[Mantegna, Andrea], an Italian painter and engraver, born at Padua; his works were numerous, did atlas pieces and frescoes, his greatest "The Triumph of Cæsar"; he was a man of versatile genius, was sculptor and poet as well as painter, and his influence on Italian art was great (1430-1504).
[Mantell, Gideon], an eminent English geologist and palæontologist, born at Lewes, in Sussex; wrote "The Wonders of Geology," "Thoughts on a Pebble," &c.; he was a voluminous author, and distinguished for his study of fossils (1790-1852).
[Manteuffel, Baron von], field-marshal of Germany, born in Dresden; entered the Prussian army in 1827, rose rapidly, and took part in all the wars from 1866 to 1872, and was appointed viceroy at the close of the last in Alsace-Lorraine, a rather unhappy appointment, as it proved (1809-1885).
[Mantra], the name given to hymns from the Veda, the repetition of which are supposed to have the effect of a charm.
[Mantua] (28), the strongest fortress in Italy, in SE. Lombardy, on two islands in the river Mincio, 83 m. E. of Milan, is a somewhat gloomy and unhealthy town, with many heavy mediæval buildings; there are saltpetre refineries, weaving and tanning industries. Virgil was born here in 70 B.C. The town was Austrian in the 18th century, but ceded to Italy 1866.
[Mantuan Swan], a name given to the Roman poet Virgil, from his having been a native of Mantua, in N. Italy.
[Manu, Code of], one of the sacred books of the Hindus, in which is expounded the doctrine of Brahminism, inculcating "sound, solid, and practical morality," and containing evidence of the progress of civilisation among the Aryans from their first establishment in the valley of the Ganges. Manu, the alleged author, appears to have been a primitive mythological personage, conceived of as the ancestor and legislator of the human race, and as having manifested himself through long ages in a series of incarnations.
[Manzoni, Alessandro], Italian poet and novelist, born at Milan; began a sceptic, but became a devout Catholic; wrote a volume of hymns, entitled "Inni Sacri," and a tragedy, "Adelchi," his masterpiece, and admired by Goethe, as also a prose fiction, "I Promessi Sposi," which spread his name over Europe; in 1860 was made a senator of the kingdom of Italy, and was visited by Garibaldi in 1862; he was no less distinguished as a man than as an author (1780-1875).
[Maoris], the natives of New Zealand, a Polynesian race numbering 40,000, who probably displaced an aboriginal; are distinguished for their bravery; are governed by chiefs, and speak a rich sonorous language; they are the most vigorous and energetic of all the South Sea islanders.
[Mar], a district in S. Aberdeenshire, between the Don and the Dee, has given a title to many earls; one was regent of Scotland in 1572, another, nicknamed "Bobbing Joan," led the Jacobite rising of 1715; on the death without issue of the earl in 1866 the question of succession was at issue; the Committee of Privileges granted it to his cousin, the Earl of Kellie, thereafter Mar and Kellie, and a Bill in Parliament awarding it to his nephew, who is thus Earl of Mar.