NISSIM
137
NITRE
Nissini ren-Reuben ben-Nissiji {Genindi, so called from his native place, Gerona, in Barcelona), one of the best Talraudic scholars of his time, flourished about 13-10-1380, as chief rabbi of Barcelona. He also practiced medicine, and knew something of astronomy ; but he opposed Jewish mysticism, and even criticised R. Nachmanides (q. v.) for having spent so much time in the study of the Kabbalah. He wrote Annotations on R. Isaac Alfasi under the title ril^britl D PI' S r)^'"inb, which are generally to be found in Alfasi's Ualachoth (Constantinople, 1.509 ; Venice, 1521-22, etc. ; Pressb. 1836-40) •.—Le(jal Decisions, ni^rjr.!! n'lbx":; (Rome, 1545 ; Cremona, 1586 ; Salonik, 1758, etc.), which are dated 134D and 1374: — Elucidations of the Talmud, or novellas, called C^'yT^n, some of which have been edited, while others are yet in MS.: — Twelve homilies (riVr^'n) on passages of the Pentateuch (Venice, 1596; Prag. 1812). He is also said to have written a com- mentary on the Pentateuch. See Fiirst, Bibl. Jud. iii, 37, 38 ; De Rossi, Bizionario storico deijli aittori Ehrei e delle lore opere (German transl.), p. 113, 114; GrKtz, Gesch. d. Juden, vii, 383, 395, 396; viii, 34, 37; Josr, Gesck. d. Judenth. u. s. Sekten, iii, 87 ; Lindo, History of the JeuJS in Spain, p. 159; Finn, Sepkardim, p. 299; Etheridge, Introd. to llth. Literat. p. 267 ; Cassel, Leit- fadenfilr jiid. Gesch. u. Literatiir, p. 73. (B. P.)
Nithai of Akbki.a, a Jewish savant, flourished first as a colleague of Joshua ben-Perachia, and later as the president of the Sanhedrim (from B.C. 140-110); but beyond his recorded maxim I^Pirke Ahoth, i, 7), "Dis- tance thyself from an evil neighbor; attach not thyself to a wicked man; and do not think thyself exempt from punishment," we know nothing of his works or words. See for the limited information extant, Fran- kel, Hodegetica in Jifischnam, p. 33 sq. (Leipsic, 1859) ; Griitz, Gesch. d. Juden, iii, 88 sq. ; Jost, Gesch. d. Judenth. u. s. Sekten, i, 232 ; Edersheim, History of the Jewish Nation, p. 120. (B.P.)
Nithard, a French antiquarian, noted as the his- torian of the 9th century, was the son of the celebrated Angilbert, chaplain of the palace, abbot of St. Riquier, etc., and of Bertha, the daughter of Charlemagne. After his father's death Nithard succeeded him in the capacity of governor of the maritime provinces of the empire, and helped Charles the Bald to resist the at- tacks of his brothers, Lothaire and Louis. Nithard vainly sought to restore peace between them, every treaty being broken on the first opportunity. He then left the court and went into retirement, where he died, according to Petau, in 853. The manner in which he spent the latter part of his life is unknown. Petau and Bahize state that he withdrew into the abbey of Prum, where he was received by abbot Jlarcward ; this, however, is contradicted by Mabillon. Hariulfe, histo- rian of St, Riquier, states that he became abbot of that convent. The authors of the Hist. Litter, de la France, on the other hand, claim that he was neither a monk nor an abbot, for in exhuming his body it was proved that he died of a wound received in battle. Yet we must remember that at that time most abbots were at the same time counts, dukes, etc., and often better sol- diers than monks; the authors of the Gallia Christiana grant therefore a place to Nithard among the abbots of St. Riquier. Nithard is especially known for his work entitled, De dissensionihus filioriim Ludovici Pii, repeat- edly published, as by Pertz, under the title of Historia- rum, lihri iv, and vol. vii of the Recueil des Historiens des Gaules. The work is of great historical value, the writer having been an eye-witness and often an actor in the events he describes. See Vita Nithardi a Petavio, Recueil des Hist, des Guides, vol. vii ; Hist. Litter, de la France, V, 204; Gallia Christ, x, col. 1246; F ertz, Mon. Ger. Hist, ii, 649-672 ; Scholle, De Lotharii I imp. cum fratribus de monarchia facto certamine (Berol. 1855); Hausser, Deutsche Geschichtschreihcr, p. 41-43; Biihr,
Gesch, d. Rom. Literatur im Karol. Zeitalter, p. 224 sq. ; Gfrorer, Gesch. d. ost- u. icestfrdnk. Karolivg. i, 39, 51, 62. — Herzog, Real-Encyklopddie, x, 386 ; Hoefer, Aouv, Biog. Generale, xxxviii, 98. (J. N. P.)
Nithing {infamous), a most insulting epithet, an- ciently used in Denmark and throughout the whole of the north of Europe. There was a peculiar way of ap- plying it, however, which greatly aggravated its viru- lence, and gave the aggrieved party the right to seek redress by an action at law. This was by" setting up what was called a nithing-post or nithing-stake, which is thus described by Mr. Blackwell in his valuable edi- tion of Mallet's Northern Antiquities : "A mere hazel twig stuck in the ground by a person who at the same time made use of some opprobrious epithet, either against an individual or a community, was quite suffi- cient to come under the legal definition of a nithing- post. Several superstitious practices were, however, commonly observed on the occasion, which were sup- posed to impart to the nithing-post the power of work- ing evil on the party it was directed against, and more especial!}' to make any injuries done to the person erect- ing it recoil on those by whom they had been perpe- trated. A pole with a horse's head, recently cut off, stuck on it, was considered to form a nithing-post of peculiar efficacy. Thus when Eigil, a celebrated Ice- landic skald of the 9th century, was banished from Nor- way, we are told that he took a stake, fixed a horse's head upon it, and, as he drove it into the ground, said, 'I here set up a nithing-stake, and turn this my banishment against king Eirek and queen Gunhilda.' He then set sail for Iceland, with the firm persuasion that the injuries he had received by his banishment would, by the efficacy of his charmed nithing-post, recoil on the royal couple they had, in his opinion, pro- ceeded from. Mention is frequently made in the sagas and the Icelandic laws of this singular custom. We are told, for instance, in the Vatsndaela Saga that Jiikul and Thorstein, having accepted a challenge from Fin- bogi and Bjorg, went to the place of meeting on the day and hour appointed. Their opponents, however, remained quietly at home, deeming that a violent storm which happened to be raging would be a sufficient excuse for their non-appearance. Jokul, after waiting for some time on the ground, thought that he would be justified in setting up a nithing-post against Finbogi, or, as would now be said, in posting him for a coward. He accordingly fashioned a block of wood into the rude fig- ure of a human head, and fixed it on a post in which he cut magical runes. He then killed a mare, opened her breast, and stuck the post in it, with the carved head turned towards Finbogi's dwelling."