FLORIDA-BLANC A. 748 set at liberty, and restored to his rank and honors, after which lie retired to his estates in Murcia. There he remained quietly until the Napoleonic invasion of lSliS. when he was chosen president of the Central Junta of the Govern- ment, but died soon afterwards. FLORIDA, Cape. See Cape Florida. FLORIDA, Gulf of. See Flobida Stbaits. FLORIDA JAY. See Jay. FLORIDA STRAITS (also called the New Bahama Channel, and the Gulf of Florida) . The coast waters separating southeast Florida and the Florida Keys from the Bahamas and Cuba, and traversed by the Gulf Stream (Map: Florida, C 5). The total length of the straits is over 300 miles, and the width varies from 100 miles to 60 miles. The depth of the main chan- nel is about 3000 feet, but the eastern half of the straits includes the shallow waters of the Great Bahama Bank. FLORIDIA, fl6-re'de-a. A city in Sicily, seven miles west of Syracuse, in. the midst of vineyards, olive groves, and fields of grain. (Map: Italy, K 10.) Population, in 1901, 12,165. FLORIDSDORF, flo'redz-dorf. A suburban municipality, three miles north of Vienna, the capital of a district of the same name. It is an important industrial centre, with extensive dis- tilleries and manufactures of machinery and loco- motives. Floridsdorf was a small town of 6000 inhabitants prior to 1S96, when in that year it was made the government seat of a district, and its municipal area extended to embrace several adjacent villages. Population, in 1900, 30,590. FLOR'IMEL. ( 1 ) A character representing the beauty of ideal womanhood, in Spenser's Faerie Queene. She loves Marinel without re- turn and is the victim of a wicked double of herself, made of snow mixed with mercury and virgin wax. Finally the evil snow image melts, and the unrequiting lover becomes conscious of hc-r charms. As proof of her virtue she has the girdle which Venus lost when seduced by Mars, and which may be worn only by a chaste woman. (2) The virtuous heroine of Fletcher and Rowley's Maid of the Mill, who. when abducted by a lover she has scorned, affects so broad a manner as to disgust him. (3) A coquettish maid of honor in Dryden's The Maiden Quet n. The role has become famous through its association with the successes of Nell < '• w yn. FLORIN (OF.. Fr. florin, from It. fiorino, hum fiore, Lat. flos, flower; associated by popular etymology with It. Fiorema, Florence, from Lat. flort re, to bloom, from flos, flower). The name of a gold coin first struck in Florence (q.v.) in the thirteenth century. It was ,,f the size of a ducat, and had on the obverse a lily, and on the reverse the bead of Saint John ' the Baptist These coins were soon imitated all over Europe. It was mil of them that the German gold gul- dens of the Middle Ages and the modern silver gulden- arose. These last were to the end marked bj the letters /■'/. The gulden, or florin, ""ill recently i he unit of account in Austria, and had a value of about $0.40. Till 1875 a florin or gulden oi $0 IS ns the unit in the South Gi rman States. The Dutch florin or gulden is «'"ib $0.40. I lie English two-billing piece, called a florin, is worth about $0.50, FLORIS. FLORIN'DA. In the legendary account of the conquest of Spain by the Arabs, the daughter of Count Julian, Governor of Andalusia, seduced by Roderie, last of the Gothic kings of Spain. In revenge her father invited the Saracens into Spain, and brought about the fall of the Visi- gothic kingdom (711). FLORIN'IANS. A Gnostic sect, of the sec- ond century, so called from a Roman presbyter, Florinus, who introduced doctrines resembling those of the Valentinians (q.v.) into Rome in the latter part of the second century. See Gnostics; Valentinians. FLO'RIO, Caryl (1843-). The pen-name of William James Robjohn, an American musician. He was born in Tavistock, England, and was self- taught. In 1S57 he went to New York City, where in the following year he was admitted to the choir of Trinity Church. He was associated with Trinity Church as chorister until 1SC0. After that he sang on the stage, and was organi-t in several churches. He also conducted opera in Havana, and at the Academy of Music, New- York, and was director of the Amieitia Orchestra. and of several other instrumental and choral societies. His compositions include the three operettas Inferno (1871). Les tours de Mereure (1872), and Suzanne (1876) : two operas, Gultla (1879) and Uncle Tom (1882); and several cantatas, overtures, and symphonies, as well as chamber music, and sacred' compositions. FLORIO, John (1553-1625). An English au- thor, son of a Florentine Protestant, who fled to England; taught Italian at Oxford and London, the Earl of Southampton (Shakespeare's friend), and Queen Anne being among his pupils: was appointed Groom of the Privy Chamber (1604), and passed the last five vears' of his life at Ful- ham. He died in 1625." He is author of First Fruit* which yield Familiar Speech, Merry Prov- erbs, Witty Sentences, and Golden Sayings (1578); the well-known Italian-English diction- ary, A World of Words ( 1598) ; and an excellent translation of Montaigne's essays (1603; re- printed by J. H. McCarthy. London, 1889). FLORIPES, llcVrep'. The sister of Fierabras, in the Carolingian cycle of romances. She is married to Guy, Charlemagne's nephew. FLORIS, flf/ros. Frans (properly de Vriendt) (c.1517-70). A Flemish painter, born in Ant- werp. He studied sculpture under bis father, Cornelius, and painting at Liege under Lambert Lombard. Probably directed by I hat master, he went to Rome, and studied the drawings of -Michelangelo, and there be met the historian Vasari, who called him 'the Raphael of the Low Countries.' He returned to Antwerp, and set up a school about 1510, which is said to have furnished instruction to 120 pupils. His most characteristic pictures are "The Last Judgment," in the Brussels .Museum: "Lot and His Daugh- ters," in the Dresden Gallery; and "The FalLof (he Rebellious Angel," in the Antwerp Museum. His admiration and study of Michelangelo are plainly (o be seen in tl implicated attitudes of his figures, which are boldly conceived; but taker as a whole bis works are artificial and mannered. The most important of bis portraits, which are better (ban bis other subjects, is "The Falconer" [Museum of Brunswick), His greatest |ill|ill was Simon de Yo-.e.
