Page:Men of the Time, eleventh edition.djvu/925

RANGOON, Bishop of. (See Strachan.)

RANKE, Leopold von, professor of history, born at Wiche, in Thuringia, Dec. 21, 1795, embraced the profession of teacher, and in 1818 became head master of the Gymnasium at Frankfort-on-the-Oder, devoting his leisure to historical studies. "The History of the Roman and Germanic Peoples, from 1494 to 1535," and "A Critique upon the Later Historians," published in 1824, attracted so much attention that he was invited to Berlin in 1825, as Professor Extraordinary of History in the University, and was sent, in 1827, by the Prussian Government to Vienna, Rome, and more particularly to Venice, to examine the historical materials there deposited. The first-fruits of these investigations were "The Princes and People of Southern Europe in the 17th and 18th Centuries," published in 1827; and "The Conspiracy against Venice in 1688," in 1831; followed by the "Popes of Rome: their Church and their State in the 16th and 17th Centuries," in 1834-39. The work in which Ranke displays the most laborious investigation, and the greatest completeness of form, is his "German History in the Times of the Reformation," published in 1839-47. His works have been translated and published in this country by Mrs. Austin and Mr. Scott. In addition to the above-mentioned works, Ranke edited, in 1832, the Historical and Political Gazette, which he was compelled to discontinue on account of its liberal tone. Between 1837 and 1840 he published three volumes of "Annals of the German Monarchy under the House of Saxony," followed by "Nine Books of Prussian History" in 1847-8; "Civil Wars and Monarchy in the 16th and 17th Centuries: a History of France, principally during that period," in 1862-3; and "Ferdinand I. and Maximilian II. of Austria: an Essay on the Political and Religious State of Germany immediately after the Reformation." In 1841 he was appointed Historiographer of Prussia, and in 1848 was elected a member of the National Assembly at Frankfort. He was ennobled in 1866. Among his more recent publications are—a "History of Wallenstein," 1869; "The German Powers and the League of Princes; being a History of Germany from 1780 to 1790" ("Die deutschen Mächte und der Fürstenbund: deutsche Geschichte von 1780 bis 1790"), vol. i., 1871; "A History of England, principally in the 17th Century," an English translation ofwhich was issued from the Clarendon Press at Oxford, in 6 vols., 1875; "Friedrich der Grosse; Friederich Wilhelm der Vierte," two biographies, 1878; and "Weltgeschichte," vol. i., 1881.

RASSAM, Hormuzd, was born in 1826, at Mossul, in Northern Mesopotamia, on the bank of the Tigris, opposite the site of ancient Nineveh, of a family which claims descent from the Chaldeans and early Christians. In 1845 he joined Mr. Layard to assist him in his Assyrian researches, and lived with him as his friend and guest for more than two years. When Mr. Layard returned to England in 1847 Mr. Rassam came with him to complete his studies at Oxford, but before he was enabled to matriculate, Mr. Layard, who had again been requested by the trustees of the British Museum to resume his researches in Nineveh, applied for his services, and at the end of 1849 he was sent out by the British Museum authorities to assist him in his second undertaking. At the end of 1851 they returned to England after a most successful mission to both Assyria and Babylonia, the history of which was published by Mr. Layard, in his "Nineveh and Babylon." The trustees having determined to carry on further researches, and Mr. Layard declining