The Nuttall encyclopædia: being a concise and comprehensive dictionary of general knowledgeThe Nuttall encyclopædia

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Contents

Part 7 of 11

B

Blue-books, Parliamentary documents bound in blue paper, as the corresponding documents in France are in yellow; they have been published regularly since the beginning of the 18th century, those of a single session now forming a collection of some 60 folio volumes.

Blue-coat School, a name given to Christ's Hospital, London, founded in the reign of Edward VI., from the blue coats worn by the boys.

Blue-gown, in Scotland a beggar, a bedesman of the king, who wore a blue gown, the gift of the king, and had his license to beg.

Blue-stocking, a female pedant or femme savante, a name derived from a learned coterie, formed in the 15th century, at Venice, who wore blue stockings as a badge.

Bluff Hal, or Harry, Henry VIII. of England.

Blum, a German politician, born at Cologne; tried by court-martial and shot for abetting a political movement in Vienna in 1848, a proceeding which created a wide-spread sensation at the time all over Europe; b. 1807.

Blumenbach, Johann Friedrich, a distinguished German naturalist and ethnologist, born at Gotha; studied at Jena; became professor at Göttingen, an office he filled for 60 years; his works gave a great impulse to scientific research in all directions; the chief were "Institutiones Physiologicæ," "Manual of Natural History," "Manual of Comparative Anatomy and Physiology"; he made craniology a special study; was a great advocate for religious liberty (1752-1840).

Blumenthal, Leonard von, field-marshal in the Prussian army; distinguished in the wars with Denmark, Austria, and France; an eminent strategist; b. 1810.

Blumi`ne, the siren that Calypsowise in "Sartor" seduced Teufelsdröckh at the commencement of his career, but who opened his eyes to see that it is not in sentiment, however fine, that the soul's cravings can find satisfaction.

Blunt, John Henry, D.D., born at Chelsea; wrote largely on theological and ecclesiastical subjects (1823-1884).

Bluntschli, Johann Kaspar, a distinguished jurist, born at Zurich; an authority in international law; a liberal conservative both in Church and State; founder and president of the Protestant Union called the Protestantenverein (1808-1881).

Boabdil, or Abu-Abdallah, surnamed "The Unfortunate," the last Moorish king of Granada, from 1481 to 1492; expelled from his throne by Ferdinand of Castile and Aragon; as he rode off he halted on a hill called "The Last Sigh of the Moor," and wept as he looked back on the Alhambra, while his mother added to his bitterness with the cutting sarcasm, "Weep as a woman for a throne you have not been able to defend as a man"; died shortly after in Africa, recklessly throwing away his life on a field of battle.

Boadice`a, a British heroine, queen of the Iceni, who occupied Norfolk and Suffolk; roused by indignity done to her and her people by the Romans, gathered round her an army, who, with a murderous onslaught, attacked their settlements and destroyed them; but being attacked and defeated in turn by Suetonius Paulinus, the Roman governor, she put, in her despair, an end to her life by poison, A.D. 61. Cowper made her the theme of one of his poems.

Boanerges (i. e. Sons of Thunder), applied by Christ to the sons of Zebedee for the vehemence of their zeal.

Boaz and Jachin, two pillars of brass at the entrance of Solomon's Temple, signifying respectively strength and stability.

Bob`adil, Captain, a braggadocio in Ben Jonson's "Every Man in his Humour."

Bobèche, a French theatrical clown, under the Empire and the Restoration, son of an upholsterer of the St. Antoine faubourg, the type of the merry-andrew at country fairs.

Boccaccio, Giovanni, the celebrated Italian raconteur, born near Florence; showed early a passion for literature; sent by his father to Naples to pursue a mercantile career; gave himself up to story-telling in prose and verse; fell in love with Maria, a beautiful woman, daughter of the king, styled by him Fiammetta, for whom he wrote several of his works, and his great work, the "Decameron"; early formed a lifelong friendship with Petrarch, along with whom he contributed to the revival and study of classic literature; lectured on Dante in Florence; Petrarch's death deeply affected him, and he died the year after (1313-1375).

Boccherini, Luigi, a celebrated Italian musical composer, born at Lucca; was associated with Manfredi, the violinist; his works were numerous; appears to have lived in poverty and obscurity (1740-1805).

Bochart, Samuel, a Protestant divine, born at Rouen; pastor at Caen; a geographer and an Orientalist; wrote a treatise on sacred geography; celebrated for a nine-days' discussion with the Jesuit Verin (1599-1667).

Bode, Johann Elert, an astronomer, born at Hamburg; was professor of Astronomy and director of Observatory at Berlin; produced a number of astronomical works, one of his best, "An Introduction to the Knowledge of the Starry Heavens;" gave name to the law of the planetary distances, called Bode's Law, although it was observed by Kepler long before his day (1747-1826).

Bodel, a celebrated troubadour of the 13th century, born at Arras.

Bodensee, another name for the Lake of Constance, well called the filter of the Rhine.

Bodin, Jean, a publicist and diplomatist, born at Angers; author of "The Republic," in six books, published at first in French and then in Latin, which summed up all the political philosophy of his time, and contributed to prepare the way for subsequent speculations; was the precursor of Hobbes and Montesquieu (1530-1596).

Bodleian Library, the university library of Oxford, founded, or rather restored, by Sir Thomas Bodley in 1593; enlarged from time to time by bequests, often munificent. It possesses 400,000 printed volumes and 30,000 MSS.

Bodley, Sir Thomas, born at Exeter; employed on embassies by Elizabeth on the Continent, where he collected a number of valuable books; bequeathed them and his fortune to the university library of Oxford, named after him (1545-1613).

Bodmer, Johann Jacob, a distinguished Swiss critic, born near Zurich; the first, by study of the masters in literature of Greece and Rome, France, England, and Italy, to wake up Germany to a sense of its poverty in that line, and who aided, along with others, in the inauguration of a new era, which he did more by his republication of the Minnesingers and part of the "Nibelungen Lied" than by his advocacy (1698-1783).

Bodmin (5), the county town of Cornwall, supersedes Truro as capital; an important agricultural centre; has large annual fairs for cattle, horses, and sheep.

Bodoni, an Italian printer; settled at Parma, where his press was set up in the ducal palace, whence issued magnificent editions of the classics, Horace, Virgil, Tacitus, Tasso, and, last of all, Homer. He was often tempted to Rome, but he refused to quit Parma and the patronage of the ducal house there (1740-1813).

Bödtcher, Ludwig, a Danish lyric poet, born at Copenhagen; lived chiefly in Italy (1793-1874).

Boece, Hector, a humanist and Scottish historian, born at Dundee; professor of Philosophy at Paris; friend of Erasmus; was principal of university at Aberdeen; wrote "History of Bishops of Mortlach and Aberdeen," and "History of Scotland" in excellent Latin (1465-1536).

Boeckh, Philip August, classical antiquary, born at Carlsruhe; professor of Ancient Literature in Berlin; a classic of the first rank, and a contributor on a large scale to all departments of Greek classical learning; was an eminently learned man, and an authority in different departments of learning (1785-1867).

Boehm, Sir Joseph Edgar, sculptor, born in Vienna, of Hungarian parentage; settled in England; executed a colossal statue of the Queen at Windsor, a seated statue of Carlyle on the Thames Embankment, a statue of Bunyan at Bedford, &c.; patronised by the Queen and royal family; buried in St. Paul's by the Queen's desire (1785-1869).

Boehme, Jacob, a celebrated German mystic, born at Görlitz; of an imaginatively meditative turn from boyhood as a neat-herd, and afterwards in his stall as a shoemaker; spent his whole life in meditation on divine things; saw in the Bible a revelation of these as in no other book; seemed to have eyes given him to see visions of these things himself, for which he felt he had no organ to express, and which he conveyed to others in mystical, apocalyptical speech; a thinker very fascinating to all minds of the seer class. He was subject to persecution, as all of his stamp are, by the men of the letter, and bore up with the meekness which all men of his elevation of character ever do—"quiet, gentle, and modest," as they all are to the very core, in his way of thinking; and his philosophy would seem to have anticipated the secret of Hegel, who acknowledges him as one of the fathers of German philosophy. He left writings which embody a scheme of mystical theology, setting forth the trinity in unity of the Hegelian system, that is, viewing the divine as it is in itself, as it comes out in nature, and as it returns to itself in the human soul (1575-1624).

Boehmer, a German historian, born at Frankfort; author of works on the Carlovingian period of history (1795-1863).

Boeo`tia, a country of ancient Greece, N. of the Gulf of Corinth; the natives, though brave, were mere tillers of the soil under a heavy atmosphere, innocent of culture, and regarded as boors and dullards by the educated classes of Greece, and particularly of Athens, and yet Hesiod, Pindar, and Plutarch were natives of Boeotia.

Boerhaave, a great physician, born near Leyden, and son of a pastor; ultimately professor of Medicine and Botany there, as well as of Chemistry; chairs of which he filled and adorned with the greatest distinction; his reputation spread over Europe, and even as far as China—a letter from which bore the simple address, "To M. Boerhaave, Europe," and found him; his system was adopted by the profession, and patients from far and wide came to consult him—among others, Pope Benedict VIII. and Peter the Great; his character was as noble as his abilities were great; his principal works were "Institutiones Medicæ," "Aphorismi de Cognoscendis et Curandis Morbis," "Libellus de Materia Medica," and "Institutiones Chemicæ" (1668-1738).

Boers (i. e. peasants engaged in tillage), Dutch colonists of an independent republican temper, who in the 17th century squatted in S. Africa; gave themselves to agriculture and cattle-rearing; settled at length in the Transvaal in a self-governed community by themselves.

Boëthius, Anicius Manlius Severinus, a Roman statesman, born at Rome, of Consular rank, a profoundly learned man, held the highest offices, Consul among others, under Theodoric the Goth; his integrity and opposition to injustice procured him enemies, who accused him of treason; he was cast into prison, and finally put to death; wrote in prison his "De Consolatione Philosophiæ," in five parts, employing verse and prose alternately, which King Alfred translated into Anglo-Saxon; he was canonised as a martyr, and his influence was great during the Middle Ages (470-524).

Boeuf, Front de, a character in "Ivanhoe."

Bogatzky, Karl Heinrich von, religious writer; wrote hymns and an autobiography; is best known as the author of the "Golden Treasury" (1690-1744).

Bogdanovitch, a Russian poet, called by his countrymen the "Russian Anacreon"; his best-known poem "Psyche" (1743-1803).

Bogermann, Johann, Dutch divine, translated the Bible into Dutch, and was President of the Synod of Dort (1576-1633).

Bogota` (100), capital of the United State of Colombia, situated on a remarkable, almost mountain-encircled, plateau, on the river Bogotá, 65 m. SE. of its port, Honda, the highest navigable point of the Magdalena, is 8600 ft. above sea-level, and has a spring-like climate. It is regularly built, with innumerable churches, a mint, university, library, and observatory, and several schools. Though the country is fertile and the mountains rich in coal, iron, salt, and precious metals, its situation and the want of a railway hinder trade.

Bog-trotter, a name given to the Scottish moss-troopers, now to certain Irish for their agility in escaping over bogs.

Bogue, David, born in Berwickshire, a Congregational minister; one of the founders of the London Foreign Missionary, the Foreign Bible, and the Religious Tract Societies (1750-1825).

Bohemia (5,843), the most northerly province in Austria, two-thirds the size of Scotland; is encircled by mountains, and drained by the upper Elbe and its tributaries. The Erzgebirge separate it from Saxony; the Riesengebirge, from Prussia; the Böhmerwald, from Bavaria; and the Moravian Mountains, from Moravia. The mineral wealth is varied and great, including coal, the most useful metals, silver, sulphur, and porcelain clay. The climate is mild in the valleys, the soil fertile; flax and hops the chief products; forests are extensive. Dyeing, calico-printing, linen and woollen manufactures, are the chief industries. The glassware is widely celebrated; there are iron-works and sugar-refineries. The transit trade is very valuable. The people are mostly Czechs, of the Slavonic race, Roman Catholics in religion; there is a large and influential German minority of about two millions, with whom the Czechs, who are twice as numerous, do not amalgamate; the former being riled at the official use of the Czech language, and the latter agitating for the elevation of the province to the same status as that of Hungary. Education is better than elsewhere in Austria; there is a university at Prague, the capital. In the 16th century the crown was united with the Austrian, but in 1608 religious questions led to the election of the Protestant Frederick V. This was followed by the Thirty Years' War, the extermination of the Protestants, and the restoration of the Austrian House.

Bohemian, name given to one who lives by his wits and shuns conventionality.

Bohemian Brethren, a fraternity of an extreme sect of the Hussites, organised as United Brethren in 1455; broken up in the Thirty Years' War, met in secret, and were invited, under the name of Moravians or Herrnhuters, by Count Zinzendorf to settle on his estate.

Bohemond, first prince of Antioch, son of Robert Guiscard; set out on the first crusade; besieged and took Antioch; was besieged in turn by the Saracens, and imprisoned for two years; liberated, he collected troops and recaptured the city (1056-1111).

Bohlen, von, a German Orientalist, professor at Königsberg (1796-1840).

Bonn, Henry George, an enterprising publisher, a German, born in London; issued a series of works identified with his name (1796-1884).

Böhtlingk, Otto, Sanskrit scholar, a German, born in St. Petersburg; author, among other works, of a Sanskrit dictionary in 7 vols.; b.1815.

Boiardo, Matteo Maria, Count of Scandiano, surnamed the "Flower of Chivalry"; an Italian poet, courtier, diplomatist, and statesman; author of "Orlando Innamorato" (1456), the model of Ariosto's "Orlando Furioso," which eclipsed it (1434-1494).

Boieldieu, Adrien François, a distinguished French musical composer of operas; author of the "Calife de Bagdad," "Télémaque," and "La Dame Blanche," reckoned his masterpiece; called the French Mozart (1775-1834).

Boigne, Count de, a French soldier of fortune, born at Chambéry; served under France, Russia, East India Company, and the prince of the Mahrattas, to whom he rendered signal service; amassed wealth, which he dealt out generously and for the benefit of his country (1751-1830).

Boii, an ancient people of Gaul, occupying territory between the Allier and the Loire.

Boileau, Nicolas (surnamed Despréaux, to distinguish him from his brother), poet and critic, born in Paris; brought up to the law, but devoted to letters, associating himself with La Fontaine, Racine, and Molière; author of "Satires" and "Epistles," "L'Art Poétique," "Le Lutrin," &c., in which he attached and employed his wit against the bad taste of his time; did much to reform French poetry, as Pascal did to reform the prose, and was for long the law-giver of Parnassus; was an imitator of Pope, but especially of Horace (1636-1711).

Boisard, a French fabulist of remarkable fecundity (1743-1831).

Bois-Guillebert, a French economist, cousin of Vauban; advocate of free trade; d. 1714.

Bois-le-Duc (27), capital of North Brabant, 45 m. SE. of Amsterdam, and with a fine cathedral; seat of an archbishop.

Boismont, The Abbé, one of the best French pulpit orators of the 18th century (1715-1786).

Boisrobert, The Abbé, a French poet, one of the first members of the French Academy; patronised by Richelieu (1592-1662).

Boissonade, Jean François, a French Greek scholar; for a time carried away by the revolutionary movement, but abandoned politics for letters (1774-1857).

Boissiere, a French lexicographer (1806-1885).

Boissy d'Anglas, Count, a member and president of the Convention in Paris, noted for his firmness and coolness during the frenzy of the Revolution: one day the Parisian mob burst in upon the Convention, shot dead a young deputy, Féraud, "sweeping the members of it before them to the upper-bench ... covered, the president sat unyielding, like a rock in the beating of seas; they menaced him, levelled muskets at him, he yielded not; they held up Féraud's bloody head to him; with grave, stern air he bowed to it, and yielded not"; became a senator and commander of the Legion of Honour under Napoleon; was made a peer by Louis XVIII. (1756-1826).

Boiste, a French lexicographer (1765-1824).

Bokha`ra (1,800), a Mohammedan State in Central Asia, N. of Afghanistan, nominally independent; but the Khan is a vassal of the Czar. The surface is arid, and cultivation possible only near the rivers-the Oxus, Zarafshan, and Karshi. In the sands of the Oxus, gold and salt are found. Rice, cotton, and cereals are grown; silk, cotton-thread, jewellery, cutlery, and firearms are manufactured. The people are of Turk and Persian origin. The capital, Bokhara (70), is on the plain of the Zarafshan, a walled, mud-built city, 8 or 9 m. in circumference, with numerous colleges and mosques, the centre of learning and religious life in Central Asia. It has important trade and large slave markets.

Bolan` Pass, a high-lying, deep, narrow gorge, extending between Quetta (Beluchistan) and Kandahar (Afghanistan), sloping upwards at an inclination of 90 ft. a mile; is traversed by a torrent.

Boleslaus, the name of several dukes of Poland, of whom the most famous is Boleslaus I. the Great, who ruled from 992 to 1025.

Boleyn, Anne, or Bullen, second wife of Henry VIII. and mother of Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Thoman Bullen (afterwards Earl of Wiltshire); after a three years' residence at the French Court became maid of honour to Queen Katherine; attracted the admiration of Henry; was married to him, and became queen; charged with adultery and conspiracy, was found guilty and beheaded; was of the Reformed faith; her marriage with Henry had important bearings on the English Reformation (1507-1536).

Bolingbroke, Henry St. John, Viscount, English statesman, orator, and political writer, born at Battersea; Prime Minister of Queen Anne in the Tory interest, after her dismissal of the Whigs; on the accession of George I. fled to France and joined the Pretender; was impeached and attainted; returned in 1723 to his estates, but denied a seat in the House of Lords, an indignity which he resented by working the overthrow of Walpole; was the friend of Pope and Swift, and the author of "Letters" bearing upon politics and literature. "Bolingbroke," says Prof. Saintsbury, "is a rhetorician pure and simple, but the subjects of his rhetoric were not the great and perennial subjects, but puny ephemeral forms of them—the partisan and personal politics of his day, the singularly shallow form of infidelity called Deism and the like; and his time deprived him of many, if not most, of the rhetorician's most telling weapons. The 'Letter to Windham,' a sort of apologia, and the 'Ideal of a Patriot King,' exhibit him at his best." It was he who suggested to Pope his "Essay on Man" (1678-1751).

Bolivar, Simon, surnamed the Liberator, general and statesman, born at Caracas; a man of good birth and liberal education; seized with the passion for freedom during a visit to Madrid and Paris, devoted himself to the cause of S. American independence; freed from the yoke of Spain Venezuela and New Grenada, which, in 1819, he erected into a republic under the name of Colombia; achieved in 1824 the same for Upper Peru, henceforth called Bolivia, after his name; accused of aspiring to the Dictatorship, he abdicated, and was preparing to leave the country when he died of fever, with the sage reflection on his lips, "The presence of a soldier, however disinterested he may be, is always dangerous in a State that is new to freedom"; he has been called the Washington of S. America (1783-1830).

Bolivia (1,500), an inland republic of S. America, occupying lofty tablelands E. of the Andes, and surrounded by Peru, Brazil, Paraguay, Argentina, and Chili. The S. is chiefly desert; in the N. are Lake Titicaca and many well-watered valleys. The very varied heights afford all kinds of vegetation, from wheat and maize to tropical fruits. In the lower plains coffee, tobacco, cotton, and cinchona are cultivated. The most important industry is mining: gold, silver, copper, and tin. Trade is hampered by want of navigable rivers, but helped by railways from Chili, Peru, and Argentina. Silver is the chief export; manufactured goods are imported. The country has been independent since 1825; it lost its sea provinces in the war with Chili, 1879-83. The capital is Sucre (12), but La Pay (45) and Cochabamba (14) are larger towns.

Bolland, John, a Jesuit of Antwerp, born in Belgium; compiled five vols. of the Lives of the Saints called "Acta Sanctorum," which was continued by others, called after him "Bollandists."

Bollandists, a succession of Jesuits who produced the Lives of the Saints, now extended to sixty vols.

Bologna (147), an ancient walled city of Italy, on a fertile plain, at the foot of the Lower Apennines, 83 m. N. of Florence; has many fine buildings, a university, one of the oldest in Europe, schools of music and art, libraries, and art collections. There are some silk and other industries, and considerable trade.

Bologna, John Of, one of the most celebrated sculptors of art in his time, born at Douai, settled at Florence (1524-1608).

Bolor-Tagh, a high tableland in Central Asia, stretching from the Hindu Kush mountains northwards to the Tian Shan.

Bolse`na, a small town in Italy, on the E. shore of Lake Bolsena.

Bolsena, a lake with clear water in a hollow crater of a volcano, and abounding with fish, but with an unwholesome atmosphere.

Bolton (115), manufacturing town of Lancashire.

Bolton Abbey, an old abbey in Yorkshire, 6 m. E. of Skipton; was founded by the Augustinian canons.

Boma, a station on the Lower Congo, in the Congo Independent State; once a great slave mart.

Bomarsund, a fortress of the island of Aland occupied by Russia, destroyed by the Anglo-French fleet in 1854; the Russians bound not to restore it.

Bomba, nickname of Ferdinand II., late king of the Two Sicilies, given him, it is alleged, from his calling upon his soldiers to bombard his people during an insurrection.

Bombastes Furioso, an opera by Thomas Rhodes in ridicule of the bombastic style of certain tragedies in vogue.

Bombay (26,960), the western Presidency of India, embraces 26 British districts and 19 feudatory states. N. of the Nerbudda River the country is flat and fertile; S. of it are mountain ranges and tablelands. In the fertile N. cotton, opium, and wheat are the staple products. In the S., salt, iron, and gold are mined; but coal is wanting. The climate is hot and moist on the coast and in the plains, but pleasant on the plateaux. Cotton manufacture has developed extensively and cotton cloths, with sugar, tea, wool, and drugs are exported. Machinery, oil, coal, and liquors are imported. Bombay (822), the chief city, stands on an island, connected with the coast by a causeway, and has a magnificent harbour and noble docks. It is rapidly surpassing Calcutta in trade, and is one of the greatest of seaports; its position promises to make it the most important commercial centre in the East, as it already is in the cotton trade of the world. It swarms with people of every clime, and its merchandise is mainly in the hands of the Parsees, the descendants of the ancient fire-worshippers. It is the most English town in India. It came to England from Portugal as dowry with Catherine of Braganza, wife of Charles II., who leased it to the East India Company for £10 a year. Its prosperity began when the Civil War in America afforded it an opening for its cotton.

Bon Gaultier, nom de plume assumed by Professor Aytoun and Sir Theodore Martin.

Bona (30), a seaport in Algeria, in the province of Constantine, on a bay of the Mediterranean, with an excellent harbour and a growing trade; is much improved since its occupation by the French in 1832. Near it are the ruins of Hippo, the episcopal city of Augustine.

Bona, an ascetic writer, surnamed the Fénélon of Italy, one of feuillant order of monks (1609-1674).

Bona Dea (the good goddess), a Roman goddess of fertility, worshipped by women; her priests vestals and her worship by rites from which men were excluded. Her symbol was a serpent, but the name under which she was worshipped is not known.

Bonald, Vicomte de, a French publicist, a violent royalist and ultramontanist; looked upon the Catholic religion and the royal authority as fundamental to the stability of the social fabric, and was opposed to the law of divorce, which led to its alteration. He denied that language was innate, but revealed, and that causation was inherent in matter (1758-1840).

Bonaparte, name of a celebrated family of Italian origin settled in Corsica; the principal members of it were: Charles Marie, born at Ajaccio, 1744; died at Montpellier, 1785; married, 1767. Marie-Lætitia Ramolino, born at Ajaccio, 1750; died at Rome, 1836; of this union were born eight children: Joseph, became king of Naples, 1806; king of Spain from 1808 to 1813; retired to United States after Waterloo; returned to Europe, and died at Florence, 1844. Napoleon I. (q. v.). Lucien, b. 1775; became president of the Council of the Five Hundred, and prince of Canino; died in Viterbo, 1840. Marie-Anne-Eliza, b. 1777; married Felix Bacciochi, who became prince of Lucca; died at Trieste, 1826. Louis, b. 1778; married Hortense de Beauharnais; father of Napoleon III.; king of Holland (from 1806 to 1810); died at Leghorn, 1846. Marie Pauline, b. 1780; married General Leclerc, 1801; afterwards, in 1803, Prince Camille Borghese; became Duchess of Guastalla; died at Florence, 1825. Caroline-Marie, b. 1782; married Marat in 1800; became Grand-duchess of Berg and Clèves, then queen of Naples; died at Florence, 1839. Jerome, b. 1784, king of Westphalia (from 1807 to 1813); marshal of France in 1850; married, by second marriage, Princess Catherine of Würtemburg; died in 1860; his daughter, the Princess Mathilde, b. 1820, and his son, Prince Napoleon, called Jerome, b. 1822, married Princess Clothilde, daughter of Victor Emmanuel, of which marriage was born Prince Victor Napoleon in 1862.

Bonar, Horatius, a clergyman of the Free Church of Scotland, and a celebrated hymn writer, born at Edinburgh (1808-1889).

Bonaventura, St., cardinal, surnamed the Seraphic Doctor, his real name John Fidenza, born in Tuscany; entered the Franciscan Order; was chosen general of the Order and papal legate at the Council of Lyons in 1274, during the session of which he died; was a mystic in theology; ascribed knowledge of the truth to union with God, such as existed between man and his Maker prior to the Fall, a state which could be recovered only by a life of purity and prayer; his writings were admired by Luther (1221-1274).

Bonchamp, Charles, Marquis de, French general, born in Anjou, served in the American war; became one of the chiefs of the Vendéan army; fell at the battle of Cholet, and when dying, relented over the blood already shed; ordered the release of 5000 prisoners which his party, in their revenge, was about to massacre; d. 1793.

Bond, William, a distinguished American astronomer (1789-1815), who with his son, George Phillips, discovered a satellite of Neptune and an eighth satellite of Saturn (1826-1865).

Bondu (30), a country of Senegambia, a dependency of France; yields maize, cotton, fruits.

Bone, Henry, a celebrated enamel painter, especially in miniature on ivory; born at Truro (1755-1834).

Boner, Ulrich, a German fabulist and Dominican monk of the 14th century, author of "Der Edelstein" (The Jewel), a book of fables.

Bonheur, Rosa, a celebrated French animal painter, born at Bordeaux; brought up in poverty from ill-fortune; taught by her father; exhibited when she was 19; her best-known works are the "Horse Fair" and the "Hay Harvest in Auvergne," "Ploughing with Oxen," considered her masterpiece; through the Empress Eugenie she received the Cross of the Legion of Honour; during the siege of Paris her studio was spared by order of the Crown Prince; b. 1822.

Bonhomme, Jacques, a name of contempt given by the nobility of France to the peasants in the 14th century.

Boniface, the name of nine Popes. B. I., pope from 418 to 422, assumed the title of First Bishop of Christendom; B. II., pope from 530 to 532; B. III., pope for 10 months, from 607 to 608; B. IV., pope from 608 to 614; B. V., pope from 617 to 625; B. VI., pope in 896; B. VII., pope from 974 to 985; B. VIII., pope from 1294 to 1303, a strenuous assertor of the papal supremacy over all princes, and a cause of much turmoil in Europe, provoked a war with Philip the Fair of France, who arrested him at Anagni, and though liberated by the citizens died on his way to Rome; B. IX., pope from 1389 to 1405, the first pope to wear the Triple Crown.

Boniface, St., the Apostle of Germany, born in Devonshire, his real name Winfried; consecrated Pepin le Bref; was made Primate of Germany; was, with 53 companions, massacred by the barbarians of Friesland, whom he sought to convert (680-755).

Bonin`, a group of rocky islands SE. of Japan, and since 1878 subject to it.

Bonington, Richard, an eminent English landscape painter of exceptional precocity, born near Nottingham; painted the "Ducal Palace" and "Grand Canal" at Venice, his masterpieces (1801-1828).

Bonivard, François de, a Genevese patriot and historian, twice imprisoned by Charles III., a Duke of Savoy, for his sympathy with the struggles of the Genevese against his tyranny, the second time for six years in the Castle of Chillon; immortalised by Lord Byron in his "Prisoner of Chillon"; he was released at the Reformation, and adopted Protestantism (1496-1571).

Bonn (38), a Prussian town on the Rhine, SE. of Cologne, an old Roman station, with a famous university; the birthplace of Beethoven, with a monument to his memory; it is a stronghold of the old Catholics.

Bonnat, Joseph Leon, a French painter, born at Bayonne; imitated for a time the religious paintings of the old masters, but since 1862 has followed a style of his own; "Christ at the Cross" in the Palais de Justice, Paris, is his work; b. 1833.

Bonner, Edmund, bishop of London, born at Worcester; was chaplain to Wolsey; sided with Henry VIII. against the Pope; fell into disgrace under Edward VI.; was restored by Mary, whom he served in her Anti-Protestant zeal; affected to welcome Elizabeth to the throne; was again deposed and imprisoned for refusing to take the oath of supremacy under Elizabeth; died in the Marshalsea Prison: he does not deserve all the odium that has been heaped on his memory; he was faithful as a bishop, consistent in his conduct, and bore the indignities done him with manly fortitude (1495-1569).

Bonnet, Charles de, Swiss naturalist and philosopher, born at Geneva; his studies as a naturalist gave a materialistic cast to his philosophy; though he did not deny the existence of mind, still less that of its sovereign Author, he gave to material impressions a dominant influence in determining its manifestations (1720-1793).

Bonnet-piece, a gold coin of James V. of Scotland, so called from the king being represented on it as wearing a bonnet instead of a crown.

Bonneval, Claude-Alexandre, Comte de. See Achmed Pasha.

Bonnie Dundee, Graham of Claverhouse, Viscount Dundee.

Bonpland, Aimé, a French botanist and traveller, born at Rochelle; companion of Alexander von Humboldt in his S. American scientific explorations; brought home a large collection of plants, thousands of species of them new to Europe; went out again to America, arrested by Dr. Francia in Paraguay as a spy, kept prisoner there for about nine years; released, settled in the prov. of Corrientes, where he died; wrote several works bearing on plants (1773-1858).

Bonstetten, Charles Victor de, a Swiss publicist and judge, born at Berne; wrote on anthropology, psychology, &c. (1745-1832).

Bontemps, Roger, a French personification of a state of leisure and freedom from care.

Bonze, a Buddhist priest in China, Japan, Burmah, &c.

Boole, English mathematician, born at Lincoln; mathematical professor at Cork; author of "Laws of Thought," an original work, and "Differential Equations" (1815-1864).

Boomerang, a missile of hard curved wood used by the Australian aborigines of 2½ ft. long; a deadly weapon, so constructed that, though thrown forward, it takes a whirling course upwards till it stops, when it returns with a swoop and falls in the rear of the thrower.

Boone, Daniel, a famous American backwoodsman; d. 1822, aged 84.

Boötes (the ox-driver or waggoner), a son of Ceres; inventor of the plough in the Greek mythology; translated along with his ox to become a constellation in the northern sky, the brightest star in which is Arcturus.

Booth, Barton, English actor, acted Shakespearean, characters and Hamlet's ghost (1681-1733).

Booth, John Wilkes, son of an actor, assassinated Lincoln, and was shot by his captors (1839-1865).

Booth, William, founder and general of the Salvation Army, born in Nottingham; published "In Darkest England"; a man of singular self-devotion to the religious and social welfare of the race; b. 1839.

Boothia, a peninsula of British N. America, W. of the Gulf of Boothia, and in which the N. magnetic pole of the earth is situated; discovered by Sir John Boss in 1830.

Booton, an island in the Malay Archipelago, SE. of Celebes; subject to the Dutch.

Bopp, Franz, a celebrated German philologist and Sanskrit scholar, born at Mayence; was professor of Oriental Literature and General Philology at Berlin; his greatest work, "A Comparative Grammar of Sanskrit, Zend, Greek, Latin, Lithuanian, Old Slave, Gothic, and German"; translated portions of the "Mahâbhârata," q. v. (1791-1867).

Bora, Katharina, the wife of Luther, born in Meissen, originally a nun, who, with eight others, was at Luther's instance released from her convent; proved "a pious and faithful wife" to Luther, as he says of her, and became the mother to him of six children, three sons and three daughters (1499-1552).

Borda, a French mathematician and physicist, born at Dax, in the dep. of Landes, served in both army and navy; one of those employed in measuring an arc of the meridian to establish the metric system in France (1733-1799).

Bordeaux (256), a great industrial and commercial city, and chief seat of the wine trade in France and the third seaport on the Garonne; cap. of the dep. of Gironde; the birthplace of Rosa Bonheur and Richard II., his father, the Black Prince, having had his seat here as governor of Aquitaine. There are sugar-refineries, potteries, foundries, glass and chemical works. The cod-fishing industry has its base here. A cathedral dates from the 11th century. There are schools of science, art, theology, medicine, and navigation, a library, museum, and rich picture-gallery.

Border Minstrel, Sir Walter Scott.

Borders, the, the shifting boundary between Scotland and England before the Union, a centre of endless fighting and marauding on the opposite sides for centuries.

Bordone, an Italian painter, born at Treviso, a pupil of Titian and Giorgione; his most celebrated picture, "The Gondolier presenting the Ring of St. Mark to the Doge" (1500-1570).

Bore, a watery ridge rushing violently up an estuary, due to a strong tidal wave travelling up a gradually narrowing channel. Bores are common in the estuary of the Ganges and other Asiatic rivers, in those of Brazil, and at the mouth of the Severn, in England.

Boreas, the god of the north wind, and son of the Titan Astræus and of Aurora.

Borghese, name of a family of high position and great wealth in Rome: Camillo, having become Pope in 1605 under the title of Paul V.; and Prince Borghese having married Pauline Bonaparte, sister of Napoleon, who separated himself from her on the fall of her brother (1775-1832); the palace of the family one of the finest in Rome, and has a rich collection of paintings.

Borghesi, Count, an Italian savant skilled in numismatics (1781-1860).

Borgia, Cæsar, fourth son of Pope Alexander VI.; was made cardinal at the age of 17, an honour he relinquished to become a soldier, in which capacity it is alleged he gave himself up to deeds of inhumanity, which have made his name a synonym for every action that is most crafty, revolting, and cruel; a portrait of him by Raphael, in the Borghese gallery, is a masterpiece. Notwithstanding the execration in which his memory is held, he is reputed to have been just as a ruler in his own domain, and a patron of art and literature; d. 1507.

Borgia, Franceso, third general of the Order of the Jesuits, a post he filled with great zeal as well as prudent management; was beatified by Urban VIII., and canonised by Clement IX., 1671 (1510-1572).

Borgia, Lucretia, sister of Cæsar Borgia, born at Rome; her father annulled her first marriage, and gave her to a nephew of the king of Naples, who was murdered by her brother's assassins, when she married the Duke of Ferrara; was celebrated for her beauty and her patronage of letters, though she has been accused of enormities as well as her brother (1480-1523).

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