In the midst of these multifarious labours Giry found time for extensive archaeological researches, and made a special study of the medieval treatises dealing with the technical processes employed in the arts and industries. He prepared a new edition of the monk Theophilus’s celebrated treatise, Diversarum artium schedula, and for several years devoted his Saturday mornings to laboratory research with the chemist Aimé Girard at the Conservatoire des Arts et Métiers, the results of which were utilized by Marcellin Berthelot in the first volume (1894) of his Chimie au moyen âge. Giry took an energetic part in the Collection de textes relatifs à l’histoire du moyen âge, which was due in great measure to his initiative. He was appointed director of the section of French history in La Grande Encyclopédie, and contributed more than a hundred articles, many of which, e.g. “Archives” and “Diplomatique,” were original works. In collaboration with his pupil André Réville, he wrote the chapters on “L’Émancipation des villes, les communes et les bourgeoisies” and “Le Commerce et l’industrie au moyen âge” for the Histoire générale of Lavisse and Rambaud. Giry took a keen interest in politics, joining the republican party and writing numerous articles in the republican newspapers, mainly on historical subjects. He was intensely interested in the Dreyfus case, but his robust constitution was undermined by the anxieties and disappointments occasioned by the Zola trial and the Rennes court-martial, and he died in Paris on the 13th of November 1899.
For details of Giry’s life and works see the funeral orations published in the Bibliothèque de l’École des Chartes, and afterwards in a pamphlet (1899). See also the biography by Ferdinand Lot in the Annuaire de l’École des Hautes Études for 1901; and the bibliography of his works by Henry Maistre in the Correspondance historique et archéologique (1899 and 1900).
GISBORNE, a seaport of New Zealand, in Cook county, provincial district of Auckland, on Poverty Bay of the east coast of North Island. Pop. (1901) 2733; (1906) 5664. Wool, frozen mutton and agricultural produce are exported from the rich district surrounding. Petroleum has been discovered in the neighbourhood, and about 40 m. from the town there are warm medicinal springs. Near the site of Gisborne Captain Cook landed in 1769, and gave Poverty Bay its name from his inability to obtain supplies owing to the hostility of the natives. Young Nick’s Head, the southern horn of the bay, was named from Nicholas Young, his ship’s boy, who first observed it.
GISLEBERT (or Gilbert) OF MONS (c. 1150-1225), Flemish chronicler, became a clerk, and obtained the positions of provost of the churches of St Germanus at Mons and St Alban at Namur, in addition to several other ecclesiastical appointments. In official documents he is described as chaplain, chancellor or notary, of Baldwin V., count of Hainaut (d. 1195), who employed him on important business. After 1200 Gislebert wrote the Chronicon Hanoniense, a history of Hainaut and the neighbouring lands from about 1050 to 1195, which is specially valuable for the latter part of the 12th century, and for the life and times of Baldwin V.
The chronicle is published in Band xxi. of the Monumenta Germaniae historica (Hanover, 1826 fol.); and separately with introduction by W. Arndt (Hanover, 1869). Another edition has been published by L. Vanderkindere in the Recueil de textes pour servir à l’étude de l’histoire de Belgique (Brussels, 1904); and there is a French translation by G. Menilglaise (Tournai, 1874).
See W. Meyer, Das Werk des Kanzlers Gislebert von Mons als verfassungsgeschichtliche Quelle (Königsberg, 1888); K. Huygens, Sur la valeur historique de la chronique Gislebert de Mons (Ghent, 1889); and W. Wattenbach, Deutschlands Geschichtsquellen, Band ii. (Berlin, 1894).