The cuneiform writing, begun by the Sumerians in a period so remote that it is idle to speculate concerning it, had a long and very extensive history. It was first adopted by the Semitic Babylonians, and as we have seen was History. modified, developed, nay almost made over. Their inscriptions are written in it from circa 4500 B.C. to the 1st century B.C. From their hands it passed to the Assyrians, who simplified some characters and conventionalized many more, and used the script during the entire period of their national existence from 1500 B.C. to 607 B.C. From the Babylonian by a slow process of evolution the much simplified Persian script was developed, and with the Babylonian is also to be connected the Susian, less complicated than the Babylonian, but less simple than the Persian. The Chaldians (not Chaldaeans), who lived about Lake Van, also adopted the cuneiform script with values of their own, and expressed a considerable literature in it. The discovery in 1887 of the Tell-el-Amarna tablets in upper Egypt showed that the same script was in use in the 15th century B.C., from Elam to the Mediterranean and from Armenia to the Persian Gulf for purposes of correspondence. There is good reason to expect the discovery of its use by yet other peoples. It was one of the most widely used of all the forms of ancient writing.
Bibliography.—The history of the decipherment may be further studied in R. W. Rogers, History of Babylonia and Assyria, vol. i. (N.Y. and London, 1900); and in A. J. Booth, The Discovery and Decipherment of the Trilingual Cuneiform Inscriptions (London, 1902), which is very exhaustive and accurate. The Sumerian question may best be studied in F. H. Weissbach, Die Sumerische Frage (Leipzig, 1898), and Charles Fossey, Manuel d’Assyriologie, tome i. (Paris, 1904). For development and characteristics, see Friedrich Delitzsch, Die Entstehung des ältesten Schriftsystems (Leipzig, 1897); Paul Toscanne, Les Signes sumériens dérivés (Paris, 1905).
(R. W. R.)
CUNEO (Fr. Coni), a town and episcopal see of Piedmont, Italy, the capital of the province of Cuneo, 55 m. by rail S. of Turin, 1722 ft. above sea-level. Cuneo lies on the railway from Turin to Ventimiglia, which farther on passes under the Col di Tenda (tunnel 5 m. long). It is also a junction for Mondovi and Saluzzo, and has steam tramways to Borgo S. Dalmazzo, Boves, Saluzzo and Dronero. Pop. (1901) 15,412 (town), 26,879 (commune). Its name (“wedge”) is due to its position on a hill between two streams, the Stura and the Gesso, with fine views of the mountains. The Franciscan church, now converted into a military storehouse, belongs to the 12th century, but there are no other buildings of special interest. The fortifications have been converted into promenades. Cuneo was founded about 1120 by refugees from local baronial tyranny, who, after the destruction of Milan by Barbarossa, were joined by Lombards. In 1382 it swore fealty to Amedeus VI., duke of Savoy. It was an important fortress, and was ceded by the treaty of Cherasco (1796), with Ceva and Tortona, to the French. In 1799 it was taken after ten days’ bombardment by the Austrian and Russian armies, and, in 1800, after the victory of Marengo, the French demolished the fortifications.
CUNEUS (Latin for “wedge”; plural, cunei), the architectural term applied to the wedge-shaped divisions of the Roman theatre separated by the scalae or stairways; see Vitruvius v. 4.
CUNITZ, MARIA (c. 1610-1664), Silesian astronomer, was the eldest daughter of Dr Heinrich Cunitz of Schweinitz, and the wife (1630) of Dr Elias von Löven, of Pitschen in Silesia—both of them men of learning and distinction. From her universal accomplishments she was called the “Silesian Pallas,” and the publication of her work, Urania propitia (Oels, 1650), a simplification of the Rudolphine Tables, gained her a European reputation. It was composed at the village of Lugnitz, close by the convent of Olobok (Posen), where, with her husband, she had taken refuge at the outbreak of the Thirty Years’ War, and was dedicated to the emperor Frederick III. The author became a widow in 1661, and died at Pitschen on the 24th of August 1664.
See A. G. Kästner, Geschichte der Mathematik, iv. 430 (1800); N. Henelii, Silesiographia renovata, cap. vi. p. 684; J. C. Eberti’s Schlesiens wohlgelehrtes Frauenzimmer, p. 25 (Breslau, 1727); Allgemeine deutsche Biographie (Schimmelpfenning); &c.