(E. C. Q.)
COLUMBAN (543-615), Irish saint and writer, was born in Leinster in 543, and was educated in the monastery of Bangor, Co. Down. About the year 585 he left Ireland together with twelve other monks, and established himself in the Vosges, among the ruins of an ancient fortification called Anagrates, the present Anegray in the department of Haute-Saône. His enemies accused him before a synod of French bishops (602) for keeping Easter according to the old British and now unorthodox way, and a more powerful conspiracy was organized against him at the court of Burgundy for boldly rebuking the crimes of King Theuderich II. and the queen-mother Brunhilda. He was banished and forcibly removed from his monastery, and with St Gall and others of the monks he withdrew into Switzerland, where he preached with no great success to the Suebi and Alamanni. Being again compelled to flee, he retired to Italy, and founded the monastery of Bobbio in the Apennines, where he remained till his death, which took place on the 21st of November 615. His writings, which include some Latin poems, prove him a man of learning, and he appears to have been acquainted not only with the Latin classics, but also with Greek, and even Hebrew.
The collected edition of St Columban’s writings was published by Patrick Fleming in his Collectanea sacra Hiberni (Louvain, 1667), and reproduced by Migne, p. 4, vol. lxxxvi. (Paris, 1844). See further, Wright’s Biographia Literaria. Columban’s Regula Coenobitalis cum Poenitenliali is to be found in the Codex Regularum (Paris, 1638). A complete bibliography is given in U. Chevallier, Répertoire des sources hist. (Bio. Bibliogr.), vol. i. 990 (Paris, 1905).
COLUMBANI, PLACIDO, Italian architectural designer, who worked chiefly in England in the latter part of the 18th century. He belonged to the school of the Adams and Pergolesi, and like them frequently designed the enrichments of furniture. He was a prolific producer of chimney-pieces, which are often mistaken for Adam work, of moulded friezes, and painted plaques for cabinets and the like. There can be no question that the English furniture designers of the end of the 18th century, and especially the Adams, Hepplewhite and Sheraton, owed much to his graceful, flowing and classical conceptions, although they are often inferior to those of Pergolesi. His books are still a valuable store-house of sketches for internal architectural decoration. His principal works are:—Vases and Tripods (1770); A New Book of Ornaments, containing a variety of elegant designs for Modern Panels, commonly executed in Stucco, Wood or Painting, and used in decorating Principal Rooms (1775); A variety of Capitals, Friezes and Corniches, and how to increase and decrease them, still retaining their proportions (1776). He also assisted John Crunden in the production of The Chimneypiece Makers’ Daily Assistant (1776).
COLUMBARIUM (Lat. columba, a dove), a pigeon-house. The term is applied in architecture to those sepulchral chambers in and near Rome, the walls of which were sunk with small niches (columbaria) to receive the cinerary urns. Vitruvius (iv. 2) employs the term to signify the holes made in a wall to receive the ends of the timbers of a floor or roof.
COLUMBIA, a city and the county-seat of Boone county, Missouri, U.S.A., situated in the central part of the state, about 145 m. (by rail) W.N.W. of St Louis. Pop. (1890) 4000; (1900) 5651 (1916 negroes); (1910) 9662. Columbia is served by the Wabash and the Missouri, Kansas & Texas railways. It is primarily an educational centre, is a market for grain and farm products, and has grain elevators, a packing house, a shoe factory and brick works. Columbia is the seat of the University of Missouri, a coeducational state institution, established in 1839 and opened in 1841; it received no direct financial support from the state until 1867, and its founding was due to the self-sacrifice of the people of the county. It is now liberally supported by the state; in 1908 its annual income was about $650,000. In 1908 the university had (at Columbia) 200 instructors and 2419 students, including 680 women; included in its library is the collection of the State Historical Society. The School of Mines of the university is at Rolla, Mo.; all other departments are at Columbia. A normal department was established in 1867 and opened in 1868; and women were admitted to it in 1869. The College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts became a department of the university in 1870. The law department was opened in 1872, the medical in 1873, and the engineering in 1877. The graduate department was established in 1896, and in 1908 a department of journalism was organized. On the university campus in the quadrangle is the monument of grey granite erected over the grave of Thomas Jefferson, designed after his own plans, and bearing the famous inscription written by him. It was given to the university by descendants of Jefferson when Congress appropriated money for the monument now standing over his grave. Near the city is the farm of the agricultural college and the experiment station. At Columbia, also, are the Parker Memorial hospital, the Teachers College high school, the University Military Academy, the Columbia Business College, Christian College (Disciples) for women, established in 1851, its charter being the first granted by Missouri for the collegiate education of Protestant women; the Bible College of the Disciples of Christ in Missouri; and Stephens College (under Baptist control) for women, established in 1856. The municipality owns the water-works and the electric lighting plant. Columbia was first settled about 1821.