Chapter V: Part 5
About half a mile to the west of Boroughbridge there are three upright
stones called the Devil's Arrows, which are of uncertain origin but
probably of the Celtic period. The manor of Boroughbridge, then called
Burc, was held by Edward the Confessor and passed to William the
Conqueror, but suffered so much from the ravages of his soldiers that
by 1086 it had decreased in value from L10 to 55 s. When the site of
the Great North Road was altered, towards the end of the 11th century,
a bridge was built across the Ure, about half a mile above the Roman
bridge at Aldborough, and called Burgh bridge or Ponteburgem. This
caused a village to spring up, and it afterwards increased so much as
to become a market town. In 1229 Boroughbridge, as part of the manor
of Aldborough, was granted to Hubert de Burgh, but was forfeited a few
years later by his son who fought against the king at Evesham. It then
remained a royal manor until Charles I. granted it to several citizens
of London, from whom it passed through numerous hands to the present
owner. The history of Boroughbridge during the early 14th century
centres round the war with Scotland, and culminates with the battle
fought there in 1321. When in 1317 the Scots invaded England, they
penetrated as far south as Boroughbridge and burnt the town.
Boroughbridge was evidently a borough by prescription, and as such was
called upon to return two members to parliament in 1299. It was not
represented again until 1553, when the privilege was revived. The town
was finally disfranchised in 1832. In 1504 the bailiff and inhabitants
of Boroughbridge received a grant of two fairs, and Charles II. in
1670 created three new fairs in the borough, on the 12th of June, the
5th of August and the 12th of October, and leased them to Francis
Calvert and Thomas Wilkinson for ninety-nine years.
BOROUGH ENGLISH, a custom prevailing in certain ancient English boroughs, and in districts attached to them (where the lands are held in socage), and also in certain copyhold manors (chiefly in Surrey, Middlesex, Suffolk and Sussex), by which in general lands descend to the youngest son, to the exclusion of all the other children, of the person dying seised and intestate. Descent to the youngest brother to the exclusion of all other collaterals, where there is no issue, is sometimes included in the general definition, but this is really a special custom to be proved from the court-rolls of the manor and from local reputation--a custom which is sometimes extended to the youngest sister, uncle, aunt. Generally, however, Borough English, apart from specialties, may be said to differ from gavelkind in not including collaterals. It is often found in connexion with the distinct custom that the widow shall take as dower the whole and not merely one-third of her husband's lands.
The origin of the custom of Borough English has been much disputed. Though frequently claimed to be of Saxon origin, there is no direct evidence of such being the case. The first mention of the custom in England occurs in Glanvil, without, however, any explanation as to its origin. Littleton's explanation, which is the more usually accepted, is that custom casts the inheritance upon the youngest, because after the death of his parents he is least able to support himself, and more likely to be left destitute of any other support. Blackstone derived Borough English from the usages of pastoral life, the elder sons migrating and the youngest remaining to look after the household. C.I. Elton claims it to be a survival of pre-Aryan times. It was referred to by the Normans as "the custom of the English towns." In the Yearbook of 22 Edward IV. fol. 32b it is described as the custom of Nottingham, which is made clear by the report of a trial in the first year of Edward III. where it was found that in Nottingham there were two districts, the one the _Burgh-Frauncoyes_, the other the _Burgh-Engloyes_, where descent was to the youngest son, from which circumstance the custom has derived its name. On the European continent the custom of junior-rights is not unknown, more particularly in Germany, and it has by some been ascribed to the _jus primae noctis_ (q.v.). It is also said to exist amongst the Mongols.
See also GAVELKIND; INHERITANCE; PRIMOGENITURE; TENURE; Blackstone's
_Commentaries_; Coke's _Institutes_; Comyn's _Digest of the Law_;
Elton's _Origin of English History_; Pollock and Maitland, _History of
English Law_.
BORROMEAN ISLANDS, a group of four islands on the W. side of Lago Maggiore off Baveno and Stresa. The southernmost, the Isola Bella, is famous for its chateau and terraced gardens, constructed by Count Vitaliano Borromeo (d. 1690). To the N.W. is the Isola dei Pescatori, containing a fishing village; and to the N.E. of this the Isola Madre, the largest of the group, with a chateau and garden; and to the N. again, off Pallanza, is the little Isola S. Giovanni.
BORROMEO, CARLO (1538-1584), saint and cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church, son of Ghiberto Borromeo, count of Arona, and Margarita de' Medici, was born at the castle of Arona on Lago Maggiore on the 2nd of October 1538. When he was about twelve years old, Giulio Cesare Borromeo resigned to him an abbacy, the revenue of which he applied wholly in charity to the poor. He studied the civil and canon law at Pavia. In 1554 his father died, and, although he had an elder brother, Count Federigo, he was requested by the family to take the management of their domestic affairs. After a time, however, he resumed his studies, and in 1559 he took his doctor's degree. In 1560 his uncle, Cardinal Angelo de' Medici, was raised to the pontificate as Pius IV. Borromeo was made prothonotary, entrusted with both the public and the privy seal of the ecclesiastical state, and created cardinal with the administration of Romagna and the March of Ancona, and the supervision of the Franciscans, the Carmelites and the knights of Malta. He was thus at the age of twenty-two practically the leading statesman of the papal court. Soon after he was raised to the archbishopric of Milan. In compliance with the pope's desire, he lived in great splendour; yet his own temperance and humility were never brought into question. He established an academy of learned persons, and published their memoirs as the _Noctes Vaticanae_. About the same time he also founded and endowed a college at Pavia, which he dedicated to Justina, virgin and martyr. On the death of his elder brother Federigo, he was advised to quit the church and marry, that his family might not become extinct. He declined the proposal, however, and became henceforward still more fervent in exercises of piety, and more zealous for the welfare of the church. Owing to his influence over Pius IV., he was able to facilitate the final deliberations of the council of Trent, and he took a large share in the drawing up of the Tridentine catechism (_Catechismus Romanus_).
On the death of Pius IV. (1566), the skill and diligence of Borromeo contributed materially to suppressing the cabals of the conclave. Subsequently he devoted himself wholly to the reformation of his diocese, which had fallen into a most unsatisfactory condition owing to the prolonged absences of its previous archbishops. He made a series of pastoral visits, and restored decency and dignity to divine service. In conformity with the decrees of the council of Trent, he cleared the cathedral of its gorgeous tombs, rich ornaments, banners, arms, sparing not even the monuments of his own relatives. He divided the nave of the church into two compartments for the separation of the sexes. He extended his reforms to the collegiate churches (even to the fraternities of penitents and particularly that of St John the Baptist), and to the monasteries. The great abuses which had overrun the church at this time arose principally from the ignorance of the clergy. Borromeo, therefore, established seminaries, colleges and communities for the education of candidates for holy orders. The most remarkable, perhaps, of his foundations was the fraternity of the Oblates, a society whose members were pledged to give aid to the church when and where it might be required. He further paved the way for the "Golden" or "Borromean" league formed in 1586 by the Swiss Catholic cantons of Switzerland to expel heretics if necessary by armed force.
In 1576, when Milan was visited by the plague, he went about giving directions for accommodating the sick and burying the dead, avoiding no danger and sparing no expense. He visited all the neighbouring parishes where the contagion raged, distributing money, providing accommodation for the sick, and punishing those, especially the clergy, who were remiss in discharging their duties. He met with much opposition to his reforms. The governor of the province, and many of the senators, apprehensive that the cardinal's ordinances and proceedings would encroach upon the civil jurisdiction, addressed remonstrances and complaints to the courts of Rome and Madrid. But Borromeo had more formidable difficulties to struggle with, in the inveterate opposition of several religious orders, particularly that of the Humiliati (Brothers of Humility). Some members of that society formed a conspiracy against his life, and a shot was fired at him in the archiepiscopal chapel under circumstances which led to the belief that his escape was miraculous. The number of his enemies was increased by his successful attack on his Jesuit confessor Ribera, who with other members of the college of Milan was found to be guilty of unnatural offences. His manifold labours and austerities appear to have shortened his life. He was seized with an intermittent fever, and died at Milan on the 4th of November 1584. He was canonized in 1610, and his feast is celebrated on the 4th of November.
Besides the _Nodes Vaticanae_, to which he appears to have contributed, the only literary relics of this intrepid and zealous reformer are some homilies, discourses and sermons, with a collection of letters. His sermons, which have little literary merit, were published by J.A. Sax (5 vols., Milan, 1747-1748), and have been translated into many languages. The record of his episcopate is to be found in the two volumes of the _Acta Ecclesiae Mediolanensis_ (Milan, 1599). Contrary to his last wishes a memorial was erected to him in Milan cathedral, as well as a statue 70 ft. high on the hill above Arona, by his admirers who regarded him as the leader of a Counter-Reformation.
His nephew, Federigo Borromeo (1564-1631), was archbishop of Milan from 1595, and in 1609 founded the Ambrosian library in that city.
See G.P. Giussano, _Vita di S. Carlo Borromeo_ (1610, Eng. ed. by H.E.
Manning, London, 1884); A. Sala, _Documenti circa la vita e la gesta
di Borromeo_ (4 vols., Milan, 1857-1859); Chanoine Silvain, _Histoire
de St Charles Borromee_ (Milan, 1884); and A. Cantono, _Un grande
riformatore del secolo XVI_ (Florence, 1904); article "Borromaus" in
Herzog-Hauck, _Realencyklopadie_ (Leipzig, 1897).
BORROMINI, FRANCESCO (1599-1667), Italian architect, was born at Bissone in 1599. He was the chief representative of the style known in architecture as "baroque," which marked a fearless and often reckless departure from the traditional laws of the Renaissance, and often obtained originality only at the cost of beauty or wisdom. One of the main opponents of this style was Barocchio (q.v.). Borromini was much employed in the middle of the 17th century at Rome. His principal works are the church of St Agnese in Piazza Navona, the church of La Sapienza in Rome, the church of San Carlino alle Fontane, the church of the Collegio di Propaganda, and the restoration of San Giovanni in Laterano. He died by his own hand at Rome in 1667. Engravings of his chief compositions are to be found in the posthumous work, _Francisci Borromini opus Architectonicum_ (1727).
BORROW, GEORGE HENRY (1803-1881), English traveller, linguist and author, was born at East Dereham, Norfolk, on the 5th of July 1803, of a middle-class Cornish family. His father was a recruiting officer, and his mother a Norfolk lady of French extraction. From 1816 to 1818 Borrow attended, with no very great profit, the grammar school at Norwich. After leaving school he was articled to a firm of Norwich solicitors, where he neglected the law, but gave a great deal of desultory attention to languages. He was encouraged in these studies by William Taylor, the friend of Southey. On the death of his father, in 1824 he went to London to seek his fortune as a literary adventurer. In 1826 he published a volume of _Romantic Ballads_ translated from the Danish. Engaged by Sir Richard Phillips, the publisher, as a hack-writer at starvation wages, his experiences in London were bitter indeed. His struggles at last became so dire that if he would escape Chatterton's doom, he must leave London and either return to Norwich and share his mother's narrow income, or turn to account in some way the magnificent physical strength with which nature had endowed him. Determining on the latter of these courses, he left London on tramp. As he stood considerably more than 6 ft. in height, was a fairly trained athlete, and had a countenance of extraordinary impressiveness, if not of commanding beauty--Greek in type with a dash of the Hebrew--we may assume that there had never before appeared on the English high-roads so majestic-looking a tramp as he who, on an afternoon in May, left his squalid lodging with bundle and stick to begin life on the roads. Shaping his course to the south-west, he soon found himself on Salisbury Plain. And then his extraordinary adventures began. After a while he became a travelling hedge-smith, and it was while pursuing this avocation that he made the acquaintance of the splendid road-girl, born at Long Melford workhouse, whom he has immortalized under the name of Isopel Berners. He was now brought much into contact with the gipsies, and this fact gave him the most important subject-matter for his writings. For picturesque as is Borrow's style, it is this subject-matter of his, the Romany world of Great Britain, which--if his pictures of that world are true--will keep his writings alive. Now that the better class of gipsies are migrating so rapidly to America that scarcely any are left in England, Borrow's pictures of them are challenged as being too idealistic. It is unfortunate that no one who knew Borrow, and the gryengroes or horse-dealers with whom he associated, and whom he depicted, has ever written about him and them. Full of "documents" as is Dr Knapp's painstaking biography, it cannot be said to give a vital picture of Borrow and his surroundings during this most interesting period of his life. It is this same peculiar class of gipsies (the gryengroes) with whom the present writer was brought into contact, and he can only refer, in justification of Borrow's descriptions of them, to certain publications of his own, where the whole question is discussed at length, and where he has set out to prove that Borrow's pictures of the section of the English gipsies he knew are not idealized. But there is one great blemish in _all_ Borrow's dramatic scenes of gipsy life, wheresoever they may be laid. This was pointed out by the gentleman who "read" _Zincali_ for Mr Murray, the publisher:--
"The dialogues are amongst the best parts of the book; but in several
of them the tone of the speakers, of those especially who are in
humble life, is too correct and elevated, and therefore out of
character. This takes away from their effect. I think it would be very
advisable that Mr Borrow should go over them with reference to this
point, simplifying a few of the terms of expression and introducing a
few contractions--_don'ts, can'ts_, &c. This would improve them
greatly."
It is the same with his pictures of the English gipsies. The reader has only to compare the dialogues between gipsies given in that photographic study of Romany life, _In Gipsy Tents_, by F.H. Groome, with the dialogues in _Lavengro_ and _The Romany Rye_, to see how the illusion in Borrow's narrative is disturbed by the uncolloquial locutions of the speakers. It is true, no doubt, that all Romanies, especially perhaps the English and Hungarian, have a passion for the use of high-sounding words, and the present writer has shown this in his remarks upon the Czigany Czindol, who is said to have taught the Czigany language to the archduke Joseph, often called the "Gipsy Archduke." But after all allowance is made for this racial peculiarity, Borrow's presentation of it considerably weakens our belief in Mr and Mrs Petulengro, Ursula, and the rest, to find them using complex sentences and bookish words which, even among English people, are rarely heard in conversation. As to the deep impression that Borrow made upon his gipsy friends, that is partly explained by the singular nobility of his appearance, for the gipsies of all countries are extremely sensitive upon matters of this kind. The silvery whiteness of the thick crop of hair which Borrow retained to the last seemed to add in a remarkable way to the nobility of his hairless face, but also it gave to the face a kind of strange look "not a bit like a Gorgio's," to use the words of one of his gipsy friends. Moreover, the shy, defiant, stand-off way which Borrow assumed in the company of his social equals left him entirely when he was with the gipsies. The result of this was that these wanderers knew him better than did his own countrymen.
Seven years after the events recorded in _Lavengro_ and _The Romany Rye_ Borrow obtained the post of agent to the Bible Society, in which capacity he visited St Petersburg (1833-1835) (where he published _Targum_, a collection of translations), and Spain, Portugal and Morocco (1835-1839). From 1837 to 1839 he acted as correspondent to the _Morning Herald_. The result of these travels and adventures was the publication, in 1841, of _Zincali, or The Gypsies in Spain_, the original MS. of which, in the hands of the present writer, shows how careful was Borrow's method of work. In 1843 appeared _The Bible in Spain_, when suddenly Borrow became famous. Every page of the book glows with freshness, picturesqueness and vivacity. In 1840 he married Mary Clarke, the widow of a naval officer, and permanently settled at Oulton Broad, near Lowestoft, with her and her daughter. Here he began to write again. Very likely Borrow would never have told the world about his vagabond life in England as a hedge-smith had not _The Bible in Spain_ made him famous as a wanderer. _Lavengro_ appeared in 1851 with a success which, compared with that of _The Bible in Spain_, was only partial. He was much chagrined at this, and although _Lavengro_ broke off in the midst of a scene in the Dingle, and only broke off there because the three volumes would hold no more, it was not until 1857 that he published the sequel, _The Romany Rye_. In 1844 he travelled in south-eastern Europe, and in 1854 he made a tour with his step-daughter in Wales. This tour he described in _Wild Wales_, published in 1862. In 1874 he brought out a volume of ill-digested material upon the Romany tongue, _Romano Lavo-lil, or Word-book of the Gypsy Language_, a book which has been exhaustively analysed and criticized by Mr John Sampson. In the summer of 1874 he left London, bade adieu to Mr Murray and a few friends, and returned to Oulton. On the 26th of July 1881 he was found dead in his house at Oulton, in his seventy-ninth year.
Borrow was indisputably a linguist of wide knowledge, though he was not a scholar in the strict sense. The variety of his attainments is shown by his translation of the Church of England _Homilies_ into Manchu, of the Gospel of St Luke into the Git dialect of the Gitanos, of _The Sleeping Bard_ from the Cambrian-British, and of _Bluebeard_ into Turkish. But it is not Borrow's linguistic accomplishments that have kept his name fresh, and will continue to keep it fresh for many a generation to come. It is his character, his unique character as expressed, or partially expressed, in his books. Among all the "remarkable individuals" (to use his favourite expression) who during the middle of the 19th century figured in the world of letters, Borrow was surely the most eccentric, the most whimsical, and in many ways the most extraordinary. There was scarcely a point in which he resembled any other writer of his time. With regard to _Lavengro_ and _The Romany Rye_, there has been very much discussion as to how much _Dichtung_ is mingled with the _Wahrheit_ in those fascinating books. Had it not been for the amazingly clumsy pieces of fiction which he threw into the narrative, few readers would have doubted the autobiographical nature of the two books. Such incidents as are here alluded to shed an air of unreality over the whole. It has been said by Dr Knapp that Borrow never created a character, and that to one who thoroughly knows the times and Borrow's writings the originals are easily recognizable. This is true, no doubt, as regards people whom he knew at Norwich, and indeed generally as regards those he knew before the period of his gipsy wanderings. It must not be supposed, however, that such a character as the man who "touched" to avert the evil chance is in any sense a portrait of an individual with whom he had been brought into contact. The character has so many of Borrow's own eccentricities that it might rather be called a portrait of himself. There was nothing that Borrow strove against with more energy than the curious impulse, which he seems to have shared with Dr Johnson, to touch the objects along his path in order to save himself from the evil chance. He never conquered the superstition. In walking through Richmond Park with the present writer he would step out of his way constantly to touch a tree, and he was offended if the friend he was with seemed to observe it. Many of the peculiarities of the man who taught himself Chinese in order to distract his mind from painful thoughts were also Borrow's own. (T. W.-D.)
BORSIPPA (_Barsip_ in the Babylonian and Assyrian inscriptions; _Borsif_ in the Talmud; mod. Birs or Birs-Nimrud), the Greek name of an ancient city about 15 m. S.W. of Babylon and 10 m. from Hillah, on the Nahr Hindieh, or Hindieh canal, formerly known as "the Euphrates of Borsippa," and even during the Arabic period called "the river of Birs." Borsippa was the sister city of Babylon, and is often called in the inscriptions Babylon II., also the "city without equal." Its patron god was Nebo or Nabu. Like Babylon Borsippa is not mentioned in the oldest inscriptions, but comes into importance first after Khammurabi had made Babylon the capital of the whole land, somewhere before 2000 B.C. He built or rebuilt the temple E-Zida at this place, dedicating it, however, to Marduk (Bel-Merodach). But although Khammurabi himself does not seem to have honoured Nebo (q.v.), subsequent kings recognized him as the deity of E-Zida and made him the son of Marduk (q.v.). Each new year his image was taken to visit his father, in Babylon, who in his turn gave him escort homeward, and his temple was second in wealth and importance only to E-Saggila, the temple of Marduk in Babylon. As with Babylon, so with Borsippa, the time of Nebuchadrezzar was the period of its greatest prosperity. In general Borsippa shared the fate of Babylon, falling into decay after the time of Alexander, and finally in the middle ages into ruins. The site of the ancient city is represented by two large ruin mounds. Of these the north-westerly, the lower of the two, but the larger in superficial area, is called Ibrahim Khalil, from a _ziara_, or shrine, of Abraham, the friend of God, which stands on its highest point. According to Arabic lore, based on Jewish legends, at this spot Nimrod sought to throw Abraham into a fiery furnace, from which he was saved by the grace of God. Excavations were first conducted here by the French Expedition Scientifique en Mesopotamie in 1852, with small result. In 1879 and 1880 Hormuzd Rassam conducted more extensive, although unsystematic, excavations in this mound, finding a considerable quantity of inscribed tablets and the like, now in the British Museum; but by far the greater part of this ruin still remains unexplored. The south-westerly mound, the Birs proper, is probably the most conspicuous and striking ruin in all Irak. On the top of a hill over 100 ft. high rises a pointed mass of vitrified brick split down the centre, over 40 ft. high, about which lie huge masses of vitrified brick, some as much as 15 ft. in diameter, and also single enamelled bricks, generally bearing an inscription of Nebuchadrezzar, twisted, curled and broken, apparently by great heat. Jewish and Arabic tradition makes this the Tower of Babel, which was supposed to have been destroyed by lightning. Excavations conducted here by Sir Henry Rawlinson in 1854 showed it to be the stage tower or _ziggurat_, called the "house of the seven divisions of heaven and earth," of E-Zida, the temple of Nebo. On a large platform rose seven solid terraces, each smaller than the one below it, the lowest being 272 ft. square and 26 ft. high. Each of these terraces was faced with bricks of a different colour. The approach to this _ziggurat_ was toward the north-east, and on this side lay also the principal rooms of the temple of which this was the tower. These rooms were partly excavated by Hormuzd Rassam in 1879-1880. In its final form this temple and tower were the work of Nebuchadrezzar, but from the clay cylinders found by Sir Henry Rawlinson in two of the corners of the tower it appears that he restored an incomplete _ziggurat_ of a former king, "which was long since fallen into decay." Some of the best authorities believe that it was this ambitious but incomplete and ruinous _ziggurat_, existing before the time of Nebuchadrezzar, which gave occasion to or afforded local attachment for the Biblical story of the Tower of Babel.
AUTHORITIES.--H.C. Rawlinson, _Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society_
(1860); J. Oppert, _Expedition scientifique en Mesopotamie_ (Paris,
1863); F. Delitzsch, _Wo lag das Paradies?_ (Leipzig, 1881); J.P.
Peters, _Nippur_ (New York and London, 1896); H. Rassam, _Asshur and
the Land of Nimrod_ (London and New York, 1897); M. Jastrow, _Religion
of Babylonia and Assyria_ (Boston, 1898); see also BABYLON, BABEL.
(J. P. Pe.)
BORT, or BOART, an inferior kind of diamond, unfit for cutting but useful as an abrasive agent. The typical bort occurs in small spherical masses, of greyish colour, rough or drusy on the surface, and showing on fracture a radiate crystalline structure. These masses, known in Brazil as bolas, are often called "shot bort" or "round bort." Much of the bort consists of irregular aggregates of imperfect crystals. In trade, the term bort is extended to all small and impure diamonds, and crystalline fragments of diamond, useless as gem-stones. A large proportion of the output of some of the South African mines consists of such material. This bort is crushed in steel mortars to form diamond powder, which is largely used in lapidaries' work.
BORY DE SAINT-VINCENT, JEAN BAPTISTE GEORGE MARIE (1780-1846), French naturalist, was born at Agen in 1780. He was sent as naturalist with Captain Nicholas Baudin's expedition to Australia in 1798, but left the vessel at Mauritius, and spent two years in exploring Reunion and other islands. Joining the army on his return, he was present at the battles of Ulm and Austerlitz, and in 1808 went to Spain with Marshal Soult. His attachment to the Napoleonic dynasty and dislike to the Bourbons were shown in various ways during 1815, and his name was consequently placed on the list of the proscribed; but after wandering in disguise from place to place he was allowed quietly to return to Paris in 1820. In 1829 he was placed at the head of a scientific expedition to the Morea, and in 1839 he had charge of the exploration of Algeria. He died on the 23rd of December 1846. He was editor of the _Dictionnaire classique d'histoire naturelle_, and among his separate productions were:--_Essais sur les Iles Fortunees_ (1802); _Voyage dans les Iles d'Afrique_ (1803); _Voyage souterrain, ou description du plateau de Saint-Pierre de Maestricht et de ses vastes cryptes_ (1821); _L'Homme, essai zoologique sur le genre humain_ (1827); _Resume de la geographie de la Peninsule_ (1838).
BORZHOM, a watering-place of Russian Transcaucasia, in the government of Tiflis, and 93 m. by rail W. of the city of Tiflis. Pop. (1897) 5800. It is situated at an altitude of 2750 ft. in the Borzhom gorge, a narrow rift in the Little Caucasus mountains, and on the Kura. Its warm climate, its two hot springs (71-1/2 deg.-82 deg. Fahr.) and its beautiful parks make it a favourite summer resort, and give it its popular name of "the pearl of Caucasus." The bottled mineral waters are very extensively exported.
BOS, LAMBERT (1670-1717), Dutch scholar and critic, was born at Workum in Friesland, where his father was headmaster of the school. He went to the university of Franeker (suppressed by Napoleon in 1811), and was appointed professor of Greek there in 1704; after an uneventful life he died at Franeker in 1717. His most famous work, _Ellipses Graecae_ (1702), was translated into English by John Seager (1830); and his _Antiquitates Graecae_ (1714) passed through several editions. He also published _Vetus Testamentum_, Ex Versione lxx. Interpretum (1709); notes on Thomas Magister (1698); _Exercitationes Philologicae_ (1700); _Animadversiones ad Scriptores quosdam Graecos_ (1715); and two small treatises on Accents and Greek Syntax.
BOSA, a seaport and episcopal see on the W. coast of Sardinia, in the province of Cagliari, 30 m. W. of Macomer by rail. Pop. (1901) 6846. The height above the town is crowned by a castle of the Malaspina family. The cathedral, founded in the 12th century, restored in the 15th, and rebuilt in 1806, is fine. There are some tanneries, and the fishing industry is important, but the coral production of Sicily has entirely destroyed that of Bosa since 1887. The district produces oil and wine. The present town of Bosa was founded in 1112 by the Malaspina, 1-1/2 m. from the site of the ancient town (Bosa or Calmedia), where a well-preserved church still exists. The old town is of Roman origin, but is only mentioned by Pliny and Ptolemy, and as a station on the coast-road in the Itineraries (_Corp. Inscr. Lat._ x. 7939 seq.). One of the inscriptions preserved in the old cathedral records the erection of four silver statues, of Antoninus Pius, his wife Faustina and their two sons.
BOSBOOM-TOUSSAINT, ANNA LOUISA GEERTRUIDA (1812-1886), Dutch novelist, was born at Alkmaar in north Holland on the 16th of September 1812. Her father, named Toussaint, a local chemist of Huguenot descent, gave her a fair education, and at an early period of her career she developed a taste for historical research, fostered, perhaps, by a forced indoor life, the result of weak health. In 1851 she married the Dutch painter, Johannes Bosboom (1817-1891), and thereafter was known as Mrs Bosboom-Toussaint. Her first romance, _Almagro_, appeared in 1837, followed by the _Graaf van Devonshire_ (_The Earl of Devonshire_) in 1838; the _Engelschen te Rome_ (_The English at Rome_) in 1840, and _Het Huis Lauernesse (The House of Lauernesse_) in 1841, an episode of the Reformation, translated into many European languages. These stories, mainly founded upon some of the most interesting epochs of Dutch history, betrayed a remarkable grasp of facts and situations, combined with an undoubted mastery over her mother tongue, though her style is sometimes involved, and not always faultless. Ten years (1840-1850) were mainly devoted to further studies, the result of which was revealed in 1851-1854, when her _Leycester in Nederland_ (3 vols.), _Vrouwen van het Leycestersche Tydperk (Women of Leicester's Epoch_, 3 vols.), and _Gideon Florensz_ (3 vols.) appeared, a series dealing with Robert Dudley's adventures in the Low Countries. After 1870 Mrs Bosboom-Toussaint abandoned historical romance for the modern society novel, but her _Delftsche Wonderdokter (The Necromancer of Delft_, 1871, 3 vols.) and _Majoor Frans_ (1875, 3 vols.) did not command the success of her earlier works. _Major Frank_ has been translated into English (1885). She died at the Hague on the 13th of April 1886. Her novels have been published there in a collected edition (1885-1888, 25 vols.).
BOSC, LOUIS AUGUSTIN GUILLAUME (1759-1828), French naturalist, was born at Paris on the 29th of January 1759. He was educated at the college of Dijon, where he showed a taste for botany, and he followed up his studies in Paris at the Jardin des Plantes, where he made the acquaintance of Mme M.J.P. Roland. At the age of eighteen he obtained a government appointment, and he rose to be one of the chief officials in the postal department. Under the ministry of J.M. Roland in 1792 he also held the post of superintendent of prisons, but the violent outbreaks of 1793 drove him from office, and compelled him to take refuge in flight. For some months he lay concealed at Sainte-Radegonde, in the forest of Montmorency, barely subsisting on roots and vegetables. He was enabled to return to Paris on the fall of Robespierre, and under the title _Appel a l'impartiale posterite par la citoyenne Roland_ published a manuscript Mme Roland had entrusted to him before her execution. Soon afterwards he set out for America, resolving to explore the natural riches of that country. The immense materials he gathered were never published in a complete form, but much went to enrich the works of B.G.E. de Lacepede, P.A. Latreille and others. After his return, on the establishment of the Directory, he was reinstated in his old office. Of this he was again deprived by the _coup d'etat_ of 1799, and for a time he was in great destitution; but by his copious contributions to scientific literature he contrived to support himself and to lay the foundations of a solid reputation. He was engaged on the new _Dictionnaire d'histoire naturelle_, and on the _Encyclopedie methodique_, he edited the _Dictionnaire raisonne et universel d'agriculture_, and was one of the editors of the _Annales de l'agriculture francaise_. He was made inspector of the gardens at Versailles, and of the public nurseries belonging to the ministry of the interior. The last years of his life were devoted to an elaborate work on the vine, for which he had amassed an immense quantity of materials, but his death at Paris on the 10th of July 1828 prevented its completion.
BOSCAN ALMOGAVER, JUAN (1490?-1542), Spanish poet, was born about the close of the 15th century. He was a Catalan of patrician birth, and, after some years of military service, became tutor to the duke of Alva. His poems were published in 1543 at Barcelona by his widow. They are divided into sections which mark the stages of Boscan's poetical evolution. The first book contains poems in the old Castilian metres, written in his youth, before 1526, in which year he became acquainted with the Venetian ambassador, Andrea Navagiero, who urged him to adopt Italian measures, and this advice gave a new turn to Boscan's activity. The remaining books contain a number of pieces in the Italian manner, the longest of these being _Hero y Leander_, a poem in blank verse, based on Musaeus. Boscan's best effort, the _Octava Rima_, is a skilful imitation of Petrarch and Bembo. Boscan also published in 1534 an admirable translation of Castiglione's _Il Cortegiano_. Italian measures had been introduced into Spanish literature by Santillana and Villalpando; it is Boscan's distinction to have naturalized these forms definitively, and to have founded a poetic school.
The best edition of his poems is that issued at Madrid in 1875 by W.J.
Knapp; for his indebtedness to earlier writers, see Francesco Flamini,
_Studi di storia literaria italiana e straniera_ (Livorno, 1895).
BOSCASTLE, a small seaport and watering-place in the Launceston parliamentary division of Cornwall, England, 5 m. N. of Camelford station on the London & South-Western railway. Pop. (civil parish of Forrabury, 1901) 329. The village rises steeply above a very narrow cove on the north coast, sheltered, but difficult of access, vessels having to be warped into it by means of hawsers. A mound on a hill above the harbour marks the site of a Norman castle. The parish church of St Symphorian, Forrabury, also stands high, overlooking the Atlantic from Willapark Point. The tower is without bells, and the tradition that a ship bearing a peal hither was wrecked within sight of the harbour, and that the lost bells may still be heard to toll beneath the waves, has been made famous by a ballad of the Cornish poet Robert Stephen Hawker, vicar of Moorwinstow. The coast scenery near Boscastle is severely beautiful, with abrupt cliffs fully exposed to the sea, and broken only by a few picturesque inlets such as Crackington Cove and Pentargan Cove. Inland are bare moors, diversified by narrow dales.
BOSCAWEN, EDWARD (1711-1761), British admiral, was born on the 19th of August 1711. He was the third son of Hugh, 1st Viscount Falmouth. He early entered the navy, and in 1739 distinguished himself at the taking of Porto Bello. At the siege of Cartagena, in March 1741, at the head of a party of seamen, he took a battery of fifteen 24-pounders, while exposed to the fire of another fort. On his return to England in the following year he married, and entered parliament as member for Truro. In 1744 he captured the French frigate "Medee," commanded by M. de Hocquart, the first ship taken in the war. In May 1747 he signalized himself in the engagement off Cape Finisterre, and was wounded in the shoulder with a musket-ball. Hocquart again became his prisoner, and the French ships, ten in number, were taken. On the 15th of July he was made rear-admiral and commander-in-chief of the expedition to the East Indies. On the 29th of July 1748 he arrived off Fort St David's, and soon after laid siege to Pondicherry; but the sickness of his men and the approach of the monsoons led to the raising of the siege. Soon afterwards he received news of the peace, and Madras was delivered up to him by the French. In April 1750 he arrived in England, and was the next year made one of the lords of the Admiralty, and chosen an elder brother of the Trinity House. In February 1755 he was appointed vice-admiral, and in April he intercepted the French squadron bound to North America, and took the "Alcide" and "Lys" of sixty-four guns each. Hocquart became his prisoner for the third time, and Boscawen returned to Spithead with his prizes and 1500 prisoners. For this exploit, he received the thanks of parliament. In 1758 he was appointed admiral of the blue and commander-in-chief of the expedition to Cape Breton, when, in conjunction with General Amherst, he took the fortress of Louisburg, and the island of Cape Breton--services for which he again received the thanks of the House of Commons. In 1759, being appointed to command in the Mediterranean, he pursued the French fleet, commanded by M. de la Clue, and after a sharp engagement in Lagos Bay took three large ships and burnt two, returning to Spithead with his prizes and 2000 prisoners. The victory defeated the proposed concentration of the French fleet in Brest to cover an invasion of England. In December 1760 he was appointed general of the marines, with a salary of L3000 per annum, and was also sworn a member of the privy council. He died at his seat near Guildford on the 10th of January 1761.
BOSCH (or Bos), JEROM (c. 1460-1518), the name generally given, from his birthplace Hertogenbosch, to Hieronymus van Aeken, the Dutch painter. He was probably a pupil of Albert Ouwater, and may be called the Breughel of the 15th century, for he devoted himself to the invention of bizarre types, _diableries_, and scenes of the kind generally associated with Breughel, whose art is to a great extent based on Bosch's. He was a satirist much in advance of his time, and one of the most original and ingenious artists of the 15th century. He exercised great influence on Lucas Cranach, who frequently copied his paintings. His works were much admired in Spain, especially by Philip II., at whose court Bosch painted for some time. One of his chief works is the "Last Judgment" at the Berlin gallery, which also owns a little "St Jerome in the Desert." "The Fall of the Rebellious Angels" and the "St Anthony" triptych are in the Brussels museum, and two important triptychs are at the Munich gallery. The Lippmann collection in Berlin contains an important "Adoration of the Magi," the Antwerp museum a "Passion," and a practically unknown painting from his brush is at the Naples museum.
BOSCOVICH, ROGER JOSEPH (1711?-1787), Italian mathematician and natural philosopher, one of the earliest of foreign _savants_ to adopt Newton's gravitation theory, was born at Ragusa in Dalmatia on the 18th of May 1711, according to the usual account, but ten years earlier according to Lalande (_Eloge_, 1792). In his fifteenth year, after passing through the usual elementary studies, he entered the Society of Jesus. On completing his noviciate, which was spent at Rome, he studied mathematics and physics at the Collegium Romanum; and so brilliant was his progress in these sciences that in 1740 he was appointed professor of mathematics in the college. For this post he was especially fitted by his acquaintance with recent advances in science, and by his skill in a classical severity of demonstration, acquired by a thorough study of the works of the Greek geometricians. Several years before this appointment he had made himself a name by an elegant solution of the problem to find the sun's equator and determine the period of its rotation by observation of the spots on its surface. Notwithstanding the arduous duties of his professorship he found time for investigation in all the fields of physical science; and he published a very large number of dissertations, some of them of considerable length, on a wide variety of subjects. Among these subjects were the transit of Mercury, the Aurora Borealis, the figure of the earth, the observation of the fixed stars, the inequalities in terrestrial gravitation, the application of mathematics to the theory of the telescope, the limits of certainty in astronomical observations, the solid of greatest attraction, the cycloid, the logistic curve, the theory of comets, the tides, the law of continuity, the double refraction micrometer, various problems of spherical trigonometry, &c. In 1742 he was consulted, with other men of science, by the pope, Benedict XIV., as to the best means of securing the stability of the dome of St Peter's, Rome, in which a crack had been discovered. His suggestion was adopted. Shortly after he engaged to take part in the Portuguese expedition for the survey of Brazil, and the measurement of a degree of the meridian; but he yielded to the urgent request of the pope that he would remain in Italy and undertake a similar task there. Accordingly, in conjunction with Christopher Maire, an English Jesuit, he measured an arc of two degrees between Rome and Rimini. The operations were begun towards the close of 1750, and were completed in about two years. An account of them was published in 1755, entitled _De Litteraria expeditione per pontificam ditionem ad dimetiendos duos meridiani gradus a PP. Maire et Boscovich_. The value of this work was increased by a carefully prepared map of the States of the Church. A French translation appeared in 1770. A dispute having arisen between the grand duke of Tuscany and the republic of Lucca with respect to the drainage of a lake, Boscovich was sent, in 1757, as agent of Lucca to Vienna, and succeeded in bringing about a satisfactory arrangement of the matter. In the following year he published at Vienna his famous work, _Theoria philosophiae naturalis redacta ad unicam legem virium in natura existentium_, containing his atomic theory (see MOLECULE). Another occasion for the exercise of his diplomatic ability soon after presented itself. A suspicion having arisen on the part of the British government that ships of war had been fitted out in the port of Ragusa for the service of France, and that the neutrality of Ragusa had thus been violated, Boscovich was selected to undertake an embassy to London (1760), to vindicate the character of his native place and satisfy the government. This mission he discharged successfully, with credit to himself and satisfaction to his countrymen. During his stay in England he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society. He soon after paid this society the compliment of dedicating to it his Latin poem, entitled _De Solis et Lunae Defectibus_ (London, 1764). This prolix composition, one of a class which at that time was much in vogue--metrical epitomes of the facts of science--contains in about five thousand lines, illustrated by voluminous notes, a compendium of astronomy. It was for the most part written on horseback, during the author's rides in the country while engaged in his meridian measurements. The book is characterized by G.B.J. Delambre as "uninstructive to an astronomer and unintelligible to any one else."
On leaving England Boscovich travelled in Turkey, but ill-health compelled him soon to return to Italy. In 1764 he was called to the chair of mathematics at the university of Pavia, and this post he held, together with the directorship of the observatory of Brera, for six years. He was invited by the Royal Society of London to undertake an expedition to California to observe the transit of Venus in 1769; but this was prevented by the recent decree of the Spanish government for the expulsion of the Jesuits from its dominions. The vanity, egotism and petulance of Boscovich provoked his rivals and made him many enemies, so that in hope of peace he was driven to frequent change of residence. About 1770 he removed to Milan, where he continued to teach and to hold the directorship of the observatory of Brera; but being deprived of his post by the intrigues of his associates he was about to retire to his native place, when the news reached him (1773) of the suppression of his order in Italy. Uncertainty as to his future led him to accept an invitation from the king of France to Paris, where he was naturalized and was appointed director of optics for the marine, an office instituted for him, with a pension of 8000 livres. He remained there ten years, but his position became irksome, and at length intolerable. He continued, however, to devote himself diligently to the pursuits of science, and published many remarkable memoirs. Among them were an elegant solution of the problem to determine the orbit of a comet from three observations, and memoirs on the micrometer and achromatic telescopes. In 1783 he returned to Italy, and spent two years at Bassano, where he occupied himself with the publication of his _Opera pertinentia ad opticam et astronomiam, &c._, which appeared in 1785 in five volumes quarto. After a visit of some months to the convent of Vallombrosa, he went to Milan and resumed his literary labours. But his health was failing, his reputation was on the wane, his works did not sell, and he gradually sank a prey to illness and disappointment. He fell into melancholy, imbecility, and at last madness, with lucid intervals, and died at Milan on the 15th (13th) of February 1787. In addition to the works already mentioned Boscovich published _Elementa universae matheseos_ (1754), the substance of the course of study prepared for his pupils; and a narrative of his travels, entitled _Giornale di un viaggio da Constantinopoli in Polonia_, of which several editions and a French translation appeared. His latest labour was the editing of the Latin poems of his friend Benedict Stay on the philosophy of Descartes, with scientific annotations and supplements. (W. L. R. C.)
BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA, or BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA, two provinces formerly included in European Turkey, which now, together with Dalmatia, form the southernmost territories of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. The name _Herzegovina_ is also written _Hertzegovina, Hertsegovina_ or, in Croatian, _Hercegovina_. In shape roughly resembling an equilateral triangle, with base uppermost, Bosnia and Herzegovina cover an area of 19,696 sq. m., in the north-west of the Balkan Peninsula. They are bounded N. and N.W. by Croatia-Slavonia; W. and S.W. by Dalmatia; S.E. by Montenegro and the Sanjak of Novibazar; and N.E. by Servia. Opposite to the promontory of Sabbioncello, and at the entrance to the Bocche di Cattaro, the frontier of Herzegovina comes down to the Adriatic; but these two strips of coast do not contain any good harbour, and extend only for a total distance of 14-1/2 m. Bosnia is altogether an inland territory.
1. _Physical Features._--Along the Dalmatian border, and through the centre of Bosnia, runs the backbone of the Dinaric Alps, which attain their greatest altitudes (6000-7500 ft.) near Travnik, Serajevo and Mostar. There are numerous high valleys shut in among the mountains of this range; the most noteworthy being the plain of Livno, which lies parallel to the Dalmatian border, at a height of 500 ft. above the sea. The zone of highlands throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina reaches a mean altitude of 1500 ft., while summits of more than 4000 ft. occur frequently. To the north-east of the Dinaric Alps extends a region of mountain, moor and forest, with deeply sunk alluvial basins, which finally expand into the lowlands of the Posavina, or Vale of the Save, forming the southernmost fringe of the Hungarian Alfold. Bosnia belongs wholly to the watershed of the Save, and its rivers to the Danubian system, no large stream finding a way to the Adriatic. The Save flows eastward along the northern frontier for 237 m. It is joined by four main tributaries, the Drina, Bosna, Vrbas and Una. The Drina is formed on the Montenegrin frontier by the united streams of the Tara and Piva; curving north-eastwards past Visegrad, it marches for 102 m. with Servian territory, and falls into the Save at Racha, after a total course of 155 m. The Bosna issues from many springs near Serajevo, and winds for 107 m. northward, through a succession of fertile glens, reaching the Save 1 m. west of Samac. Farther west, the Vrbas cuts a channel through the Dinaric Alps, and, after passing Jajce and Banjaluka, meets the Save 94 m. from its own headwaters. The Una rises on the Croatian border, and, after skirting the Pljesevica Planina, in Croatia, turns sharply to the north-east; serving as a frontier stream for 37 m. before entering the Save at Jasenovac. Its length is 98 m. At Novi it is joined by the Sana, a considerable affluent.
Herzegovina, which lies south of Bosnia, in a parallelogram defined by Montenegro, Dalmatia, the Dinaric Alps, and an irregular line drawn from a point 25 m. west-north-west of Mostar to the bend of the river Narenta, differs in many respects from the larger territory. Its mountains, which belong to the Adriatic watershed, and form a continuation of the Montenegrin highlands, are less rounded and more dolomitic in character. They descend in parallel ridges of grey Karst limestone, south-westwards to the sea; their last summits reappear in the multitude of rocky islands along the Dalmatian littoral. As in the peaks of Orjen, Orobac, Samotica and Veliki Kap, their height often exceeds 6000 ft. West of the Narenta, their flanks are in places covered with forests of beech and pine, but north-east of that river they present for the most part a scene of barren desolation. Their monotony is varied only by the fruitful river-valleys and _poljes_, or upland hollows, where the smaller towns and villages are grouped; the districts or cantons thus formed are walled round by a natural rampart of limestone. These _poljes_ may be described as oases in what is otherwise a desert expanse of mountains. The surface of some, as notably the _Mostarsko Blato_, lying west of Mostar, is marshy, and in spring forms a lake; others are watered by streams which disappear in swallow-holes of the rock, and make their way by underground channels either to the sea or the Narenta. The most conspicuous example of these is the Trebinjcica, which disappears in two swallow-holes in Popovopolye, and after making its way by a subterranean passage through a range of mountains, wells up in the mighty source of Ombla near Ragusa, and hurries in undiminished volume to the Adriatic. The Narenta, or Neretva, is the one large river of Herzegovina which flows above ground throughout its length. Rising on the Montenegrin border, under the Lebrsnik mountains, it flows north-westwards at the foot of the Dinaric Alps; and, near Konjica, sweeps round suddenly to the south, and falls into the Adriatic near Metkovic, after traversing 125 m. North of Mostar, it cleaves a passage through the celebrated Narenta defile, a narrow gorge, 12 m. long, overshadowed by mountains which rise on either side and culminate in Lupoglav (6796 ft.) on the east, and Cvrstnica (7205 ft.) on the west.
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Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, "Borgia, Lucrezia" to "Bradford, John"Chapter V: Part 5
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