or Murten, a considerable town of Switzerland, Switzerland, capital of a bailiwick of the same name, belonging to the cantons of Bern and Friburg. It is seated on the lake Morat, on the road from Avenche to Bern, 10 miles west of Bern and 10 miles north-east of Friburg. The lake is about six miles long and two broad, and the country about it pleasant and well cultivated. The lakes of Morat and Neufchatel are parallel to each other, but the latter is more elevated, discharging itself by means of the river Broye into the lake of Neufchatel. According to M. de Luc, the former is 15 French feet above the level of Neufchatel lake; and both these lakes, as well as that of Biene, seem formerly to have extended considerably beyond their present limits, and from the position of the country appear to have been once united. Formerly the large fish named *saurus glans*, or the saloth, frequented these lakes, but has not been caught in them for a long time past. The environs of this town and lake were carefully examined by Mr Coxe, during his residence in Switzerland, who made several excursions across the lake to a ridge of hills situated betwixt it and Neufchatel. Here are many delightful prospects; particularly one from the top of Mount Vuilly, which, he says, is perhaps the only central spot from which the eye can at once comprehend the vast amphitheatre formed on one side by the Jura stretching from the environs of Geneva as far as Basle, and, on the other, by that stupendous chain of snowy Alps which extend from the frontiers of Italy to the confines of Germany, and is lost at each extremity in the horizon. Morat is celebrated for the obstinate defence it made against Charles the Bold, duke of Burgundy, and for the battle which afterwards followed on the 22d of June 1476, where the duke was defeated, and his army almost entirely destroyed*. Not far from the town, and adjoining to the high road, there still remains a monument of this victory. It is a square building, filled with the bones of Burgundian soldiers who were slain at the siege and in the battle; the number of which appears to have been very considerable. There are several inscriptions in the Latin and German languages commemorating the victory.

*MORATA, OLYMPIA FULVIA*, an Italian lady, distinguished for her learning, was born at Ferrara, in 1526. Her father, after teaching the belles lettres in several cities of Italy, was made preceptor to the two young princes of Ferrara, the sons of Alphonsus I. The uncommon abilities he discovered in his daughter determined him to give her all the advantages of education. Meanwhile the princess of Ferrara studying polite literature, it was judged expedient that she should have a companion in the same pursuit; and Morata being called, she was heard by the astonished courtiers to declaim in Latin, to speak Greek, and to explain the paradoxes of Cicero. Her father dying, she was obliged to return home to take upon her the management of family affairs, and the education of her brother and three sisters; both which she executed with the greatest diligence and success. In the mean time Andrew Gruntler, a young German physician, had married her, and with him she went to Germany, taking her brother along with her, whom she instructed in the Latin and Greek tongues; and after staying a short time at Augsburg, went to Schweinfurt in Franconia, where her husband was born: but they had not been there long before that town was unhappily besieged and burnt; however, escaping the flames, they fled in the utmost distress to Hammelburg. This place they were also obliged to quit, and were reduced to the last extremities, when the elector Palatine invited Gruntler to be professor of physic at Heidelberg. He entered on his new office in 1554; but they no sooner began to taste the sweets of repose, than a disease, occasioned by the distresses and hardships they had suffered, seized upon Morata, who died in 1555, in the 29th year of her age; and her husband and brother did not long survive her. She composed several works, great part of which were burnt with the town of Schweinfurt; the remainder, which consist of orations, dialogues, letters, and translations, were collected and published under the title of *Olympia Fulviae Moratae, fiamine doctrinae, et planè divinae, opera omnia quae haecenium inveniri potuerint; quibus Caelii secundi curiosis epistolæ ac orationes accesserunt*.

*MORAVIA*, a river of Turkey in Europe, which rises in Bulgaria, runs north through Servia by Nissa, and falls into the Danube at Semendria, to the eastward of Belgrade.

*MORAVIA*, a marquisate of Germany, derives the name of Mohern, as it is called by the Germans, and of Morawa, as it is called by the natives, from the river of that name, which rises in the mountains of the county of Glatz, and passes through the middle of it. It is bounded to the south by Austria, to the north by Silesia, to the west by Bohemia, and to the east by Silesia and Hungary; being about 120 miles in length and 100 in breadth. Its surface is about 80,000 square miles. In 1775 its population, according to official returns, was 1,134,674, of whom 23,382 were Jews; but in 1801 has been computed to be 1,400,000 (Mentelle et Malte Brun). Olmutz, formerly the chief town, contains 11,000 inhabitants; Brunn, now the seat of government, contains 14,000; and there are several other considerable towns.

A great part of this country is overrun with woods and mountains, where the air is very cold, but much wholesomer than in the low grounds, which are full of bogs and lakes. The mountains, in general, are barren; but the more champaign parts tolerably fertile, yielding corn, with plenty of hemp and flax, good saffron, and pasture. Nor is it altogether destitute of wine, red and white, fruits, and garden stuff. Moravia also abounds in horses, black cattle, sheep, and goats. In the woods and about the lakes there is plenty of wild fowl, game, venison, bees, honey, hares, foxes, wolves, beavers, &c. This country affords marble, alum, iron, sulphur, saltpetre, and vitriol, with mineral waters, and warm springs; but salt is imported. Its rivers, of which the March, Morawa, or Morau, are the chief, abound with trout, crayfish, barbels, eels, perch, and many other sorts of fish.

The language of the inhabitants is a dialect of the Slavonic, differing little from the Bohemian; but the nobility and citizens speak German and French.

Moravia was anciently inhabited by the Quadi, who were driven out by the Scavi. Its kings, who were once powerful and independent, afterwards became dependent on, and tributary to, the German emperors and kings. At last, in the year 928, the Moravian kingdom was parcelled out among the Germans, Poles, and Moravia and Hungarians. In 1886, that part of it properly called Moravia was declared a marquisate by the German king Henry IV. and united with Bohemia, to whose dukes and kings it hath ever since been subject. The states of the country consist of the clergy, lords, knights, and burgesses; and the diets, when summoned by the regency, are held at Brunn. The marquisate is still governed by its own peculiar constitutions, under the directorium in publicis et camerilibus, and the supreme judicatory at Vienna. It is divided into six circles, each of which has its captain, and contributes to its sovereign about one-third of what is exacted of Bohemia. Towards the expenses of the military establishment of the whole Austrian hereditary countries, its yearly quota is 1,856,490 florins. Seven regiments of foot, one of cuirassiers, and one of dragoons, are usually quartered in it.

Christianity was introduced into this country in the 9th century; and the inhabitants continued attached to the church of Rome till the 15th, when they espoused the doctrine of John Huss, and threw off Popery; but after the defeat of the elector Palatine, whom they had chosen king, as well as the Bohemians, the emperor Ferdinand II. re-established Popery; though there are still some Protestants in Moravia. The bishop of Olmutz, who stands immediately under the pope, is at the head of the ecclesiastics in this country. The supreme ecclesiastical jurisdiction, under the bishop, is vested in a consistory.

The commerce of this country is inconsiderable. Of what they have, Brunn enjoys the principal part. At Iglau and Trebitz are manufactures of cloth, paper, gunpowder, &c. There are also some iron works and glass houses in the country.

The inhabitants of Moravia in general are open-hearted, not easy to be provoked or pacified, obedient to their masters, and true to their promises; but credulous of old prophecies, and much addicted to drinking, though neither such sots or bigots as they are represented by some geographers. The boors, indeed, upon the river Hank, are said to be a thievish, unpolished, brutal race. The sciences now begin to lift up their heads a little among the Moravians, the university of Olmutz having been put on a better footing; and a riding academy, with a learned society, has been lately established there.