See N. I. Kostomarov, Mazepa and the Mazepanites (Russ.) (St Petersburg), 1885; R. Nisbet Bain, The First Romanovs (London, 1905); S. M. Solovev, History of Russia (Russ.), vol. xv. (St Petersburg, 1895).
(R. N. B.)
MAZER, the name of a special type of drinking vessel, properly made of maple-wood, and so-called from the spotted or “birds-eye” marking on the wood (Ger. Maser, spot, marking, especially on wood; cf. “measles”). These drinking vessels are shallow bowls without handles, with a broad flat foot and a knob or boss in the centre of the inside, known technically as the “print.” They were made from the 13th to the 16th centuries, and were the most prized of the various wooden cups in use, and so were ornamented with a rim of precious metal, generally of silver or silver gilt; the foot and the “print” being also of metal. The depth of the mazers seems to have decreased in course of time, those of the 16th century that survive being much shallower than the earlier examples. There are examples with wooden covers with a metal handle, such as the Flemish and German mazers in the Franks Bequest in the British Museum. On the metal rim is usually an inscription, religious or bacchanalian, and the “print” was also often decorated. The later mazers sometimes had metal straps between the rim and the foot.
A very fine mazer with silver gilt ornamentation 3 in. deep and 91⁄2 in. in diameter was sold in the Braikenridge collection in 1908 for £2300. It bears the London hall-mark of 1534. This example is illustrated in the article [Plate]: see also [Drinking Vessels].
MAZURKA (Polish for a woman of the province of Mazovia), a lively dance, originating in Poland, somewhat resembling the polka.It is danced in couples, the music being in 3⁄8 or 3⁄4 time.
MAZZARA DEL VALLO, a town of Sicily, in the province of Trapani, on the south-west coast of the island, 32 m. by rail S. of Trapani. Pop. (1901), 20,130. It is the seat of a bishop; the cathedral, founded in 1093, was rebuilt in the 17th century. The castle, at the south-eastern angle of the town walls, was erected in 1073. The mouth of the river, which bears the same name, serves as a port for small ships only. Mazzara was in origin a colony of Selinus: it was destroyed in 409, but it is mentioned again as a Carthaginian fortress in the First Punic War and as a post station on the Roman coast road, though whether it had municipal rights is doubtful.[1] A few inscriptions of the imperial period exist, but no other remains of importance. On the west bank of the river are grottoes cut in the rock, of uncertain date: and there are quarries in the neighbourhood resembling those of Syracuse, but on a smaller scale.
See A. Castiglione, Sulle cose antiche della città di Mazzara (Alcamo, 1878).