GALLENGA, ANTONIO CARLO NAPOLEONE (1810-1895), Italian author and patriot, born at Parma on the 4th of November 1810, was the eldest son of a Piedmontese of good family, who served for ten years in the French army under Masséna and Napoleon. He had finished his education at the university of Parma, when the French Revolution of 1830 caused a ferment in Italy. He sympathized with the movement, and within a few months was successively a conspirator, a state prisoner, a combatant and a fugitive. For the next five years he lived a wandering life in France, Spain and Africa. In August 1836 he embarked for New York, and three years later he proceeded to England, where he supported himself as a translator and teacher of languages. His first book, Italy; General Views of its History and Literature, which appeared in 1841, was well received, but was not successful financially. On the outbreak of the Italian revolution in 1848 he at once put himself in communication with the insurgents. He filled the post of Chargé d’Affaires for Piedmont at Frankfort in 1848-1849, and for the next few years he travelled incessantly between Italy and England, working for the liberation of his country. In 1854, through Cavour’s influence, he was elected a deputy to the Italian parliament. He retained his seat until 1864, passing the summer in England and fulfilling his parliamentary duties at Turin in the winter. On the outbreak of the Austro-French War of 1859 he proceeded to Lombardy as war correspondent of The Times. The campaign was so brief that the fighting was over before he arrived, but his connexion with The Times endured for twenty years. He was a forcible and picturesque writer, with a command of English remarkable for an Italian. He materially helped to establish that friendly feeling towards Italy which became traditional in England. In 1859 Gallenga purchased the Falls, at Llandogo on the Wye, as a residence, and thither he retired in 1885. He died at this house on the 17th of December 1895. He was twice married. Among his chief works are an Historical Memoir of Frà Dolcino and his Times (1853); a History of Piedmont (3 vols., 1855; Italian translation, 1856); Country Life in Piedmont (1858); The Invasion of Denmark (2 vols., 1864); The Pearl of the Antilles [travels in Cuba] (1873); Italy Revisited (2 vols., 1875); Two Years of the Eastern Question (2 vols., 1877); The Pope [Pius IX.] and the King [Victor Emmanuel] (2 vols., 1879); South America (1880); A Summer Tour in Russia (1882); Iberian Reminiscences (2 vols., 1883); Episodes of my Second Life (1884); Italy, Present and Future (2 vols., 1887). Gallenga’s earlier publications appeared under the pseudonym of Luigi Mariotti.
GALLERY (through Ital. galleria, from Med. Lat. galeria, of which the origin is unknown),[1] a covered passage or space outside a main wall, sometimes used as a verandah if on the ground floor, and as a balcony if on an upper floor and supported by columns, piers or corbels; similarly the upper seats in a theatre or a church, on either side as in many 17th-century churches, or across the west end under the organ. The word is also used of an internal passage primarily provided to place various rooms in communication with one another; but if of narrow width this is usually called a corridor or passage. When of sufficient width the gallery is utilized to exhibit pictures and other art treasures. In the 16th century the picture gallery formed the largest room or hall in English mansions, with wainscoted walls and a richly decorated plaster ceiling; the principal examples are those of Audley End, Essex (226 ft. by 34 ft.); Hardwick, Derbyshire (166 ft. by 22 ft.); Hatfield, Hertfordshire (163 ft. by 19 ft. 6 in.); Aston Hall, near Birmingham (136 ft. by 18 ft.); Haddon Hall, Derbyshire (116 ft. by 17 ft.); and Montacute in Somersetshire (189 ft. by 22 ft.). Hence the application of the term to art museums (the National Gallery, &c.) and also to smaller rooms with top-light in which temporary exhibitions are held.
[1] Du Cange, Glossarium, s.v. “Galeria,” suggests an origin from galera, a galley, on the analogy of “nave,” from navis, the galley being a long and narrow ship; but, he adds, alii alia opinantur.
GALLEY (derived through the O. Fr. galee, galie, from the Med. Lat. galea, Ital. galea, Port. galé, of uncertain origin; from the Med. Lat. variant form galera are derived the Mod. Fr. galère, Span. and Ital. galera), a long single or half decked vessel of war, with low free-board, propelled primarily by oars or sweeps; but also having masts for sails. The word is used generally of the ancient war vessels of Greece and Rome of various types, whose chief propelling power was the oar or sweep, but its more specific application is to the medieval war vessel which survived in the navies of the Mediterranean sea-powers after the general adoption of the larger many-decked ship of war, propelled solely by sail-power. Lepanto (1571) was the last great naval battle in which the galley played the principal part. The “galleass” or “galliass” (Med. Lat. galeasea, Ital. galeazza, an augmented form of galea) was a larger and heavier form of galley; it usually carried three masts and had at bow and stern a castellated structure. The “galliot” (O. Fr. galiot, Span. and Port. galeota, Ital. galeotta, a diminutive of galea) was a small light type of galley. The “galleon” (formerly in English “galloon,” Fr. galion, derived from the Med. Lat. galio, galionis, a derivative of galea) was a sailing ship of war and trade, shorter than the galley and standing high out of the water with several decks, chiefly used by the Spaniards during the 16th century in the carrying of treasure from America. The number of oars or sweeps varied, the larger galley having twenty-five on each side; the galleass as many as thirty-two, each being worked by several men. This labour was from the earliest times often performed by slaves or prisoners of war. It became the custom among the Mediterranean powers to sentence condemned criminals to row in the war galleys of the state. Traces of this in France can be found as early as 1532, but the first legislative enactment is in the Ordonnance d’Orléans of 1561. In 1564 Charles IX. forbade the sentencing of prisoners to the galleys for less than ten years. The galley-slaves were branded with the letters Gal. At the end of the reign of Louis XIV. the use of the galley for war purposes had practically ceased, but the corps of the galleys was not incorporated with the navy till 1748. The headquarters of the galleys and of the convict rowers (galériens) was at Marseilles. The majority of these latter were brought to Toulon, the others were sent to Rochefort and Brest, where they were used for work in the arsenal. At Toulon the convicts remained (in chains) on the galleys, which were moored as hulks in the harbour. Shore prisons were, however, provided for them, known as bagnes, baths, a name given to such penal establishments first by the Italians (bagno), and said to have been derived from the prison at Constantinople situated close by or attached to the great baths there. The name galérien was still given to all convicts, though the galleys had been abandoned, and it was not till the French Revolution that the hated name with all it signified was changed to forçat. In Spain galera is still used for a criminal condemned to penal servitude.
A vivid account of the life of galley-slaves in France is given in Jean Marteilhes’s Memoirs of a Protestant, translated by Oliver Goldsmith (new edition, 1895), which describes the experiences of one of the Huguenots who suffered after the revocation of the edict of Nantes.
GALLIA CISALPINA (Lat. Cis, on this side, i.e. of the Alps), in ancient geography, that portion of northern Italy north of Liguria and Umbria and south of the Alps, which was inhabited by various Celtic and other peoples, of whom the Celts were in continual hostility to Rome. In early times it was bounded on the S. by Liguria and the Aesis, in Caesar’s time by Liguria and the Rubicon. After the Second Punic War (203 B.C.) these tribes were severely punished by the Roman generals for the assistance they had rendered to Hannibal. Sulla divided the district into two parts; the region between the Aesis and the Rubicon was made directly subject to the government at Rome, while the northern portion was put under a distinct authority, probably similar to the usual transmarine commands (see Mommsen, Hist. of Rome, Eng. trans., bk. iv. c. 10).