Porst, Johann, a Lutheran minister, was born Dec, il. 1668, at Oberkotzau, not far from Hof. In 1689 he went to Leipsic for the study of theology. In 1695 he was appointed pa-tor at Malchow. near Berlin; in 17nl he was called to Berlin as preacher at Friedrichswer- der and Dorotheenstedt J in 1709 he was made court- preacher, and in 171_' prOVOSt of St Nicolai, past.ir pri- marily, and inspector. He died Jan. 9, 1728, having occupied since 1717 the position as counsellor of consis- tory. Of his many writings, none is BO well known as hi> hymn-book, published in 1718, and which is still in
PORT
425
PORTA
use in some churches at Berlin. See Jocher, Gelehrten- Lexikon, s. v. ; Winer, Handbuch der theolog. Literatur, p. 113 and index; Koch, Gesch. des deutschen Kirchen- liedes, iv, 297 sq.; Kurtz, Lehrbuch der Kirchengesch. (7th ed.) § 1G6, 2 ; Staudt, In gbttliche Fiilirung (Stuttg. 1850) ; Bachmann, Zur Geschichte der Berliner Gesang- biicher (Berl. 1856) ; id. Die Gesangbilcher Berlin's (ibid. 1857). (B. P.)
Port is the rendering in Neh. ii, 13 of the Heb. sha'ar, "I3?u3, elsewhere rendered "gate" (q. v.), as twice in the same verse. These gates of the cities, and the unoccupied spaces on which they opened, served in all Hebrew antiquity for places of public assembling of the citizens (comp. the forum, dyopa, of the Greeks and Romans). In the East this is still the custom, the gates taking the place of the coffee-houses and other places of resort among the Western nations (Gen. xix, 1 ; 1 Sam. iv, 18; ix, 18; Job xxix, 7; Jer. xxxvii, 7). There the people came together in great numbers when any public calamity occurred (2 Mace, iii, 19), there the judges heard causes and complaints (Dent, xxi, 19 sq. ; xxii, 15 sq. ; Isa. xxix, 21; Job xxi, 21; Psa. exxvii, 5; Amos v, 12, 15; Zech. viii, 16; Prov. xxii, 22), and there deeds which required legal sanction, especially important contracts, were performed (Gen. xxiii, 10, 18; Deut. xxv, 7 ; Ruth iv, 1,11; comp. the early Germans, Grimm, Deutsche Rechtsalterthiimer, p. 104 sq. ; and see Host, Marohho, p. 239). There princes stood to receive homage (2 Sam. xix, 8; but see below), or for public discussion of important affairs (1 Kings xxii, 10), and markets were held in the vicinity (2 Kings vii, 1 ; Ar- vieux, Nachr. v, 186; Rosenmiiller, Morgenl. vi, 272; Jacobi, Deforo inportis [Leips. 1714], in Ugolino, Thes. vol. xxv). At the gate public announcements were made (Jer. xvii, 19; Prov. i, 21; viii, 3). Idolatries, too, were sometimes practiced here (2 Kings xxiii, 8), just as in Catholic cities altars are placed at the gates. On the whole, we must consider the gate, not as a mere port or entrance, but as a strong defence, and as con- nected with an open place within; perhaps even with benches (Host, Marokko, ut sup.). They were barred with strong bolts and posts [see City], and often built over (2 Sam. xviii, 33) with watch-towers (ver. 24 sq.). Gate-keepers are mentioned, at least in Jerusalem, with some political duties and powers (Jer. xxxvii, 13; Neh. xiii, 19). On the other hand, in 2 Sam. xv, 2 (and per- haps in xix, 8), the allusion is not to a city gate, but to that of a palace in the royal city ; and in Esth. iii, 2 ; Dan. ii, 49, the word is used, according to a usage still customary in the East, for the king's court (aula regia, in Latin, is a similar synecdoche ; comp. also the Ara- bic Gate of Rash id for court, in Elmacin, Hist. Sarac. p. 120; see Lltdeke, Turk. Reich, i, 281). To sit at the palace door or gate (Esth. ii, 19, 21; iv, 2; v, 9, 13 sq. ; vi, 10), among the Persians, was to wait in the hall or vestibule of the king. Not only courtiers and attend- ants, but even high officers of the government were found there (Herod, iii, 20). — Winer. See Dook.
Porta, Baccio della, more generally known as Fra Bartolomeo, an Italian monastic of the Dominican order, distinguished as a painter of the Florentine school, and much noted for his intimate relation to Eaffaelle and the other Umbrian painters of his time, was born at Sa- vignano, not far from Florence, in 1469. He was a pu- pil of Cosimo Roselli in Florence, and lived near the gate of S. Piero, from which circumstance his name of" Delia Porta" was derived. We have no detailed narrative of his youthful life, except that he was early brought under Roselli's tuition, where he formed a close friendship with Mariotta Albertinelli, his associate student, and showed such natural and artistic proclivities towards " sweetness and light" that the beauty of his Madonna faces and the sunny fervor of his coloring won the approbation even of the critical Florentines. He acquired such great fame that he was commissioned to execute a fresco of The Last Judgment in the convent of S. Marco, about