The Nuttall Encyclopaedia Part 58

BARTOLOMME'O, FRA, a celebrated Florentine painter of sacred subjects, born at Florence; an adherent of Savonarola, friend of Raphael; "St. Mark" and "St. Sebastian" among his best productions (1469-1517).

BARTOLOZ'ZI, FRANCESCO, an eminent engraver, born at Florence; wrought at his art both in England and in Portugal, where he died; his chief works, "Clytie," after Annibale Caracci, the "Prometheus," after Michael Angelo, and "Virgin and Child," after Carlo Dolci; he was the father of Madame Vestris (1725-1815).

BARTON, BERNARD, the "Quaker poet," born in London; a clerk nearly all his days in a bank; his poems, mostly on homely subjects, but instinct with poetic feeling and fancy, gained him the friendship of Southey and Charles Lamb, as well as more substantial patronage in the shape of a government pension (1784-1849).

BARTON, ELIZABETH, "the Maid of Kent," a poor country servant-girl, born in Kent, subject from nervous debility to trances, in which she gave utterances ascribed by Archbishop Warham to divine inspiration, till her communications were taken advantage of by designing people, and she was led by them to p.r.o.nounce sentence against the divorce of Catharine of Aragon, which involved her and her abettors in a charge of treason, for which they were all executed at Tyburn (1506-1534).

BARUCH, (1) the friend of the prophet Jeremiah, and his scribe, who was cast with him into prison, and accompanied him into Egypt; (2) a book in the Apocrypha, instinct with the spirit of Hebrew prophecy, ascribed to him; (3) also a book ent.i.tled the Apocalypse of Baruch, affecting to predict the fall of Jerusalem, but obviously written after the event.

BARYE, a French sculptor, distinguished for his groups of statues of wild animals (1795-1875).

BASAITI, a Venetian painter of the 15th and 16th centuries, a rival of Bellini; his best works, "Christ in the Garden" and the "Calling of St. Peter and St. Andrew."

BASEDOW, JOHANN BERNARD, a zealous educational reformer, born at Hamburg; his method modelled according to the principles of Rousseau; established a normal school on this method at Dessau, which, however, failed from his irritability of temper, which led to a rupture with his colleagues (1723-1790).

BASEL (74), in the NW. of Switzerland, on the Rhine, just before it enters Germany; has a cathedral, university, library, and museum; was a centre of influence in Reformation times, and the home for several years of Erasmus; it is now a great money market, and has manufactures of silks and chemicals; the people are Protestant and German-speaking.

BASEL, COUNCIL OF, met in 1431, and laboured for 12 years to effect the reformation of the Church from within. It effected some compromise with the Hussites, but was hampered at every step by the opposition of Pope Eugenius IV. a.s.serting the authority of a general council over the Pope himself, it cited him on two occasions to appear at its bar, on his refusal declared him contumacious, and ultimately endeavoured to suspend him. Failing to effect its purpose, owing to the secession of his supporters, it elected a rival pope, Felix V., who was, however, but scantily recognised. The Emperor Frederick III. supported Eugenius, and the council gradually melted away. At length, in 1449, the pope died, Felix resigned, and Nicholas V. was recognised by the whole Church. The decrees of the council were directed against the immorality of the clergy, the indecorousness of certain festivals, the papal prerogatives and exactions, and dealt with the election of popes and the procedure of the College of Cardinals. They were all confirmed by Nicholas V., but are not recognised by modern Roman canonists.

BA'SHAN, a fertile and pastoral district in NE. Palestine of considerable extent, and at one time densely peopled; the men of it were remarkable for their stature.

BASHAHR, a native hill state in the Punjab, traversed by the Sutlej; tributary to the British Government.

BASHI-BAZOUKS', irregular, undisciplined troops in the pay of the Sultan; rendered themselves odious by their brutality in the Bulgarian atrocities of 1876, as well as, more or less, in the time of the Crimean war.

BASHKIRS, originally a Finnish nomad race (and still so to some extent) of E. Russia, professing Mohammedanism; they number some 500,000.

BASHKIRTSEFF, MARIE, a precocious Russian young lady of good family, but of delicate const.i.tution, who travelled a good deal with her mother, noted her impressions, and left a journal of her life, which created, when published after her death, an immense sensation from the confessions it contains (1860-1884).

BASIL, ST., THE GREAT, bishop of Caesarea, in Cappadocia, his birthplace; studied at Athens; had Julian the Apostate for a fellow-student; the lifelong friend of Gregory n.a.z.ianzen; founded a monastic body, whose rules are followed by different monastic communities; a conspicuous opponent of the Arian heresy, and defender of the Nicene Creed; tried in vain to unite the Churches of the East and West; is represented in Christian art in Greek pontificals, bareheaded, and with an emaciated appearance (326-380). There were several Basils of eminence in the history of the Church: Basil, bishop of Ancyra, who flourished in the 4th century; Basil, the mystic, and Basil, the friend of St. Ambrose.

BASIL I., the Macedonian, emperor of the East; though he had raised himself to the throne by a succession of crimes, governed wisely; compiled, along with his son Leo, surnamed the Philosopher, a code of laws that were in force till the fall of the empire; fought successfully against the Saracens; _d_. 886.

BASILICA, the code of laws, in 60 books, compiled by Basil I., and Leo, his son and successor, first published in 887, and named after the former.

BASILICA, a s.p.a.cious hall, twice as long as broad, for public business and the administration of justice, originally open to the sky, but eventually covered in, and with the judge's bench at the end opposite the entrance, in a circular apse added to it. They were first erected by the Romans, 180 B.C.; afterwards, on the adoption of Christianity, they were converted into churches, the altar being in the apse.

BASILICON DORON (i. e. Royal Gift), a work written by James I. in 1599, before the union of the crowns, for the instruction of his son, Prince Henry, containing a defence of the royal prerogative.

BASILI'DES, a Gnostic of Alexandria, flourished at the commencement of the 2nd century; appears to have taught the Oriental theory of emanations, to have construed the universe as made up of a series of worlds, some 365 it is alleged, each a degree lower than the preceding, till we come to our own world, the lowest and farthest off from the parent source of the series, of which the G.o.d of the Jews was the ruler, and to have regarded Jesus as sent into it direct from the parent source to redeem it from the materialism to which the G.o.d of the Jews, as Creator and Lord of the material universe, had subjected it; which teaching a sect called after his name accepted and propagated in both the East and the West for more than two centuries afterwards.

BAS'ILISK, an animal fabled to have been hatched by a toad from the egg of an old c.o.c.k, before whose breath every living thing withered and died, and the glance of whose eye so bewitched one to his ruin that the bravest could confront and overcome it only by looking at the reflection of it in a mirror, as PERSEUS (q. v.) was advised to do, and did, when he cut off the head of the Medusa; seeing itself in a mirror, it burst, it as said, at the sight.

BASKERVILLE, JOHN, a printer and typefounder, originally a writing-master in Birmingham; native of Sion Hill, Worcestershire; produced editions of cla.s.sical works prized for their pre-eminent beauty by connoisseurs in the art of the printer, and all the more for their rarity (1706-1756).

BASNAGES, JACQUES, a celebrated Protestant divine, born at Rouen; distinguished as a linguist and man of affairs; wrote a "History of the Reformed Churches" and on "Jewish Antiquities" (1653-1723).

BASOCHE, a corporation of lawyers' clerks in Paris. See BAZOCHE.

BASQUE PROVINCES, a fertile and mineral district in N. of Spain, embracing the three provinces of Biscaya, Guipuzcoa, and Alava, of which the chief towns are respectively Bilbao, St. Sebastian, and Vittoria; the natives differ considerably from the rest of the Spaniards in race, language, and customs. See BASQUES.

BASQUE ROADS, an anchorage between the Isle of Oleron and the mainland; famous for a naval victory gained in 1809 over a French fleet under Vice-Admiral Allemand.

BASQUES, a people of the Western Pyrenees, partly in France and partly in Spain; distinguished from their neighbours only by their speech, which is non-Aryan; a superst.i.tious people, conservative, irascible, ardent, proud, serious in their religious convictions, and pure in their moral conduct.

BAS-RELIEF (i. e. low relief) a term applied to figures very slightly projected from the ground.

Ba.s.s ROCK, a steep basaltic rock at the mouth of the Firth of Forth, 350 ft. high, tenanted by solan geese; once used as a prison, specially in Covenanting times.

Ba.s.s STRAIT, strait between Australia and Tasmania, about 150 m.

broad.

Ba.s.sANIO, the lover of Portia in the "Merchant of Venice."

Ba.s.sANO, a town in Italy, on the Brenta, 30 m. NW. of Padua; printing the chief industry.