533 



BARGAGLI, SCIPIONE. 



BARKER, EDMUND HEKUY. 



634 



was suppressed by the regent of the university, aud Baretti being 

 reprimanded, determined upon leaving Italy. He had early applied 

 to the study of the English language, and in 1751 he came to London, 

 where he employed himself as a teacher of Italian. In 1757 he 

 published the ' Italian Library,' which wag an account of the lives and 

 works of the most valuable authors of Italy, with a short history of 

 the Italian language : this work is valuable as a catalogue. Having 

 become known, he was appointed secretary for the foreign corres- 

 pondence to the Royal Academy of painting, sculpture, and architec- 

 ture. In 1760 he travelled through Portugal, Spain, and the south of 

 France, to Italy ; and published au account of his journey in his 

 'Lettere Famigliari,' iu 2 vols., 1762. He afterwards recast his work 

 into English, and published it with considerable additions, under the 

 title of 'A Journey from London to Genoa,' 4 vols. 12mo, Dublin, 

 1770. 



Baretti spent several years after his return to Italy between Turin, 

 Milan, and Venice ; in which last city he began a critical journal, 

 called ' Frusta Litteraria,' the Literary Scourge, which attracted much 

 attention in Italy. But he conducted his journal in a tone of bitter- 

 ness, became involved in personal quarrels with several writers of 

 note, and consequently thought it prudent to leave Venice. He took 

 up his abode at Ancona, where, in 1765, he went on publishing his 

 journal, affixing to it the false locality of Trento. Some time after- 

 wards he discontinued it, and returned to England. 



In England he wrote ' An Accotmt of the Manners and Customs of 

 Italy, with Observations on the Mistakes of Travellers with regard to 

 that Country,' 2 vols. 8vo, London, 1769. His book is curious, inas- 

 much as it gives a pretty fair account by an Italian of the manners 

 and habits of his country long before the change that has taken place 

 in consequence of the political vicissitudes of the last century. He 

 also wrote a dissertation in French ' Sur Shakspeare et M. de Voltaire,' 

 in which he refuted many errors which Voltaire had made in speaking 

 of Shakspere, and exposed his flippancy in judging of the language 

 and literature of foreign nations, such as the English and the Italian, 

 with which he was very superficially acquainted, and into the spirit 

 of which he could not enter. Baretti published an 'Italian Grammar,' 

 and an ' Italian and English Dictionary,' in two vols. 4to, which super- 

 seded the former one of Altieri ; it lias since gone through several 

 editions, and is still much in use. He also compiled a ' Spanish and 

 English Dictionary,' fol., London, 1778. 



One evening as Baretti was going to the Academy he found him- 

 self unexpectedly involved in a street brawl Being attacked by 

 several men, he drew his penknife and wounded one of the assailants, 

 who soon after died. He was tried on the capital charge, made his 

 own defence, and was acquitted by the jury. On the trial, Dr. John- 

 son, with whom for many years he was on terms of intimate friendship, 

 Mr. Burke, and Garrick, gave favourable evidence as to his character. 



In 1782 Baretti obtained an increase of hia salary as secretary to 

 the Royal Academy, which, added to the profits derived from his 

 literary labours, enabled him to live in decent comfort till May 5, 

 1789, when he died in London, in his seventy-fifth year. 



BARGA'GLI, SCIPIO'NE, was born at Siena, in Tuscany, of a 

 patrician family, about the middle of the 1 6th century. He became 

 distinguished as an elegant writer, and was a member of the academy 

 of the Intronati of Siena, as well as of the Venetian academy which 

 was instituted at Venice in 1593. Bargagli's principal works are, 1. 

 I Trattenimenti,' 4to, Firenze, 1581, and Venice, 1587, which by 

 some is called Bargagli's novels. The work is a series of tales, but it 

 begins with a powerful description of the horrors which the people of 

 .Siena had to encounter in 1554-55, while besieged by the united forces 

 of Charles V. and of Cosmo, grand duke of Florence, previous to the 

 final extinction of their republic. It is a faithful historical account, 

 and is calculated to excite the most intense interest. 2, 'Dell' 

 Imprese,' 4to, Venice, 1594. This is a work of considerable erudition 

 concerning the origin and symbolic language of devices and mottoes 

 which were assumed iu the ages of chivalry, and is considered as one 

 of the best on the subject. The third work of Bargagli is 'II Turamino 

 ovvero del Parlare e dello Scriver Sanese," 4to, Siena, 1602, a dialogue 

 on the various dialects of Tuscany, and especially on that of Siena, 

 explaining the principal differences of spelling and pronunciation 

 between that and the Florentine dialect, as well as the difference in 

 certain words used by each to signify the same objects. Bargagli wrote 

 other minor works both in prose and verse. He died October 1612. 



His brother GIEOLAMO, who was a professor of law, and afterwards 

 a counsellor of some note in his native city, was likewise an author. 

 He wrote a book called ' Dialogo dei Giuochi che nolle Vegghie Sanesi 

 M usano di fare,' 8vo, Venice, 1575, which is an explanation of the 

 numerous social games which used to be and are still occasionally 

 played in Italy. This book has been by some erroneously attributed 

 to Scipione Bargagli. 



(Mazzuchelli, ficritlori d' Italia.) 



BARHAM, REV. RICHARD HARRIS, was born December 6, 

 1788, at Canterbury, where his family had resided for many genera- 

 tions. He was an only son, and his father, who died in 1795, left him 

 a small estate. In 1802 his right arm was severely shattered by the 

 upsetting of the Dover mail, in which he was travelling to St. Paul's 

 School, London. His life was despaired of for some time, but lie 

 ultimately recovered, and regained the use of his arm. From St. Paul's 



School he removed to Brasenose College, Oxford, where, during a short 

 .but severe illness, he first entertained the thought of entering into the 

 church, though he had previously to this intended to become a lawyer, 

 and did afterwards become for a short time a pupil to a conveyancer. 

 Having passed his examination for holy orders, he was admitted to 

 the curacy of Ashford in Kent, whence he removed to Westwell, a 

 few miles distant. Mr. Barbara married in 1814, and shortly after- 

 wards was presented by the Archbishop of Canterbury to the rectory 

 of Snargate, and he obtained at the same time the curacy of Wareham, 

 the former in Romney Marsh, Kent, a district much frequented by 

 smugglers, and the latter on the verge of it. The breaking of one leg 

 and the spraining of the other by the overturning of a gig, gave him 

 occasion to employ himself in the composition of a novel entitled 

 ' Baldwin,' which was published without attracting any notice. Soon 

 afterwards he became a candidate for a vacant minor canonry in 

 St. Paul's Cathedral, and though his friends thought he had no chance 

 of success, he was duly elected in 1821. He thenceforth devoted much 

 of the time not required by his professional duties to contributions in 

 prose and verse to the periodical publications of the day. He wrote 

 ' My Cousin Nicholas" in ' Blackwood's Magazine,' and about one-third 

 of the articles in Gorton's ' Biographical Dictionary ' were written by 

 him. ' My Cousin Nicholas ' has since been published in a separate 

 form in 3 vols. 8vo. 



In 1824 Mr. Barham received the appointment of a priest in ordinary 

 of the Chapel Royal, and shortly afterwards was presented to the 

 rectory of the united parishes of St. Mary Magdalene and St. Gregory 

 by St. Paul, London. 



Till the year 1837, when the first number of Bentley's 'Miscellany' 

 appeared, Mr. Barham had been an anonymous and comparatively 

 uuknown writer ; but the ' Ingoldsby Legends," a series of humorous 

 tales in verse, which appeared in rapid succession hi that work, brought 

 him so much reputation that his pseudo name of Ingoldsby no longer 

 concealed him, and he became generally known as the author. In 

 1842 he was appointed divinity reader in St. Paul's Cathedral, and he 

 was permitted to change his living for the more valuable rectory of 

 St. Augustine and St. Faith, London. 



On the 28th of October 1844, when the Queen visited the city to 

 open the new Royal Exchange, Mr. Barham, who was a witness of the 

 procession, caught a severe cold, from which he never recovered. He 

 died June 17, 1845. 



Mr. Barham was personally acquainted with Theodore Hook, the 

 Rev. Sydney Smith, and several other of the distinguished wits of his 

 day, and was, like them, a frequent diner-out, a sayer of good things, 

 and a teller of droll stories ; but he never neglected his more serious 

 duties, and was much respected by those who knew him. 



The ' Ingoldsby Legends ' have been published in 3 vols. post 8vo. 

 ' A Memoir of the Rev. Richard Harris Barham,' by his son the Rev. 

 R. H. D. Barham, precedes the Third Series. 



BARKER, BENJA.MIN, a landscape painter of Bath, aud the 

 brother of the more distinguished Thomas Barker, noticed in another 

 article. [BARKER, THOMAS.] His works are little known beyond the 

 circle of his acquaintances. He was however a painter of very great 

 ability, though his works exhibit many defects of execution. His 

 subjects were chiefly taken from near Wick Rocks, Clavertou, Midford, 

 Weston, and Hampton Cliffs, and are remarkable for their fidelity, and 

 for the fine delicate feelings with which the characteristic aspect of 

 each has been selected. He published a set of 48 views, engraved in 

 aquatinta by Theodore Fielding. He difd in March 1838, aged 62, at 

 Totness in Devonshire. (Art Union, February 1843.) 



BARKER, EDMUND HENRY, was born in December 1788, at 

 his father's vicarage of Holly m in Yorkshire. He entered in 1807 as 

 a student of Trinity College, Cambridge, but did not take any degree. 

 Upon leaving the university he became amanuensis to Dr. Parr, iu 

 whose h >use, at Hatton, he resided in that character for several years. 

 He then married, and settled at Thetford in Norfolk. The last few 

 years of his life were marked by painful reverses of fortune. They 

 were spent chiefly in London, where he died, after a short illness, on 

 the 21st of March, 1839. 



Mr. Barker's writings in classical philology and criticism were nume- 

 rous. He was a constant and leading contributor to Mr. Valpy's 

 ' Classical Journal,' almost from its commeucemeut till its close in 

 1829 ; and he furnished many papers also to other periodical publi- 

 cations. He edited, with English notes, for the use of schools, 

 portions of several of the classics, both Greek and Latin. He also 

 published a volume in which he believed himself to have disproved 

 Sir Philip Francis's authorship of the 'Letters of Juuius ; ' and he was 

 the compiler or editor of the curious but undigested mass of literary 

 anecdotes and criticisms, devoted to the memory of his friend Dr. 

 Parr, and entitled ' Parriana,' 2 vols., 8vo, 1828. 



But Mr. Barker's name has been best known through his con- 

 tributions to Greek lexicography. The latest work of this kind in 

 which he engaged was the Greek and English Lexicon published iu 

 1831, in which he was the coadjutor of Professor Dunbar of Edin- 

 burgh. But an undertaking at once more laborious and more unlucky 

 was Mr. Valpy's spirited reprint of Henry Stephens's ' Thesaurus 

 Grsecse Lingua),' London, 1816-28, 10 vols., fol. Although the editor- 

 ship of this work WHS described as vested in more than one person, it 

 was understood universally that the duties involved in the editorship 



