Page:Imperial Dictionary of Universal Biography Volume 1.pdf/700

BOI scholar and critic, born in Paris, 1774. It was in the early part of the present century, that after having filled some important situations under the government of Napoleon, Boissonade abandoned politics for the sake of giving himself up exclusively to the study of Grecian literature, of which, in 1809, he was nominated professor at the French academy. In 1813 he was elected member of the Academy of Inscriptions, and in 1828 was raised to the chair of Greek literature in the college of France. His philological works, all bearing on his favourite pursuits, are very numerous, and connected with his lectures in the college of France, gave a remarkable impetus to the study of that branch of classical literature with which his name is so honourably connected.—J. F. C.  BOISSY,, a French barrister, author of "Lettres sur les Spectacles," in 2 vols. The second volume contains an account of works for and against plays.—J. T.  BOISSY,, a French archæologist, born at Paris in 1666; died in 1729. He was member of the Academy of Inscriptions, and left two dissertations, "Sur les Sacrifices de Victimes Humaines dans l'antiquité," and "Sur les Expiations en usage chez les Anciens."—J. G.  BOISSY,, born at Vic in 1694; died in 1758. He wrote several comedies, the best of which is "l'Homme de Jour." Boissy was an improvident man, and always in distress. He found a strange resource in expressing in verse, for writers who were ambitious of literary distinction, but who had not acquired this accomplishment, their conceptions, and thus satisfying the requirements of the French theatre. He married; and he and his family were reduced to entire destitution, when, through the interest of Madame Pompadour, he was appointed editor of the Mercure. During his editorship, Marmontel, from whom we learn the fact, was led to write, for the purpose of serving Boissy, his Moral Tales.—J. A., D.  BOISSY D'ANGLAS,, Count, a French statesman and author, born 1756; died 1826. He was originally bred to the bar, but obtained an appointment in the household of Monsieur, afterwards Louis XVIII. Like the famous vicar of Bray, he seems ever to have had a strong inclination to swim with the current, and was usually a partisan of the dominant party for the time being. He took part in the overthrow of the monrachy, then of the republic, and finally of the empire. In consequence of the aid he gave in promoting the downfall of Buonaparte, he was nominated a peer in 1814. But, true to his principles, he joined the emperor on his return from Elba, and obtained a place in the chamber of peers. On the final downfall of Napoleon he was at first excluded from the upper house, but was restored to his place in the course of a few weeks. Count Boissy must have possessed some sterling qualities, which caused his failings to be thus overlooked. He is the author of an essay on the life, writings, and opinions of Malesherbes; of some political pieces; and of the "Etudes Littéraires et Poétiques d'un Viellard," in 6 vols., 12mo.—(Biog. Univ.)—J. T.  BOISTE,, a French lexicographer, born at Paris in 1765; died at Ivry-sur-Seine in 1824. He first applied himself to the law, but afterwards turned his attention entirely to literature. He published a universal dictionary of the French language—a gigantic work that has placed him in the same rank that Johnson has attained among us. He also wrote an epic poem entitled "l'Univers Delivré," Paris, 1805, which though frequently brilliant in its language and execution, is now entirely forgotten.—J. G.  BOISTUAU DE LAUNAI,, a French historian, lived in the first half of the sixteenth century. Author of "Theatre du Monde," a work that has been printed more than twenty times at Paris, Lyons, Rouen, Antwerp, &c. A translation of St. Augustine's City of God has been attributed to him.  BOISY,, seigneur de, also comte d'Etampes, was intrusted by Charles VIII. with the education of his son, afterwards Francis I., on whose accession Boisy was placed at the head of affairs, with the rank of grand-master of the household. He was subsequently employed in negotiating with Chièvres, the envoy of Charles V., for the adjustment of the disputes between the two sovereigns, but died of fever in 1519, before achieving the result for which he and Chièvres laboured with a zeal augmented by the strength of their personal friendship.—W. B. <section end="700H" /> <section begin="700I" />BOIT,, a Swedish enamel painter, who practised in France and England with success, and died in 1726.—W. T. <section end="700I" /> <section begin="700J" />BOITARD,, a French naturalist and agricultural writer, born at Mâçon in 1789. He at first followed a military life, and afterwards devoted himself to literature and natural science. Among his writings are—"The Cabinet of Natural History;" "Manual and Elementary Course of Natural History;" "Manual of Entomology;" "Botany for Ladies;" "Manual of Botany and Physiology;" "Gardening and Foresting Manuals;" and "Description of Mammifers in the Garden of Plants at Paris."—J. H. B. <section end="700J" /> <section begin="700K" />BOIVIN,, born in 1663, and died in 1726, a younger brother of Louis Boivin, by whom he was supported and educated. An appointment was given him in the Bibliothèque du Roi. A manuscript of part of the Bible in uncial letters, and believed to be of the eleventh or twelfth century, over which, on the same parchment, were written homilies of one of the Greek fathers, was discovered and decyphered by him. In 1705 he became a member of the Academy of Inscriptions, and soon after was appointed professor of Greek in the college de France. In 1712 he edited some volumes of the Byzantine Historians. On Huet's death he succeeded him as one of the forty of the academy. He published several tracts on classical subjects, and some translations in French verse, among them one of Homer's Frogs and Mice. Several papers of his on antiquarian subjects are printed in the Memoirs of the Academy of Inscriptions.—J. A., D. <section end="700K" /> <section begin="700L" />BOIVIN,, baron de Villars, a French chronicler, died in 1618. He was councillor and maitre d'hotel to the dowager queens, Elizabeth and Louise. From 1550 to 1559, he accompanied the marechal Cossé-Brissac, commander of the French army in Piedmont, as private secretary, and has left memoirs of the campaigns in Piedmont, Montferrat, and the duchy of Milan.—J. G. <section end="700L" /> <section begin="700M" />BOIVIN,, born in 1649 at Montreuil d'Argile, a small town in Upper Normandy, and died in 1724. Boivin's father was the avocat of the highest reputation in the district, and his maternal uncle, Pierre Vatier, was royal professor of Arabic. Young Boivin was educated in the jesuit establishment at Rouen. He afterwards attended at Paris lectures on theology, jurisprudence, and medicine. He was fond of writing verse; but Chapelain, who had then the character of being the best poet and critic in France, seeing some of his verses, dissuaded him from the exercise of the unprofitable art. In 1701 he became member of the Academy of Inscriptions. His manners are described as savage. He was irritable and impracticable. He purchased land in Normandy, and found the acquisition a plague. He is said to have expended a large sum of money, and to have wasted twelve years of time in disputing through every form of litigation, with the abbey of La Trappe, a demand of a shilling a year, which he had finally to submit to. He had ready for publication, when death interrupted his purpose, a "Narrative of Joseph's Life," framed from the scripture account, in French verse, at which he had been working for thirty years. Several papers of his on Greek and Roman antiquities are published in the Memoirs of the Academy of Inscriptions. He was in the habit of making so many alterations in what he wrote, that the printers ceased to send him proof sheets, and these essays had not the advantage of his superintending the press.—J. A., D. <section end="700M" /> <section begin="700N" />BOJE, J. See. <section end="700N" /> <section begin="700O" />BOJE or BOIE,, a German poet, was born at Meldorf in Holstein, March 9, 1744, where he died, March 3, 1806. He was a conspicuous member of the Göttinger Hainbund, and editor of the first German Musenalmanach, 1770. He also edited the Deutsche Museum, 1776-91.—(See Prutz Der Göttinger Dichterbund, 1841.)—K. E. <section end="700O" /> <section begin="700Zcontin" />BOJER,, a distinguished botanist, was born at Prague in Bohemia, on 1st January, 1800. His love of botany and natural history brought him under the notice of the late emperor of Austria, who paid for his education, with the view of preparing him for missions of scientific discovery. In 1820 he went to the Mauritius. After visiting various parts of Madagascar, making extensive collections, he sent to Vienna a large number of valuable specimens. He was rewarded by the emperor with a pension, and the decoration of the order of merit. He made a second voyage to Madagascar, and crossed over to the eastern coast of Africa, in search of new plants. He then visited the Comoro islands, &c. In these different places he resided for six years, making Madagascar, however, his head-quarters. In 1837 he published his "Hortus <section end="700Zcontin" />