the hill; the “town of the 18th century” occupies the
ground farther West, which slopes gently towards the Paillon;
and away to the north-east and north and west beyond the
stream lie the ever-growing quarters of the modern city. To
the east of the hill, and thus out of sight of the more fashionable
districts, the commercial quarter surrounds the port. The
whole frontage of Nice is composed of fine embankments: the
Quai des Ponchettes, constructed in 1770 round the base of
the castle hill, is continued westward by the Quai du Midi to the
public gardens and the municipal casino, whence the Promenade
des Anglais (so called because it was begun in 1822–1824 at
the cost of the English colony), a boulevard 85 ft. wide, extends
for more than a mile to the mouth of the Magnan, and in
1904 was prolonged to the Var. A pier projecting into the
sea from the promenade contains a “crystal palace.” The
course of the Paillon also is embanked on both sides, and at
one part the Place Masséna, one of the largest public squares
in the city, and the principal resort of foreign visitors, and the
Avenue Masséna (leading thence to the Promenade des Anglais)
have been laid out across the stream. Besides a Roman Catholic
cathedral—Ste Réparate, dating from 1650—Nice possesses
two Russian churches, two synagogues and an Anglican chapel.
Architecturally the most remarkable church is Notre Dame
du Voeu, a modern Gothic building with two towers 213 ft.
high, erected by the town in 1835 to commemorate its preservation
from cholera. The secular buildings include the town
hall, the prefecture, the theatres, the hospitals, the lycée (founded
by the Jesuits in the 17th century), the natural history museum,
the library (especially rich in theology), and, at some distance
from the town, the astronomical and meteorological observatory
on Mont Gros (1220 ft.). The industrial establishments comprise
perfumery factories, distilleries, oil-works, furniture and woodwork
factories, confectionery works, soap-works, tanneries
and a national tobacco factory employing several hundred
persons. Besides the vine, the trees principally cultivated
in the neighbourhood are the olive, the orange, the mulberry
and the carob; and the staple exports are oil, agricultural
produce, fruits and flowers.
Nice now joins on the north-east the ancient episcopal town of Cimiez, in which are situated the largest and most elegantly appointed hotels. Reckoning from east to west the town is surrounded by a girdle of beautiful towns—Carabacel, St Etienne, St Philippe and Les Beaumettes. On the east of the port lie Montboron, Riquier and St Roch, the last partly occupied by barracks. The entrances to the port of Nice and the outer pier have been improved; that of the outer port is 300 ft. wide, and that of the inner 220 ft. The area of the port is about 15 acres, the length of quayage available 3380 ft., the depth of water 20 ft., its trade, mostly coastal, being shared principally between French and Italian vessels, the arrivals being about 1235 vessels of some 300,000 tons annually. Nice is an episcopal see (first mentioned at the end of the 4th century) which since 1860 is in the ecclesiastical province of Aix en Provence. It is the headquarters of a military division forming part of the corps d’armée of Marseilles. Protected towards the north by hills which rise stage behind stage to the main ridge of the Alps, Nice is celebrated for the mildness of its climate. The mean temperature is 60° Fahr., that of winter being 49°, of spring 56°, of summer 72° and of autumn 63°. For a few nights in winter the mercury sinks below freezing point, but snow is practically unknown, falling, on an average, only half a day in the year. The highest reading of the thermometer is rarely above 90°. There are sixty-seven days with rain in the course of the year; but it usually falls in heavy showers which soon leave the sky clear again, though the whole annual amount exceeds 32 in. Fine days and rainy days are almost equally distributed throughout the different seasons. The winds are very variable, sometimes changing several times a day. Apart from the ordinary land and sea breezes, the most frequent is the east wind, which is especially formidable during autumn. The south-west wind (called Libeccio, or wind of Lybia) is moist and warm; the north-east (or Gregaou, Greek), which is happily
