GUIANA, an extensive tract of country in the N. of S. America fronting the Atlantic, bordering on Venezuela on the W., and for the rest hemmed in by Brazil; it is divided into British, Dutch, and French Guiana, all fronting the sea; the physical characteristics of all three are practically the same; a fertile alluvial foreshore, with upward-sloping savannahs and forests to the unexplored highlands, dense with luxuriant primeval forest; rivers numerous, climate humid and hot, with a plentiful rainfall; vegetation, fauna, &c., of the richest tropical nature; timber, balsams, medicinal barks, fruits, cane-sugar, rice, cereals, &c., are the chief products; also some gold.  BRITISH GUIANA (278) is the most westerly, and borders on Venezuela; area, 88,650 sq. m., divided into Berbice, Demerara, and Essequibo; GEORGETOWN (q. v.) is the capital.  DUTCH GUIANA or Surinam (73) occupies the central position; area, 46,058 sq. m.; capital PARAMARIBO (q. v.).  FRENCH GUIANA or Cayenne (30) lies to the E.; area, 31,000 sq. m; capital, CAYENNE (q. v.).

GUICCIARDINI, an Italian statesman and historian, born in Florence; studied law; became professor of Jurisprudence there; was a disciple of Macchiavelli; did service as a statesman in the Papal territories; took a leading part in the political changes of Florence; secured the restoration of the Medici to power, and on his retirement composed a “History of Italy during his Own Time,” which he had all but completed when he died (1485-1540).

GUICHARD, KARL, a Prussian officer, born at Magdeburg; joined Frederick the Great at Breslau, “a solid staid man, of a culture unusual for a soldier; brought with him his book, ’Memoirs Militaires sur les Grecs et les Romans,’ a solid account of the matter by the first man who ever understood both war and Greek; very welcome to Frederick, whom he took to very warmly; dubbed him Quintus Icilius, and had his name so entered as major on the army books; promoted at length to colonel, a rank he held till the end of the war” (1721-1775).  See Carlyle’s “Frederick.”

GUICOWAR, the hereditary title of the Mahratta princes who rule over BARODA (q. v.), in Gujarat, East India.

GUIDO ARETINUS, a Benedictine monk who flourished at Arezzo, in Italy, during the 11th century, the first to promote the theoretical study of music; he is credited, amongst other things, with the invention of counterpoint, and was the first to designate notes by means of alphabetical letters, and to establish the construction of the stave.

GUIDO RENI, Italian painter of the school of Bologna; best known by his masterpiece “Aurora and the Hours” at Rome, painted on a ceiling, and his unfinished “Nativity” at Naples (1575-1642).

GUIENNE (a corruption of Aquitania), an ancient province of SW.  France, now subdivided into the departments of Gironde, Dordogne, Lot, Aveyron, and embraces parts of Lot-et-Garonne and Tarn-et-Garonne.

GUIGNES, JOSEPH DE, an eminent French Orientalist, and Sinologist especially; was author of “Histoire Generale des Huns, des Turcs, des Moguls, &c.,” a work of vast research (1721-1800).