Page:Imperial Dictionary of Universal Biography Volume 1.pdf/684

BOC  to a Prussian regiment of dragoons in 1748, and in 1753 professor of theology and Greek in the university of Königsberg, where he also filled the office of chief librarian. He died in 1786. His writings are numerous, and some of them highly esteemed. The most remarkable of them bears the title of "Historia Antitrinitariorum, maximè Socinianismi et Socinianorum," &c., and was published at Leipzig in two volumes in 1774-1784. Of his writings on natural history, some containing descriptions of the birds of Prussia appeared in the Naturforscher. His "Natural History of Prussian Amber" was published in 1767; his "Natural History of East and West Prussia," in 1782; his "Natural and Commercial History of the Herring," in 1769.—W. S. D.  BOCK,, baron de, born at Thionville in 1747; died at Nelon in 1809. Bock emigrated at the time of the Revolution, settled at Anspach, where he supported himself by tuition, and by translating German books into French. After ten years of exile his name was erased from the list of emigrants. He was afterwards appointed conseiller de prefecture at Luxemburg, where he found leisure to pursue the study of literature. He has left several works on subjects connected with history and archæology, and tracts of his, many of them in German, are printed in the transactions of learned societies. Among these the most interesting are those on Persian antiquities and literature.—J. A., D.  BOCK,, in Latin , was a German botanist of the seventeenth century, who published at Strasburg, a Krauterbuch, or description of indigenous German plants.—J. H. B.  BOCK,, a distinguished German physician and anatomist, born at Magdeburg in 1782. He studied medicine at Leipzig, and occupied the position of prosector in the university of that city up to the time of his death in 1833. His principal works are—a "Description of the Fifth Pair of Nerves;" a "Manual of the Practical Anatomy of the Human Body;" a treatise on the "Nerves of the Medulla Spinalis;" and "Anatomico-Chirurgical Tables," a work which was completed by his son.—W. S. D.  * BOCK,, son of the preceding, born in 1809, professor in the Faculty of Medicine at Leipzig, and author of several anatomical works, of which the principal is a "Manual of Pathological Anatomy."—W. S. D.  BOCKENBERG,, better known under the name of, a Dutch chronicler, born in 1548; died in 1617. Author of "Prisci Bataviæ et Frisii Reges," 1589, 12mo, and other works on the history of the Low Countries.  BOCKHORST,, surnamed , was born at Munster in 1610, and studied under the robust Jordaens, under whom he became a distinguished portrait and historical painter, sometimes imitating Vandyck. His pictures are to be found in Flemish churches, and stand high there. His colour is sometimes of the mellowed apple, Rubens' style; he drew women gracefully; his pictures have force and harmony, and his management of the chiaro-scuro produces an agreeable effect. Pilkington mentions good works by lanky John at the church of St. James in Ghent—a "Martyrdom;" and another Ghent church rejoices in an "Annunciation," inscribed 1664.—W. T.  BOCKHORST,, perhaps a descendant, was born at Deutekom in Holland in 1661; studied under fluttering Kneller, went to Germany, returned, and died in 1724. He painted history well, but excelled in portraits and battles.—W. T. <section end="684H" /> <section begin="684I" />BÖCLER,, an erudite German historian, born at Cronheim in Franconia in 1611; died in 1692. In his twentieth year he was appointed to the chair of eloquence at Strasburg; in 1648, on the invitation of Queen Christina, he removed to Upsal, where he was appointed professor of eloquence and royal historiographer; and afterwards filled a chair of history in the former university, the state of his health having obliged him to leave Sweden. His extraordinary reputation for scholarship procured him the honour of being created count palatine by the emperor, Ferdinand III., who, to compensate him for declining a pension of 2000 livres offered him by the court of France, made him an annual allowance of 600 rix-dollars. He was not only admirably skilled in classical literature and in Hebrew, but boasted a profound acquaintance with history, politics, and law. Besides editions of a number of Greek and Latin authors, poets as well as historians, he published an immense number of historical dissertations, which, together with his miscellanies, were collected into four volumes, quarto, at Strasburg in 1712. His "Bibliographia Critica" appeared at Leipzig in 1715.—J. S., G. <section end="684I" /> <section begin="684J" />BOCOUS or BOCCUCI,. This dramatist was born at Barcelona in 1775. He studied at Murcia and Bologna, in which last city he lectured on ancient history. Having taken out his degree of A.M., he went to Milan and studied Italian literature; from thence he proceeded to Padova and edited two periodicals, the Encyclopedia and the Literary Gazette. His poetical compositions procured him the admission into many academies. Being anxious to enter on the military career he returned to Spain, and was devoting his time to the study of mathematics when France declared war against Spain. Bocous got immediately his commission, and under the generals Ricardos, La-Union, and Urritia, he made the campaigns of 1793 and 1794, in which he was wounded several times. At the termination of the war Bocous went to Madrid and wrote several plays, which were successfully represented on the stage. He travelled afterwards through the south of France and Italy, and collected many informations and documents connected with the history of those countries, which, it is to be regretted, have not yet been published. Bocous was in Florence when war broke out anew against Spain. By order of the French government, which then ruled over that duchy, he, together with other Spanish subjects residing in Florence, was arrested and sent to Dijon, in which city he was obliged to give lessons in modern languages to provide for his subsistence. Bocous asked and obtained the permission of going to Paris, where he fixed his residence, and spent all his time writing on literary subjects, either in Spanish, Italian, French, or Portuguese, being quite familiar with all these languages, in which he has left many valuable works, of which the principal are—"Raccolte di varie poesie," "Los Genios opuestos," and "Amelie et Clotilde," a novel written in classic French. He also furnished many articles on Spanish and Portuguese writers to the Biographic Universelle, and continued the Historical Dictionary of Zeller, as also the Historical Account of the French revolution, which stands as the prologue to the supplement of Zeller's Dictionary. It is to be regretted that nothing is known about this polyglot author's death. We are only certain that he was alive in 1821, the year in which was published the Biographic Nouvelle des Contemporains.—A. C. M. <section end="684J" /> <section begin="684K" />BOCTHOR, or, born at Siout in Upper Egypt in 1784; died in 1821. In the French expedition to Egypt he joined the army in the capacity of interpreter. In 1819 he was named professor of Arabic, succeeding in this office Raphael, a Syrian priest, connected with the Bibliotheque du Roi. Bocthor died within two years of his appointment. He published some grammatical works connected with the duties of his professorship, and left in manuscript a French Arabic dictionary, which has passed through two editions, 1829, 1848, under the care of Caussin de Perce Val.—J. A., D. <section end="684K" /> <section begin="684Zcontin" />BOCZKAI,, a patriotic noble of Transylvania, the leader of the revolt of the protestants of his native country in 1604 against the intolerable yoke of Austria. A prior attempt in 1603 to regain their independence had been unsuccessful, but Boczkai utterly routed the imperial general Belgiojoso, and drove him from the country. The victorious leader was immediately elected to the throne by the assembled states of the principality. In the following year he overran Upper Hungary, and having entered into a league with the Turks, received a firman from the sultan creating him king of that country, to be held as a fief of the Turkish empire. He was accordingly crowned on the plains of Rakosch, near Buda, in the presence of the vizier and the pashas of Buda and Temesvar. His avowed intention was to establish the independence of Hungary and the security of the protestant religion, and he contemptuously refused to listen to the overtures made to him by the court of Vienna. But peace having been concluded between the Porte and Austria, Boczkai was obliged to lay aside these lofty projects and to conclude a separate peace with the emperor, by which he consented to remain satisfied with the rank of hereditary prince of Transylvania, with the reversion to Austria in failure of his male line. The liberties of Hungary, however, and the free exercise of the protestant religion, were solemnly guaranteed by the emperor. Boczkai died without issue December 30, 1606, in the fifty-first year of his age, about six months after the conclusion of this treaty, not without suspicion of poison. "He died," says old Knolles, "to the great sorrow and grief of all the people in generall, who had him in great honor and regard. He was honorably descended, and a man of great spirit, ambitious, wise, and politicke; a great lover of his country, but an extreme <section end="684Zcontin" />