Jacob Hebrew patriarch, son of Isaac and grandson of Abraham, and the traditional ancestor of the people of Israel. His story is told in the Book of Genesis. The younger twin brother of Esau, he used trickery to gain Isaac’s blessing and Esau’s birthright. On a journey to Canaan he wrestled all night with an angel, who blessed him and gave him the name Israel. Jacob had 13 children, 10 of whom founded tribes of Israel. His favorite son, Joseph, was sold into slavery in Egypt by his brothers, but the family was later reunited when a famine forced the brothers to go to Egypt to seek grain.
Jacob \zha-'kob\, Francois (b. June 17, 1920, Nancy, France) French biologist. After receiving his doctorate, he went to work at the Pasteur Institute in Paris. Beginning in 1958, he worked with Jacques Monod studying the regulation of bacterial enzyme synthesis. They discovered regulator genes, so called because they control the activities of other genes. Jacob and Monod also proposed the existence of an RNA messen¬ ger, a partial copy of DNA that carries genetic information to other parts of the cell. The two men shared a 1965 Nobel Prize with Andre Lwoff.
Jacob ben Asher (b. 1269?, Cologne?—d. 1340?, Toledo, Castile) Jewish legal scholar. He emigrated to Spain with his family in 1303, and his father became chief rabbi in Toledo. Jacob is believed to have made his living as a moneylender. He divided Jewish law into categories by subject, producing a codification known as Tur, which became a popular Jewish theological work of the 15th century. The basis for many rabbinic decisions, it was considered standard until superseded by the work of Joseph ben Ephraim Karo in the 16th century.
Jacobean \ ja-ko-'be-onV age Period in the visual and literary arts dur¬ ing the reign of James I (Latin Jacobus) of England (r. 1603-25). Jacobean architecture combines motifs from the late Gothic period with Classical details and Tudor pointed arches and interior paneling. Jacobean furni¬ ture, made of oak, featured heavy forms and bulbous legs. Inigo Jones, following the theories and works of Andrea Palladio, introduced the Clas¬ sical style of Renaissance architecture into England. Most Jacobean por¬ traitists and sculptors were foreign-bom or foreign-influenced, and their efforts faded when such Flemish painters as Peter Paul Rubens and Anthony Van Dyck worked in England for James’s successor, Charles I. See also Jacobean literature.
Jacobean \ ja-ko-'be-onV literature Body of works written during the reign of James I of England (1603-25). The successor to Elizabethan litera¬ ture, Jacobean literature was often dark in mood, questioning the stabil¬ ity of the social order; some of William Shakespeare’s greatest tragedies may date from the beginning of the period, and other dramatists, includ¬ ing John Webster, were often preoccupied with the problem of evil. The era’s comedy included the acid satire of Ben Jonson and the varied works of Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher. Jacobean poetry included the graceful verse of Jonson and the Cavalier poets but also the intellectual complexity of the Metaphysical poetry of John Donne and others. In prose, writers such as Francis Bacon and Robert Burton showed a new toughness and flexibility of style. The era’s monumental prose achievement was the King James Version of the Bible (1611).
Jacobin Vja-ko-bonV Club or Jacobins Political group of the French Revolution, identified with extreme radicalism and violence. Formed in 1789 as the Society of the Friends of the Constitution, it was known as the Jacobin Club because it met in a former convent of the Dominicans (known in Paris as Jacobins). It was originally formed by deputies of the National Assembly to protect the Revolution’s gains against a possible aristocratic reaction. Although it did not have a direct role in overthrowing the mon¬ archy in 1792, the club later changed its name to Society of the Jacobins, Friends of Liberty and Equality. It admitted leftist Montagnard deputies of the National Convention and agitated for the king’s execution and the over¬ throw of the Girondins. In 1793, with about 8,000 clubs and 500,000 mem¬ bers, the Jacobins became instruments of the Reign of Terror. The Parisian club supported Maximilien Robespierre, but it closed after his fall in 1794. Although officially banned, some local clubs lasted until 1800.
Jacobite In British history, a supporter of the exiled Stuart king James II (in Latin, Jacobus) and his descendants after the Glorious Revolution of 1688. The movement was strong in Scotland, Wales, and Ireland, and it included Catholics and Anglican Tories. The Jacobites, especially under William III and Queen Anne, could offer a feasible alternative title to the crown, and several attempts were made to restore the Stuarts. In 1689 James II landed in Ireland, but his army was defeated at the Battle of the Boyne. In the Fifteen Rebellion (1715), led by John Erskine, 6th earl of Mar (1675-1732), Jacobites tried to seize the crown for James Edward, the Old Pretender. In the Forty-five Rebellion (1745) Charles Edward, the Young Pretender, took Scotland, but the Jacobite army was crushed at the Battle of Culloden (1746).
Jacobs, Helen Hull (1908 -1997) U.S. tennis player.Jacobs was the national junior tennis champion in 1924-25. She was first defeated by Helen Wills, who would prove to be her longtime rival, in the 1928 finals at Forest Hills, N.Y. Though Wills was virtually always victorious, Jacobs was a popular favourite. Her only victory over Wills came by default. Though often in Wills’s shadow, Jacobs won four U.S. Open singles (1932-35), three doubles (1932 and 1934-35), and mixed doubles (1934) championships. She was ranked in the world’s top 10 from 1928 to 1940. In 1933 she became the first woman to break with tradition by wearing man-tailored shorts at Wimbledon. Her autobiography. Beyond the Game , appeared in 1936.
Jacobs, Jane orig. Jane Butzner (b. May 4, 1916, Scranton, Pa., U.S.) U.S.-bom Canadian urbanologist. She became active in urban com¬ munity work while living in New York City with her architect husband. For 10 years she was an editor at Architectural Forum. Her highly influ¬ ential The Death and Life of Great American Cities (1961) is a brash, passionate, and highly original reinterpretation of the multiple needs of modern urban places. The Economy of Cities (1969) discussed the impor¬ tance of diversity to a city’s prospects. Later works include Cities and the Wealth of Nations (1984) and Edge of Empire (1996). See also urban plan¬ ning.
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974 I Jacopo da Pontormo ► jaguar
Jacopo da Pontormo See Jacopo da Pontormo
Jacopo della Quercia Vya-ko-po-dal-la-'kwer-chaV orig. Jacopo di Piero di Angelo (b. c. 1374, Siena—d. Oct. 20, 1438, Bologna, Papal States) Italian sculptor active in Siena. He was the son of a gold¬ smith and wood carver. His earliest major work is the tomb of Ilaria del Carretto in Lucca Cathedral (c. 1406-08). His most important commis¬ sion for Siena was the fountain known as Fonte Gaia (1408-19) in the Piazza del Campo. He worked with Donatello and Lorenzo Ghiberti on reliefs for the baptismal font in the Baptistery in Siena (1417-30). His last and greatest work was the sculptural reliefs around the portal of San Petronio in Bologna (1425-30). In 1435 he was appointed supervising architect of Siena Cathedral. He elevated Sienese sculpture to a place of prominence and influenced subsequent Sienese painters. The greatest non- Florentine sculptor of the 15th century, he was a major influence on the young Michelangelo.
Jacquard \zha-'kar,\ English \'ja-,kard\, Joseph-Marie (b. July 7, 1752, Lyon, Fr.—d. Aug. 7, 1834, Oullins) French inventor. In 1801 he demonstrated an automatic loom incorporating revolutionary new tech¬ nology; it was declared public property in 1806, and Jacquard was rewarded with a pension and a royalty on each machine. His loom uti¬ lized interchangeable punched cards that controlled the weaving of the cloth so that any desired pattern could be obtained automatically. The Jacquard loom’s technology became the basis of the modem automatic loom and a precursor of the modern computer. His punched cards were adapted by Charles Babbage as an input/output medium for his proposed analytical engine and by Herman Hollerith to feed data to his census machine, and punched cards were used for inputting data into early digi¬ tal computers.