Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 2.djvu/725

 BONET

655

BONFRERE

XVI e XVIII". In 1847 he became a member oi the Accademia del Lincei and shortly after its li- brarian.

Boncompagni contributed much to the study of the history of mathematics by his "BoUetino", which he founded in 1868 and conducted until 1887. To it he contributed numerous essays, biographies, re- views, etc. Among his essays published before the founding of the " Bolletino " may be mentioned, '' Delia \nta e deUe opere di Gherardo Cremonese traduttore del secolo XII" (1850); "Gherardo da Sabionetta, astronomo del secolo XJII" (1851); "Delia vita e delle opere di Guido Bonatti" (1851); "Memoria sopra Leonardo" (1854); "Saggio intorno ad alcune opere di Leonardo" (1854); "Tre scritti inediti di Leonardo da un manoscritto dell' Ambrosiana di Mi- lano" (Florence, 1854); "Intorno ad una proprieta dei numeri" (in the "Annali delle scienze raatema- tiche e fisiche" 1855); "Scritti inediti del P. D. Pietro Cossali" (1857); " Dissertazione intorno ad un trat- tato di aritmetica stampato nel 1478" (in the "Atti dei Xuo\-i Lincei" 1862-63). In 1857 Boncompagni also pubhshed the "Algoritmi de numero Indorum" which he had found in the Library of Cambridge Universitj'. It is supposed to be a translation of the famous treatise on arithmetic of Al-kliwarizmi, the most illustrious of the Arabian mathematicians. Nuova Encidopedia Italiana. Suppl., 0th ed., Turin; Ball, Hist, of Mathematics (New York, 1888).

H. M. Brock.

Bonet, Juan P,\blo, a Spanish priest and one of the first to give attention to the education of the deaf and dumb, b. towards the end of the sixteenth cen- tury'. He became secretary of the High Constable of Castile. The latter's brother being a deaf-mute, Bonet took his education in hand. To make his pupil understand words and speak them he invented a system of visible signs anil of gjTnnastics for pro- nunciation. This consisted in certain signs repre- senting to the sense of sight the sounds of words, in exercises of breatlung in the formation of soimds and to adapt the different organs of articulation, the lips, tongue, and teeth, to the proper pronunciation of each sound. He reduced his system to practice by means of a manual alphabet — a combination of signs made with the hands representing the various letters — and a description of the dispositions of the vocal organ necessarj' to the pronunciation of each letter. He succeeded fairly well with his pupil and explained the principles of his system in a book, " Reduccion de las letras y arte para enseiiar a hablar los mudos" (Madrid, 1620).

Kenelm Digbv. Of Bodies and of Man's Soul (London. 1669>: De l'Epee, Instruction des sourds-muets (Paris, 1776); De Ger.\ndo, De I'Education des sourds-muets (Paris, 1827).

G. M. SArr\'.*.GE.

Bonet, NicHOL.\.s, Friar Minor, theologian, and missionarj', date of birth uncertain; d. 1360. Proba- bly a Frenchman by birth, he taught theology with great success at Paris, where he received the title of "Doctor Pacificus" (The Peaceful Doctor) on account of his suave and tranquil mode of lecturing. Bonet took an important part in the dispute concern- ing the beatific vision which was warmly discussed during the pontificate of John XXII and finally settled by the decree of his successor, Benedict XII, "Benedictus Deus". As a member of the papal embassy sent by Benedict XII to Kublai Khan, grandson of the famous conqueror Genghis Khan, Bonet exchanged the comparative ease and comfort of the professor of theology for the arduous and perilous labours of the missionary. The Franciscan missions in Tatary were founded as early as the year 1245 by the zealous apostles of the Faith, Lorenzo da Portogallo and Giovanni da Plan Carpino; and in his desire to see the great work which was inaugurated by them and continued by the saintly Archbishop

John of Monte Corvino kept up and extended, the great khan was induced to send an embassy to Benedict XII to petition for new labourers in the missions of Asia. The pope received the legates with every mark of honour and, acceding to the wish of the Mongolian monarch, commissioned four re- ligious of the order of Friars Minor as his legates, on whom he conferred all the Apostolic faculties and privileges necessary for their missionary labours. These were John of Florence, afterwards Bishop of Bisignano in Calabria, Nicholas Bonet, Nicolas da Molano, and Gregorv of Hungary. The embassy bearing letters from the pope to the "khan left A^•ignoQ towards the end of the year 1338, and after a long and arduous journey arrived at Peking in China, the residence of the Tatar emperor at the beginning of 1342. The missionaries were encouraged in their apostohc labours by the kindly attitude of Kublai Khan and succeeded in founding numerous Christian settlements throughout the vast Mongolian empire. About the year 1346 they set out again for Italy. Part of the homeward journey they made by sea and the remainder, from the Kingdom of Persia, by land, arri\-ingin Avignon at the beginning of the year 1354. Shortly after the return of the missionaries, Bonet was consecrated titular Bishop of Mileve in Africa in recognition of his devoted se^^^ces while on the mission of Mongolia. Among the writings of Nicholas Bonet, the "Tractatus de conceptione B. Mariae Virginis jussu dementis V scriptus", the " Formalitates e Doctrina Scoti" and his "Commentarius in IV hbros sententiarum" deserve special mention.

Cus.\cK. St. Francis and the Franciscans (New York, 1867). XIV. 470—172; Sbar.\lea, Suppl. et castig. ad script, ord. min.. 552; da Clvezza. Storia delle missioni Francescane (Rome. 1859), III. xv. 599-617; Wadding, .innales Minorum, VII. 213-219; de Guberxatis, De missionibus antiquis (Rome, 1689), I, 399; .inalecta Franciscana (Quaracchi. 1887J, II, 178.

Stephen M. Donovan.

Bontrere, Jacques, Biblical scholar, b. at Dinant, Belgium, 12 AprU, 1573; d. at Tournai, 9 May, 1642. He entered the Society of Jesus in 1592. After ha\-ing taught rhetoric, philosophy, and theology, he devoted himself to the Sacred Scriptures. He was long a profes.sor of Scripture and Hebrew at Douai, where he was superior of the Scots College. Sweert, in his "Athense Belgicae", speaks of him as a man of rare \-irtue; he praises his industrj' and prudence, as well as the penetration of his mind and the solidity of his judgment. His work in the department of Sacred Scriptures, into which, he tells us, he had been initiated by Cornelius a Lapide, has always been highly appreciated. His " Pra)loquia" was, in 1839, selected by Migne as the most suitable treatise or general introduction with which to begin his "Sacra Scriptura; Cursus Completus" (I, cols. 5- 242). In this work Bonfrere deals with subjects- pertaining to the Bible as a whole. His selection and treatment of topics was determined largely by the controversies of the time regarding the value of the Vulgate, the obscurity of Scripture, etc. But man}' of them still retain their interest; and they are all handled in a clear and interesting waj'. The historical methods now applied to the canon, text, and hermeneutics of Sacred Scripture were not known in his time. He deals with inspiration in one chapter (ch. viii: De modo quo Deus cum hisce Scriptoribus hagiographis habuit). The views he sets forth here do not in all respects agree with the teach- ing of modern theologians. He liolds, for instance, that approval of a wxiting by God, subsequent to its composition, would suffice to make it canonical. In point of fact, though, he assures us, no book of the Bible was so composed. Then he expresses the opin- ion that when writing on what they knew without revelation, the sacred authors only had the assistance necessary to preserve them from error. He does not