Perhaps no two men of letters ever lived in closer friendship than Hemsterhuis and Ruhnken during the twenty-three years which passed from Ruhnken's arrival in the Netherlands in 1743 to the death of Hemsterhuis in 1766. A few years made it clear that Ruhnken and Valckenaer were the two pupils of the great master on whom his inheritance must devolve. As his reputation spread, many efforts were made to attract Ruhnken back to Germany, but after settling in Leiden, he only left the country once, when he spent a year in Paris, ransacking the public libraries (1755). For work achieved, this year of Ruhnken may compare even with the famous year which Ritschl spent in Italy. In 1757 Ruhnken was appointed lecturer in Greek, to assist Hemsterhuis, and in 1761 he succeeded Oudendorp, with the title of "ordinary professor of history and eloquence," but practically as Latin professor. This promotion drew on him the enmity of some native Netherlanders, who deemed themselves (not without some show of reason) to possess stronger claims for a chair of Latin. The only defence made by Ruhnken was to publish works on Latin literature which eclipsed and silenced his rivals. In 1766 Valckenaer succeeded Hemsterhuis in the Greek chair. The intimacy between the two colleagues was only broken by Valckenaer's death in 1785, and stood without strain the test of common candidature for the office (an important one at Leiden) of university librarian, in which Ruhnken was successful. Ruhnken's later years were clouded by severe domestic misfortune, and by the political commotions which, after the outbreak of the war with England in 1780, troubled the Netherlands without ceasing, and threatened to extinguish the university of Leiden. He died in 1798.
Personally, Ruhnken was as far as possible removed from being a recluse or a pedant. He had a well-knit and even handsome frame, attractive manners (though sometimes tinged with irony), and a nature simple and healthy, and open to impressions from all sides. Fond of society, he cared little to what rank his associates belonged, if they were genuine men in whom he might find something to learn. His biographer even says of him in his early days that he knew how to sacrifice to the Sirens without proving traitor to the Muses. Life in the open air had a great attraction for him; he was fond of sport, and would sometimes devote to it two or three days in the week. In his bearing towards other scholars Ruhnken was generous and dignified, distributing literary aid with a free hand, and meeting onslaughts for the most part with a smile. In the records of learning he occupies an important position. He forms a principal link in the chain which connects Bentley with the modern scholarship of the Continent. The spirit and the aims of Hemsterhuis, the great reviver of Continental learning, were committed to his trust, and were faithfully maintained. He greatly widened the circle of those who valued taste and precision in classical scholarship. He powerfully aided the emancipation of Greek studies from theology; nor must it be forgotten that he first in modern times dared to think of rescuing Plato from the hands of the professed philosophers—men presumptuous enough to interpret the ancient sage with little or no knowledge of the language in which he wrote.
Ruhnken's principal works are editions of (1) Timaeus's Lexicon of Platonic Words, (2) Thalelaeus and other Greek commentators on Roman law, (3) Rutilius Lupus and other grammarians, (4) Velleius Paterculus, (5) the works of Muretus. He also occupied himself much with the history of Greek literature, particularly the oratorical literature, with the Homeric hymns, the scholia on Plato and the Greek and Roman grammarians and rhetoricians. A discovery famous in its time was that in the text of the work of Apsines on rhetoric a large piece of a work by Longinus was embedded. Modern views of the writings attributed to Longinus have lessened the interest of this discovery without lessening its merit. The biography of Ruhnken was written by his great pupil, Wyttenbach, soon after his death.
(J. S. R.)
RUHR, a river of Germany, an important right-bank tributary of the lower Rhine. It rises on the north side of the Winterberg in the Sauerland, at a height of about 2000 ft. above the sea. It first takes a northerly and north-westerly course, and in a deep and well-wooded valley winds past the romantically situated town of Arnsberg. Shortly after reaching Neheim it bends to the south-west, courses through the mining district around Hagen, and receives from the left the waters of the Lenne. Hence in a tortuous course it works its way past Witten, Steele, Kettwig and Mülheim, and, after a course of 142 m., discharges itself into the Rhine at Ruhrort. From this place the Ruhr canal connects it with Duisburg. The river is navigable from Witten downwards (43 m.), by the aid of eleven locks; but navigation is often greatly impeded through dearth of water.
RUHRORT, a town of Germany, in the Prussian Rhine province, situated at the junction of the Ruhr and the Rhine, in the midst of a productive coal district, 15 m. N. of Düsseldorf and 12 E. of Crefeld by rail. Ruhrort has the largest river harbour in Europe, with quays extending nearly 5 m. along the river, and it is the principal shipping port for the coal of the Westphalian coalfield, which is despatched in the fleet of steam-tugs and barges belonging to the port. The coal is sent principally to South Germany and the Netherlands. Grain and timber are also exported and iron ore is imported. In 1905 the port was entered and cleared by over 27,000 vessels of 7,418,065 tons. The industries of the town include large iron and steel works, shipbuilding yards and tanneries. Ruhrort has three Evangelical and three Roman Catholic churches, and several schools and public institutions.
Rurhort is first mentioned in 1379, and obtained civic rights in 1551. Having been in the possession of the counts of La Marck, it passed into that of Brandenburg in 1614. In 1905 it was united with Duisburg and Meiderich to form a single municipality, the joint population being 41,416.
See Geschichte der Stadt Ruhrort (Ruhrort, 1882).
RUIZ, JUAN (c. 1283–c. 1350), Spanish poet, was born probably at Alcalá de Henares, and became arch-priest of Hita. Though he draws his physical portrait in the Libro de buen amor, he gives no exact biographical details. It may be inferred from his writings that he was not an exemplary priest, and one of the manuscript copies of his poems states that he was imprisoned by order of Gil Albornoz, archbishop of Toledo. It is not known whether he was sentenced for his irregularities of conduct, or on account of his satirical reflections on his ecclesiastical superiors. Nor is it possible to fix the precise date of his imprisonment. Albornoz nominally occupied the see of Toledo from 1337 to 1368, but he fell into disgrace in 1351 and fled to Avignon. A consideration of these circumstances points to the probable conclusion that Ruiz was in prison from 1337 to 1350, but this is conjecture. What seems established is that he finished the Libro de buen amor in 1343 while in gaol, and that he was no longer arch-priest of Hita in January 1351; it is assumed that he died shortly before the latter date.
Ruiz is by far the most eminent poet of medieval Spain. His natural gifts were supplemented by his varied culture; he clearly had a considerable knowledge of colloquial (and perhaps of literary) Arabic; his classical reading was apparently not extensive, but he knew by heart the Disticha of Dionysius Cato, and admits his indebtedness to Ovid and to the De Amore ascribed to Pamphilus; his references to Blanchefleur, to Tristan and to Yseult, indicate an acquaintance with French literature, and he utilizes the fabliaux with remarkable deftness; lastly, he adapts fables and apologues from Aesop, from Pedro Alfonso's Disciplina clericalis, and from medieval bestiaries. All these heterogeneous materials are fused in the substance of his versified autobiography, into which he intercalates devout songs, parodies of epic or forensic formulae, and lyrical digressions on every aspect of life. Ruiz, in fact, offers a complete picture of picaresque society in Spain during the first half of the 14th century, and his impartial irony lends a deeper tone to his rich colouring. He knows the weaknesses of both clergy and laity, and he dwells with equal complacency on the amorous adventures of great ladies, on the perverse intrigues arranged by demure nuns behind their convent walls, and on the simpler instinctive animalism of country lasses and Moorish dancing-girls. In addition to the faculty of genial observation Ruiz has the gift of creating characters and presenting types of human nature: from his Don Furón is derived
