Page:Imperial Dictionary of Universal Biography Volume 1.pdf/603

BEV ; among these he settled the terms of the peace between Oliver Cromwell and the Dutch in the year 1654. In 1673 he was made curator of the university of Leyden, an office seldom given to any but those who have served their country in conspicuous employments. He went to see the MSS. of Isaac Vossius, then recently purchased for the Leyden library, was seized with a fever while entering his carriage, and died October 30, 1690, aged 76. He presents the example of a man full of public business, yet making leisure to administer with vigilance and success the affairs of an important university.—T. J.  BEVERWYCK,, or , a Dutch physician, born at Dordrecht in 1594; who, after studying at Leyden, and afterwards at the principal schools of France and Italy, and taking his degree at Padua, returned to Dordrecht, and became first physician to the town, and professor of medicine. He died in 1647, his fellow-townsmen having conferred upon him many positions of trust and honour. Of his works, we notice "Epistolica quæstio de termino vitæ fatali an mobili, cum doctorum responsis," in which he discusses the possibility of prolonging the term of human life; "Montanus ," &c.—a refutation of Montaigne's arguments against the necessity for the medical art; "Idea Medicinæ Veterum;" "Epistolicæ Questiones cum doctorum Responsis," and "Introductio ad medicinam indigenam."—J. B.  BEVILLE, C., born at Paris, 1651; died 1716. He was a painter, known for his landscapes and portraits.—W. T.  BEVIN,, a musician, eminently skilled in the knowledge of practical composition, flourished towards the end of Elizabeth's reign. He was of Welsh extraction, and had been educated under Tallis, upon whose recommendation, in 1589, he was appointed gentleman extraordinary of the royal chapel, from whence he was expelled in 1637, it being discovered that he adhered to the Romish communion. He was also organist of Bristol cathedral, but forfeited that employment at the same time with his place in the chapel. In 1631 Bevin communicated to the world, for the benefit of students, the result of his study and experience in the art of canon. This book was printed in quarto, and dedicated to Goodman, bishop of Gloucester, with the following title: "A Brief and Short Instruction of the Art of Musicke, to teach how to make discant of all proportions that are in use; very necessary for all such as are desirous to attain to knowledge in the art; and may, by practice, if they sing, soon be able to compose three, four, and five parts, and also to compose all sorts of canons, that are usuall, by these directions, of two or three parts in one upon the Plain Song." Bevin also wrote many services and anthems, some of which are contained in Barnard's collection.—E. F. R.  BEVY,, historian, born in 1738, near Orleans. Having entered the Benedictine congregation of St. Maur, he applied himself, with the patient zeal characteristic of that erudite body, to the study of history, selecting the genealogy of royal houses, and of European nobility. He was appointed king's historiographer for Flanders and Hainault. As one who had passed his life in labours tending to celebrate the glory of kings and nobles could not expect mercy at the hands of the terrorists of the Revolution, he fled to England, where he learned that his works had been burned by the hands of the executioner in Paris. The Royal Society opened their friendly doors to the persecuted author, and, with delicate consideration, engaged him to classify their papers. Returning to France in 1802, he did not find the consular regime so favourable to one of his opinions as he had been led to expect, but after being ordered to quit, he was allowed to dwell in peace. On the restoration of Louis XVIII. he received the appointment of librarian to the minister of war, which he held to the time of his death in 1830.—J. F. C.  BEWICK,, born at Cherry Burn, in the parish of Ovingham, Northumberland, 1753. He was the reviver of the still healthy and growing art of wood-engraving. Although known in Europe before printing, and in fact the precursor and suggester of that art, it had sunk to neglect and contempt. In old ballads and squibs little is attempted, but a coarse black outline and cross hatchings (in the larger blocks), such as might have been delicately executed with a hatchet. In Bewick's time, the old art was applied chiefly by enterprising characters, to the adorning the heads of flimsy ballads with rude, rambling representations of wanton lovers, reckless highwaymen, and obdurate fathers. Bewick, with a fine, rough, clear-headed English sense, with humour and sagacity, with industry and love of nature, took the beggar child from the moor and from the ditch, trained it, and fitted it for palaces. He introduced finished and refined effects, threw in colour and the gradation of tints, improved the drawing and perspective, and invented a plan of lowering the surface of the block, when the distance or lighter tones were to come out. But to his history: showing as a boy a taste for drawing, and proving that he had the eye that saw what was in nature, outline, or colour, he was apprenticed to an engraver at Newcastle. He became known by illustrating Dr. Hutton's work on mensuration, with woodcuts. He succeeded admirably, and eyes began to turn upon him. About this time he came to London to study, but a deep love of the country drew him back to the north, and he returned to Newcastle to become his master's partner. From these head-quarters he strolled into the roads and fields, to bring home scraps of life, naïve and true, as they were Æsopian. He watched gipsies by their fires, blind beggars going over bridges, dogs fighting, boys playing. He had a kindly heart, and a wise, far-seeing, selecting eye. In 1790 his great work, the woodcuts to the "History of Quadrupeds," appeared, and these were followed by many others, all admirably simple, thoughtful, and naïve. He died at his house, on Windmill Hill, Gateshead, 1828. His brother, some years younger than himself, and his apprentice, became a clever wood-engraver, but died of consumption in 1785.—W. T.  BEXFIELD,, Mus. Doc, was born in Norfolk, April, 1824, and at the age of seven admitted into the choir of Norwich cathedral. Here he early displayed such uncommon abilities for music, that he was articled to Dr. Buck, the organist, whose assistant he afterwards became. In 1845 he was elected organist of Boston in Lincolnshire, and shortly afterwards he graduated Mus. Bac. in the university of Oxford. In 1847 he resigned his provincial engagements and came to London, when he obtained the appointment of organist of St. Helen's, Bishopsgate, and in the following year took his doctor's degree. His published works consist of anthems, chorals, organ fugues, and glees, one of which latter, "The Death of Hector," gained the prize at the Huddersfield Glee Club in 1850. But the work upon which his reputation chiefly rests, is his oratorio of "Israel Restored," which was first performed by the Norwich Choral Society, October, 1851, and subsequently at the Norwich Festival of 1853. Dr. Bexfield died in November, 1854, deeply lamented by his professional brethren.—E. F. R.  BEXON,, historian and naturalist, born in 1748 in the neighbourhood of the Vosges mountains. Being of a delicate constitution and contemplative turn of mind, the aspect of his native mountains awakened a love of natural history, which not having strength of frame to pursue, he resolved on entering the ecclesiastical state. He became a priest at Nancy, dividing his leisure hours between historical researches and agricultural studies. His first volume of the history of the house of Lorraine, which he did not live to finish, appeared in 1777, with a dedication to the unfortunate Marie Antoinette, who was sprang from the Lorraine stock. The work gave such pleasure that he was appointed to the royal chapel. The most notable feature in his life, however, is his close intimacy with the illustrious Buffon, whom he aided with valuable contributions to his natural history on the subjects of birds, minerals, and precious stones. He had even collected materials for a history of fishes, when his life was closed in 1786.—J. F. C. <section end="603H" /> <section begin="603I" />BEYER,, a mineralogist and mining commissioner of Saxony, the author of several works on the mines and mineral treasures of Saxony. He died in 1768.—W. S. D. <section end="603I" /> <section begin="603J" />BEYERLINCK,, a divine and general writer, born at Antwerp in 1578, where he died in 1627. He wrote "Apophthegmata Christianiorum;" "Biblia Sacra variarum Translationum;" "Magnum Theatrum vitæ Humanæ," a most voluminous work, embracing theology, history, politics, and philosophy. The materials were first collected by Lycosthenes, improved or arranged and partly published by Swinger, and completed by Beyerlinck.—J. B. <section end="603J" /> <section begin="603Zcontin" />BEYGTACH, founder of an order of dervishes, called from his name Bertachys, famous as the prophet and miracle-worker who, when called upon by Amurath I. to bless the standards of his new militia, gave them the name of Yeny Chery (new soldiers), whence the word Janissary. The caps of the janissaries, to commemorate his action in pronouncing the name, took the form of the saint's sleeve. He died in 1368. His <section end="603Zcontin" />