Page:Imperial Dictionary of Universal Biography Volume 1.pdf/425

BAR at Veroli, and he studied divinity and law at Naples. Afterwards, in 1557, he went to Rome for the same purpose, enrolling himself as a pupil of Cæsar Costa, and putting himself under the discipline of St. Philip de Neri, the founder of the congregation of the oratory, by whom he was ordained priest, and attached in 1567 to the church of St. John the Baptist. St. Philip having resigned his office in 1593, nominated Baronius as his successor. Pope Clement VIII. ratified the choice, and made him his confessor. He became a cardinal, 5th June, 1596. Previous to his elevation he had been apostolical protonotary, and after it he had charge of the Vatican library. On Clement's death in 1605, Baronius would have been chosen his successor, thirty-three voices declaring in his favour; but the influence of Spain was strongly employed against him, on account of a treatise he had written "On the Monarchy of Sicily," in which he had argued against the Spanish claim to that island. The health of the cardinal was undermined by severe and continuous study, his digestive organs had become wholly powerless, and he died at Rome, June 30, 1607, and was interred in the church of St. Mary in Vallicella. The great work of Baronius, suggested to him by Philip de Neri, is his "Annales Ecclesiastici," the labour of thirty years. The first volume was published at Rome in 1588, and the twelfth and last was printed in 1607. These volumes, all in folio, and bringing the history down to the year 1198, were dedicated to the various catholic sovereigns. Materials left for three more volumes were used by Raynaldus. Editions of this huge repository were printed in various places, such as Venice, Cologne, Antwerp, Mentz, Amsterdam, and Lucca. Baronius himself furnished correction for the edition of Mentz. There have been also several abridgments and continuations. This work was written avowedly as a grand corrective to the centuriators of Magdeburg. The industry and research displayed in it are truly great, though the tinge and colouring are often apparent. Baronius was a devoted son of the church, and expended his historical erudition in her defence. He has made not a few mistakes in chronology, and has not applied a severe critical examination to several treatises of more than doubtful authenticity. The history of the Latin church is fuller than that of the Greek church. Indeed, his Greek scholarship was defective, and he had to trust to others for translations of some important Greek documents. His style is not characterized by either terseness or elegance, and the annals are rather a series of dissertations, than a simple continuous narrative. His principal opponents were Lucas Holstenius, who boasts of having detected eight thousand falsehoods in the "Annals," Isaac Casaubon in his Exercitationes, and Comber. Baronius published various other historical works of less value. A new edition of the "Annals" is in preparation at Rome.—J. E.  BAROZZI or BAROZZIO,. See.  BARRABAND,, a French artist, born in 1767; died in 1809; studied in Paris under Malaine, and treated the different branches of painting, history, landscape, portraits, flowers, animals (birds especially), still-life, &c., all with uncommon success. He was employed for the manufactories of Sêvres and of the Gobelins. Appointed professor at the academy of Lyons, he died very soon after his removal to that place.—R. M.  BARRADAS or BARRADIUS,, a celebrated jesuit, surnamed the, was born of noble family in 1542, and died in 1615. He was professor of philosophy at Coimbra, and left two volumes of commentaries.  BARRAL,, a learned writer, born at Grenoble near the commencement of the eighteenth century, died at Paris in 1772, author of "A Historical, Literary, and Critical Dictionary of Celebrated Men."  BARRANCO,, a Spanish painter, flourishing in Andalusia about 1646; left several pictures of familiar or burlesque character, much praised for colour and truthfulness.  BARRAS,, count of, was the eldest son of the junior branch of one of the oldest and most famous houses of Provence. He was born, June 20, 1755, at Fos-Emphoux, a village in that department. Early in youth he was devoted to a military career, and became a lieutenant in the regiment of Languedoc. He was next sent to the Isle of France, and joined the corps of Pondicherry. Here it was that he first manifested the one characteristic that has rendered his name memorable in history—rapid, decisive, courageous action. Being wrecked on the coast of the Maldives, the sailors in blank despair gave up all efforts to save themselves and passengers; but Barras took the command, got a raft made, and succeeded in saving all the crew. He was engaged at the siege of Pondicherry, and after that place surrendered to the English, he remained some time in India, until quarrels caused him to resign and return to France. Arrived in Paris, he plunged into the most headlong dissipation, and soon squandered his slender means. He recruited his finances by marriage with a wealthy lady, but left her to reside in the provinces, while he still followed up his gay career in the metropolis. The revolution of 1789 found him again beggared, and he saw at once the chances that now opened up to a bankrupt and unscrupulous man. He went down to Provence, and soon acquired notoriety by his vehemence as an ultra-revolutionist. After holding several minor offices, he was at last, in 1792, constituted a deputy to the national convention. One of his first acts was to vote the death of the king without delay or appeal. In 1793, when the English took Toulon, Barras and Fréron were despatched to the south. Barras acted with great energy. He went to Nice, and arrested there the general in command, in the midst of his army, for complicity in the surrender of Toulon. He then placed Marseilles in a state of siege, and superintended the operations for the recapture of Toulon. Successful in the south, he returned to Paris, and took the lead against Robespierre. He it was who commanded the troops that dispersed the levies of Henriot, and annihilated the Reign of Terror. Several times afterwards he displayed the greatest energy and courage in the suppression of dangerous manifestoes, and finally, on 5th October, 1795, he appointed Bonaparte his deputy against the insurgent section, whose decisive action may be said to have ended the Revolution, as a progressive event. In 1796 Barras was appointed one of the council of Five, and from that period till the return of Bonaparte from Egypt, he was the leading spirit in the conducting of the affairs of France, showing himself at all times a man of ready and courageous action. When Bonaparte became first consul, Barras retired into private life, and settled at Brussels. In 1813, being implicated in a plot against the imperial government, he left Brussels for Rome. Here he still intrigued, and being arrested, might have been in danger, had not the fall of Bonaparte in 1814 saved him. During the hundred days of Napoleon's return, Barras refused to acknowledge him in any way; and when the Bourbons were finally settled on the throne, he took up his abode near Paris, as a quiet unobtrusive citizen, till his death on the 29th January, 1829. He was believed to have written Memoires, but all his papers were seized by the government, and nothing has ever come to light.—J. S. S.  BARRÉ, or, a musician, said by M. Fetis to have been a Frenchman, by other writers, an Italian. In 1550 he was in Rome practising his art, and there he met with a patron in Onofrio Vigili, with whose assistance he established in 1555 a press for printing music, from which, in the course of that year, he issued two collections of madrigals, containing, besides some of his own compositions, many pieces by other authors. Three years later, he had a printing establishment in Milan, where he published a third similar collection, and Walther speaks of some more madrigals of his composition being published at Venice some years later.—G. A. M. <section end="425H" /> <section begin="425I" />* BARRE,, a French sculptor, the son of Jean Jacques Barre, born in Paris in 1811; studied first with his father, and then under Cortot.—R. M. <section end="425I" /> <section begin="425J" />BARRE,, a man of letters, born in Paris, 1650; died about 1711. He wrote a continuation of Bossuet's Discourse on Universal History. <section end="425J" /> <section begin="425K" />BARRE,, chevalier de la, remarkable only for his tragical fate. At the instance of one Duval de Sancourt, this unfortunate youth was accused before the diocesan court of Amiens, of having mutilated a wooden crucifix displayed on the bridge of Abbeville; and the offence having been magnified by the arts of his base and cruel accuser into an outrage on religion, he was condemned to have his tongue cut out, his right hand amputated, and afterwards to suffer at the stake. An order of the parliament of Paris commuted the first part of the sentence. He was born in 1747, and suffered at Abbeville in 1766.—J. S., G. <section end="425K" /> <section begin="425Lnop" />* BARRE,, a French medallist of our day, was born in Paris in 1793; studied under Tiolier at the mint of the French metropolis, where by rapid and continuous progress he rose to become, in 1842, the chief engraver of this establishment.—R. M. <section end="425Lnop" />