DEBRECZEN (56), a Hungarian town, 130 m.  E. of Buda-Pesth; is the head-quarters of Protestantism in the country, and has an amply equipped and a largely attended Protestant College; is a seat of manufactures and a large trade.

DECAMERON, a collection of a hundred tales, conceived of as rehearsed in ten days at a country-house during the plague at Florence; are of a licentious character, but exquisitely told; were written by Boccaccio; published in 1352; the name comes from deka, ten, and hemera, a day.

DECAMPS, ALEXANDRA GABRIEL, a distinguished French painter, born in Paris; brought up as a boy among the peasants of Picardy; represented nature as he in his own way saw it himself, and visited Switzerland and the East, where he found materials for original and powerful pictures; his pictures since his death have brought great prices (1803-1860).

DE CANDOLLE, AUGUSTIN PYRAME, an eminent botanist, born at Geneva, of Huguenot descent; studied in Paris; attracted the attention of Cuvier and Lamarck, whom he assisted in their researches; published his “Flore Francaise,” in six vols.; became professor at Montpellier, and then at Geneva; is the historical successor of Jussieu; his great contribution to botanical science is connected with the classification of plants (1778-1841).

DECA`TUR, STEPHEN, an American naval commodore; distinguished for his feats of valour displayed in the war with Tripoli and with England (1779-1820).

DECCAN, a triangular plateau of from 2000 to 3000 ft. of elevation in the Indian peninsula, extending S. of the Vindhya Mountains; is densely peopled, and contains some of the richest soil in the globe.

DECEMBER, the twelfth month of the year, so called, i. e. tenth, by the Romans, as their year began with March.

DEC`EMVIRS, the patricians of Rome, with Consular powers, appointed in 450 B.C. to prepare a code of laws for the Republic, which, after being agreed upon, were committed first to ten, then to twelve tables, and set up in the Forum that all might read and know the law they lived under.

DECIUS, Roman emperor from 249 to 251; was a cruel persecutor of the Christians; perished in a morass fighting with the Goths, who were a constant thorn in his side all through his reign.

DECIUS MUS, the name of three Romans, father, son, and grandson, who on separate critical emergencies (340, 295, 279 B.C.) devoted themselves in sacrifice to the infernal gods in order to secure victory to the Roman arms; the name is mostly employed ironically.

DECLINE AND FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE, the immortal work of Gibbon, of which the first volume was published in 1776.

DECRETALS, THE, a collection of laws added to the canon law of the Church of Rome, being judicial replies of the Popes to cases submitted to them from time to time for adjudication.

DEE, JOHN, an alchemist, born in London; a man of curious learning; earned the reputation of being a sorcerer; was imprisoned at one time, and mobbed at another, under this imputation; died in poverty; left 79 works, the majority of which were never printed, though still extant in MS. in the British Museum and other places of safe-keeping (1527-1608).