Nikiphor, a Russian prelate of note, flourished after the opening of the 12th century. He was a Greek by birth, and came to Russia in 1106. He rapidly rose to the highest ecclesiastical distinction, and finally became metropolitan of Kief and all Russia. He died in April, 1121. He is spoken of by contemporaries as a learned but modest man, who wielded a powerful influence among Russian ecclesiastics. Of Nikiphor's works the following remain : Official Letters to the Grand Prince Waldimir Wsewolodowitsch 3Tonomach, vpon the Sep- aration of the Eastern and Western Churches:— Upon Fasting and Continence. The first is to be found in MS. in the synodal library of Moscow, and the second is printed in the first volume of the Memorabilia, which were published by the Moscow Historical and Antiqua- rian Society. See Cox's Otto, Hist, of Russian Life (Oxford, 1839, 8vo), p. 304. (J. II. W.)
Nikkelen, J. van, a Dutch painter of interiors who flourished about 1660. He was a good artist in prospec- tive, and painted interiors of churches in the style of Van Vliet, which possess considerable merit. They are signed J. van Nikkelen. See Spooner, Biog. Hist, of the Fine Arts, p. 618.
Nikodim, a Russian monastic, greatly distinguished as a Church writer, flourished in the first half of tlie 18th centurj'. He was a Dane by birth and a Lutheran by descent, and before his union with the Greek Church was called Adam Buixhard Sellj. He was educated at the German universities, where he pursued studies in medicine and belles-lettres, as well as in philosophy and theology. In 1722 he made a journey to St. Peters- burg ; became a teacher at several clerical schools ; served some time as secretary to tlie count Lestocq ; adopted, in the year 1744, the Greek faith, on which occasion he received the name of Nestor, and one year later became a monk, when the additional name oi Nikodim was given him. He died in 1746, and was buried in the monas- tery of Alexander Newskj. Ever after his first coming to Russia he had occupied himself upon the Russian lan- guage, and directed his attention towards Russian his- tory. He collected in MS, and books all tliat had ever
NIKOMEDEO
9G
NIKON
been written about Kussia ; labored himself uninterrupt- edly in copying and translating his different materials, and occupied himself in this way with some important works. In 173G the following work was printed by him at Revel in the Latin language, Sckediasma Literarium de Scriptorlhns qui Historium Politico - Ecclesiasticum Rossim scriptis illtistrarunt, where he gave, in alphabet- ical order, an accurate catalogue of almost all the works which have made any mention of Russia. The Kussian translation of this small but useful book appeared at Moscow in 1815, and it may still be consulted with profit, notwithstanding the recent and more complete works of this kind by Meiners, Adelung, and the learned di- rector of the imperial librarj^ at St. Petersburg, baron Modeste de Korff. Another little work of his, A His- ioi-ical Mirror of Russian Monarchs, from Rurik to the Empress Elizabeth Petrowana, was written in Latin verse ; the original has been lost, but the Kussian trans- lation is printed in the first part of the "Ancient Kussian LibrarjV The third and most important of liis works, De Rossorum Hieraixhiu, in five books, contains some very important and interesting information respecting Russian Church history, with a sketch of its earliest origin. The original manuscript is preserved in the ar- chives of the office for foreign affairs, and a translation of it appears in the first part of the History of the Rus- sian Hierarchy. The works that he has left besides, unfinished or unpublished, cause deep regret that he did not live as long as the monk Nestor, the father of Russian history, whom he had taken for a model. Among his unfinished works, the archives of Moscow possess a Dictionary of all the Pictures of the Vii-gin Mary, and several Historical Notices on Russian Mon- asteries; and the library of St. Alexandre -Nevski a treatise upon medicine, some Souvenirs of his travels, written half in Latin, half in German and Danish, and a Recueil, forming fifteen volumes, of different pieces, mostly relative to the history of the Russian Church, several of which are perhaps unique. See Diet. Hist, des ecrii-ains de VE;jlise Greco -russe; Gretch, Essai d'histoire de la Litterature Russe; Sopikof, Essai de Bihliographie Russe; Cox's Otto, History of Russian Literature (Oxford, 1839), p. 306, 307. (J. H. W.)
Nikomedeo, Aakon bex-Elija (also called •|1"inxn, the Second), a noted Jewish savant of the Ka- raite sect, was born about the year 1300 at Cairo, the centre of Karaite learning in Egypt. When thirtv years of age he went to Nicomedia, whence he received the surname of Nicomedian (■|X'^"I?2p^D). lie wrote, ^■^1''^ "l'?? "The Tree of Life," a system of religious philosophy according to the doctrines of the Karaites (q. v.), in 1 U chapters. It was first published by pro- fessor F. Delitzsch, of Leipsie, in 1841, under the title Ahron b.-Elias cms Nikomedien, des Karders, System der Religionsphilosophic, etc.: — illiri "iri3, "The Crown of the Law," a commentary on the Pentateuch, of which some portions, with a Latin version and learned notes, have been published by Prof. Kosegarten, of Jena, Libri Coronm leyis ; id est Commentarii in Pentateuchum Ka- raitici ab A hai-one ben Elihu conscripii, etc. (Jente, 182-1). The whole commentary has been published by A. Firko- witsch (Eupatoria, 1860-67, 4 vols.) : — ';nr' 'v. 'd, or ^"l^'r'!J 5, " The Book of Precepts," giving in twenty- five treatises all the prayers and rites of the Kara- ites. Portions of this work have been published by S. Sehupart, Sccta Kcmeorum dissert ationibus aliquot' his- torico-phll<ih,<iicis adumhrata (Jena, 1701), as well as by Trigland, Danz, and Lanzhausen. Tiiis work was also published l)y A. Firkowitsch (Eupatoria, 1866) : — '':'in m:j"^n'j, rules for the slaughtering of animals, in twenty-six chapters, portions of which Delitzsch pub- lished in the L. B. d. Or. 1840, No. 16 sq. Nikomedeo died in 1369. See Fiirst, Jiibl. Jud. i, 22 sq. ; De Kossi, Dizionario storico deyli autori Ebrei, p. 247 sq. (Germ.