Page:Imperial Dictionary of Universal Biography Volume 1.pdf/643

BIZ where he published his Latin translation of the history of Hungary. From Holland he crossed over to Antwerp, where he met with the most flattering reception, and became acquainted with all the literary celebrities of Belgium. Justus Lipsius informs us that Bizzari visited Leyden in 1581, for the purpose of disposing of the manuscript of his universal history; and having retired into Germany, he devoted the rest of his life to the revising of his works, principally written in the Latin language. He has left many volumes on history, and some poetical compositions, which have been published in the Deliciæ Poetarum Italorum, and in the Carmina Illustrium Poetarum Italiæ. He was still living in the year 1581; but the precise time of his death is not known.—A. C. M.  BIZZELLI,, a Florentine painter, born in 1556. He was a disciple of Allori, called Bronzino. He then went to Rome to copy, which some call studying. He was much employed in portrait, decorative, and historical painting, and on his return home worked for the government of the domed city, and died, as he thought, crowned with fame, in 1612.—W. T.  BJACEO,, a Venetian artist who lived about the year 1560; born at Udine in the Friuli. His convent frescos were fashionable among the monks. One of his best performances is a "Madonna and Child" in St. Luke's at Udine.—W. T.  BJELKE,, a member of the Norwegian government, born 1st February, 1580, at Österaad, in the district of Fosen in Norway. He wrote a summary of the Bible, and rendered the psalms of David into verse; he also versified the laws of Denmark and Norway. Died in 1659.—M. H.  BJERING,, a Danish author, born 1731, at Hjallese in Funen. He was educated at the gymnasium of Odense. In 1764 he became the bookkeeper at the advertising office in Copenhagen, where he published some of his works, and various newspapers. In 1771 he removed to Odense, where he established an advertising and printing office. Here also he published various works and newspapers. He was the principal supporter of the Ladies' Newspaper (Fruentumnertidenden), published in Copenhagen, and the Odense Advertiser and Intelligencer (Odense Addrefecontoirs Efterretninger), which newspaper, carried on afterwards by his widow, is still in existence. He died in 1776.—M. H.  BJERING,, also a Danish writer and poet, born at Korup in Funen, where his father was parish clerk. He studied at the gymnasium of Odense, and in 1760 became the pastor of Aastrup, where he died in 1804. His works are numerous; some few are written in Latin, one of which, "Oliva pacis anno seculi undevigesimi primo Europæ peroptato porrecta," obtained for him a letter from Napoleon Bonaparte, with a gold snuff-box set with his portrait.—M. H.  BJERKEN,, one of the most celebrated Swedish surgeons of the present century, was born at Stockholm in 1765. In 1781 he commenced his studies at Upsal, and in 1793 visited London, where he became a pupil of the great English surgeon, Cline, and practised in St. Thomas' and Guy's hospitals. In 1796 he returned to Stockholm, where he was appointed surgeon to the venereal hospital. In 1802 he became surgeon to the king; in 1808 surgeon-in-chief to the Swedish army; and in 1812 assessor of the medical college. He afterwards received the order of the polar star, and died at Stockholm on the 2nd February, 1818.—W. S. D.  BJORK,, a Swedish writer of ballets after the French style. His "Lycko-pris," in honour of Charles XI.'s birthday, in which all the gods and goddesses of the Greek mythology figured, was greatly admired at that time. Died 1669.—M. H. <section end="643H" /> <section begin="643I" />BJORNSTAHL,, was born 23rd January, 1731, at Nitarbo, in the Swedish province of Sudermanland. He studied at Upsala, and afterwards became tutor in the family of Baron Budbeck, with whose son he travelled through France, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Holland, and England. During his residence in Paris he studied the oriental languages, and on his return received from Gustav III. a command to visit Greece, Syria, and Egypt, with the title of professor of the university of Lund. At the cost of the king he travelled from London to Smyrna and Constantinople, at which latter place he resided two years in order to acquire the Turkish language. On his homeward journey he caught the plague at Salonichi, where he died in 1779. The account of his journey, published in letters, was printed at Stockholm in 1783, and contains much information on coins, manuscripts, and ancient books, together with many interesting anecdotes relative to Voltaire, whom he visited at Ferney; otherwise it does not rank very high.—M. H. <section end="643I" /> <section begin="643J" />* BJÖRNSEN,, a young Norwegian author of great promise. After having been for some time a writer on the Morgenblad at Christiania, he applied himself to the study of æsthetics. His story called "Synnové Solbakken," a tale of Norwegian peasant life, remarkable for the fidelity of its pictures, and the careful elaboration of its simple dramatis personæ, appeared first as a feuilleton. Björnson's latest work is a drama, "Mellem Slagene," which has been produced at Christiania, and the author is at the present time director of the theatre at Bergen. "Synnové Solbakken," which has rapidly passed through several editions, both in Denmark and Norway, where it is deservedly popular, is translated into English by Mary Howitt, in one vol.; Hurst & Blackett, London.—M. H. <section end="643J" /> <section begin="643K" />BLACAS,, duc de, an eminent French statesman and diplomatist, devoted to the cause of royalty in the troublous times of Louis XVIII. and Charles X., and honoured with the particular friendship of both these monarchs; born of an ancient Provençal family at Aulps in 1770; died at Göritz in 1839. Entering France with the king, whose exile he had shared, in 1814 on Napoleon's return from Elba, he endeavoured to direct the royal counsels to immediate resistance, and failing in that, exerted himself to prevent the king from carrying out his design of escaping to England, urging in the language of a favourite of Henry IV., that to defend a kingdom, it is necessary not to quit it. After the second restoration, the king, on account of the unpopularity of his servant, was obliged to send him into honourable exile at Rome, where he negotiated the concordat of 1817. Towards the latter end of the reign of Louis XVIII., he withdrew from public affairs. The revolution of 1830 drew him from his retirement to share in the exile of Charles X., whom, with rare devotion, he offered all his fortune. He was interred by his own request beside his master in the Franciscan church at Göritz. Blacas was a man of taste, a member of the Institute, and a munificent patron of art. He contributed largely to the formation of the Musée Egyptienne, and left a fine collection of antiquities, a description of which was published by M. Reinaud, Paris, 1828, 2 vols.—J. S., G. <section end="643K" /> <section begin="643L" />BLACEO,, lived about 1560, at Venice. Ridolphi mentions works of his in the churches at Udine in the Friuli. His large religious frescos still exist at St. Lucia, at Udine, and Porta Nuova. <section end="643L" /> <section begin="643M" />BLACK,, was born in 1783 near Dunse in Berwickshire. In his eighteenth year he went to Edinburgh, where he was employed in a stationer's shop, and afterwards became a clerk in a lawyer's office. At twenty-seven years of age he set off on foot to London, and obtained employment as a reporter for the Morning Chronicle. He became editor of that paper shortly before the death of Mr. Perry in 1821, and continued to discharge its duties until 1844. During that period his position as editor of the recognized organ of liberal politics brought him into connection with all the leading members of the whig party. Mr. Black's name deserves mention in these pages as having been among the first to discover and foster the abilities of Mr. Charles Dickens, when he first commenced life as an unknown reporter in the employ of the Morning Chronicle. Mr. Black spent the last few years of his life in retirement at Biding, Kent. During his early struggles in London, he translated from the French A. de Humboldt's Political Essay on the Kingdom of New Spain, and Memoirs of Goldoni; also Travels through Norway and Lapland from the German of Leopold, and Lectures on the Drama and Dramatic literature from that of Schlegel. He died June 15, 1855.—E. W. <section end="643M" /> <section begin="643Zcontin" />BLACK,, an eminent Scottish chemist and natural philosopher, was born in 1728 in the neighbourhood of Bordeaux, where his parents then resided. In 1746 he entered the university of Glasgow, where he studied the natural sciences under Drs. Dick and Cullen. Whilst completing his studies at Edinburgh, he was led to investigate the nature of the caustic alkalies; and succeeded in establishing the important fact that their causticity was owing to the removal of carbonic acid. Burnt lime, it was formerly supposed, imbibed some principle from the fire, but Black showed that the heat merely expelled the carbonic acid of the limestone. The same conclusion was of course applied to magnesia. In 1756 he became lecturer on chemistry at the university of Glasgow, where he was eminently successful. He was struck about this time with the loss of heat manifested <section end="643Zcontin" />