OLIVA
348
OLIVE
Hist, of (he Jesuits, p. 320-325; Steiiiraetz, TJisf. of (he Jesui(s. vol. ii ; fiaiike, Ihst. of (he Papaq/, ii, 247 sq.
(j.n.vr.)
Oliva, Alessandro, a lUstinguished Italian Ro- man Catliolic prelate, noted aiso as a pDmincnt member of the monastic order, was bora at Sassoferato in 1-108, of poor parents. When three years old he fell into the water, and was taken out for dead ; but, being carried by his mother into the church of the Holy Virgin, he recov- ered wonderfully, or, according to the papists, miracu- lously. He was now dedicated by his parents to the service of tlie Church, and when yet but a youth was admitted among the Augustinian monks. He studied at Kimini, Bologna, and Perusa, in which last place he was first made professor of philosophy, and afterwards appointed to teach divinity. At length he was chosen provincial, and some time after accepted, not without reluctance, the post of solicitor-general of his order. This office obliged him to go to Rome, where his learn- ing and virtue became greatly admired, notwithstand- ing that he took all possible methods, out of extreme humility, to keep at a distance from papal notice. The cardinal of Tarentum, the protector of his order, could not prevail upon him to engage in any of the public disputations, where everybody wished to see a man of his great erudition : however, as he was a sublime the- ologian and a most eloquent orator, he attracted pub- lic attention by whatever he wrote and whenever he preached. He appeared in the pulpits of the principal cities in Italy, as Rome, Naples, Venice, Bologna, Flor- ence, jMantua, and Ferrara ; was elected first vicar-gen- eral, and then general of his order, in 1-159; and at last created cardinal, in 1-lGO, by pope Pius II. This learned pontiff gave Oliva afterwards the bishopric of Camerino, and made use of his abilities on several occasions. Oli- va died shortly after at Tivola, where the court of Rome then resided, in 14G3. He wrote, De Chrisd ortu Sermones cen(um: — De ccena cum opostolk facta : — De pecca(u ill Spiritum Sanctuin: — Orationes elegantes. (.J. H. W.)
Oliva, Fernau Perez de, a noted Spanish mor- alist, was born in Cordova about 1492. His father, who himself cultivated letters, educated him with much care. At twelve he was studying in the University of Salamanca; whence he went to Alcala, then to Paris, and finally to Rome, where, under the protection of his uncle, attached to the court of Leo X, he enjoyed all the advantages that the capital of the Christian world could oft'er. On the death of his uncle he was proposed to occupy the place thus left vacant ; but he preferred to return to Paris, where he gave public lessons dur- ing three years. Pope Adrian VI, informed of the suc- cess of Oliva, endeavored to attract him to Rome. The love of country prevailed with the young Spaniard, who returned to Salamanca, and was one of the founders of the college of the Archbishop in 1528. He taught raor.il iihilosophy, and became the rector of the college. Shortly after having attained this elevated position he died, in 1530, though still a young man — a great loss to letters. Oliva had seen with what success Italian writers had, in imitation of the Latins, composed works in prose, and he regretted that in Spain the Latin was still the language for moral and philosophical discus- sions; he emplcjyed the Castilian tongue in a dialogue Oil the Dignity of ^fan. He also wrote several didactic discourses On the Faculties of the Mind and their Use, etc., and a discourse which he pronounced in Salamanca as candid.ate for the chair of moral philosophy. The historian Morales, his nephew, assures us that in all these treatises Oliva designed to give models of the power and resources of tlie S|ianish tongue. His exam- ple was promptly followeil by writers of merit — Sedeno, Salazar, Luis Mexia, Navarra; but none equalled for force and expression the first part of the dialogue On the Dignify of Man. All the works of Oliva were published for the first time bj' his nei)hew, .Vmbrosio de Morales
(Cordova, 1585, 4to) ; they were reprinted (Madrid, 1787, 2 vols. 12rao). The Inquisition held them until after correction. See Razionamento que hiro en Salamanca, in the Works of Oliva ; Rezabal y Ugarte, Biblioteca de los Escritores que han sido indiciduos de las seis Cole- gios Mayores (Madrid, 1805, 4to), p. 239, etc. ; Nicolas Antonio, Bihliotheca Ilispana nova ; Ticknor, Hist, of Spanish Literatui'e, ii, 8 sq., 60 ; iii, 401. (J. H. W.)
Olive (J^l'j, za'yith, probably from Pi^T, to be jileas- anf, said esp. of odors; or, as Gesenius supposes, from niTIT, to shine, from the gloss of the oil; Gr. iXaia, i. e. oil-tree. The Heb. name is essentially found in all the kindred languages — the Arabic, Syriac, Ethiopic, and Coptic ; comp. the Spanish azeyte, oil).
The olive-tree is one of the chief vegetable products of Palestine, and an important source of that countrj-'s wealth and prosperity throughout the Scripture period. It was cultivated in olive-gardens (called in Hebrew r^jf C^S), usually on high ground, and even on moun- tains (comp. Gen. viii, 1 1 ; Shaw, Travels, p. 293), pre- ferring a dry and sandy soil (see Virgil, Georg. ii, 180 sq.; Colum. v, 8; De Arbor. 17; Pliiiy, xvii, 3); yet it appears also in wet soil, and even grows under water (Theophr. Pknit. iv, 8; Plinv, xiii, 50). The species are widely distributed in the warmer temperate parts of the globe. The common olive (Oliva Europwa), a native of Syria and other Asiatic countries, and perhaps also of the south of Europe, although probably it is there rather naturalized than indigenous, is in its wild state a thorny shrub or small tree, but through cultivation be- comes a tree of twenty to forty feet high, destitute of spines. It attains a prodigious age. The cultivated varieties are very numerous, differing in the breadth of the leaves, and in other characters. The general ap- pearance of the trees is that of an apple-orchard, as to the trunk, and the willow as to the stems and leaves. The olive is of slow growth (Virgil, Georg. ii, 3). It never becomes a very large tree, though sometimes two or three stems rise from the same root, and reach from twenty to thirty feet high, with spreading branches (comp. Hos. xiv, 7 ; Strabo, xvi, 7G9). The leaves are in pairs, lanceolate in shape, of a dull green on the upper, and hoary on the under surface (comp. Psa. Iii, 10; cxxviii, 3; Jer. xi, 16; Ovid, Metamorph. viii, 295; Theophr. Plaut. i, 15; Pliny, xvi, 33; Diod. Sic. i, 17). Hence in countries where the olive is extensively culti- vated the scenery is of a dull character from this color of the foliage. The flowers, which are white, appear in little tufts between the leaves. The fruit is an ellipti- cal drupe, at first of a green color, but gradually becom- ing purple, and even black, with a hard, stony kernel, and is remarkable from the outer fleshy part being that in which much oil is lodged, and not, as is usual, in the almond of the seed. In Palestine the olive blossoms in June (Anderson, Bible Light, p. 202). It ripens from August to September. The tree is usually propagated by slips, and it bears very abundantly, with compar- atively little care (Pliny, xvii, 19; comp. Jer. xi, IG). As to the growth of the tree, it thrives best in warm and sunny situations. It is of a moderate spread, with a knotty, gnarled trunk, and a smooth ash-colored bark. Its look is singularly indicative of tenacious vigor; and this is the force of what is said in Scripture of its " greenness," as emblematic of strength and prosperity. The leaves, too, are not deciduous. Those who see ol- ives for the first time are occasionally disappointed by the dusty color of their foliage; but those who are fa- miliar with them find an inexpressible charm in the ripjiling changes of these slender gray-green leaves. ;Mr. Ruskin's pages in the Stones of Venice (iii, 175-177) are not at all extravagant.