1851. Nothing is known of his early history beyond the fact that, after amassing a small competence as a popular lecturer on natural philosophy, he settled in Edinburgh to live a very retired life in the society of his apparatus alone. Besides the invention of the prism known by his name (“A method of increasing the divergence of the two rays in calcareous spar, so as to produce a single image,” New Edin. Journ., 1828), he devoted himself chiefly to the examination of fluid-filled cavities in crystals, and of the microscopic structure of various kinds of fossil wood. His skill as a working lapidary was very great; and he prepared a number of lenses of garnet and other precious stones, which he preferred to the achromatic microscopes of the time.
NICOLAI, CHRISTOPH FRIEDRICH (1733–1811), German author and bookseller, was born on the 18th of March 1733 at Berlin, where his father, Christoph Gottlieb Nicolai (d. 1752), was the founder of the famous Nicolaische Buchhandlung. He received a good education, and in 1749 went to Frankfort-on-Oder to learn his father’s business, finding time also to become acquainted with English literature. In 1752 he returned to Berlin, and began to take part in literary controversy by defending Milton against the attacks of J. C. Gottsched. His Briefe über den jetzigen Zustand der schönen Wissenschaften in Deutschland, published anonymously in 1755 and reprinted by G. Ellinger in 1894, were directed against both Gottsched and Gottsched’s Swiss opponents, Johann Jakob Bodmer and Johann Jakob Breitinger; his enthusiasm for English literature won for him the friendship of Lessing and Moses Mendelssohn. In association with Mendelssohn he established in 1757 the Bibliothek der schönen Wissenschaften, a periodical which he conducted until 1760. With Lessing and Mendelssohn Nicolai founded in 1759 the famous Briefe, die neueste Literatur betreffend; and from 1765 to 1792 he edited the Allgemeine deutsche Bibliothek. This latter periodical served as the organ of the so-called “popular philosophers,” who warred against authority in religion and against what they conceived to be extravagance in literature. The new movement of ideas represented by Herder, Goethe, Schiller, Kant and Fichte, Nicolai was incapable of understanding, and he made himself ridiculous by foolish misrepresentation of the aims of these writers. Of Nicolai’s independent works, perhaps the only one which has some historical value is his Anekdoten von Friedrich II. (1788–1792). His romances are forgotten, although Das Leben und die Meinungen des Herrn Magister Sebaldus Nothanker (1773–1776), and his satire on Goethe’s Werther, Freuden des jungen Werthers (1775), had a certain reputation in their day. Between 1788 and 1796 Nicolai published in 12 vols. a Beschreibung einer Reise durch Deutschland und die Schweiz, which bears witness to the narrow conservatism of his views in later life. He died in Berlin on the 11th of January 1811.
Nicolai’s Bildniss und Selbstbiographie was published by M. S. Löwe in the Bildnisse jetzt lebender Berliner Gelehrter, in 1806. See also L. F. G. von Göckingk, F. Nicolai’s Leben und literarischer Nachlass (1820); J. Minor, Lessings Jugendfreunde, in J. Kürschner’s Deutsche Nationalliteratur, vol. lxxii. (1883); O. Hoffmann, Herders Briefwechsel mit Nicolai (1887); E. Friedel, Zur Geschichte der Nicolaischen Buchhandlung (1891); and E. Altenkrüger, F. Nicolais Jugendschriften (1894).
NICOLAÏ, OTTO (1810–1849), German composer, was born on the 9th of June in Königsberg. He studied music in Berlin and in 1833 became organist to the German embassy in Rome. There his operas Enrico II (1839) and Il Templario (1840) were produced, besides some church music, a series of songs, and a number of compositions for the pianoforte. He was subsequently appointed Hof Kapellmeister at the Berlin Opera House; and there, only two days before he died (on the 11th of March 1849), was performed his brilliant opera, The Merry Wives of Windsor, the work by which he is now remembered.
NICOLAS, SIR NICHOLAS HARRIS (1799–1848), English antiquary, fourth son of John Harris Nicolas (d. 1844), was born at Dartmouth on the 10th of March 1799. Having served in the navy from 1812 to 1816, he studied law and was called to the bar at the Inner Temple in 1825. His work as a barrister, however, was confined principally to peerage cases before the House of Lords, and his time was mainly devoted to genealogical and historical studies. In 1831 he was made a knight of the order of the Guelphs, and in 1832 chancellor and knight-commander of the order of St Michael and St George, being advanced to the grade of the grand cross in 1840. He became a member of the council of the Society of Antiquaries in 1826, but soon began to criticize the management of the society’s affairs, and withdrew in 1828. He then criticized the Record Commission, which he regarded as too expensive. These attacks, which brought him into controversy with Sir Francis Palgrave, led in 1836 to the appointment of a select committee to inquire into the public records. He was also responsible for several reforms at the British Museum. In 1822 Nicolas married Sarah (d. 1867), daughter of John Davison of Loughton, Essex, a reputed descendant of the Tudor statesman William Davison. By her he left two sons and six daughters. Pecuniary difficulties compelled him to leave England, and he died near Boulogne on the 3rd of August 1848. Although a sharp and eager controversialist Nicolas was a genial and generous man, with a great knowledge of genealogical questions.
The most important of the works of Nicolas is his History of the Orders of Knighthood of the British Empire; of the Order of the Guelphs; and of Medals, Clasps, &c., for Naval and Military Services (London, 1841–1842). Among his numerous other writings are, The Chronology of History (London, 1833); Life of William Davison (London, 1823); Synopsis of the Peerage of England (London, 1825); Life and Times of Sir Christopher Hatton (London, 1847); and an uncompleted History of the Royal Navy (London, 1847). He edited Proceedings and Ordinances of the Privy Council of England, 1386–1542 (London, 1834–1337), and Despatches and Letters of Lord Nelson (London, 1844–1846); wrote lives of Chaucer, Burns, Cowper, Thomson, Collins, Kirke White and others for Pickering’s Aldine edition of the poets; lives of Izaak Walton and Charles Cotton for an edition of the Compleat Angler; and several elaborate works on genealogical and kindred subjects printed for private circulation only.
NICOLAUS DAMASCENUS, Greek historian and philosopher of Damascus, flourished in the time of Augustus and Herod the Great, with both of whom he was on terms of friendship. He instructed Herod in rhetoric and philosophy, and had attracted the notice of Augustus when he accompanied his patron on a visit to Rome. Later, when Herod’s conduct aroused the suspicions of Augustus, Nicolaus was sent on a mission to bring about a reconciliation. He survived Herod, and it was through
his influence that the succession was secured for Archelaus; but the date of his death, like that of his birth, is unknown. Fragments of his universal history (Ἱστορία καθολική), from the time of the Assyrian empire to his own days, his autobiography,
and his life of Augustus (Βίος Καίσαρος) have been preserved,
chiefly in the extracts of Constantine Porphyrogenitus. Nicolaus
also wrote comedies and tragedies, paraphrased and wrote commentaries
on parts of Aristotle, and was himself the author of
philosophical treatises.
Fragments in C. Müller, Fragmenta historicorum Graecorum, iii.; see also F. Navet, Nikolaus von Damascus (1853), containing an account of his life and writings, and translation of the fragments.
NICOLAUS OF LYRA (c. 1265–1349), French commentator, was born in Lire, now Vieille-Lyre, in the department of Eure, Normandy. He entered the Franciscan order at Verneuil about 1300, and studied at Paris, where, becoming a doctor some time before 1309, he taught for many years. From 1319 he was provincial of his order in France, and was present in that capacity at the general chapter at Pérouse (1321). In 1325 he was provincial of Burgundy, and as executor of the estate of Jeanne of Burgundy, widow of King Philip VI., he founded the college of Burgundy at Paris, where he died in the autumn of 1349, being buried in the chapter hall of the convent of the Cordeliers. Among the authentic works of Nicolaus of Lyra are: (1) two commentaries on the whole Bible, one (Postilla litteralis, 1322–1331) following the literal sense, the other (Postilla mystica seu moralis, 1339) following the mystic sense. There are numerous editions (Rome, 1471–1472; Douai, 1617; Antwerp, 1634). (2) Tractatus de differentia nostrae translationis (i.e. Vulgate) ab Hebraica veritate, 1333. (3) Two treatises against the Jews. (4) A theological treatise on the Beatific Vision, directed against pope John XXII. (1334), unpublished. (5)
