Donoso Cortés’ works were collected in five volumes at Madrid (1854-1855) under the editorship of Gavino Tejado.
DONOVAN, EDWARD (1768-1837), English naturalist, was the author of many popular works on natural history and botany. In 1792 appeared the first volume of his Natural History of British Insects, which extended to sixteen volumes, and was completed in 1813. He also published Natural Histories of British Birds, in 10 vols. 8vo (1799-1819), of British Fishes, in 5 vols. (1802-1808), of British Shells, in 5 vols. (1800-1804), a series of illustrated works on The Insects of India, China, New Holland, &c., in 3 vols. 4to (1798-1805), and Excursions in South Wales and Monmouthshire (1805). To these works must be added his periodical entitled The Naturalist’s Repository, a monthly publication, of which three volumes were completed (1823-1825), and an Essay on the Minute Parts of Plants in general. Donovan was author of the articles on natural history in Rees’s Cyclopaedia. In 1833 he published a Memorial respecting my Publications in Natural History, in which he complains that he had been nearly ruined by his publishers. He was a fellow of the Linnean Society, and died in London on the 1st of February 1837.
DOOM (Old Eng. dóm, a word common to Teut. languages for that which is set up or ordered, from “do,” in its original meaning of “place”; cf. Gr. θέμις, from stem of τίθημι), originally a law or enactment, the legal decision of a judge, and particularly an adverse sentence on a criminal. The word is thus applicable to the adverse decrees of fate, and particularly to the day of judgment. The verb “deem,” to deliver a judgment, and hence to give or hold an opinion, is a derivative, and appears also in various old Teutonic forms. It is seen in “deemster,” the name of the two judges of the Isle of Man.
DOON DE MAYENCE, a hero of romance, who gives his name to the third cycle of the Charlemagne romances, those dealing with the feudal revolts. There is no real unity in the geste of Doon de Mayence. The rebellious barons are connected by the trouvères with Doon by imaginary genealogical ties, and all are represented as in opposition to Charlemagne, though their adventures, in so far as they possess a historical basis, must generally be referred to earlier or later periods than the reign of the great emperor. The general insolence of their attitude to the sovereign suggests that Charlemagne is here only a name for his weaker successors. The tradition of a traitorous family of Mayence, which was developed in Italy into a series of stories of criminals, was however anterior to the Carolingian cycle, for an interpolator in the chronicle of Fredegarius states (iv. 87) that the army of Sigebert was betrayed from within its own ranks by men of Mayence in a battle fought with Radulf on the banks of the Unstrut in Thuringia. The chief heroes of the poems which make up the geste of Doon de Mayence are Ogier the Dane (q.v.), the four sons of Aymon (see [Renaud]), and [Huon of Bordeaux] (q.v.). It is probable that Doon himself was one of the last personages to be clearly defined, and that the chanson de geste relating his exploits was drawn up partly with the view of supplying a suitable ancestor for the other heroes. The latter half of the poem, the story of Doon’s wars in Saxony, is perhaps based on historical events, but the earlier half, which is really a separate romance dealing with his romantic childhood, is obviously pure fiction and dates from the 13th century. Doon had twelve sons: Gaufrey de Dane Marche (Ardennes?), the father of Ogier; Doon de Nanteuil, whose son Garnier married the beautiful Aye d’Avignon; Griffon d’Hauteville, father of the arch-traitor Ganelon; Aymon de Dordone or Dourdan, whose four sons were so relentlessly pursued by Charles; Beuves d’Aigremont, whose son was the enchanter Maugis; Sevin or Seguin, the father of Huon of Bordeaux; Girard de Roussillon, and others less known. The history of these personages is given in Doon de Mayence, Gaufrey, the romances relating to Ogier, Aye d’Avignon, the fragmentary Doon de Nanteuil, Gui de Nanteuil, Tristan de Nanteuil, Parise la Duchesse, Maugis d’Aigremont, Vivien l’amachour de Monbranc, Renaus de Montauban or Les Quatre Fils Aymon, and Huon de Bordeaux. Some of this material, which dates in its existing form from the 12th and 13th centuries, remains unpublished, but the chief poems are available in the series of Anciens Poètes de la France (1859, &c).
See Hist. litt. de la France, vols. xxii. and xxvi. (1852 and 1873), for analyses of these poems by Paulin Paris; also J. Barrois, Éléments carolingiens (Paris, 1846); W. Niederstadt, Alter und Heimat der altfr. Doon (Greifswald, 1889). The prose romance, La Fleur des batailles Doolin de Mayence, was printed by Antoine Vérard (Paris, 1501), by Alain Lotrian and Denis Janot (Paris, c. 1530), by N. Bonfons (Paris; no date), by J. Waesbergue (Rotterdam, 1604), &c.
DOOR (corresponding to the Gr. θύρα, Lat. fores or valvae; the English word, with other forms common in allied languages, comes from the same Indo-European stem as the Gr. θύρα and Lat. fores), in architecture, the slab, flap or leaf forming the enclosure of a doorway (q.v.), either in wood, metal or stone. The earliest records are those represented in the paintings of the Egyptian tombs, in which they are shown as single or double doors, each in a single piece of wood. In Egypt, where the climate is intensely dry, there would be no fear of their warping, but in other countries it would be necessary to frame them, which according to Vitruvius (iv. 6.) was done with stiles (scapi) and rails (impages): the spaces enclosed being filled with panels (tympana) let into grooves made in the stiles and rails. The stiles were the vertical boards, one of which, tenoned or hinged, is known as the hanging stile, the other as the middle or meeting stile. The horizontal cross pieces are the top rail, bottom rail, and middle or intermediate rails. The most ancient doors were in timber, those made for King Solomon’s temple being in olive wood (1 Kings vi. 31-35), which were carved and overlaid with gold. The doors dwelt upon in Homer would appear to have been cased in silver or brass. Besides olive wood, elm, cedar, oak and cyprus were used. All ancient doors were hung by pivots at the top and bottom of the hanging stile which worked in sockets in the lintel and cill, the latter being always in some hard stone such as basalt or granite. Those found at Nippur by Dr Hilprecht, dating from 2000 b.c.. were in dolorite. The tenons of the gates at Balawat (see fig.) (895-825 b.c.) were sheathed with bronze (now in the British Museum). These doors or gates were hung in two leaves, each about 8 ft. 4 in. wide and 27 ft. high; they were encased with bronze bands or strips, 10 in. high, covered with repoussé decoration of figures, &c. The wood doors would seem to have been about 3 in. thick, but the hanging stile was over 14 in. in diameter. Other sheathings of various sizes in bronze have been found, which proves this to have been the universal method adopted to protect the wood pivots. In the Hauran in Syria, where timber is scarce, the doors were made in stone, and one measuring 5 ft. 4 in. by 2 ft. 7 in. is in the British Museum; the band on the meeting stile shows that it was one of the leaves of a double door. At Kuffeir near Bostra in Syria, Burckhardt found stone doors, 9 to 10 ft. high, being the entrance doors of the town. In Etruria many stone doors are referred to by Dennis.