Page:Imperial Dictionary of Universal Biography Volume 1.pdf/610

BIA been done by the people to my property, or that intrusted to my care." During this period Mr. Bianconi reaped abundantly the fruits of his enterprise and energy. He amassed a large fortune, and while he served thousands, he made firm friends in every grade of life, from the lowest to the highest in the land; commanding universal respect for his probity, and good-will for his liberal dealings with those whom he employed. In August, 1831, he obtained letters of naturalization, and subsequently filled the office of mayor of Clonmel. Charles Bianconi is one of those remarkable men who, from time to time, are to be found in every country—men whom Providence sends forth from their own land, in a spirit of adventure, to invigorate with new blood, and enlighten with new views, the country of their adoption—to be at once the founders of their own prosperity, and the benefactors of society.—J. F. W.  BIANCONI,, an Italian philologist, born at Bologna in 1698; died in 1781. He was a pupil of Facciolati's, and became professor of Greek and Hebrew at the university of Bologna. He discovered in the Ambrosian library, and published MSS. written by Julius Pollux.  BIANCONI,, a distinguished Italian physician and philosopher, born at Bologna on the 30th September, 1717. He studied in the celebrated schools of his native city, and displayed such remarkable talents that, when only nineteen years of age, he was considered capable of fulfilling the duties of assistant-physician in the hospital della Vita in Bologna, where, for the four following years, he improved himself greatly in the practice of medicine. In 1742 he took his degree as doctor of medicine and philosophy, and in the following year the Academy of Sciences at Bologna received him as one of its members. In 1744, his reputation having already passed the confines of Italy, he was invited to the court of the landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt, to whom he was appointed physician. In 1750 Bianconi passed from Darmstadt into Poland, where he became physician to the king, was made a councillor of state, and afterwards created a count. On returning into Germany with the king (Augustus III.), who was also elector of Saxony, he took up his abode at Dresden; and in 1760 was intrusted with a delicate mission to the court of France, which he fulfilled with great discretion; soon afterwards (in 1764), on his indicating a desire to return to his native country, he was appointed resident-minister of the court of Dresden at Rome. Arrived in this city, however, he relinquished diplomacy to give himself up entirely to his taste for literature and science, and published several works which added greatly to his reputation. He continued his labours up to the time of his death, which took place at Perugia on the 1st January, 1781. Amongst the works of Bianconi we may notice the following: "Two Letters on Physics, to the Marquis Scipio Maffei," published at Venice in 1746; "Letters upon some Peculiarities of Bavaria and other Countries of Germany," which appeared at Lucca in 1763, and were afterwards translated into German; a "Dissertation on Electricity," in French, at Amsterdam in 1748, and, in German, at Basle in 1749; and "Letters upon A. Cornelius Celsus," published at Rome in 1779. Bianconi proposed to bring out an edition of Celsus. In the letters here referred to, he considers that author to belong to the Augustan age, contrary to the general opinion, and the Abbé Tiraboschi, to whom the letters were addressed, stated that Bianconi had resolved all the doubts and difficulties that could be opposed to his opinion. Besides these works, Bianconi published in French a "Journal of the Literary Novelties of Italy;" two Letters relating to Pisa and Florence, and a Memoir on the Circus of Caracalla, were published after his death, the former at Lucca in 1781, and the latter at Rome in 1790. He also translated Winslow's Anatomy into Italian, and wrote numerous articles in the Effemeridi Letterarie di Roma, a journal to the establishment of which he had given the first impulse.—W. S. D.  BIANUCCI,, a native of Lucca, and a disciple of Guido, died in 1653, aged seventy. His best picture is one of Purgatory, in his native town.—W. T.  BIAQUAZZONI or ABBIAQUAZONI,, an Italian poet, lived in the first part of the seventeenth century. His principal work is "l'Agnese Martirizzata" in ottava rima, 1607.  * BIARD, F. A., born at Lyons in 1800, a versatile, but rather coarse French artist, still living. He has visited Spain, Greece, Syria, Egypt, and Greenland, the last in 1839. He excels in the grotesque and marine picturesque. His best pictures are—"The Arab overtaken by the Simoom;" "The Odalisque of Smyrna;" "Skirmish of Maskers with the Police;" "The Family Concert;" "African Slave Market;" "Combat with Polar Bears." He produces with newspaper taste, and is sometimes hopelessly vulgar.—W. T.  BIARD,, a French jesuit, professor of theology at Lyons, and afterwards missionary of his order in Canada; was born at Grenoble in 1580, and died at Avignon in 1622. He was taken prisoner by the English in 1613, but recovered his liberty at the instance of the French ambassador in London, and returned to France. He had been well received by the savages of Canada. His principal works are, "Relation de la Nouvelle-France et du voyage des Peres Jesuites dans cette contrée," and "Relatio expedit. Angl. in Canad., suæque ab illis comprehensionis."  BIAS, a native of Priene, was one of the seven wise men of Greece. Ancient writers vary in their statement of the number of wise men, and in the particular individuals who ought to have the designation. Dicæarchus, according to Diogenes Laertius, affirmed that there were four whose claims were never doubted. One of these was Bias, the other three being Thales, Pittacus, and Solon. The term was applied to men who gave expression to shrewd practical ideas in short pithy sentences. Diogenes Laertius, on the authority of Phanodicus, tells us that Bias was in the habit of ransoming captive Messenian maidens, bringing them up as his daughters, and then sending them back with portions to their fathers. On one occasion, the story goes, some fishermen found a tripod inscribed "To the Wise Man." There was doubt as to the person to whom it should be given, until the Messenian maidens, or, as another account had it, the father of some of them stood forward in the assembly, and, narrating the kind conduct of Bias, called him the wise man. Bias did not take the tripod, but gave it to a god. We have the authority of the satiric poet Hipponax for believing him to have been a skilful lawyer. The circumstances of his death are related by Diogenes Laertius. He was pleading the cause of a client, and just as he had finished the peroration, leaned his head on the bosom of his grandson. His opponent went on with his speech, and then the court having decided in favour of the protege of Bias, was dismissed, when Bias was found to be dead. The city buried him with honours. Diogenes Laertius records several of his maxims. He seems to have had an exceedingly low opinion of human nature. The inscription on a shrine said to be dedicated to him was—"He said: Most men are bad." He thought that we should love men as if they might one day hate us. Being asked what thing was difficult, he said, "to bear a change to the worse." He reckoned it a disease to desire what could not be obtained, and to be forgetful of the evils of others. One time, while sailing with impious men, who began to pray on a storm coming on, he said, "Be silent, lest the gods perceive you are sailing here." He liked to arbitrate between two of his enemies better than between two friends, for one of the friends would be sure to become an enemy in the one case, while in the other one of his enemies was sure to become his friend. The following are a few more of his maxims:—"Do not praise an unworthy man on account of his riches." "Take wisdom as your supplies for travelling from youth to old age, for it is the most secure of all possessions." "Be slow in resolving to do a thing, but when once you resolve, stick to it to the last." Bias wrote a poem of 2000 lines on the best means of advancing the prosperity of Ionia. One of his sayings has also come down in verse, but the versification is probably the work a of later period.—(Schneidewin, Delect. Poes. Græc, p. 260.) It is difficult to determine the exact date of Bias. Clinton places the wise men as flourishing in 582 ., and he leaves us to infer from a hint in Herodotus I. 27, that Bias may have been living in 569 .—(Fasti Hellen., vol. i., p. 237.) The chief authority for the facts of the life of Bias is Diogenes Laertius, Lib. I., p. 216.—J. D. <section end="610H" /> <section begin="610Inop" />BIAUZAT,, a French magistrate, who died in 1815. He represented the town of Clermont in the States-general, and supported the motion of Mirabeau that the troops should be sent out of Paris. At a later period he was one of the jury of the high court of the nation appointed to try the Babeuf conspirators; and from his moderation in that office, attracted no small enmity to himself. In 1799 he was appointed to the court of "cassation," and under the empire was one of the councillors in the court of appeal. He was the author of some political pamphlets. <section end="610Inop" />