Page:Imperial Dictionary of Universal Biography Volume 1.pdf/755

BOU monarchy. He became the idol of the court and of the masses. The former tolerated, while the latter applauded his uncompromising reprobation of vice, whether courtly or vulgar; and all paid homage to his unrivalled eloquence, his piety, and zeal. He found the pulpit in Paris, as has been said, a place for buffoons and pedants; by the influence of a saintly character and splendid talents, he commanded for it all proper respect in his own lifetime, and left it a goodly reversion to men who resembled him both in piety and in genius. Louis XIV. wished him to preach ten successive Lents in the royal chapel, remarking, that an old sermon of his was better than a new one of anybody else. On the revocation of the edict of Nantes, the king sent him into Languedoc to confirm the new converts from the protestant faith; and in this mission he had extraordinary success. Until the infirmities of age rendered him unequal to the extraordinary efforts by which he had achieved unparalleled fame as a preacher, he continued to minister from the pulpit, and then with undiminished zeal turned to the more private duties of his calling, often, it is said, sitting five or six hours in the confessional after he had accomplished his daily task of visiting all the sick, and they were many, who requested his attentions. For good works the last days of this admirable man were as remarkable as were his earlier years for the triumphs of genius. He died at Paris in 1704. Two editions of his sermons were published by his friend, Father Bretonneau, the first in 16 vols. 8vo, 1706, and the second in 18 vols. 12mo. The most recent edition of his works is that of Firmin Didot, 3 vols., 1840.—J. S., G.  BOURDELOT,, the author of a work entitled "L'Histoire de la Musique et de ses Effets, depuis son origine jusqu'à présent," was born at Sens in 1610. He devoted himself first to the study of medicine, being created doctor in 1642, and afterwards to the service of the church. In 1651 he visited Stockholm, to attend Christina of Sweden in a dangerous illness; and, returning to France, was rewarded with an abbacy. He died in 1685, leaving his MSS. on music to his nephews, MM. Pierre and Jacques Bonnet. The "Histoire de la Musique" was first printed in 1715, and afterwards, with considerable additions by the editors, in 1725 and 1743. The first edition is in one small volume. The editorial appendices are in four volumes 12mo.—E. F. R.  BOURDIC-VIOT,, born at Dresden in 1746, a poetess whose works show great cultivation of mind, and are the results of calm reflection rather than of inventive imagination. Married at 13, a widow at 16, she again married baron de Bourdic, like her first husband, a Frenchman; and although of ordinary appearance she was married a third time to M. Viot. She used pleasantly to say of herself that the Architect had neglected the exterior of the building, and in saying so implied that, like some Arabian buildings, the marvellous decorations of the interior compensated for the sobriety of the outside. Her acquaintance with living languages was extensive, and in philosophy she followed the easy elastic scepticism of the tolerant Montaigne. Voltaire and La Harpe have each borne testimony to the remarkable qualities of this accomplished woman. She died in 1802.—J. F. C.  BOURDIN,, a learned Frenchman, born at Paris in 1515; died in 1570. He became advocate-general to the parliament of Paris in 1555, and procureur-general in 1558. His best work is entitled "Egidii Bordini Paraphrasis in Constitutiones Regias anno 1539 editas." This work was translated into French by Fontanon in 1606.—J. G.  BOURDIN,, lord of Vilaines, a statesman of the reign of Henri II., François II., and Charles IX., died in 1567. He drew up for the council of Trent an elaborate defence of the rights of the Gallican church, parts of which are preserved in Dupuy's collection. He figured in the most important negotiations of his time, particularly those with England in 1553, and with Germany in 1553-66. He was suspected of inclining to the opinions of the German reformers.—J. S., G.  BOURDOIS DE LA MOTHE,, successively physician to the king of Rome, Louis XVIII., and Charles X., born at Joigny in 1754, is the author of a "Dissertation sur les effets de l'extrait de ratanhia dans les hemorragies," 1808. Died in 1830.  BOURDOISE,, a French ecclesiastic, contemporary with St. Vincent de Paul and the abbé Ollier, born in the diocese of Chartres in 1584; died in 1655. He was a zealous catechist and missionary, and besides instituting the community of priests of the order of St. Nicolas du Chardonnet, is said to have drawn up the code of rules observed by the Miramiones, or nuns of St. Genevieve. He left a work entitled "Idée d'un bon Ecclesiastique."  * BOURDON,, a distinguished French physician, born at Merry in 1796. His works, which are numerous, rank among the most valuable contributions to medical science of the present century. They are equally admirable in style and matter. Besides a host of dissertations in various journals he has published "Principes de Physiologic Medicale," Paris, 1828; "Principes de Physiologie comparée, ou Histoire des phenomenes de la vie dans tous les êtres qui en sont doués, depuis les plantes jusqu'aux animaux les plus complexes," 1830; and "La Physionomie et la Phrenologie, . . . examen critique du systeme d'Aristote, de Porta, de Camper," &c., 1842.—J. S., G. <section end="755H" /> <section begin="755I" />BOURDON M., a modern French mathematician, author of several very useful works. The "Algébre" and "Mécanique" of Bourdon rank among the foremost class of treatises intended for the advanced student.—J. P. N. <section end="755I" /> <section begin="755J" />BOURDON,, a French painter, born at Montpellier in 1616. His father was a glass-painter, and the son grew up a sort of restless artisan, almost self-educated. At the age of fourteen he painted a ceiling in a nobleman's house near Bourdeaux, a sufficient proof of his being an ambitious and precocious workman. Then in a fit of impatience at such mean employment, we may suppose, he went to Toulouse and enlisted. His captain finding a genius carrying a pike when he should have been holding a brush, gave him his discharge, and sent him to study, where he met and imitated Claude Lorraine.—W. T. <section end="755J" /> <section begin="755K" />BOURDON DE LA CROSNIERE, , deputy to the convention from the department of Loiret. born in 1758, a furious Jacobin. He was twice despatched by the assembly to Orleans, with power to chastise the royalists. On the second occasion he narrowly escaped death at the hands of the populace. He became secretary of the convention, and president of the Jacobins. His share in the arrest of Robespierre should almost have spared him the reproaches which till the close of his life continued to be showered upon him as one of the bloodiest of the Jacobins.—J. S., G. <section end="755K" /> <section begin="755L" />BOURDON DE VATRY,, baron, minister of marine under the directory and the consulate, born in 1761; died in 1828. He served with the French forces in America until the close of the war of independence. While minister of marine under the directory, one of his numerous projects was a descent on the English coast. Napoleon, to whom it was communicated in detail on his election to the consulate, treated it with ridicule, and two years afterwards made it his own. Bourdon's subsequent projects were more worthy of his intelligence. In the various prefectures which he held after his secession from the ministry, he undertook many public works,—bridges, and the like—the execution of which, in the midst of the most serious difficulties, drew upon him universal esteem.—J. S., G. <section end="755L" /> <section begin="755M" />BOURDOT DE RICHEBOURG, a French jurist, born at Paris in 1685, famous as the editor of the following work—"Nouveau Coutumier general, ou Corps des Coutumes generales et particulières de France et de ses provinces connues sous le nom des Gaules, vérifié sur les originaux," &c., Paris, 1724, 4 vols., 4to. This elaborate collection of legal forms is enriched with notes which entitle the author to the praise of minute as well as extensive erudition.—J. S., G. <section end="755M" /> <section begin="755N" />BOURETTE,, born in 1714; died in 1784; surnamed. She was for thirty-six years mistress of a café in the Rue Croix-des-Petits-Champs. A number of distinguished literary men were in the habit of frequenting this house, and their conversation, no doubt, tended to develope the germs of poetry that were implanted by nature in her heart. Literary discussions were relieved by theatrical representations, in which the most illustrious personages took part. Madame Bourette published a collection of her works in verse and prose. Her comedy, "The Coquette Punished," played at the Théâtre Français in 1779, had considerable success. <section end="755N" /> <section begin="755Zcontin" />BOURG,, nephew of a chancellor of France, born in Auvergne, 1521; executed as a heretic at Paris in 1559. After taking orders, he abandoned his intention of following the clerical profession, and adopted that of Law. In 1559, when Henry II. commanded the parliament of Paris to take measures for the suppression of the protestant religion, Du Bourg, then an officer of the legislature, defended in presence of the king the <section end="755Zcontin" />