Page:Imperial Dictionary of Universal Biography Volume 1.pdf/622

BIL Mozart in England. She now left the stage, but continued for three years a most successful career as a concert singer. In 1809, having amassed a competent fortune, and suffering from delicate health, she finally quitted her profession, and never sang again but on one occasion, at a concert of her brother in the King's theatre in 1811. Some years later, however, she reappeared at a concert of J. B. Cramer, to play a pianoforte duet with him which he wrote on purpose. Her infatuation for Felisini was so strong that, in 1817, she invited him to return to her, when she retired with him to an estate she had purchased while in Italy. Her brutal husband resumed his ill usage of her, and she died of an illness occasioned by a violent blow she received from him. She lost her only child in its infancy, after which, in 1793, she adopted a girl of a year old, who was always considered as her daughter. Haydn, in his diary of 1791, speaks of Mrs. Billington as a singer of genius. Her excellence consisted in the sweetness and extreme height of her voice, and in the brilliancy of her execution; but notwithstanding her skill as a pianist—from which we might infer a degree of musicianship rare among singers—she studied her songs, and especially the florid passages for which she was famous, with the utmost difficulty, and could never sing anything that she had not laboriously prepared. The charm of personal appearance, if it did not assist in her success, compensated for her want of expression as an actress and as a vocalist.—G. A. M.  BILLOUET,, a French Hebraist, a member of the congregation of Saint Maur, and professor of Hebrew in the abbaye of St. Etienne of Caen, was born at Rouen in 1684. His excessive labours in arranging the library of a monastery at Orleans, and in preparing the catalogue for that of Guill. Prousteau, president of the academy of that town, hastened his death, which took place in 1720.  BILLROTH,, a German theologian, was born at Lübeck, 2d February, 1808, and died at Halle, 28th March, 1836. He wrote—"Beiträge zur wissenschaftlichen Kritik der herrschenden Theologie;" "Commentar zu den Briefen an die Korinthien;" "Vorlesungen uber Religionsphilosophie" (edited by Erdmann), &c.—K. E.  BILLUART,, a French theologian and preacher of some celebrity, born at Revin, Ardennes, in 1685, was professor at the college of Douai, and latterly provincial of the order of Dominicans. Besides some dissertations and Polemical letters, he published an immense work on theology, which, recommended probably by the scholastic subtleties in which it abounds, has been much used in Romish colleges, and several times reprinted. The latest edition of the work carries the title of "Cursus Theologiæ Universalis, cum supplemento," Paris, 1828. It was originally published at Liege, 1746-51, in 19 vols. Billuart died in 1757.—J. S., G.  BILLY, or, bishop of Laon, died in 1612. He published a number of translations from the Spanish, especially the Prayers and Spiritual Exercises of Luiz of Grenada, 1579.  BILLY,, a French theologian, brother of the preceding, born in Guise in 1530, held in succession several abbacies, but latterly entered the order of the Chartreuse, and became prior of Mont Dieu, and afterwards of Bourbon-lez-Gaillon. Besides some translations, he published "Exhortation au peuple françois pour exercer les œuvres de misericorde envers les pauvres," 1572. Died in 1580.  BILLY,, l'abbé de, a noted French preacher, priest of the congregation of St. Roch, born at Vesoul in 1753; died at Besançon, 1825. He took part in the first revolutionary movements of 1789, but refused to take the oath exacted of the clergy, and underwent decree of banishment. Besides a volume of sermons, he published "Leçons physico-geographiques," &c., 1779.  BILLY,, a French historian, died in 1709. He transcribed two works, the original manuscripts of which are now in the imperial library, viz., "Recherches pour l'Histoire de la ville de Sainte Lo;" "Memoires pour l'Histoire du Contenin." <section end="622H" /> <section begin="622I" />BILON or PILON, an Armenian historian, born at Dirag in Armenia in 643; died in 711. He was distinguished among the savants of his country, and wrote an abridged history of the patriarchs of Armenia. <section end="622I" /> <section begin="622J" />BILS,, a Dutch nobleman of the latter half of the seventeenth century, who lived principally at Rotterdam, but also at Löwen and Hertozenbasch. He studied anatomy with great zeal, and from 1660-1668, attracted considerable attention from a method which he professed to have discovered, of preserving bodies for dissection for a long period, and preventing decomposition. The first notice of this pretended discovery appeared in 1658, when Bils offered to communicate his secret for the sum of 120,000 florins, which he had expended in the preparation of forty bodies. To prevent the discovery of his secret he would not permit any one to enter his dissecting room; when offered 240 florins for this permission, he refused to give it until he had the cash in his hands. Of his forty prepared subjects, five were purchased by the state of Brabant for 2000 florins, and placed in the museum of the university of Löwen. In the course of a few weeks, however, these treasures began to decompose, and de Bils could only shake off the imputation of quackery, which then threatened to fasten upon him, by accusing the professors of the university of having placed the preparations purposely in a damp room. He also professed another secret, that of vivisection without spilling a single drop of blood; this he denominated Anatomia Incruenta. Although undoubtedly a charlatan, L. de Bils appears to have been most dexterous in the dissection of the human body; indeed this is admitted even by his most violent opponents. The results at which he arrived were, however, of a singular nature, and his views upon the lacteal system, were in direct opposition to all the opinions entertained by sound anatomists, either before or since his time. According to him the chyle is taken up by the veins of the mesentery, and conveyed by them to the liver, which is the organ in which the blood is prepared. With this he combined some curious notions upon the lymphatic vessels and thoracic duct, and the nature of the fluid contained in them; but all these views were overthrown by Thomas Bartholinus, who clearly demonstrated their erroneous nature. De Bils wrote little or nothing; the only work bearing his name, "Bilsii inventa anatomica antique-nova," being ascribed to Nicolaus Zas, a surgeon in Rotterdam, who appears to have acted as a sort of assistant to him.—W. S. D. <section end="622J" /> <section begin="622K" />BILSON,, bishop of Worcester, and afterwards of Winchester, born in 1536; died in 1616. He was successively fellow of New college, Oxford, master of Winchester school, prebendary of the cathedral, and warden of the college in that city. A work which he dedicated to Queen Elizabeth, entitled "The True Difference between Christian Subjection and Unchristian Rebellion," was followed, in 1593, by "The Perpetual Government of Christ's Church," two treatises which exhibited him in the light of a formidable enemy of the Romish party, and a powerful advocate of episcopacy. In 1596 he was raised to episcopal rank at Worcester, and next year translated to Winchester. He was one of the managers of the conference at Hampton court, and was co-labourer with Dr. Smith in revising the new edition of the Bible.—J. S., G. <section end="622K" /> <section begin="622L" />BILSTEIN,, a learned jesuit of Belgium, born at Verviers in 1592; died in 1663. Besides some pieces in verse, and some translations, be published "Septem Petitiones Dominicæ et Salutatio Angelica," &c. <section end="622L" /> <section begin="622M" />BILTIUS, flourished about 1650. He painted game and still life, nets, hunting pouches, and powder-horns on white grounds, as if hung up against a wall.—W. T. <section end="622M" /> <section begin="622N" />BIMBI,, was a Florentine painter, a pupil of Lorenzo Lippi. He was born 1648, and spent his life in copying the dusty velvet of the peach, and the living crimson of the rose.—W. T. <section end="622N" /> <section begin="622O" />BIMET,, a native of Lyons. He was a surgeon, who published in 1664 a treatise on osteology in French verse, or rather prose rimée. <section end="622O" /> <section begin="622P" />BIMET,, a French litterateur, born at Avignon, 1687; died in 1760. He first made himself known in the literary world by a Latin poem on physiognomy. He was professor of philosophy at Besançon, and subsequently at Dole. Author of a learned dissertation "On the Weeks of Daniel." <section end="622P" /> <section begin="622Q" />BINASCO or BINASCHI,, an Italian poet, born at Binasco in the duchy of Milan; died at Pavia in 1576. He has left a volume of verse, a posthumous work, and some miscellaneous pieces. <section end="622Q" /> <section begin="622Zcontin" />BINCHOIS,, or , a musician of the end of the fourteenth century. He is spoken of by Gaffori, Franchinus, Finck, and Tinctor, which last quotes one of his compositions, as a contemporary of Dufay; and Baini proves this latter to have been a singer of the pontifical chapel in 1380. A commission <section end="622Zcontin" />