Spontini
Spontini names 3 different subjects across the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf. Each is set out below.
Spontini GASPARO vessels
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
GASPARO vessels, carrying crews of from 5 to 15 men, are fitted out at Key West and Appalachicola for trips of from four to eight weeks on the sponge grounds. The crews are paired off into small rowboats, or "dingies," to catch the sponges. One man stands in the stern, sculling the boat, while the other kneels in the bottom amidships, with the upper half of his body leaning over the side, and scans the bottom of the sea. To aid the "water an instrument called eye a glass," which is a common water bucket whose wooden bottom has been replaced by one of glass, is used by setting it in the water and thrusting the face as far into it as convenient. When a sponge is sighted the boat is stopped, and the kneeling man uses a two-pronged hook, attached to a slender pole 30 or 40 feet in length, to secure it. Considerable dexterity is required of both men. To cure the sponges they are first spread about the vessel's deck in their natural upright position, so that they will die, and while decomposing allow the gelatinous matter to run off freely. When they have been several days in this position they are taken to the shore and thrown into the water in little pens, called "crawls," where the remaining substance is soaked and squeezed out. There are several varieties of sponges caught in the Florida waters. There are first, sheep's wool; second, yellow sponges, and third, grass sponges, which are coarse in texture and not durable. In average years the yield is over 400,- 000 lbs., valued at over $500,000. SPONTANEOUS COMBUSTION. See COMBUSTION.
Spontini GASPARO, an Italian composer
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
GASPARO, an Italian composer; born in Majolatti, near Jesi, in the Roman States, Nov. 14, 1774. He was educated at the Conservatorio de la Pietà of Naples, and began his career when 17 years of age as the composer of an opera, "The Punctilio of Women." This was followed by some 16 operas, produced within six years, for the theaters of Italy and Sicily, but not a note of which has survived. In 1803 Spontini went to Paris; in 1807 he was_appointed music director to the Empress Josephine; and in 1808 he produced his most famous work, "The Vestal," with brilliant and decisive success. His "Fernando Cortez" appeared in 1809; and the next year witnessed his appointment to the directorship of the Italian Opera in Paris, which he held for 10 years. In 1820 the magnificent appointments offered by the court of Prussia tempted him to leave Paris for Berlin, in which capital his three grand operas, "Nourmahal"
Spontini GASPARO (founded on "Lalla Rookh")
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
GASPARO (founded on "Lalla Rookh"), "Alcidor," schools. From 1889 to 1891 he was and "Agnes of Hohenstauffen," were principal of schools in Fitchburg, Mass., produced with great splendor. Spontini continued to reside as first chapel master in Berlin till the death of the king in 1840. The latter period of his sojourn at Berlin was embittered by professional disputes; and in 1842 he repaired to Paris, where in 1839 he had been elected one of the five members of the Académie des Beaux Arts. He died in Majolatti, Jan. 14, 1851.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
The biographical outline Collier's gave in 1921 still stands, though the spelling does not: the composer is now always written Gaspare Spontini, and his birthplace, given here as "Majolatti" near Jesi, was renamed Maiolati Spontini in his honour and holds his tomb and a museum. The judgement that "not a note" of his early Italian operas survived has softened a little as scores and fragments have been catalogued, but La vestale (1807) remains the work he is known by, and it re-entered the repertory when Maria Callas sang it at La Scala in 1954 under Luchino Visconti's direction. Most reference works now date his death to 24 January 1851, not the 14th. Readers should also note that the text above has been jumbled in scanning, so a paragraph on Florida sponge-fishing and a stray line about schools in Fitchburg, Massachusetts have landed in the middle of the composer's life.
Written for this edition, 2026.