Chapter XVIII: Part 18

It is not surprising that a style so concise and yet so pliable so typical and yet so individual, as that of Boccaccio was of enormous influence on the further progress of a prose in a manner created by it. This influence has indeed prevailed down to the present time, to an extent beneficial upon the whole, although frequently fatal to the development of individual writers. Novelists like Giovanni Fiorentino or Franco Sacchetti are completely under the sway of their great model; and Boccaccio's influence may be discerned equally in the plastic fulness of Machiavelli and in the pointed satire of Aretino. Without touching upon the individual merits of Lasca, Bandello and other novelists of the _cinque-cento_, it may be asserted that none of them created a style independent of their great predecessor. One cannot indeed but acquiesce in the authoritative utterance of the Accademia della Crusca, which holds up the _Decameron_ as the standard and model of Italian prose. Even the Della Cruscan writers themselves have been unable to deprive the language wholly of the fresh spontaneity of Boccaccio's manner, which in modern literature we again admire in Manzoni's _Promessi sposi_.

A detailed analysis of a work so well known as the _Decameron_ would be unnecessary. The description of the plague of Florence preceding the stories is universally acknowledged to be a masterpiece of epic grandeur and vividness. It ranks with the paintings of similar calamities by Thucydides, Defoe and Manzoni. Like Defoe, Boccaccio had to draw largely on hearsay and his own imagination, it being almost certain that in 1348 he was at Naples, and therefore no eye-witness of the scenes he describes. The stories themselves, a hundred in number, range from the highest pathos to the coarsest licentiousness. A creation like the patient Griselda, which international literature owes to Boccaccio, ought to atone for much that is morally and artistically objectionable in the _Decameron_. It may be said on this head, that his age and his country were not only deeply immoral, but in addition exceedingly outspoken. Moreover, his sources were anything but pure. Most of his improper stories are either anecdotes from real life, or they are taken from the _fabliaux_ of medieval French poets. On comparing the latter class of stories (about one-fifth of the whole _Decameron_) with their French originals, one finds that Boccaccio has never added to, but has sometimes toned down the revolting ingredients. Notwithstanding this, it cannot be denied that the artistic value of the _Decameron_ is greatly impaired by descriptions and expressions, the intentional licentiousness of which is but imperfectly veiled by an attempt at humour.

Boccaccio has been accused of plagiarism, particularly by French critics, who correctly state that the subjects of many stories in the _Decameron_ are borrowed from their literature. A similar objection might be raised against Chaucer, Shakespeare, Goethe (in _Faust_), and indeed most of the master minds of all nations. Power of invention is not the only nor even the chief criterion of a great poet. He takes his subjects indiscriminately from his own fancy, or from the consciousness of his and other nations. Stories float about in the air, known to all yet realized by few; the poet gathers their _disjecta membra_ into an organic whole, and this he inspires and calls into life with the breath of his genius. It is in this sense that Boccaccio is the creator of those innumerable beautiful types and stories, which have since become household words amongst civilized nations. No author can equal him in these contributions to the store of international literature. There are indeed few great poets who have not in some way become indebted to the inexhaustible treasure of Boccaccio's creativeness. One of the greatest masterpieces of German literature, Lessing's _Nathan the Wise_, contains a story from Boccaccio (_Decameron_, Day 1st, tale iii.), and the list of English poets who have drawn from the same source comprises, among many others, the names of Chaucer, Lydgate, Dryden, Keats and Tennyson.

For ten years Boccaccio continued to reside in Florence, leaving the city only occasionally on diplomatic missions or on visits to his friends. His fame in the meantime began to spread far and wide, and his _Decameron_, in particular, was devoured by the fashionable ladies and gentlemen of the age. About 1360 he seems to have retired from the turbulent scenes of Florence to his native Certaldo, the secluded charms of which he describes with rapture. In the following year took place that strange turning-point in Boccaccio's career which is generally described as his conversion. It seems that a Carthusian monk came to him while at Certaldo charged with a posthumous message from another monk of the same order, to the effect that if Boccaccio did not at once abandon his godless ways in life and literature his death would ensue after a short time. It is also mentioned that the revelation to the friar on his deathbed of a secret known only to Boccaccio gave additional import to this alarming information. Boccaccio's impressionable nature was deeply moved. His life had been far from virtuous; in his writings he had frequently sinned against the rules of morality, and worse still, he had attacked with bitter satire the institutions and servants of holy mother church. Terrified by the approach of immediate death, he resolved to sell his library, abandon literature, and devote the remainder of his life to penance and religious exercise. To this effect he wrote to Petrarch. We possess the poet's answer; it is a masterpiece of writing, and what is more, a proof of tenderest friendship. The message of the monk Petrarch is evidently inclined to treat simply as pious fraud, without, however, actually committing himself to that opinion. "No monk is required to tell thee of the shortness and precariousness of human life. Of the advice received accept what is good; abandon worldly cares, conquer thy passions, and reform thy soul and life of degraded habits. But do not give up the studies which are the true food of a healthy mind." Boccaccio seems to have acted on this valuable advice. His later works, although written in Latin and scientific in character, are by no means of a religious kind. It seems, however, that his entering the church in 1362 is connected with the events just related.

In 1363 Boccaccio went on a visit to Naples to the seneschal Acciajuoli (the same Florentine who had in 1344 persuaded the elder Boccaccio to permit his son's return to Naples), who commissioned him to write the story of his deeds of valour. On his arrival, however, the poet was treated with shameful neglect, and revenged himself by denying the possibility of relating any valorous deeds for want of their existence. This declaration, it must be confessed, came somewhat late, but it was provoked by a silly attack on the poet himself by one of the seneschal's indiscreet friends.

During the next ten years Boccaccio led an unsettled life, residing chiefly at Florence or Certaldo, but frequently leaving his home on visits to Petrarch and other friends, and on various diplomatic errands in the service of the Republic. He seems to have been poor, having spent large sums in the purchase of books, but his independent spirit rejected the numerous splendid offers of hospitality made to him by friends and admirers. During this period he wrote four important Latin works--_De Genealogia Deorum libri XV._, a compendium of mythological knowledge full of deep learning; _De Montium, Silvarum, Lacuum, et Marium nominibus liber_, a treatise on ancient geography; and two historical books--_De Casibus Virorum et Feminarum Illustrium libri IX._, interesting to the English reader as the original of John Lydgate's _Fall of Princes_; and _De Claris Mulieribus_. To the list of his works ought to be added _Il Ninfale Fiesolano_, a beautiful love-story in verse, and _Il Corbaccio ossia Il Laberinto d'Amore_, a coarse satire on a Florentine widow who had jilted the poet, written about 1355, not to mention many eclogues in Latin and miscellaneous _Rime_ in Italian (the latter collected by his biographer Count Baldelli in 1802).

In 1373 we find Boccaccio again settled at Certaldo. Here he was attacked by a terrible disease which brought him to the verge of death, and from the consequences of which he never quite recovered. But sickness could not subdue his intellectual vigour. When the Florentines established a chair for the explanation of the _Divina Commedia_ in their university, and offered it to Boccaccio, the senescent poet at once undertook the arduous duty. He delivered his first lecture on the 23rd of October 1373. The commentary on part of the _Inferno_, already alluded to, bears witness of his unabated power of intellect. In 1374 the news of the loss of his dearest friend Petrarch reached Boccaccio, and from this blow he may be said to have never recovered. Almost his dying efforts were devoted to the memory of his friend; urgently he entreated Petrarch's son-in-law to arrange the publication of the deceased poet's Latin epic _Africa_, a work of which the author had been far more proud than of his immortal sonnets to Laura.

In his last will Boccaccio left his library to his father confessor, and after his decease to the convent of Santo Spirito in Florence. His small property he bequeathed to his brother Jacopo. His own natural children had died before him. He himself died on the 21st of December 1375 at Certaldo, and was buried in the church of SS. Jacopo e Filippo of that town. On his tombstone was engraved the epitaph composed by himself shortly before his death. It is calm and dignified, worthy indeed of a great life with a great purpose. These are the lines:--

"Hac sub mole jacent cineres ac ossa Joannis;
Mens sedet ante Deum, meritis ornata laborum
Mortalis vitae. Genitor Boccaccius illi;
Patria Certaldum; studium fuit alma poesis."

A complete edition of Boccaccio's Italian writings, in 17 vols., was
published by Moutier (Florence, 1834). The life of Boccaccio has been
written by Tiraboschi, Mazzuchelli, Count Baldelli (_Vita di
Boccaccio_, Florence, 1806), and others. In English the best biography
is Edward Hutton (1909.) The first printed edition of the _Decameron_
is without date, place or printer's name; but it is believed to belong
to the year 1469 or 1470, and to have been printed at Florence.
Besides this, Baldelli mentions eleven editions during the 15th
century. The entire number of editions by far exceeds a hundred. A
curious expurgated edition, authorized by the pope, appeared at
Florence, 1573. Here, however, the grossest indecencies remain, the
chief alteration being the change of the improper personages from
priests and monks into laymen. The best old edition is that of
Florence, 1527. Of modern reprints, that by Forfoni (Florence, 1857)
deserves mention. Manni has written a _Storia del Decamerone_ (1742),
and a German scholar, M. Landau, who published (Vienna, 1869) a
valuable investigation of the sources of the _Decameron_, subsequently
brought out in 1877 a general study of Boccaccio's life and works. An
interesting English translation of the _Decameron_ appeared in 1624,
under the title _The Model of Mirth, Wit, Eloquence and Conversation_.
(F. H.)

BOCCALINI, TRAJANO (1556-1613), Italian satirist, was born at Loretto in 1556. The son of an architect, he himself adopted that profession, and it appears that he commenced late in life to apply to literary pursuits. Pursuing his studies at Rome, he had the honour of teaching Bentivoglio, and acquired the friendship of the cardinals Gaetano and Borghesi, as well as of other distinguished personages. By their influence he obtained various posts, and was even appointed by Gregory XIII. governor of Benevento in the states of the church. Here, however, he seems to have acted imprudently, and he was soon recalled to Rome, where he shortly afterwards composed his most important work, the _Ragguagli di Parnaso_, in which Apollo is represented as receiving the complaints of all who present themselves, and distributing justice according to the merits of each particular case. The book is full of light and fantastic satire on the actions and writings of his eminent contemporaries, and some of its happier hits are among the hackneyed felicities of literature. To escape, it is said, from the hostility of those whom his shafts had wounded, he returned to Venice, and there, according to the register in the parochial church of Sta Maria Formosa, died of colic, accompanied with fever, on the 16th of November 1613. It was asserted, indeed, by contemporary writers that he had been beaten to death with sand-bags by a band of Spanish bravadoes, but the story seems without foundation. At the same time, it is evident from the _Pietra del Paragone_, which appeared after his death in 1615, that whatever the feelings of the Spaniards towards him, he cherished against them feelings of the bitterest hostility. The only government, indeed, which is exempt from his attacks is that of Venice, a city for which he seems to have had a special affection.

The _Ragguagli_, first printed in 1612, has frequently been
republished. The _Pietra_ has been translated into French, German,
English and Latin; the English translator was Henry, earl of Monmouth,
his version being entitled _The Politicke Touchstone_ (London, 1674).
Another posthumous publication of Boccalini was his _Commentarii sopra
Cornelia Tacito_ (Geneva, 1669). Many of his manuscripts are preserved
still unprinted.

BOCCHERINI, LUIGI (1743-1805), Italian composer, son of an Italian bass-player, was born at Lucca, and studied at Rome, where he became a fine 'cellist, and soon began to compose. He returned to Lucca, where for some years he was prominent as a player, and there he produced two oratorios and an opera. He toured in Europe, and in 1768 was received in Paris by Gossec and his circle with great enthusiasm, his instrumental pieces being highly applauded; and from 1769 to 1785 he held the post of "composer and virtuoso" to the king of Spain's brother, the infante Luis, at Madrid. He afterwards became "chamber-composer" to King Frederick William II. of Prussia, till 1797, when he returned to Spain. He died at Madrid on the 28th of May 1805.

As an admirer of Haydn, and a voluminous writer of instrumental music, chiefly for the violoncello, Boccherini represents the effect of the rapid progress of a new art on a mind too refined to be led into crudeness, too inventive and receptive to neglect any of the new artistic resources within its cognizance, and too superficial to grasp their real meaning. His mastery of the violoncello, and his advanced sense of beauty in instrumental tone-colour, must have made even his earlier works seem to contemporaries at least as novel and mature as any of those experiments at which Haydn, with eight years more of age and experience, was labouring in the development of the true new forms. Most of Boccherini's technical resources proved useless to Haydn, and resemblances occur only in Haydn's earliest works (e.g. most of the slow movements of the quartets in _op_. 3 and in some as late as _op_. 17); whichever derived the characteristics of such movements from the other, the advantage is decidedly with Boccherini. But the progress of music did not lie in the production of novel beauties of instrumental tone in a style in which polyphonic organization was either deliberately abandoned or replaced by a pleasing illusion, while the form in its larger aspects was a mere inorganic amplification of the old suite-forms, which presupposed a genuine polyphonic organization as the vitalizing principle of their otherwise purely decorative nature. The true tendency of the new sonata forms was to make instrumental music dramatic in its variety and contrasts, instead of merely decorative. Haydn from the outset buried himself with the handling of new rhythmic proportions; and if it is hardly an exaggeration to say that the surprising beauty of colour in such a specimen of Boccherini's 125 string-quintets as that in E major (containing the popular minuet) is perhaps more modern and certainly safer in performance than any special effect Haydn ever achieved, it is nevertheless true that even this beauty fails to justify the length and monotony of the work. Where Haydn uses any fraction of the resources of such a style, the ultimate effect is in proportion to a purpose of which Boccherini, with all his genuine admiration of his elder brother in art, could form no conception. Boccherini's works are, however, still indispensable for violoncellists, both in their education and their concert repertories; and his position in musical history is assured as that of the most original and, next to Tartini, perhaps the greatest writer of music for stringed instruments in the late Italian amplifications of the older quasi-polyphonic sonata or suite-form that survived into the beginning of the 19th century in the works of Nardini. Boccherini may safely be regarded as its last real master. He was wittily characterized by the contemporary violinist Puppo as "the wife of Haydn"; which is very true, if man and woman are two different species; but not as true as e.g. the equally common saying that "Schubert is the wife of Beethoven," and still less true than that "Vittoria is the wife of Palestrina."

His life, with a _Catalogue raisonne_, was published by L. Picquot
(1851). (D. F. T.)

BOCCHUS, king of Mauretania (about 110 B.C.), and father-in-law of Jugurtha. In 108 he vacillated between Jugurtha and the Romans, and joined Jugurtha only on his promising him the third part of his kingdom. The two kings were twice defeated. Bocchus again made overtures to the Romans, and after an interview with Sulla, who was Marius's quaestor at that time, sent ambassadors to Rome. At Rome the hope of an alliance was encouraged, but on condition that Bocchus showed himself deserving of it. After further negotiations with Sulla, he finally agreed to send a message to Jugurtha requesting his presence. Jugurtha fell into the trap and was given up to Sulla. Bocchus concluded a treaty with the Romans, and a portion of Numidia was added to his kingdom. Further to conciliate the Romans and especially Sulla, he sent to the Capitol a group of Victories guarding a device in gold showing Bocchus handing over Jugurtha to Sulla.

See JUGURTHA; also Sallust, _Jugurtha_, 80-120; Plutarch, _Marius_,
8-32, _Sulla_, 3; A.H.J. Greenidge, _History of Rome_ (London, 1904).

His son, BOCCHUS, was king of Mauretania, jointly with a younger brother Bogud. As enemies of the senatorial party, their title was recognized by Caesar (49 B.C.). During the African war they invaded Numidia and conquered Cirta, the capital of the kingdom of Juba, who was thus obliged to abandon the idea of joining Metellus Scipio against Caesar. At the end of the war, Caesar bestowed upon Bocchus part of the territory of Massinissa, Juba's ally, which was recovered after Caesar's murder by Massinissa's son Arabion. Dio Cassius says that Bocchus sent his sons to support Sextus Pompeius in Spain, while Bogud fought on the side of Caesar, and there is no doubt that after Caesar's death Bocchus supported Octavian, and Bogud Antony. During Bogud's absence in Spain, his brother seized the whole of Numidia, and was confirmed sole ruler by Octavian. After his death in 33, Numidia was made a Roman province.

_Bell. Afric._ 25; Dio Cassius xli. 42, xliii. 36, xlviii. 45; Appian,
_Bell. Civ._ ii. 96, iv. 54.

BOCHART, SAMUEL (1599-1667), French scholar, was born at Rouen on the 30th of May 1599. He was for many years a pastor of a Protestant church at Caen, and became tutor to Wentworth Dillon, earl of Roscommon. In 1646 he published his _Phaleg_ and _Chanaan_ (Caen, 1646 and 1651), the two parts of his _Geographia Sacra_. His _Hierozoicon_, which treats of the animals of Scripture, was printed in London (2 vols., 1663). In 1652 Christina of Sweden invited him to Stockholm, where he studied the Arabian manuscripts in the queen's possession. He was accompanied by Pierre Daniel Huet, afterwards bishop of Avranches. On his return to Caen he was received into the academy of that city. Bochart was a man of profound erudition; he possessed a thorough knowledge of the principal Oriental languages, including Hebrew, Syriac, Chaldaic and Arabic; and at an advanced age he wished to learn Ethiopic. He was so absorbed in his favourite study, that he saw Phoenician and nothing but Phoenician in everything, even in Celtic words, and hence the number of chimerical etymologies which swarm in his works. He died at Caen on the 16th of May 1667.

A complete edition of his works was published at Leiden, under the
title of _Sam. Bochart Opera Omnia_ (1675, 2 vols. folio; 4th ed., 3
vols., 1712). An _Essay on the Life and Writings of Samuel Bochart_,
by W.R. Whittingham, appeared in 1829.

BOCHOLT, a town of Germany, in the Prussian province of Westphalia, near the frontier of Holland, 12 m. by rail north of Wesel. It is a seat of the cotton industry. Pop. (1900) 21,278.

BOCHUM, a town of Germany, in the Prussian province of Westphalia, 11 m. by rail west from Dortmund. Pop. (1905) 118,000. It is a centre of the iron and steel industries, producing principally cast steel, cast iron, iron pipes, wire and wire ropes, and lamps, with tin and zinc works, coal-mining, factories for carpets, calcium carbide and paper-roofing, brickworks and breweries. The Bochumer Verein fur Bergbau (mining) und Gusstahl Fabrication (steel manufacture) is one of the principal trusts in this industry, founded in 1854. There are a mining and a metallurgical school.

BOCKH, PHILIPP AUGUST (1785-1867), German classical scholar and antiquarian, was born in Karlsruhe on the 24th of November 1785. He was sent to the gymnasium of his native place, and remained there until he left for the university of Halle (1803), where he devoted himself to the study of theology. F.A. Wolf was then creating there an enthusiasm for classical studies; Bockh fell under the spell, passed from theology to philology, and became the greatest of all Wolf's scholars. In 1807 he established himself as privat-docent in the university of Heidelberg and was shortly afterwards appointed a professor extraordinarius, becoming professor two years later. In 1811 he removed to the new Berlin University, having been appointed professor of eloquence and classical literature. He remained there till his death on the 3rd of August 1867. He was elected a member of the Academy of Sciences of Berlin in 1814, and for a long time acted as its secretary. Many of the speeches contained in his _Kleine Schriften_ were delivered in this latter capacity.

Bockh worked out the ideas of Wolf in regard to philology, and illustrated them by his practice. Discarding the old notion that philology consisted in a minute acquaintance with words and the exercise of the critical art, he regarded it as the entire knowledge of antiquity, historical and philosophical. He divides philology into five parts: first, an inquiry into public acts, with a knowledge of times and places, into civil institutions, and also into law; second, an inquiry into private affairs; third, an exhibition of the religions and arts of the ancient nations; fourth, a history of all their moral and physical speculations and beliefs, and of their literatures; and fifth, a complete explanation of the language. These ideas in regard to philology Bockh set forth in a Latin oration delivered in 1822 (_Gesammelte kleine Schriften_, i.). In his speech at the opening of the congress of German philologists in 1850, he defined philology as the historical construction of the entire life--therefore, of all forms of culture and all the productions of a people in its practical and spiritual tendencies. He allows that such a work is too great for any one man; but the very infinity of subjects is the stimulus to the pursuit of truth, and men strive because they have not attained (_ib_. ii.). An account of Bockh's division of philology will be found in Freund's _Wie studirt man Philologie?_

From 1806 till his death Bockh's literary activity was unceasing. His principal works were the following:--(1) An edition of Pindar, the first volume of which (1811) contains the text of the Epinician odes; a treatise, _De Metris Pindari_, in three books; and _Notae Criticae_: the second (1819) contains the _Scholia_; and part ii. of volume ii. (1821) contains a Latin translation, a commentary, the fragments and indices. It is still the most complete edition of Pindar that we have. But it was especially the treatise on the metres which placed Bockh in the first rank of scholars. This treatise forms an epoch in the treatment of the subject. In it the author threw aside all attempts to determine the Greek metres by mere subjective standards, pointing out at the same time the close connexion between the music and the poetry of the Greeks. He investigated minutely the nature of Greek music as far as it can be ascertained, as well as all the details regarding Greek musical instruments; and he explained the statements of the ancient Greek writers on rhythm. In this manner he laid the foundation for a scientific treatment of Greek metres. (2) _Die Staatshaushaltung der Athener_, 1817 (2nd ed. 1851, with a supplementary volume _Urkunden uber das Seewesen des attischen Staats_; 3rd ed. by Frankel, 1886), translated into English by Sir George Cornewall Lewis (1828) under the title of _The Public Economy of Athens_. In it he investigated a subject of peculiar difficulty with profound learning. He amassed information from the whole range of Greek literature, carefully appraised the value of the information given, and shows throughout every portion of it rare critical ability and insight. A work of a similar kind was his _Metrologische Untersuchungen uber Gewichte, Munzfusse, und Masse des Alterthums_ (1838). (3) Bockh's third great work arose out of his second. In regard to the taxes and revenue of the Athenian state he derived a great deal of his most trustworthy information from inscriptions, many of which are given in his book. It was natural, therefore, that when the Berlin Academy of Sciences projected the plan of a _Corpus Inscriptionum Graecarum_, Bockh should be chosen as the principal editor. This great work (1828-1877) is in four volumes, the third and fourth volumes being edited by J. Franz, E. Curtius, A. Kirchhoff and H. Rohl.

Bockh's activity was continually digressing into widely different fields. He gained for himself a foremost position amongst the investigators of ancient chronology, and his name occupies a place by the side of those of Ideler and Mommsen. His principal works on this subject were: _Zur Geschichte der Mondcyclen der Hellenen_ (1855); _Epigraphisch-chronologische Studien_ (1856); _Uber die vierjahrigen Sonnenkreise der Alten_ (1863), and several papers which he published in the _Transactions of the Berlin Academy_. Bockh also occupied himself with philosophy. One of his earliest papers was on the Platonic doctrine of the world, _De Platonica corporis mundani fabrica_ (1809), followed by _De Platonico Systemate Caelestium globorum et de vera Indole Astronomiae Philolaice_ (1810), to which may be added _Manetho und die Hundsternperiode_ (1845). In opposition to Otto Gruppe (1804-1876), he denied that Plato affirmed the diurnal rotation of the earth (_Untersuchungen uber das kosmische System des Platon_, 1852), and when in opposition to him Grote published his opinions on the subject (Plato and the Rotation of the Earth) Bockh was ready with his reply. Another of his earlier papers, and one frequently referred to, was _Commentatio Academica de simultate quae Platoni cum Xenophonte intercessisse fertur_ (1811). Other philosophical writings were _Commentatio in Platonis qui vulgo fertur Minoem_ (1806), and _Philolaos' des Pythagoreers Lehren nebst den Bruchstucken_ (1819), in which he endeavoured to show the genuineness of the fragments.

Besides his edition of Pindar, Bockh published an edition of the Antigone of Sophocles (1843) with a poetical translation and essays. An early and important work on the Greek tragedians is his _Graecae Tragoediae Principum ... num ea quae supersunt et genuina omnia sint et forma primitiva servata_ (1808).

The smaller writings of Bockh began to be collected in his lifetime.
Three of the volumes were published before his death, and four after
(_Gesammelte kleine Schriften_, 1858-1874). The first two consist of
orations delivered in the university or academy of Berlin, or on
public occasions. The third, fourth, fifth and sixth contain his
contributions to the _Transactions of the Berlin Academy_, and the
seventh contains his critiques. Bockh's lectures, delivered from
1809-1865, were published by Bratuschek under the title of
_Encyclopadie und Methodologie der philologischen Wissenschaften_ (2nd
ed, Klussmann, 1886). His philological and scientific theories are set
forth in Elze, _Uber Philologie als System_ (1845), and Reichhardt,
_Die Gliederung der Philologie entwickelt_ (1846). His correspondence
with Ottfried Muller appeared at Leipzig in 1883. See Sachse,
_Erinnerungen an August Bockh_ (1868); Stark, in the _Verhandlungen
der Wurzburger Philologensammlung_ (1868); Max Hoffmann, _August
Bockh_ (1901); and S. Reiter, in _Neue Jahrbucher fur das klassische
Altertum_ (1902), p. 436.

BOCKLIN, ARNOLD (1827-1901), Swiss painter, was born at Basel on the 16th of October 1827. His father, Christian Frederick Bocklin (b. 1802), was descended from an old family of Schaffhausen, and engaged in the silk trade. His mother, Ursula Lippe, was a native of the same city. In 1846 he began his studies at the Dusseldorf academy under Schirmer, who recognized in him a student of exceptional promise, and sent him to Antwerp and Brussels, where he copied the works of Flemish and Dutch masters. Bocklin then went to Paris, worked at the Louvre, and painted several landscapes; his "Landscape and Ruin" reveals at the same time a strong feeling for nature and a dramatic conception of scenery. After serving his time in the army he set out for Rome in March 1850, and the sight of the Eternal City was a fresh stimulus to his mind. So, too, was the influence of Italian nature and that of the dead pagan world. At Rome he married (June 20, 1853) Angela Rosa Lorenza Pascucci. In 1856 he returned to Munich, and remained there four years. He then exhibited the "Great Park," one of his earliest works, in which he treated ancient mythology with the stamp of individuality, which was the basis of his reputation. Of this period, too, are his "Nymph and Satyr," "Heroic Landscape" (Diana Hunting), both of 1858, and "Sappho" (1859). These works, which were much discussed, together with Lenbach's recommendation, gained him his appointment as professor at the Weimar academy. He held the office for two years, painting the "Venus and Love," a "Portrait of Lenbach," and a "Saint Catherine." He was again at Rome from 1862 to 1866, and there gave his fancy and his taste for violent colour free play in his "Portrait of Mme Bocklin," now in the Basel gallery, in "An Anchorite in the Wilderness" (1863); a "Roman Tavern," and "Villa on the Sea-shore" (1864); this last, one of his best pictures. He returned to Basel in 1866 to finish his frescoes in the gallery, and to paint, besides several portraits, "The Magdalene with Christ" (1868); "Anacreon's Muse" (1869); and "A Castle and Warriors" (1871). His "Portrait of Myself," with Death playing a violin (1873), was painted after his return again to Munich, where he exhibited his famous "Battle of the Centaurs" (in the Basel gallery); "Landscape with Moorish Horsemen" (in the Lucerne gallery); and "A Farm" (1875). From 1876 to 1885 Bocklin was working at Florence, and painted a "Pieta," "Ulysses and Calypso," "Prometheus," and the "Sacred Grove." From 1886 to 1892 he settled at Zurich. Of this period are the "Naiads at Play," "A Sea Idyll," and "War." After 1892 Bocklin resided at San Domenico, near Florence. An exhibition of his collected works was held at Basel from the 20th of September to the 24th of October 1897. He died on the 16th of January 1901.

His life has been written by Henri Mendelssohn. See also F. Hermann,
_Gazette des Beaux Arts_ (Paris, 1893); Max Lehrs, _Arnold Bocklin,
Ein Leitfaden zum Verstandniss seiner Kunst_ (Munich, 1897); W.
Ritter, _Arnold Bocklin_ (Gand, 1895); _Katalog der Bocklin Jubilaums
Ausstellung_ (Basel, 1897). (H. Fr.)

BOCLAND, BOCKLAND or BOOKLAND (from A.S. _boc_, book), an original mode of tenure of land, also called charter-land or deed-land. Bocland was folk-land granted to individuals in private ownership by a document (charter or book) in writing, with the signatures of the king and witenagemot; at first it was rarely, if ever, held by laymen, except for religious purposes. Bocland to a certain extent resembled full ownership in the modern sense, in that the owner could grant it in his lifetime, in the same manner as he had received it, by _boc_ or book, and also dispose of it by will. (See also FOLKLAND.)

BOCSKAY, STEPHEN [ISTVAN] (1557-1606), prince of Transylvania, the most eminent member of the ancient Bocskay family, son of Gyorgy Bocskay and Krisztina Sulyok, was born at Kolozsvar, Hungary. As the chief councillor of Prince Zsigmond Bathory, he advised his sovereign to contract an alliance with the emperor instead of holding to the Turk, and rendered important diplomatic services on frequent missions to Prague and Vienna. The enmity towards him of the later Bathory princes of Transylvania, who confiscated his estates, drove him to seek protection at the imperial court (1599); but the attempts of the emperor Rudolph II. to deprive Hungary of her constitution and the Protestants of their religious liberties speedily alienated Bocskay, especially after the terrible outrages inflicted on the Transylvanians by the imperial generals Basta and Belgiojoso from 1602 to 1604. Bocskay, to save the independence of Transylvania, assisted the Turks; and in 1605, as a reward for his part in driving Basta out of Transylvania, the Hungarian diet, assembled at Modgyes, elected him prince (1605), on which occasion the Ottoman sultan sent a special embassy to congratulate him and a splendid jewelled crown made in Persia. Bocskay refused the royal dignity, but made skilful use of the Turkish alliance. To save the Austrian provinces of Hungary, the archduke Matthias, setting aside his semi-lunatic imperial brother Rudolph, thereupon entered into negotiations with Bocskay, and ultimately the peace of Vienna was concluded (June 23, 1606), which guaranteed all the constitutional and religious rights and privileges of the Hungarians both in Transylvania and imperial Hungary. Bocskay, at the same time, was acknowledged as prince of Transylvania by the Austrian court, and the right of the Transylvanians to elect their own independent princes in future was officially recognized. The fortress of Tokaj and the counties of Bereg, Szatmar and Ugocsa were at the same time ceded to Bocskay, with reversion to Austria if he should die childless. Simultaneously, at Zsitvatorok, a peace, confirmatory of the peace of Vienna, was concluded with the Turks. Bocskay survived this signal and unprecedented triumph only a few months. He is said to have been poisoned (December 29, 1606) by his chancellor, Mihaly Katay, who was hacked to bits by Bocskay's adherents in the market-place of Kassa.

See _Political Correspondence of Stephen Bocskay_ (Hung.), edited by
Karoly Szabo (Budapest, 1882); Jeno Thury, _Stephen Bocskay's
Rebellion_ (Hung.), Budapest, 1899. (R. N. B.)

BODE, JOHANN ELERT (1747-1826), German astronomer, was born at Hamburg on the 19th of January 1747. Devoted to astronomy from his earliest years, he eagerly observed the heavens at a garret window with a telescope made by himself, and at nineteen began his career with the publication of a short work on the solar eclipse of the 5th of August 1766. This was followed by an elementary treatise on astronomy entitled _Anleitung zur Kenntniss des gestirnten Himmels_ (1768, 10th ed. 1844), the success of which led to his being summoned to Berlin in 1772 for the purpose of computing ephemerides on an improved plan. There resulted the foundation by him, in 1774, of the well-known _Astronomisches Jahrbuch_, 51 yearly volumes of which he compiled and issued. He became director of the Berlin observatory in 1786, withdrew from official life in 1825, and died at Berlin on the 23rd of November 1826. His works were highly effective in diffusing throughout Germany a taste for astronomy. Besides those already mentioned he wrote:--_Sammlung astronomischer Tafeln_ (3 vols., 1776); _Erlauterung der Sternkunde_ (1776, 3rd ed. 1808); _Uranographia_ (1801), a collection of 20 star-maps accompanied by a catalogue of 17,240 stars and nebulae. In one of his numerous incidental essays he propounded, in 1776, a theory of the solar constitution similar to that developed in 1795 by Sir William Herschel. He gave currency, moreover, to the empirical rule known as "Bode's Law," which was actually announced by Johann Daniel Titius of Wittenberg in 1772. It is expressed by the statement that the proportionate distances of the several planets from the sun may be represented by adding 4 to each term of the series; 0, 3, 6, 12, 24, &c. The irregularity will be noticed of the first term, which should be 1-1/2 instead of 0. (See SOLAR SYSTEM.)

See J.F. Encke, _Berlin Abhandlungen_ (1827), p. xi.; H.C. Schumacher.
_Astr. Nach._ v. 255, 367 (1827); Poggendorff, _Biog. literarisches
Handworterbuch; Allgemeine deutsche Biographie_, iii. 1.

BODEL, JEHAN (died _c._ 1210), French _trouvere_, was born at Arras in the second half of the 12th century. Very little is known of his life, but in 1205 he was about to start for the crusade when he was attacked by leprosy. In a touching poem called _Le Conge_ (pr. by Meon in _Recueil de fabliaux et contes_, vol. i.), he bade farewell to his friends and patrons, and begged for a nomination to a leper hospital. He wrote _Le Jeu de Saint Nicolas_, one of the earliest miracle plays preserved in French (printed in Monmerque and Michel's _Theatre francais du moyen age_, 1839, and for the _Soc. des bibliophiles francais_, 1831); the _Chanson des Saisnes_ (ed. F. Michel 1839), four _pastourelles_ (printed in K. Bartsch's _Altfranz. Romanzen und Pastourellen_, Leipzig, 1870); and probably, the eight _fabliaux_ attributed to an unknown Jean Bedel. The legend of Saint Nicholas had already formed the subject of the Latin _Ludus Sancti Nicholai_ of Hilarius. Bodel placed the scene partly on a field of battle in Africa, where the crusaders perish in a hopeless struggle, and partly in a tavern. The piece, loosely connected by the miracle of Saint Nicholas narrated in the prologue, ends with a wholesale conversion of the African king and his subjects. The dialogue in the tavern scenes is written in thieves' slang, and is very obscure. The _Chanson des Saisnes_, Bodel's authorship of which has been called in question, is a _chanson de geste_ belonging to the period of decadence, and is really a _roman d'aventures_ based on earlier legends belonging to the Charlemagne cycle. It relates the wars of Charlemagne against the Saxons under Guiteclin de Sassoigne (Witikind or Widukind), with the second revolt of the Saxons and their final submission and conversion. Jehan Bodel makes no allusion to Ogier the Dane and many other personages of the Charlemagne cycle, but he mentions the defeat of Roland at Roncevaux. The romance is based on historical fact, but is overlaid with romantic detail. It really embraces three distinct legends--those of the wars against the Saxons, of Charlemagne's rebellious barons, and of Baudouim and Sebille. The earlier French poems on the subject are lost, but the substance of them is preserved in the Scandinavian versions of the Charlemagne cycle (supposed to have been derived from English sources) known as the _Karlamagnussaga_ (ed. Unger, Christiania, 1860) and _Keiser Karl Magnus Kronike_ (Romantisk Digtnung, ed. C.J. Brandt, Copenhagen, 1877).

See also the article on Jehan Bodel by Paulin Paris in _Hist. litt, de
la France_, xx. pp. 605-638; Gaston Paris, _Histoire poetique de
Charlemagne_ (1865); Leon Gautier, _Les Epopees francaises_ (revised
edition, vol. iii. pp. 650-684), where there is a full analysis of the
_Chanson des Saisnes_ and a bibliography; H. Meyer, in _Ausgaben und
Abhandlungen aus ... der romanischen Philologie_ (Marburg, 1883), pp.
1-76, where its relation to the rest of the Charlemagne cycle is
discussed.

BODENBACH (Czech _Podmokly_), a town of Bohemia, Austria, 83 m. N.N.E. of Prague by rail. Pop. (1900) 10,782, almost exclusively German. It is situated on the left bank of the Elbe opposite Tetschen, and is an important railway junction, containing also an Austrian and a Saxon custom-house. Bodenbach, which in the middle of the 19th century had only a few hundred inhabitants, has become a very important industrial centre. Its principal manufactures include cotton and woollen goods, earthenware and crockery, chemicals, chicory, chocolate, sweetmeats and preserves, and beer. It has also a very active transit trade.

BODENSTEDT, FRIEDRICH MARTIN VON (1819-1892), German author, was born at Peine, in Hanover, on the 22nd of April 1819. He studied in Gottingen, Munich and Berlin. His career was determined by his engagement in 1841 as tutor in the family of Prince Gallitzin at Moscow, where he gained a thorough knowledge of Russian. This led to his appointment in 1844 as the head of a public school at Tiflis, in Transcaucasia. He took the opportunity of his proximity to Persia to study Persian literature, and in 1851 published a volume of original poetry in oriental guise under the fanciful title, _Die Lieder des Mirza Schaffy_ (English trans. by E. d'Esterre, 1880). The success of this work can only be compared with that of Edward FitzGerald's _Omar Khayyam_, produced in somewhat similar circumstances, but differed from it in being immediate. It has gone through 160 editions in Germany, and has been translated into almost all literary languages. Nor is this celebrity undeserved, for although Bodenstedt does not attain the poetical elevation of FitzGerald, his view of life is wider, more cheerful and more sane, while the execution is a model of grace. On his return from the East, Bodenstedt engaged for a while in journalism, married the daughter of a Hessian officer (Matilde, the _Edlitam_ of his poems), and was in 1854 appointed professor of Slavonic at Munich. The rich stores of knowledge which Bodenstedt brought back from the East were turned to account in two important books, _Die Volker des Kaukasus und ihre Freiheits-Kampfe gegen die Russen_ (1848), and _Tausend und ein Tag im Orient_ (1850). For some time Bodenstedt continued to devote himself to Slavonic subjects, producing translations of Pushkin, Lermontov, Turgweniev, and of the poets of the Ukraines, and writing a tragedy on the false Demetrius, and an epic, _Ada die Lesghierin_, on a Circassian theme. Finding, probably, this vein exhausted, he exchanged his professorship in 1858 for one of Early English literature, and published (1858-1860) a valuable work on the English dramatists contemporary with Shakespeare, with copious translations. In 1862 he produced a standard translation of Shakespeare's sonnets, and between 1866 and 1872 published a complete version of the plays, with the help of many coadjutors. In 1867 he undertook the direction of the court theatre at Meiningen, and was ennobled by the duke. After 1873 he lived successively at Altona, Berlin and Wiesbaden, where he died on the 19th of April 1892. His later works consist of an autobiography (1888), successful translations from Hafiz and Omar Khayyam, and lyrics and dramas which added little to his reputation.

An edition of his collected works in 12 vols. was published at Berlin
(1866-1869), and his _Erzahlungen und Romane_ at Jena (1871-1872). For
further biographical details, see Bodenstedt's _Erinnerungen aus
meinem Leben_ (2 vols., Berlin, 1888-1890); and G. Schenck, _Friedrich
von Bodenstedt. Ein Dichterleben in seinen Briefen_ (Berlin, 1893).

BODHI VAMSA, a prose poem in elaborate Sanskritized Pali, composed by Upatissa in the reign of Mahinda IV. of Ceylon about A.D. 980. It is an adaptation of a previously existing work in Sinhalese on the same subject, and describes the bringing of a branch of the celebrated Bo or Bodhi tree (i.e. Wisdom Tree, under which the Buddha had attained wisdom) to Ceylon in the 3rd century B.C. The Bodhi Vamsa quotes verses from the Mahavamsa, but draws a great deal of its material from other sources; and it has occasionally preserved details of the older tradition not found in any other sources known to us.

Edition in Pali for the Pali Text Society by S. Arthur Strong (London,
1891).

BODICHON, BARBARA LEIGH SMITH (1827-1891), English educationalist, was born at Watlington, Norfolk, on the 8th of April 1827, the daughter of Benjamin Smith (1783-1860), long M.P. for Norwich. She early showed a force of character and catholicity of sympathy that later won her a prominent place among philanthropists and social workers. In 1857 she married an eminent French physician, Dr Eugene Bodichon, and, although wintering many years in Algiers, continued to lead the movements she had initiated in behalf of Englishwomen. In 1869 she published her _Brief Summary of the Laws of England concerning Women_, which had a useful effect in helping forward the passage of the Married Women's Property Act. In 1866, co-operating with Miss Emily Davies, she matured a scheme for the extension of university education to women, and the first small experiment at Hitchin developed into Girton College, to which Mme Bodichon gave liberally of her time and money. With all her public interests she found time for society and her favourite art of painting. She studied under William H. Hunt, and her water-colours, exhibited at the Salon, the Academy and elsewhere, showed great originality and talent, and were admired by Corot and Daubigny. Her London salon included many of the literary and artistic celebrities of her day; she was George Eliot's most intimate friend, and, according to her, the first to recognize the authorship of _Adam Bede_. Her personal appearance is said to be described in that of Romola. Mme Bodichon died at Robertsbridge, Sussex, on the 11th of June 1891.

BODIN, JEAN (1530-1596), French political philosopher, was born at Angers in 1530. Having studied law at Toulouse and lectured there on jurisprudence, he settled in Paris as an advocate, but soon applied himself to literature. In 1555 he published his first work, a translation of Oppian's _Cynegeticon_ into Latin verse, with a commentary. The celebrated scholar, Turnebus, complained that some of his emendations had been appropriated without acknowledgment. In 1588, in refutation of the views of the seigneur de Malestroit, comptroller of the mint, who maintained that there had been no rise of prices in France during the three preceding centuries, he published his _Responsio ad Paradoxa Malestretti_ (_Reponse aux paradoxes de M. Malestroit_), which the first time explained in a nearly satisfactory manner the revolution of prices which took place in the 16th century. Bodin showed a more rational appreciation than many of his contemporaries of the causes of this revolution, and the relation of the variations in money to the market values of wares in general as well as to the wages of labour. He saw that the amount of money in circulation did not constitute the wealth of the community, and that the prohibition of the export of the precious metals was rendered inoperative by the necessities of trade. This tract, the _Discours sur les causes de l'exterme cherte qui est aujourdhuy en France_ (1574), and the disquisition on public revenues in the sixth book of the _Republique_, entitle Bodin to a distinguished position among the earlier economists.

His learning, genial disposition, and conversational powers won him the favor of Henry III. and of his brother, the duc d'Alencon; and he was appointed king's attorney at Laon in 1576. In this year he married, performed his most brilliant service to his country, and completed his greatest literary work. Elected by the _tiers etat_ of Vermandois to represent it in the states-general of Blois, he contended with skill and boldness in extremely difficult circumstances for freedom of conscience, justice and peace. The nobility and clergy favoured the League, and urged the king to force his subjects to profess the Catholic religion. When Bodin found he could not prevent this resolution being carried, he contrived to get inserted in the petition drawn up by the states the clause "without war," which practically rendered nugatory all its other clauses. While he thus resisted the clergy and nobility he successfully opposed the demand of the king to be allowed to alienate the public lands and royal demesnes, although the chief deputies had been won over to assent. This lost him the favour of the king, who wanted money on any terms. In 1581 he acted as secretary to the duc d'Alencon when that prince came over to England to seek the hand of Queen Elizabeth. Here he had the pleasure of finding that the _Republique_ was studied at London and Cambridge, although in a barbarous Latin translation. This determined him to translate his work into Latin himself (1586). The latter part of Bodin's life was spent at Laon, which he is said to have persuaded to declare for the League in 1589, and for Henry IV. five years afterwards. He died of the plague in 1596, and was buried in the church of the Carmelites.

With all his breadth and liberality of mind Bodin was a credulous believer in witchcraft, the virtues of numbers and the power of the stars, and in 1580 he published the _Demonomanie des sorciers_, a work which shows that he was not exempt from the prejudices of the age. Himself regarded by most of his contemporaries as a sceptic, and by some as an atheist, he denounced all who dared to disbelieve in sorcery, and urged the burning of witches and wizards. It might, perhaps, have gone hard with him if his counsel had been strictly followed, as he confessed to have had from his thirty-seventh year a friendly demon, who, if properly invoked, touched his right ear when he purposed doing what was wrong, and his left when he meditated doing good.

His chief work, the _Six livres de la Republique_ (Paris, 1576), which passed through several editions in his lifetime, that of 1583 having as an appendix _L'Apologie de Rene Herpin_ (Bodin himself), was the first modern attempt to construct an elaborate system of political science. It is perhaps the most important work of its kind between Aristotle and modern writers. Though he was much indebted to Aristotle he used the material to advantage, adding much from his own experience and historical knowledge. In harmony with the conditions of his age, he approved of absolute governments, though at the same time they must, he thought, be controlled by constitutional laws. He entered into an elaborate defence of individual property against Plato and More, rather perhaps because the scheme of his work required the treatment of that theme than because it was practically urgent in his day, when the excesses of the Anabaptists had produced a strong feeling against communistic doctrines. He was under the general influence of the mercantilist views, and approved of energetic governmental interference in industrial matters, of high taxes on foreign manufactures and low duties on raw materials and articles of food, and attached great importance to a dense population. But he was not a blind follower of the system; he wished for unlimited freedom of trade in many cases; and he was in advance of his more eminent contemporary Montaigne in perceiving that the gain of one nation is not necessarily the loss of another. To the public finances, which he called "the sinews of the state," he devoted much attention, and insisted on the duties of the government in respect to the right adjustment of taxation. In general he deserves the praise of steadily keeping in view the higher aims and interests of society in connexion with the regulation and development of its material life.

Among his other works are _Oratio de instituenda in republica juventate_ (1559); _Methodus ad facilem historiarum cognitionem_ (1566); _Universale Naturae Theatrum_ (1596, French trans. by Fougerolles, 1597), and the _Colloquium Heptaplomeres de abditis rerum sublimium arcanis_, written in 1588, published first by Guhrauer (1841), and in a complete form by L. Noack (1857). The last is a philosophy of naturalism in the form of a conversation between seven learned men--a Jew, a Mahommedan, a Lutheran, a Zwinglian, a Roman Catholic, an Epicurean and a Theist. The conclusion to which they are represented as coming is that they will live together in charity and toleration, and cease from further disputation as to religion. It is curious that Leibnitz, who originally regarded the _Colloquium_ as the work of a professed enemy of Christianity, subsequently described it as a most valuable production (cf. M. Carriere, _Weltanschauung_, p. 317).

See H. Baudrillart, _J. Bodin et son temps_ (Paris, 1853); Ad. Franck,
_Reformateurs et publicistes de l'Europe_ (Paris, 1864); N.
Planchenault, _Etudes sur Jean Bodin_ (Angers, 1858); E. de
Barthelemy, _Etude sur J. Bodin_ (Paris, 1876); for the political
philosophy of Bodin, see P. Janet, _Hist. de la science polit._ (3rd
ed., Paris, 1887); Hancke, _B. Studien uber d. Begriff d.
Souveranitat_ (Breslau, 1894), A. Bardoux. _Les Legistes et leur
influence sur la soc. francaise_; Fournol, _Bodin predecesseur de
Montesquieu_ (Paris, 1896); for his political economy, J.K. Ingram,
_Hist. of Pol. Econ._ (London, 1888); for his ethical teaching, A.
Desjardins, _Les Moralistes francais du seizieme siecle_, ch. v.; and
for his historical views, R. Flint's _Philosophy of History in Europe_
(ed. 1893), pp. 190 foll.

BODKIN (Early Eng. _boydekin_, a dagger, a word of unknown origin, possibly connected with the Gaelic _biodag_, a short sword), a small, needle-like instrument of steel or bone with a flattened knob at one end, used in needlework. It has one or more slits or eyes, through which cord, tape or ribbon can be passed, for threading through a hem or series of loops. The word is also used of a small piercing instrument for making holes in cloth, &c.

BODLE or BODDLE (said to be from Bothwell, the name of a mint-master), a Scottish copper coin worth about one-sixth of an English penny, first issued under Charles II. It survives in the phrase "not to care a bodle."