Nourry, Denis Nicholas le, a French monk and a distinguished Latinist, was born at Dieppe in 1647. He studied at the college of the Oratory of his native city, and joined the Benedictines of Jumieres July 8, 1665. He now devoted himself exclusively to literary labor in the convents of Bonne Nouvelle and of St. Ouen of Rouen. He died at Paris March 24, 1724. He published an edition of the works of Cassiodorus (in connection with dom John Garet [1679]), of St. Ambro- sius (with doms John du Chesne, Julian Bellocise, and James du Friche [Paris, 1686-1690, 2 vols, fol.]) ; and alone. Apparatus ad Bibliothecam maximani Patrum veterum et scriptorum ecclesiasticorum (1694, 1697, 1703,
1715, fol.), a supplement to the Lyons edition : — Liicii Ccecilii Liber ad Donatum confessorem de mortibus per- secutorum, hactenus Lactantio adscriptus ad Colbertinum, codicem, denuo emendatus, etc. (Paris, 1710, 8vo), See Journal Litteraire, vii, 1 ; Journal des Sarans (June,
1716, and August, 1724); Bibl. Mauriana ; Bill, des Auteurs de la Cong, de St. .^faur; Niceron, Memoires, i, 275-278.— Hoefer, Xouv, Biog. Generale, xxxviii, 680. (J. N. P.)
Nous. See Mind.
Nova, PicciNO and Pietro de, two old painters of Bergamo, who flourished near the middle of the 14th century, were conjointly employed, many years subse- quent to 1363, in decorating the church of S. Maria Maggiore in that city. Lanzi says they very nearly apiiroaclicd Giotto. Peciuo died in 1403. There are notices of Pietro up to 1402. See Spooner, Biog. Hist, of the Fine Arts, p. 623.
Novalis, FiiiEDRicir, a German literary character, whose real name was Ion Hardenberg, is noted in the history of philosophy, belles-lettres, and also in hym- nolotrv and religious literature generallv. He was born
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at Wiederstedt, in Mansfeld territory, near Eislebon, May 2, 1772, of Moravian parents. In 1790 he entered the University of Jena, and continued his studies at Leipsic and Wittenberg. In 1795 he settled at Weis- senfels, in Thuringia, and there he devoted himself to the mining industry. He was to have been married shortly after his location, but his atliaiiced died just be- fore the important change in his life was to take place, and he was thus made very morose and mystical. He finally quitted the place and returned to Jena. He formed an intimate acquaintance in this university town with A. W. Schlegel, Fichte, .Schelling, and with Tieck, the romance writer, and devoted himself to literar)- pro- ductions. It was there that he begun his Heinrich von Ofterdinf/en, a never-completed philosophical romance, and by him designed as an apotheosis of poesy. The hero, Heinrich, is an old German poet, supposed by some to be the author of the Nibdumjen Lied; and the purpose of Novalis evidently is to show the whole world, with every profession and pursuit, on its poetical side. The conchision, as drawn from rough notes, is most sin- gular. He intended Heinrich to go into a land where men, beasts, minerals, and even tones and colors, held converse ; where the world of tairy tales (Miihrchen) was to become visible, and the real world to be considered as a tale. (It may be observed here that Novalis re- garded the popular traditions with singular respect, and discerned in them, or fancied he discerned, a deep mean- ing). " He was accustomed," says his biographer, "to regard the most ordinary occurrence as a miracle, and the supernatural as something ordinary." In 1800, Novalis, who had been for years inclined to consump- tion, was taken with the disease in its worst form ; and in the days of his sickness he enjoyed communion with the writings of Lavater, Zinzendorf, and other mystical writers, as well as with the Biblical treasures. In- deed, the Holy Bible, which he regarded truly as God's Word, and higher than any other book, was his regular companion, and the Christian Saviour his constant de- pendence. As one has aptly said, Novalis's love for his Redeemer was the key-note of his religious life, sustain- ing him in all his afflictions. He died iMarch 19, 1801, in the house of his parents, gently amid the music of the piano which he had asked his brother to play. He had constantly sought for a symbol of the deepest spir- itual relations between music and nature, to the study of which his life was devoted. '• The expression of his face," says Tieck, " was very much like that of John the Evangelist, as given on the glorious plate by Albert Diirer. . . . His friendliness, his geniality, made him universally beloved. . . . He could be as happy as a child; he jested with cheerfulness, and permitted him- self to become the object of jests for the company. Free from all vanity and pride of learning, a stranger to all affectation and hypocrisy, he was a genuine true man, the purest and most lovely embodiment of a noble im- mortal spirit."
Novalis's writings are read cither with some degree of enthusiasm or not read at all. Hence, while almost idolized by the partisans of the romantic school to which he belonged, he is mentioned with a kind of benevolent contempt by the opponents of that school. His imagi- nation and enthusiasm are almost boundless; he darts from prodigy to prodigy with a celerity that cannot be followed, unless the reader allows himself to sympathize with the author. The effects of the ideal pliilosophy of Fichte, and the love of tales so predominant in the romantic school, are plainly discernible in Novalis's works. He had literally constructed an unreal world of his own, and seems to have breathed an atmosphere utterly unlike that of the actual world. A desire of combining religious fervency with philosophy is also apparent; and thus that combination of speculation and enthusiasm which is found in the writings of the Alex- andrian Platonists and the Mystics was very acceptable to him. His Hymnen an die Niicht. or '• Hymns to the Night," and the latter part of Ofterdingen, are equally re-