073 



BERNIER, FRANCOIS. 



BERNSTORF, COUNT VON. 



674 



were either not written by Berni, or have not received from the author 

 the last correction and polish. 



Berni wrote some Latin poeine, which were published in Florence in 

 1562, in the Collection 'Carmina quinque Etruscorum Poetarum.' 

 He wrote also 'La Catrina' and ' II Mogliazzo,' which are dramatic 

 scenes in 'lingua rustica," or idiom of the Florentine peasantry 

 (Florence, 1537-67). 



Berni is an author who ought to be attentively studied by Italian 

 scholars. His mastery over hia language, and the ease and purity of 

 his diction, have been seldom equalled. His humour, though often 

 broad, is not low : it is sharp and clever. His skill is not easily 

 appreciated, because it is clothed with the appearance of extreme 

 simplicity. 



There was another Francesco Berni, of Ferrara, who lived in the 

 17th century, and wrote several poetical works. 



(Mazzuchelli, Scriltori (f Italia; Stewart Rose, Life of Berni, pre- 

 fixed to his Analysis of the Innamorato ; Panizzi, Life of Bojardo.) 



BERNIER, FRANCOIS. This " most curious traveller," as he is 

 styled by our historian Gibbon, was born at Angers, then the capital 

 of the province of Anjou. The year of his birth has not been ascer- 

 tained, and very little appears to be known about him, until after his 

 return from the East, and the first publication of his travels. Voltaire 

 supposes that he was born in the year 1625. But it seems quite as 

 probable that he was born eight or ten years later. He studied medi- 

 cine as a profession, and after taking his degree of Doctor at Mout- 

 pellier, being, as he tells us himself in the first page of his book of 

 travels, excited by the desire of seeing the world, he went over to 

 Palestine and thence into Egypt. This was in the year 1654. He 

 lived more than a year at Cairo ; caught the plague, and had the rare 

 good fortune of recovering from that fearful disease. Being in Egypt 

 he became very desirous of visiting and examining the Red Sea ; and, 

 while on the shores of the Red Sea, u favourable opportunity pre- 

 sented itself for going into the East Indies. In all the countries of 

 the East a medical practitioner may travel very well, and live as well 

 as the best, without any money. Bernier's purse seems always to 

 have been very light. He lived twelve years in India, and during 

 eight of these years he resided chiefly at Delhi as physician to the 

 great Mogul emperor of Hindustan, Aurungzebe, who took him along 

 with him when he marched to the conquest of Cashmere. Bernier has 

 left us the best accounts of that war, of the march of this immense 

 army, and of the beautiful country which it subdued. The correct- 

 ness of Bernier's description of the country has been recognised and 

 praised by every European traveller that has visited Cashmere since 

 his time. 



Returning to France, his native country, Bernier began to publish. 

 His first work, entitled ' History of the last Revolution of the States 

 of the Great Mogul,' appeared at Paris in the year 1670, in two very 

 humble 12mo vols. This was followed by ' Continuation of Memoirs 

 of the Empire of the Great Mogul,' which was published at Paris in 

 the year 1671 in one vol. 12mo. The books contained a vast deal of 

 information that was altogether new to Europe at that time, and they 

 were written with great spirit, and with that admirable brevity and 

 simplicity which distinguished many of the old French travellers. 

 They at once made him famous in Paris, and they soon became uni- 

 versally known. They were quickly reprinted, as one work, under 

 the altered title of ' Travels of Fnm9ois Bernier, Doctor in Medicine 

 of the Faculty of Montpellier, containing the description of the States 

 of the Great Mogul, of Hindustan, of the Kingdom of Cashmere,' &c. 

 These travels have been rather frequently reprinted, and have been 

 translated into most European languages. The English translation 

 by Mr. Irving Brock appears to be carefully and correctly done. It 

 is in two vols. 8vo, and was published in London in the year 1826. 

 There is a modern French edition of the original In two vols. Svo, 

 Paris, 1830. 



Bernier's travels contain much valuable history : they describe the 

 causes of that important revolution which raised Aurungzebe to the 

 throne of Hindustan ; and as the author was personally engaged in 

 the scene of action, and an eye-witness of many of the principal 

 events, which he relates in such simple and interesting language, the 

 narrative is the more valuable and trustworthy. Major Rennell 

 (' Memoir for Illustrating the Map of Hindustan') calls Bernier "the 

 moat instructive of all East India travellers." 



Although it was what some call the golden age of Louis XIV., 

 F'w rnicr does not appear to have tasted of the patronage and bounty 

 of the court. His philosophical treatises have long been neglected or 

 forgotten. It is said that he took to writing them for the instruction 

 and amusement of Madame de la Sablicre, who dabbled in geometry, 

 astronomy, and the natural sciences, as well as in tlio belles-lettres. 

 Gasaendi's philosophy was then in vogue ; but his works were rather 

 too difficult and too voluminous for ladies and wits. In 1674-75 

 Ecrnier published an abridgment of the philosophy of Gassendi. In the 

 second part of this abridgment he treats of the systems of Ptolemseus, 

 Copernicus, and Tycho Brahe, and gives a refutation of judiciary 

 astronomy. This work was much read or very much praised at the 

 time. He wrote a memoir on the quietism of the Indians, which was 

 inserted in the ' Histoire des Onvrages des Savants,' 1688. His other 

 things seem mostly mere jeux-d'esprit. Hi? jokes against tlie Aristo- 

 telian philosophy ('Ariet donm! en la Grande Chamlre du Parnasae 



BIOO. wv. VOL. I. 



pour le Maintien de la Philosophic d'Aristote') are given in the ' Mena- 

 giana.' Bernier visited England in 1685, and died at Paris on the 

 22nd of September 1688. 



(Biographie Universelk ; Bernier's own Works and Prefaces.) 



BERNI'NI, GIOVANNI LORENZO, born at Naples in 1598, was 

 the son of Pietro Bernini, a Florentine painter and sculptor. While 

 young Bernini was still a child, his father removed with bis family to 

 Rome, being commissioned by Pope Paul V. to work at the Borghese 

 Chapel in Santa Maria Maggiore. Young Bernini showed a remarkable 

 disposition for sculpture ; and at ten years of age having made a head 

 in marble, which was generally admired, the pope sent for him, and 

 recommended him to the care of Cardinal Maffeo Barberini. At 

 seventeen years of age Bernini made the fine group of Apollo and 

 Daphne, which was afterwards placed in the Villa Borghese. He 

 studied architecture at the same time, as well as sculpture. Gre- 

 gory XV., who succeeded Paul V., employed him in several works, 

 bestowed on him pensions, and made him a knight. After Gregory's 

 death, when Cardinal Barberini was elected pope under the name of 

 Urban VIII., Bernini became, his favourite architect and sculptor, and 

 then executed the great works which have established his fame, of 

 which the following are the principal : The Confession of St. Peter's, 

 that is, the bronze columns and canopy under the dome, at which he 

 worked for nine years, and for which he received 10,000 scudi, besides 

 a pension and two livings for his brothers ; the palace Barberini and 

 the fountain in the square before it; the front of the College de Pro- 

 paganda Fide. He constructed besides several other fountains in 

 Rome, and various works and ornaments in the interior of St Peter's ; 

 among others the niches and staircases in the piers which support the 

 cupola. Among his other works Bernini made a head of Charles I. of 

 England, for which he was handsomely remunerated. Cardinal Maza- 

 riu invited him to France, and offered him a rich pension, but Pope 

 Urban would not permit him to leave Rome, nor was Bernini himself 

 inclined to leave a city where he was the acknowledged arbiter of 

 public taste. When forty years of age Bernini married Caterina Fezi, 

 the daughter of a respectable citizen of Rome. His life from that 

 time became extremely regular ; he lived frugally, worked hard, and 

 assiduously, being sometimes for seven hours together at his chisel. 

 He did not interrupt his work for any strangers who came to visit his 

 study, whether princes or cardinals ; they stepped softly in, and sat 

 down to look at Mm in silence. Under the pontificate of Innocent X., 

 who succeeded Urban VIII., Bernini inad< the great fountain in the 

 Piazza Navona, and he also began the palace of Monte Citorio. By 

 Alexander VII. he was commissioned to execute the great work of 

 the piazza before St. Peter's ; he made the splendid colonnade and 

 also the great staircase leading from the portico of the church to the 

 Vatican palace. He next made the Cattedra, or great chair of St. 

 Peter's, of gilt bronze. The elegant church of SamV Andrea Ji Monte 

 Cavallo is likewise by him. 



Bernini visited Paris in 1665, on the urgent invitation of Louis XIV. 

 His journey was a triumphaljprocession : he made his public entrance 

 into Florence, and was received by the grand duke with the greatest 

 honours. At Turin, at Lyon, and every where on the road, he was 

 received with similar honours. He remained for about eight mouths 

 in Paris, and was employed in several works of sculpture, among others 

 a bust of Lous XIV., for which he was splendidly remunerated ; but 

 he declined to interfere with the designs of Claude Perrault, who was 

 then engaged on the Louvre, and indeed did nothing at Paris in the 

 way of architecture. On his return to Rome, in token of gratitude, 

 he made an equestrian statue of Louis XIV., which was afterwards 

 placed at Versailles. When eighty years of age, Bernini executed a 

 Christ in marble, and presented it to Queen Christina of Sweden, who 

 had been his constant patroness, but she declined to accept it, saying 

 that sho was not rich enough to pay for it as it deserved. Bernini 

 however bequeathed the statue to her by his will. He died at Rome 

 in 1680, eighty-two years of age, honoured and regretted by all, and 

 was buried in the church of Santa Maria Maggiore. He left a property 

 of about 400,000 scudi, nearly 100,0002. sterling. He was one of the 

 most successful and best remunerated artists that has ever lived. But 

 his subsequent fame, though great, is much less than that he enjoyed 

 during life. 



Bernini was a painter as well as a sculptor, and left about 150 

 paintings, most of which were purchased for the galleries of Barberini 

 and Ghigi. Of his works of sculpture and architecture, which are 

 very numerous, Milizia gives a list in his life of Bernini. (Milizia, 

 ' Vite degli Architetti.') 



BERNSTORF, JOHANN HARTWIG ERNST, COUNT VON, 

 a younger son of Joachim Engelke, Baron Von Bernstorf, chamberlain 

 to the elector of Hanover, was born at Hanover May 13, 1712. His 

 education was conducted by the learned Keyssler, and in his company 

 he travelled through the principal states of Europe. Having visited 

 Denmark, he obtained from Christian VI., in 1732, the appointment 

 of minister at the court of Augustus II., elector of Saxony and king 

 of Poland. In 1737 he became envoy from Denmark to the Germanic 

 diet at Ratisbon, and from 1744 to 1750 resided in France as Danish 

 ambassador. In 1751 Frederic V. appointed him minister for foreign 

 affairs, which office he filled till the ascendancy of Struensee in 1770, 

 when he was dismissed, and retired to Hamburg, where ho died, 

 February IS, 1772. He was created a count in 17C7 by Christian VII., 



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