RAFFAELLO, RAFAEL, or RAPHAEL, SANZIO, was born at Urbino, in the Papal States, on the 6th of April 1483. The family patronymic had been originally De Sanzi or Sancti, but custom had gradually worn it into Sanzio. His father, Giovanni Sanzio, like others of his kindred at Urbino, was a painter of moderate ability, and what was still better, was possessed of a noble modesty which enabled him to foresee and acknowledge the future glory of his immortal son. Raffaello was a painter from his cradle. He played with the implements of his father's art, and in no long time he exhibited a talent for drawing of such extraordinary precocity that his father chose for his master the most renowned painter of the day, Pietro Vanucci, called "Il Perugino." From the first he displayed a wonderful facility, and while engaged on the same canvas with his master the entire piece seemed the product of one hand. At the end of three years, business called Perugino to Florence, and Raffaello, with the blessing of his generous master, set out at the age of seventeen to try his fortune with his pencil. The paintings executed by him at this early period, though very much in the manner of Perugino, display a subtle grace and delicacy altogether peculiar to himself. He visited Florence in 1504, where Leonardo's "Battle of the Standard" and Michel Angelo's celebrated "Cartoon" gave him much to study, and taught him how much he had still to learn. Raffaello is commonly reported to have lost his parents before he was twelve years old; but this supposition is shown to be entirely groundless by the letter of introduction which he received from the Duchess of Urbino, dated October 1, 1504, and addressed to the gonfaloniere Soderini of Florence. In that document her ladyship alludes to his father as still living: "and as I know his father," she says, "who is dear to me, to be a virtuous man," &c. Raffaello was at that period in his twenty-first year; but how long afterwards that "virtuous man" was permitted to watch the rising star of his son's fame we have no means of knowing. How very much he seems to have profited by what he saw and heard at Florence is abundantly evinced by his exquisitely beautiful pictures of that period, some of them very elaborate, as "The Entombment of Christ." They display a grace and a power of expression which was quite remarkable, and almost entirely new to Italian art. Pope Julius II invited him to Rome towards the end of the year 1508, where he remained till his death. He commenced work on the Camera della Segnatura, and executed his figures of Theology, Poetry, Philosophy, and Justice on its ceiling, before undertaking the larger paintings which were to adorn its walls. In simplicity and beauty, in severity and dignity, in energy of execution and in beauty of individual character, the "Disputa del Sacramento" has never yet been surpassed. This is the character of nearly all his subsequent productions: they stand unrivalled in composition, and in grandeur of conception they have never been equalled. As a painter, sculptor, and architect,—in short, as a perfect master of design,—Michel Angelo knows of no equal; while Raffaello, who was solely a painter, lavished all the treasures and various excellence of an uncommonly gifted nature on his art; in grandeur and in grace, in delicacy and in softness, in the strength of man and in the elegance of woman, he displayed every quality that can by any possibility distinguish a great painter. He died at the early age of thirty-seven, on the 7th of April 1520. His pictures number in all about 128, besides a large number of drawings which are scattered throughout various parts of Europe. An estimate of his works will be found in the articles Arts, Fine, and Painting. Besides the works of Lanzi and Vasari, the reader may consult The Life and Works of Raffaello, by Quatremère de Quincy, translated into English by William Hazlitt, jun., London, 1846.

RAFFLES Sir Thomas Stamford, the son of a captain in the West India trade, was born at sea off the coast of Jamaica on the 5th of July 1781. Returning with his mother to England, he was placed in a boarding-school at Hammersmith, where he remained till the age of fourteen, when he entered the East India House as an extra clerk. While employed there, he occupied his leisure hours in various kinds of acquirements, and particularly in studying languages, for which he gave proofs of possessing great facility. In 1805 the directors of the India House having resolved to found a new settlement at Penang, or Prince of Wales' Island, on the coast of Malacca, for the purposes of trade, Raffles had risen so steadily in their good opinion that he was appointed assistant-secretary to that establishment. On his voyage out he acquired the Malay language, which stood him in good stead a short time afterwards, when, owing to the illness of the chief secretary, Raffles had to undertake the entire labour of arranging the forms of the new government, and of compiling all public documents connected with it. Such an accumulation of work proved too severe for his constitution, and in 1808 he had to visit Malacca to recruit his shattered strength. Here he enjoyed large opportunity of mingling with a very varied population congregated from all quarters of the Eastern Archipelago and the distant Asiatic continent. He likewise made the acquaintance of Marsden and the lamented Leyden, and in company with these two orientalists he began his elaborate researches into the history, the laws, and the literature of the Hindu and Malay races. In zoology he took a special interest, and ultimately became founder, on his return to England, of the Zoological Society, of which he was the first president. While on a visit to Calcutta in 1809, Raffles suggested to Lord Minto, then governor-general of India, the desirableness of wresting Java from the French, and rendering it a British possession. The governor-general grasped the idea with vigour; and ere many months had passed away a fleet of 90 ships dropped anchor before Batavia in August 1811. A short time effected the conquest of the island, and annexed Java to our East Indian dominions. Stamford Raffles was made lieutenant-general of the new territory, and resolved, at whatever cost, to give to the island, which had been subjected so long to the selfishness of a horde of Dutch robbers, a pure and upright administration. There were three sources of abuse which he resolved to eradicate. These were—the revenue system, the system of police and public justice, and the abolition of the slave trade. In a period of only five years Raffles had almost effected his design; he was adored by the native Javanese; all classes of society mentioned his name only with praise; and the revenue was eight times larger than it had been under the Dutch. However, the policy of some of his measures was considered doubtful by the home authorities, and he was in consequence recalled. Raffles reached London on the 16th of July 1816, and on his laying his case before the Court of Directors of the East India Company, they saw it expedient to express their conviction that the measures which he had adopted had "sprung from motives perfectly correct and laudable." To meet the growing demand for information about Java, he published a History of Java, in 2 vols. 4to, 1817.

Having received the honour of knighthood from the prince regent, Sir Stamford Raffles set out for the island of Sumatra as lieutenant-governor of Bengoolen or Fort Marlborough, a small district in the south-west of the island that belonged to Great Britain. He arrived at his new destination on the 22d of March 1818, and immediately set to work to abolish slavery, and gradually to liberate the convicts who had been transported thither. Anxious for some new settlement where some accredited British authority might be stationed to afford protection to British shipping, Sir Stamford Raffles proceeded to Calcutta to consult the Marquis of Hastings, then governor-general of India. The marquis approved of his plan; and Sir Stamford proceeded down the Straits of Malacca, and on the 29th of February 1819 the British flag was waving over Singapore. Returning to Bencoolen, he found that society was improving, and the foundations of good order were fairly laid. Sir Stamford and Lady Raffles began now to look forward to a return to England. They had sacrificed three children to the climate, and they were anxious for the safety of their remaining daughter. Before taking leave, however, of the Eastern Archipelago, he resolved to visit Singapore, his "political child," and see what progress it was making towards prosperity. He arrived there on the 10th of October 1822, and occupied himself for nearly a year in laying out the new city, and in establishing institutions and laws for its future constitution. It was expressly provided, among a multitudinous array of details, that Singapore should now and for ever be a free port to all nations; that all races, religions, and colours should be equal in the eye of the law; and that slavery should have no existence. Java had been given up to the Dutch shortly after Sir Stamford left it, and now Bencoolen was granted to them in exchange for Malacca. A short time before the latter arrangement had been completed, Sir Stamford Raffles and his lady had landed in Plymouth. A most disastrous event occurred on setting sail from Sumatra on the 2d February 1824. The ship Fame, when about 50 miles from land, suddenly took fire. The crew and passengers were with difficulty saved. The loss to Sir Stamford was beyond all repair. The whole of his drawings, all his collections in botany and zoology, all his papers and manuscripts, of which there were many volumes, fell a prey to the flames. His pecuniary loss amounted to more than L20,000. During one of his excursions into the interior of Sumatra, in company with the lamented Dr Arnold, he came upon the largest and most magnificent flower in the world, the *Rafflesia Arnoldi*. In 1820 he sent home a large collection of preserved animals, now in the museum of the London Zoological Society, and a paper containing a description of them was read before the Linnean Society, and published in their *Transactions*. He died on the 5th of July 1826, in the forty-fifth year of his age.