The Nuttall Encyclopaedia Part 81

BOOTON, an island in the Malay Archipelago, SE. of Celebes; subject to the Dutch.

BOPP, FRANZ, a celebrated German philologist and Sanskrit scholar, born at Mayence; was professor of Oriental Literature and General Philology at Berlin; his greatest work, "A Comparative Grammar of Sanskrit, Zend, Greek, Latin, Lithuanian, Old Slave, Gothic, and German"; translated portions of the "MAHaBHaRATA," q. v. (1791-1867).

BORA, KATHARINA, the wife of Luther, born in Meissen, originally a nun, who, with eight others, was at Luther's instance released from her convent; proved "a pious and faithful wife" to Luther, as he says of her, and became the mother to him of six children, three sons and three daughters (1499-1552).

BORDA, a French mathematician and physicist, born at Dax, in the dep. of Landes, served in both army and navy; one of those employed in measuring an arc of the meridian to establish the metric system in France (1733-1799).

BORDEAUX (256), a great industrial and commercial city, and chief seat of the wine trade in France and the third seaport on the Garonne; cap. of the dep. of Gironde; the birthplace of Rosa Bonheur and Richard II., his father, the Black Prince, having had his seat here as governor of Aquitaine. There are sugar-refineries, potteries, foundries, gla.s.s and chemical works. The cod-fis.h.i.+ng industry has its base here. A cathedral dates from the 11th century. There are schools of science, art, theology, medicine, and navigation, a library, museum, and rich picture-gallery.

BORDER MINSTREL, Sir Walter Scott.

BORDERS, THE, the s.h.i.+fting boundary between Scotland and England before the Union, a centre of endless fighting and marauding on the opposite sides for centuries.

BORDONE, an Italian painter, born at Treviso, a pupil of t.i.tian and Giorgione; his most celebrated picture, "The Gondolier presenting the Ring of St. Mark to the Doge" (1500-1570).

BORE, a watery ridge rus.h.i.+ng violently up an estuary, due to a strong tidal wave travelling up a gradually narrowing channel. Bores are common in the estuary of the Ganges and other Asiatic rivers, in those of Brazil, and at the mouth of the Severn, in England.

BOREAS, the G.o.d of the north wind, and son of the t.i.tan Astraeus and of Aurora.

BORGHESE, name of a family of high position and great wealth in Rome: Camillo, having become Pope in 1605 under the t.i.tle of Paul V.; and Prince Borghese having married Pauline Bonaparte, sister of Napoleon, who separated himself from her on the fall of her brother (1775-1832); the palace of the family one of the finest in Rome, and has a rich collection of paintings.

BORGHESI, COUNT, an Italian savant skilled in numismatics (1781-1860).

BORGIA, CaeSAR, fourth son of Pope Alexander VI.; was made cardinal at the age of 17, an honour he relinquished to become a soldier, in which capacity it is alleged he gave himself up to deeds of inhumanity, which have made his name a synonym for every action that is most crafty, revolting, and cruel; a portrait of him by Raphael, in the Borghese gallery, is a masterpiece. Notwithstanding the execration in which his memory is held, he is reputed to have been just as a ruler in his own domain, and a patron of art and literature; _d_. 1507.

BORGIA, FRANCESO, third general of the Order of the Jesuits, a post he filled with great zeal as well as prudent management; was beatified by Urban VIII., and canonised by Clement IX., 1671 (1510-1572).

BORGIA, LUCRETIA, sister of Caesar Borgia, born at Rome; her father annulled her first marriage, and gave her to a nephew of the king of Naples, who was murdered by her brother's a.s.sa.s.sins, when she married the Duke of Ferrara; was celebrated for her beauty and her patronage of letters, though she has been accused of enormities as well as her brother (1480-1523).

BORGU, fertile and densely-peopled state in Africa, traversed by the Niger, subject to the Royal Niger Company, in one of the chief towns of which Mungo Park lost his life.

BORLASE, WILLIAM, antiquary and naturalist, born in St. Just, Cornwall; author of "Observations on the Antiquities of Cornwall" and "Natural History of Cornwall"; was vicar in his native parish (1696-1772).

BORN, BERTRAND, one of the most celebrated troubadours of the 12th century, born in Perigord; aggravated the quarrel between Henry II. of England and his sons; is placed by Dante in the "Inferno."

BORNE, LUDWIG, a political writer, born at Frankfort, of Jewish parentage; disgusted with the state of things in Germany, went to Paris after the Revolution there of 1830; was disappointed with the result, and turned Radical; he and Heine were at deadly feud (1787-1837).

BORNEO (1,800), an island in the Malay Archipelago, the third largest in the globe, Australia and New Guinea being larger; its length 800 m., and its breadth 700, covered with mountains in the interior, Kinabalu the highest (13,000 ft.); has no volcanoes; bordered all round with wide plains and low marshy ground; rich in vegetation and in minerals, in gold and precious stones; its forests abound with valuable timber, teak, ebony, &c.; all tropical crops and spices are cultivated; the population is Dyak, Malay, and Chinese; possessed in great part by the Dutch, and in the north part by the British.

BORNHOLM (35), an island belonging to Denmark, in the Baltic; has no good harbour; agriculture, cattle-breeding, and fis.h.i.+ng the occupation of the inhabitants.

BORNU (5,000), a Mohammedan State in the Central Soudan, W. and S.

of Lake Tehad; famed for a breed of horses; population mostly negroes; the ruling race of Arab descent, called Shuwas; climate hot and unhealthy in the low ground, but temperate in the high.

BORO BUDOR, the ruin of a magnificent Buddhist temple in Java, ornamented with figures of Buddha and scenes in his life, with representations of battles, processions, chariot races, &c.

BORODINO, a village 70 m. W. of Moscow; the scene of a b.l.o.o.d.y battle between Napoleon and the Russians, Sept. 7, 1812.

BORORO, a large Brazilian nation between Cuyaba and Goyaz.

BOROUGH, in Scotland BURGH, is in its modern sense primarily a town that sends a representative to Parliament; but it is further an area of local government, exercising police, sanitary, and sometimes educational, supervision, and deriving its income from rates levied on property within its bounds, and in Scotland sometimes from "common good"

and petty customs. Its charter may be held from the Crown or granted by Parliament.

BOROUGH ENGLISH, descent of lands to a youngest son.

BOROWLASKI, COUNT, a Polish dwarf, of perfect symmetry, though only three feet in height; attained the age of 98.

BORROME'AN ISLANDS, four islands in Lago Maggiore, of which three were converted into gardens by Count Borromeo in 1671, on one of which stands a palace of the Borromeos, enriched with fine paintings and other works of art.

BORROME'O, ST. CARLO, cardinal and archbishop of Milan, a prominent member of the Council of Trent, and contributed to the Tridentine Catechism; conspicuous by his self-sacrificing offices during a plague in the city of which he was the archbishop (1538-1584).

BORROMEO, FREDERIGO, nephew and successor of the preceding, of equal status in the Church, and similar character (1584-1631).

BORROW, GEORGE HENRY, traveller and philologist, born in Norfolk; showed early a pa.s.sion for adventure and a facility in languages; was appointed agent for the Bible Society in Russia and Spain; in his fondness for open-air life, a.s.sociated much with the gipsies; wrote an account of those in Spain, and a famous book, ent.i.tled "The Bible In Spain"; wrote "Lavengro," his masterpiece (a gipsy designation applied to him, meaning "word-master," which he was), which is chiefly autobiography (1803-1831).