Page:Imperial Dictionary of Universal Biography Volume 1.pdf/688

BOE extensive and most beneficial. The several branches of antiquarian lore which formerly had laid claim to the name of philology, have been united by Boeckh into one organic structure. Philology, according to him, is the systematic knowledge of everything that has been known; it is the learned revival of a nation's life in all its bearings upon public and domestic affairs, upon history and politics, upon religion, literature, science, and arts. This definition, of which Boeckh has given an outline in the Transactions of the German Association of Philologists, Berlin, 1850, engaged him in a protracted controversy with the Saxon school of philologists, and particularly with the celebrated G. Hermann, who pertinaciously stuck to what is now generally considered a misconception, that the true aim and office of philology was the art of elucidating and correcting the texts of the ancients. Boeckh has given ample proofs of the import of his theory in his own works. In his edition of Pindar he has not only admirably corrected the text of this author, but at the same time laid down a new theory of ancient versification. His "Political Economy of the Athenians," translated into English by Lewis, London, 1828, and his "Corpus Inscriptionum Græcarum," which he edited together with Joh. Franz for the Berlin Academy, are works of vast erudition and admirable critical acumen. Among the other productions of his pen, deserve to be mentioned—"Metrologische Untersuchungen;" "Urkundee über das Attische Senwesen;" "Manetho und die Hundsternperiode;" his edition of the Antigona of Sophocles; and his academical speeches.—K. E.  BOECKH,, a German educational writer, born in 1732 at a village near Nördlingen, became deacon of the principal church in that town. By the publication of a weekly journal, devoted to a discussion of questions connected with popular instruction, and by such works as his "Journal for Children," 14 volumes, 1780-83, and his "Chronicle for Youth," 4 volumes, 1785-88, he materially influenced the progress of education in Germany. Died in 1792.—J. S., G.  BOECLER,, a French medical man and botanist, was born in 1681, and died in 1733. He was professor of medicine at Strasburg, and in 1719 he exchanged this office for the chair of chemistry and botany. He was the author of numerous memoirs on medical, chemical, and botanical subjects.—J. H. B.  BOECLER,, son of the preceding, was born at Strasburg, 21st September, 1710, and died 19th May, 1759. He took the degreee of doctor of medicine in 1733. In 1734 he became professor of physics, and in 1736 he succeeded Salzmann as professor of chemistry, botany, and materia medica. He visited France, and secured the friendship of many of the learned men of that country. He is the author of works on physics, memoirs on various remedies, as fennel, coriander, &c.—J. H. B.  BŒHM,, commonly called , the celebrated German mystic, was born of poor parents, near Gorlitz, in Upper Lusatia. At the age of ten years sent forth from home to earn his daily bread, as a shepherd boy, among the hills and forests of his native district; although utterly uninstructed, it was with a character for pious and imaginative susceptibility already formed that he followed his very humble destiny into the desert and along the mountain ridge, every voice and feature of which was fitted to awaken in such a nature as his emotions that would appear to be more spoken of than felt in the history of mysticism. At a later period, when he had exchanged his pastoral occupation for the respectable but not very romantic trade of a shoemaker, the visionary voices that beset him in the desert did not forsake him in the shop; but still increasing in volubility, occupied his imagination to the point of making him appear to his fellow-workmen an idiot, or at the least a fool. At Gorlitz, where he settled after making the customary tour of a journeyman mechanic, he married in 1594, and continuing to labour in the way of his calling, at the same time that he pursued the theologico-mystical researches into which his early familiarity with the spirits of the air had conducted him, lived unknown for the long period of sixteen years. In 1612, however, emerging from obscurity, not so much by means of his "Aurora," then published, as by the help of some clergymen of the neighbourhood, who made their complaints of its dangerous tendencies heard throughout Germany, he was thenceforth to give to the world innumerable visions, to be reputed the head of a sect, and to occupy a distinguished, if not an enviable place in the history of mysticism. In all he published no fewer than thirty pieces; each of which, abounding in the errors of Paracelsus and the English mystic, Robert Fludd, and what was no less a charming feature of each, in the vagaries of an imagination which it is impossible to characterize except as the imagination of Jacob Bœhm, was eagerly bought by a host of enthusiasts, declaimed with great energy in every German hamlet, and then all but forgotten. He died at Gorlitz in 1623. His works were collected and printed at Amsterdam in 1730, under the title of "Theosophia Revelata."—J. S., G.  BOEHMER,, a German physician and botanist, was born at Liegnitz in 1723, and died in 1803. He studied at Leipzig under Platner and Ludwig, and became doctor of medicine in 1720. In 1752 he was appointed to the chair of anatomy and botany in the university of Wittemberg. He kept up the botanic garden, and founded an anatomical and surgical museum. In 1783 he was chosen professor of therapeutics, and he finally became dean of the medical faculty of the university. Jacquin has named a genus of Urticaceæ Boehmeria after him. He published a large number of treatises, chiefly on botany. Among them may be noticed, "Flora of Leipzig;" "An Account of writers on Natural History;" "Account of Economical Plants;" a "Botanical Lexicon;" "Dissertations on Melœactus, Nectaries of Flowers, Colours of Flowers, Deciduous Leaves," &c.—J. H. B.  BOEL,, a Flemish engraver, born at Antwerp about 1580. He worked with that neat, clear graver, in the style of the Sadelers, of whose school he was. He worked in England; but his chef-d'œuvres were plates of Charles I., and battles after Tempesta.—W. T.  BOEL,, a painter of birds, animals, flowers, and fruit, born at Antwerp in 1625, and a pupil of the robust Snyders and his uncle, Cornelius de Waal, whom he followed to Genoa. On his return to Flanders he was much patronized. He finally went to Paris, and became successor to Nicasius, another pupil of Snyders, as court painter. He died in 1680. His best pictures are the "Four Elements;" and he etched some muscular birds of prey and animals. He drew from nature; his pencil was bold, free, and fluent, and his colour—"tint of colour," as Pilkington calls it—was much admired.—, his relation, was born at Antwerp in 1622. He engraved several merrymakings from Teniers for a book called the Teniers' Gallery, published by the Archduke Leopold, who had a collection of D. T.s.—W. T. <section end="688H" /> <section begin="688I" />BOEL,, a botanist of the seventeenth century, was a native of the Netherlands. He travelled in various parts of Germany and Spain, and he also visited Tunis. He published a Herbal during his residence at Lisbon. He was a correspondent of Clusius.—J. H. B. <section end="688I" /> <section begin="688J" />BOENNINGHAUSEN, C. M. F., a German botanist of the present century. He published in 1821 a "Nomenclator Botanicus," containing an account of Westphalian plants, and in 1824 a work entitled "Prodromus Floræ Monasteriensis Westphalorum Phanerogamiæ."—J. H. B. <section end="688J" /> <section begin="688Zcontin" />BOERHAAVE,, one of the most celebrated physicians of the eighteenth century, was born at Voorhout, about two miles from Leyden, on 31st December, 1668, and died on 23d September, 1738. He was carefully educated by his father, who intended him for the clerical profession. He made rapid progress in his studies, and by the time he was eleven years old he had become acquainted with Greek and Latin. His studies were interrupted for some time by ill health. In 1682 he went to school at Leyden. About a year and a half afterwards his father died, leaving a family of nine children, who were by no means well provided for. Hermann, the eldest, was only sixteen years old. He was enabled, however, to enter the university of Leyden, where he prosecuted his classical and philosophical studies. By means of mathematical teaching, he secured funds sufficient for continuing his studies. In 1689, under the presidency of Gronovius, he delivered an oration proving that the doctrine of Epicurus concerning the chief good was well understood by Cicero. In this he gained a gold medal as a reward. In 1690 he obtained the degree of doctor of philosophy, and produced an inaugural dissertation on the distinction between mind and body, in which he attacked the doctrine of Epicurus, Hobbes, and Spinoza. He now entered on theological studies by attending the classes of Hebrew and church history under Trigland and Spanheim. By the advice, and with the aid of John Vandenburg, burgomaster of Leyden, he entered upon the study of medicine, while he continued his mathematical and theological classes. He finally, however, devoted himself entirely to medical <section end="688Zcontin" />