Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 02.djvu/517

BALZAC. BALZAC, (1597-1654). A noted French essayist, and stylist. He was born at Angoulême of wealthy parents, and having received a good education was taken by Cardinal de la Valette to Rome, and wrote thence letters to persons prominent at court that made him recognized on his return as master of composition and style in a generation that regarded such abilities excessively. His letters, collected in 1624, are empty, bombastic, and affected, but they entitle Balzac to rank as a reformer of prose, as his contemporary, Malherbe (q.v.), is of verse. He underwent bitter accusations of plagiarism in 1G25, and withdrew to Angoulême, where he produced his uninspired and laborious lucubration, Le Prince (1631); Discours (1644): Le Barbon (1648); Aristippe''. He was elected to the Academy in 1634. Balzac's Works were collected in 2 vols. (Paris, 1665, 1854). The Letters are well edited by Larroque (Paris, 1874).

BALZICO, bal-tse'ko, Alfonso (1825 — ). An Italian sculptor, born at Cava di Tirreni, near 8alerno. He was educated at the Academy of Naples and at Pionie. where he completed the statues of Flavio Gioja and of ,Tohn the Baptist, the latter a work of colossal dimensions. Upon his return to Naples he received an order from King Victor Emmanuel for the statues entitled "Cleopatra," "The Coquette," "Revenge," "The Free." Among the other works of Balzieo are: "Massimo d'Azeglio" (187.3, Turin). "Vincenzo Bellini," a fine marble statue of the composer, surrounded by female figures emblematic of his operas (Naples) ; "Duke Ferdinand of Genoa" (Turin) : and "Victor Emmanuel" ( 1897, Naples).

BAMBA, biim'ba. A Bantu tribe of the Ba- Fyot. ur Ba-Kongo group, Angola. They are of medium stature, the figure well rounded and well proportioned, with woolly hair, dark brown color, beardless, and little hair on the body. They have adopted some of the arts of Euro- peans, though they easily revert under tribal influences. They play on a musical bow having a gourd resonator resting over the stomach. They are polygamists and ancestor worshipers, and ])ractice witchcraft, although images of Roman Catholic saints are employed as fetiches. Small terra-cotta images are placed on the graves of important men.

BAMBARRA, bam-biir'ra. A former king- dom in Western Africa, sitiuited on both sides of the Upper Niger, and now divided into the several States of Kaarta, Segu, Massina and Beledugu. It is mountainous in the southwest and fiat and often swampy in its northern part. It has a soil of remarkable fertility, yielding annually two crops of corn, rice, yams, and many kinds of fruit. The climate is very hot, and the lower parts of the country are subject to inun- dation from time to time by the Niger. The principal industries are the weaving of cloth, a work performed exclusively by w'onien, and the mamifacture of metal and leather products. The commerce is quite extensive. The principal towns are Segu, Sansandig, and Bamaku. The inhabitants, a mixed negro and Fulah people, belong to the Jlandigan family. Their food con- sists chiefly of maize, rice, cassava, and dates. In the arts, the Bambarra have been advanced because of their position as middlemen between the coast and the interior. The population is estimated at 2,000,000. Politically Bambarra belongs to the French sphere of influence. See Sudan.

BAMBERG, biirn'berK. A city in the District of Upper Franconia, Bavaria, beautifully situ- ated on the banks of the Regnitz, not far from its confluence with the Main, about ,30 miles north of Nuremberg (Map: Germany, D 4). Numer- ous bridges connect the various sections of the city, which is intersected by three branches of the river. The streets are wide and well built, and there are a number of artistically laid out squares. The most noteworthy of its public buildings is the cathedral, a magnifi- cent edifice in the Byzantine style, founded by Henry II., in 1004, and restored after a fire in 1110. It contains, among other monuments, the elaborately carved tomb of the founder and his consort, Cunigunda. Attached to the cathedral is a library of over 300,000 volumes, with valu- able missals and manuscripts and what is. repre- sented to be the prayer-book of Henry II. There are several other fine ecclesiastical structures of early date and the old palace of the former prince- bishops of Bamberg. The ruins of the Castle of Altenburg, originally the seat of the Count of Babenberg, and the scene of many important his- torical events, stand on an eminence about a mile and a half from the town. The educational insti- tutions of Bamberg are numerous, as are also the charitable institutions, which include a municipal hospital, an orphan and an insane asylum. The industries consist chiefiy of the manufacture of beer — which is famous throughout Germany — cot- ton, woolens, gloves, musieal instruments, leather, tobacco, sugar, starch, etc. The United States is represented by a consular agent. The city's gov- ernment is in the hands of a municipal council of 42 members and an executive board of 19, elected by the former. Bamberg received mu- nicipal privileses in 073. Population, in 1890, 36,000; in 1901, 41,600. Consult VJige, "Ueber die Bamberger Domsculpturen," in Repertorium filr Kunstivissenschaft, Vol. XXII. (Berlin, 1899).

BAMBERGER, bäm'bĕr K -ẽr, (1814-73). A German painter. He was born at Würzburg, and studied at the Berlin Academy and under Primavesi, at Cassel, and Rottmann, at Munich. In 1845 he made a tour through Normandy and England, as a result of which he produced the fine painting entitled &ldquo;The Battlefield of Hastings,&rdquo; with its magnificent view of the sea. Among his best works, most of which are studies of Spanish landscapes, are the views of Gibraltar (at Munich), Algeciras, and Granada.

BAMBERGER, (1823-99). A German parliamentarian and writer on political and economic subjects. He was born at Mainz, of Jewish parentage, and studied law at Giessen, Heidelberg, and Göttingen. Implicated in the Revolution of 1849 as editor of the Mainzer Zeitung, he was condemned to death, but was amnestied in 1866. As a member of the National Liberal Party in the Reichstag (1871-80) he defended the gold standard against the bimetallists, opposed the economic policy of Prince Bismarck (after 1879), and advocated free trade, becoming the founder and president of the Verein zur Förderung der Handelsfreiheit. Compelled by his antagonism to Prince Bismarck's theories to resign from the National Liberal Party, he