stated generally as a line drawn eastwards from the lacus Brigantinus (Lake of Constance) to the river Oenus (Inn). During the last years of the Western Empire, the land was in a desolate condition, but its occupation by the Ostrogoths in the time of Theodoric, who placed it under a dux, to some extent revived its prosperity. The chief towns of Raetia (excluding Vindelicia) were Tridentum (Trent) and Curia (Coire or Chur). It was traversed by two great lines of Roman roads—one leading from Verona and Tridentum across the Brenner (in which the name of the Brenni has survived) to Oenipons (Innsbruck) and thence to Augusta Vindelicorum; the other from Brigantiurn (Bregenz) on Lake Constance, by Coire and Chiavenna to Como and Milan.
See P. C. Planta, Das alte Rätien (Berlin, 1872); T. Mommsen in Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum, iii. p. 706; J. Marquardt, Römische Staatsverwaltung, i. (2nd ed., 1881) p. 288; L. Steub, Über die Urbewohner Rätiens und ihren Zusammenhang mit den Etruskern (Munich, 1843); J. Jung, Römer und Romanen in den Donauländern (Innsbruck, 1877); Smith’s Dict. of Greek and Roman Geography (1873); T. Mommsen, The Roman Provinces (Eng. trans., 1886), i. pp. 16, 161, 196; Mary B. Peaks, The General Civil and Military Administration of Noricum and Raetia (Chicago, 1907).
RAFF, JOSEPH JOACHIM (1822–1882), German composer and orchestral conductor, was born near Zürich, Switzerland, on the 27th of May 1822, and educated chiefly at Schwyz. Here, under the care of the Jesuit fathers, he soon became an excellent classical and mathematical scholar, but received scarcely any instruction in his favourite art of music, in which, nevertheless, he made extraordinary progress through sheer force of natural genius, developed by persevering study which no external obstacles could induce him to discontinue. So successful were his unaided efforts that, when in 1843 he sent some MSS. to Mendelssohn, that warm encourager of youthful talent felt justified in at once recommending him to Breitkopf & Härtel, the, Leipzig publishers, who brought out a large selection of his early works. Soon after this he became acquainted with Liszt, who gave him much generous encouragement. He first became personally acquainted with Mendelssohn at Cologne in 1846, and gave up all his other engagements for the purpose of following him to Leipzig, but his intention was frustrated by the great composer’s death in 1847. After this disappointment he remained for some time at Cologne, where his attention was alternately devoted to composition and to the preparation of critiques for the periodical Cäcilia. Thus far he was a self taught artist; but he felt the need of systematic instruction so deeply that, retiring for a time from public life, he entered at Stuttgart upon a long course of severe and uninterrupted study, and with so much success that in 1850 he appeared before the world in the character of an accomplished and highly cultivated musician. Raff now settled for a time in Weimar in order to be near Liszt. Hans von Bülow had already brought him into notice by playing his Concertstück for pianoforte and orchestra in public, and the favour with which this fine work was everywhere received encouraged him to attempt a greater one. During his stay in Stuttgart he had begun the composition of an opera entitled König Alfred, and had good hope of securing its performance at Dresden; but the political troubles with which Germany was then overwhelmed rendered its production in the Saxon capital impossible. At Weimar he was more fortunate. In due time König Alfred was produced there under Liszt’s able direction at the court theatre with complete success; and later, in 1870, he wrote his second opera, Dame Kobold, for performance at the same theatre. A third opera, Samson, remained unstaged.
Raff lived at Weimar until 1856, when he obtained a largeclientèle at Wiesbaden as a teacher of the pianoforte. In 1859 he married Doris Genast, an actress of high repute, and thenceforward devoted himself with renewed energy to the work of composition, displaying an inexhaustible fertility of invention tempered by great technical skill. He resided chiefly at Wiesbaden till 1877, when he was appointed director of the Hoch-Conservatorium at Frankfort, an office which he retained until his death on the 25th of June 1882.
More than 200 of Raff’s compositions have been published, including ten symphonies—undoubtedly his finest works—quartets, concertos, sonatas, songs, and examples of nearly, every known variety of style; yet he never repeats himself. Notwithstanding his strong love. for the romantic school, he is never guilty of extravagance, and, if in his minor works he is sometimes a little commonplace, he never descends to vulgarity. His symphonies Lenore and Im Walde are wonderful examples of musical painting.
RAFFAELLINO DEL GARBO (1466, or perhaps 1476–1524), Florentine painter. His real name was Raffaello Capponi; Del Garbo was a nickname, bestowed upon him seemingly from the graceful nicety (garbo) of his earlier works. He has also been called Raffaello de Florentia, and Raffaello de Carolis. He was a pupil of Filippino Lippi, with whom he remained till 1490, if not later. He showed great facility in design, and excited hopes which the completed body of his works fell short of. He married and had a large family; embarrassments and a haphazard manner of work ensued; and finally he lapsed into a very dejected and penurious condition. Three of his best tempera pictures are in the Berlin Gallery; one of the Madonna standing with her Infant between two musician angels, is particularly attractive. We may also name the oil-painting of the “Resurrection” done for the church of Monte Oliveto, Florence, now in the academy of the same city, ordinarily reputed to be Raffaellino’s masterpiece; the ceiling of the Caraffa Chapel in the church of the Minerva, Rome; and a “Coronation of the Virgin” in the Louvre, which is a production of much merit, though with somewhat over-studied grace. Angelo Allori was his pupil.
RAFFET, DENIS AUGUSTE MARIE (1804–1860), French illustrator and lithographer, was born in Paris in 1804. At an early age he was apprenticed to a wood turner, but took up the study of art at evening classes. He became acquainted with Cabanel, who made him apply his skill to the decoration of china, and with Rudor, from whom he received instruction in lithography, in the practice of which he was to rise to fame. He then, entered the École des Beaux-Arts, but returned definitely to lithography in 1830, when he produced on stone his famous designs of “Lutzen,” “Waterloo,” “Le bal,” “La revue” and “Les adieux de la garnison,” by which his reputation became immediately established. Raffet’s chief works were his lithographs of the Napoleonic campaigns, from Egypt to Waterloo, vigorous designs that are inspired by ardent patriotic enthusiasm. As an illustrator his activity was prodigious, the list of works illustrated by his crayon amounting to about forty-five, among which are Béranger’s poems, the History of the Revolution by Thiers, the History of Napoleon by de Norvins, the great Walter Scott by Defauconpret, the French Plutarch and Frédéric Bérat’s Songs. He went to Rome in 1849, was present at the siege of Rome, which he made the subject of some lithographs, and followed the Italian campaign of 1859, of which he left a record in his Episodes de la campagne d’Italie de 1859. His portraits in pencil and water-colour are full of character. He died at Genoa in 1860. In 1893 a monument by Frémiet was unveiled in the Jardin de l’Infante at the Louvre, Paris.
See Raffet, by F. Lhomme (Paris, 1892).
RAFFLE, a special kind of lottery, in which a particular article is put up as the prize, the winner being drawn for by lot out of the number of those who have paid a fixed sum for admission to the drawing; the total amount realized by the sale of the tickets is supposed to approximate to the value of the object rallied for. The word appears in English as early as Chaucer (The Parson’s Tale) where it is used in its original sense of a game of dice, the winner being that one who threw three dice all alike, or, next, the highest pair. The Fr. rafle, Med. Lat. raffla, was also used in the sense of a “sweeping-off” of the stakes in a game; it has been connected with Ger. raffen, to carry off.
RAFFLES, SIR THOMAS STAMFORD (1781–1826), English administrator, founder of Singapore, was born on the 5th of July 1781, on board a merchantman commanded by his father, Benjamin Raffles, when off Port Morant, Jamaica. He received
