Érard, Sébastien, a celebrated musical-instrument maker, born at Strasbourg in 1752, died 1831. He went to Paris at the age of eighteen, and in concert with his brother, Jean Baptiste, produced pianofortes superior to any that had previously been made in France. He afterwards established a manufactory in London, and made considerable improvements in the mechanism of the harp.
Erasis´tratus, an ancient Greek physician and anatomist, said to have been a grandson of Aristotle. He lived in the third century before the Christian era, and was court physician of Seleucus Nicator, King of Syria. He was the first who systematically dissected the human body, and his description of the brain and nerves is much more exact than any given by his predecessors. He classified the nerves into nerves of sensation and of locomotion, and, it is said, almost stumbled upon the discovery of the circulation of the blood. Of his works only the titles and some fragments remain.
Eras´mus, Desiderius, a Dutch scholar, one of the greatest of the Renaissance and Reformation period, born at Rotterdam in 1467, died in 1536. His original name was Gerard, but this he changed according to a fashion of the time. After the death of his parents, whom he lost in his fourteenth year, his guardians compelled him to enter a monastery; and at the age of seventeen he assumed the monastic habit. The Bishop of Cambrai delivered him from this constraint. In 1492 he travelled to Paris to perfect himself in theology and literature. He became the instructor of several rich Englishmen (from one of whom—Lord Mountjoy—he received a pension for life), and accompanied them to England in 1497, where he was graciously received by the king. Returning soon after to the Continent, he took his doctor's degree, was relieved from his monastic vows by dispensation from the Pope, and published several of his works. In 1510 he returned to England, wrote his Praise of Folly while residing with Sir Thomas More, and was appointed Lady Margaret professor of divinity and Greek lecturer at Cambridge. In 1514 he returned to the Continent and lived chiefly at Basel, where he died. To extensive learning Erasmus joined a refined taste and a delicate wit, and rendered great and lasting service to the cause of reviving scholarship. Although Erasmus took no direct part in the Reformation, and was reproached by Luther for lukewarmness, he attacked the disorders of monasticism and superstition, and everywhere promoted the cause of truth. A humanist rather than a reformer or a theologian, he waged war upon ignorance and superstition. He edited various classics, the first edition of the Greek Testament from MSS. (with Latin translation), &c., but his best-known books are the Encomium Moriæ (Praise of Folly) and his Colloquies. His letters are very valuable in reference to the history of that period.—Bibliography: S. Knight, Life of Erasmus; C. Butler, Life of Erasmus; E. F. H. Capey, Life of Erasmus; P. S. Allen, The Age of Erasmus.
Eras´tus (Gr. erastos, lovely, translation of Ger. Lieber), the learned name of Thomas Lieber, a Swiss physician, who maintained the opinions from which the well-known epithet of Erastian, as now used, is derived. He was born at Baden in 1523, and died at Basel 1584. He was successively professor of medicine at Heidelberg, and of ethics at Basel. In his writings he maintained the complete subordination of the ecclesiastical to the secular power; and denied to the Church the right to exclude any one from Church ordinances, or to inflict excommunication.
Er´ato, in Greek mythology, one of the nine Muses, whose name signifies loving or lovely. She presided over lyric and especially amatory poetry, and is generally represented crowned with roses and myrtle, and with the lyre in the left hand and the plectrum in the right in the act of playing.
Eratos´thenes, an ancient Greek astronomer, born at Cyrene, in Africa, 276 B.C., died about 194 B.C. He was librarian at Alexandria, and gained his greatest renown by his investigations of the size of the earth. He rendered much service to the science of astronomy, and first
observed the obliquity of the ecliptic. Of the writings attributed to him one only remains complete—Katasterismoi—which treats of the constellations.
Er´bium, a rare metal found along with yttrium, terbium, and other rare elements in some rare minerals. Its properties are but little known. It was discovered by Mosander in 1843.
Ercilla y Zuñiga (er-thil´ya˙ ē thö-nyē´ga˙), Don Alonso de, Spanish soldier and poet, born 1533, died 1595. He became page to the Infant Don Philip, accompanied him on his travels, and in 1554 went with him to England, on the occasion of his marriage with Queen Mary. After this he fought against the Araucanians of South America (Chile), and his epic La Araucana is based on the events of this war. It is written in excellent Spanish, and occupies an honourable position in the national literature. The first fifteen cantos were published in 1569, and the continuations, thirty-seven cantos, appeared in 1578 and 1589.
Erckmann-Chatrian (sha˙t-ri-än˙), the joint name of two French-Alsatian writers of fiction. Émile Erckmann, born at Pfalzburg 1822, studied law at Paris, and died in 1899. Alexandre Chatrian, born near Pfalzburg in 1826, died in 1890, was for some time teacher in the Pfalzburg College. They formed a literary partnership in 1847, but it was not till the appearance of L'Illustre Docteur Mathéus in 1859 that success attended them. Among their most popular books are: L'Ami Fritz, Madame Thérèse, Histoire d'un Conscrit de 1813, L'Histoire d'un Paysan, and Waterloo, most of which have been translated into English. Their drama Le Juif Polonais was made famous by Sir Henry Irving under the name of The Bells.