Page:Imperial Dictionary of Universal Biography Volume 1.pdf/554

BER the most energetic hatred to Austria, a sacred indignation against the apathy of the Italians of that day, and a deep distrust of kings and princes, expressed with striking originality and extraordinary power. Though prohibited by all the Italian governments, his songs, nevertheless, penetrated in MS. copies from one end of the peninsula to the other, and greatly contributed to the r eawakening of that spirit of nationality in Italy which has since become indomitable. To this day they are learned by heart by all the youth of Italy. Berchet returned to Italy in 1848; but his health was already shattered by exile, and, after a long and painful illness, he died in October, 1851. Besides other less important works, Berchet wrote a spirited translation of the ancient Spanish ballads of the Bard of Gray, and of Goldsmith's Vicar of Wakefield.—E. A. H.  BERCHEURE or BERCHOIRE,, a learned French Benedictine, author of a translation of Livy, and of a work entitled "Reductorium, Repertorium, et Dictionarium morale utriusque Testamenti," was born towards the end of the thirteenth century at St. Pierre du Chemin in Poitou, and died at Paris in 1362. Of the former work several copies exist in MS. in the imperial library at Paris.—J. S., G.  BERCHOUX,, born at Lyons, 1765. During the Reign of Terror he served in the ranks of the army, not from any taste for a military life, but to escape being pointed at as a devoted friend of the royal family, when loyalty was a capital offence. Upon his liberation from service, he published a satire on the prevailing rage for imitating the costume and supposed habits of the Greeks and Romans. Not only in works of art and in household furniture did the fanaticism for antiquity display itself, but ladies went to evening parties in costumes borrowed from engravings of Dido and Venus in the Dauphin's edition of Virgil. Berchoux's satire became highly popular, and his reputation was further raised by another poem, "La Gastronomie," which was translated into nearly all the living languages. Other poems did not obtain equal success. As a political writer he remained faithful to the Bourbons, being one of the original founders of the Quotidienne. He died in 1839.—J. F. C.  BERCHTOLD,, a German philanthropist, born in 1738. He has been called the German Howard, and with no exaggeration of his claims to the gratitude of mankind. Thirteen years he travelled in Europe, and four in Asia and Africa, intent on mitigating the sufferings of humanity, and in the pious labours which he undertook for that purpose, sparing neither his person nor his fortune. He could speak fluently the principal languages of the continent, and turned his talents as a linguist to the account of his philanthropy, by publishing, in various countries, tracts on the condition of their criminals, &c. While in England, he wrote "An Essay to direct and extend the inquiries of patriotic Travellers," and exerted himself to promote the circulation of the works of native philanthropists. In 1791 we find him at Vienna publishing a work on the restoration of the apparently dead; in the following year at Lisbon, distributing his tract on the preservation of life in different dangers; in 1795-7 studying, in the hospitals of Turkey, the plague and its remedies; and somewhat later, in his own country, labouring to popularize vaccination. During the famine of 1805-6, he expended an immense sum in relieving the wants of the inhabitants of the Reisengebirge; and in 1809 he converted his castle into an hospital for the Austrian soldiers wounded at Wagram. This was his last act of beneficence, and fitly terminated a career, in which the comforts of an exalted station had been constantly sacrificed to the ends of philanthropy. A fever, caught among his patients, proved fatal.—J. S., G.  BERCKMANN,, a German chronicler, born probably at Stralsund between 1490 and 1500; died in 1560. Author of "Chronicles of Stralsund," a manuscript chiefly valuable as a specimen of low German.  BÈRE,, a German physician, born at Frankfort in 1472, practised medicine for many years in his native place, but died at Basle in 1567, at the great age of ninety-five years. He was a protestant, and published several works in support of the religious views which he had embraced. Amongst these are a "Commentary on the Apocalypse of St. John;" a treatise, "De Veteri et Nova Fide;" and a "Catechism of Faith and Morals," derived from Cicero, Quintilian, and Plutarch.—W. S. D.  BEREBISTES, a celebrated Dacian chief. He routed the Scythians about 50 ., and possessed himself of Olbia and other Greek settlements on the Euxine. Cæsar, and afterwards Octavius, attempted to subdue him, but without success. He was assassinated by his subjects.  BERECO,, a monk of St. Milan, born at Avila, Castile, in 1198. He is considered upon good grounds to be the most ancient poet of Spain. Nine of his poems have been preserved, forming altogether more than 13,000 lines. Having from his childhood been brought up amongst the monks of St. Milan, his mind was so much imbued with religious thoughts, that he could not choose for his poetical strains any other than sacred subjects. Hence, his two principal poems are the lives of St. Domingo de Silos and St. Milan, in which he relates their actions, sufferings, death, and miracles, in a style always monotonous and prolix, with a versification inharmonious and often faulty. It is supposed, however, that these poems are posterior to that of the Cid. He died in 1266.—A. C. M. <section end="554H" /> <section begin="554I" />* BÉRÉDINKOFF,, a Russian archæologist, was born in 1802. In conjunction with M. Stroieff he went to Eastern Russia upon an archæological expedition, for the purpose of collecting materials for the great work on the Chronicles of Russia, which is now in course of publication. In 1840 Bérédinkoff undertook to edit Katochikine's work upon Russia, under Czar Alexis Michaelovich; and more recently still took a principal share in the great Sclavonic dictionary, published under the auspices of the Academy of Sciences of St. Petersburg, of which he is a member.—J. F. W. <section end="554I" /> <section begin="554J" />BERENDS,, a German physician, born about the year 1760, at Frankfort-on-the-Maine, where he afterwards filled the chair of anatomy. He took his doctor's degree in 1792, when he sustained the following thesis:—"Dissertatio qua demonstratur cor nervis carere, addita disquisitione de vi nervorum arterias cingentium." In this treatise, which was afterwards reprinted in Ludwig's Scriptores Neurologicæ, Berends maintains that the filaments of the cardiac plexus are not distributed to the fibres of the heart, but simply to the surface of its vessels, that the heart is insensible, and that, consequently, irritability is distinct from nervous action. This hypothesis made considerable noise for a time, from its being defended by Sœmmering, but it soon fell to the ground. Berends also contributed to Hufeland's Journal der praktischen Heilkunde. He died about 1830.—W. S. D. <section end="554J" /> <section begin="554K" />BERENGARIA, queen of Alphonso VIII. of Castile, was not less famous for her decision of character than for her beauty. She successfully defended Toledo against the Moors; and died in 1159. <section end="554K" /> <section begin="554L" />BERENGARIA, the divorced queen of Alphonso IX. of Leon, and sister to the celebrated Blanche of Castile, held the regency of the latter kingdom for some time during the minority of her brother, Henry I., and at his death succeeded to the throne. <section end="554L" /> <section begin="554Zcontin" />BERENGARIO or BERENGARIUS,, a celebrated Italian surgeon and anatomist of the first half of the sixteenth century, was born at Carpi, near Modena, but the date of his birth is unknown. From his native place he sometimes received the surnames—"Il Carpi," "Carpus," and "Carpensis." His father was a surgeon of some repute, and the young Berengario probably acquired his taste for anatomical studies under his father's roof; but a great impulse appears to have been given to his mind in this direction by Alberto Pio, lord of Carpi, a distinguished patron of scientific men, in whose presence, we are told, Berengario made the public dissection of a pig. He afterwards studied at Bologna, where he took his doctor's degree. After lecturing on surgery for some time at Pavia, he returned to Bologna, where he occupied a chair, according to Alidosi, from 1502 to 1527. In this year, Bologna passed under the dominion of the duke of Ferrara, and Berengario removed to the latter city, where he resided, with the exception of a visit to Rome, until his death. The date of his death is unknown; but we are told by Fallopio, that he left his fortune, amounting to fifty thousand ducats, to the duke of Ferrara. The most absurd stories are told of the cause of his quitting Bologna. According to one generally received statement, this distinguished anatomist, having two syphilitic Spaniards under his treatment, took the opportunity of gratifying at once his hatred for their nation, and his desire of seeing their hearts beat, by dissecting them alive; whilst another account attributes his retreat to Ferrara, to his having been too free in talking of the organs of generation. Berengario is to be regarded as the first restorer of anatomy, or, at all events, as one of those who commenced the vast progress made by that science in the sixteenth century. Instead of <section end="554Zcontin" />