7Z 



BOADICEA. 



BOCCACCIO, GIOVANNI. 



730 



appears to have laid the foundation of many of hia important investi- 

 gations on this subject in after life, and led to the formation of his 

 very extensive collection of the skulls of all nations. 



In 1776, the year after taking his degree, Blumenbach was appointed 

 extraordinary professor of medicine in the university of Gottingen, 

 and in 1778 he was made ordinary professor. At the same time he 

 also received the appointment of superintendent of the library and 

 museum of natural history in the university. From this time his 

 contributions to the sciences connected with medicine, especially 

 anatomy and physiology, became regular. In physiology he pursued 

 the path of Haller, and directed hia attention more especially to the 

 structure and functions of tho lower animals, as a means of deter- 

 mining the true laws of human physiology. In 1781 he published a 

 work on embryology, entitled 'Ueber den Bildungstrieb und das 

 Zeugungs-geschaft,' 8vo, Gottingen. In this work he threw much 

 light on the obscure subject of generation, and opened up a path for 

 future inquirers. New editions of this work appeared in Germany in 

 1789 and 1791. In 1786 appeared his work on the human bones, with 

 the title 'Geschichte und Beschreibung der Knochendes Menschlichen 

 Korpers,' 8vo, Gottingen. He also published, in Latin, in the same 

 year, an introduction to medical literature. In 1787 appeared his 

 ' Institutions Physiologic,' 8vo, Gottingen. Tliis work was written 

 in Latin , and was one of the first attempts that had been made to give 

 a condensed account of the functions of the human body without 

 entering into the minute anatomical structure of the body. It quickly 

 became the text-book of schools where physiology was taught. Several 

 new editions of the original work were published, and it was translated 

 into German, Dutcn, English, and French. A second English transla- 

 tion, by Or. Elliotson, was published in London in 1817; and of this 

 translation so many subsequent editions appeared, and the notes by 

 the translator became at length so numerous, and the progress of 

 physiology required so much of the original to be modified, that the 

 translator at length published the work with the title ' Human 

 Physiology, &c., with which is incorporated much of the elementary 

 part of the Institutions Physiological) of J. F. Blumenbach, by John 

 EllioUou, M.D.' 



Blumenbach, in all his contributions to physiology, had frequent 

 recourse to the lower animals for the purpose of illustrating and 

 developing the functions of those of the higher; and in 1805 he was 

 induced to publish a manual of comparative anatomy. This work 

 appeared at Gottingen, with the title ' Handbuch der vergleichcnde 

 Anatomic.' It was translated into English in 1809, by Mr. William 

 Lawrence; and again in 1827 by Mr. Coulson. Although this work is 

 meagre compared with those which have appeared both in this country 

 and on the continent since its first publication, yet it exerted an im- 

 portant influence on the systematic study of comparative anatomy, 

 embodying as it did the results of previous observers and the author's 

 own labours in this department of scientific inquiry. 



One of the results of the author's inquiries with regard to the 

 varieties of the human race was the collection of a large number of 

 skulls of the inhabitants of the various parts of the world. In 1791 

 he commenced the publication of a work in parts, containing descrip- 

 tions and illustrations of these skulls. It was entitled ' Decas 

 Collections snaj Craniorum diversarum Gentium illustrate,' 4to, 

 Gottingen. This work extended to several volumes, and was finished 

 in 1 808. Besides his large works, Blumenbach contributed to various 

 scientific journals a great number of papers on particular departments 

 of medical and physiological inquiry, and indeed on almost every 

 subject connected with medicine. 



In 1783 Blumenbach visited Switzerland. During this journey he 

 made notes on the medical topography of the districts through which 

 he travelled, and afterwards published them in hia ' Medicinische 

 Bibliotht'k,' a work which he edited at Gbttingen from 1780 to 1794. 

 He visited England in 1788, and again in 1792. In 1812 he was 

 appointed secretary to the Royal Society of Sciences at Gottingen. 

 In 1816 he was made physician to tho king of Great Britain and 

 Hanover; and in 1821 was made a knight commander of the Guelphic 

 order. In 1831 he was chosen a member of the Academy of Sciences 

 in Paris. The jubilee of his graduation was celebrated by the 

 university in Guttingen in 1325, aud the jubilee of his professorship in 

 the following year. He died on the 22nd of January 1 840. 



(Kallisen, Medicinitcha SchrifMeller-Lexikon ; Blumenbach, Work*.) 



BOADICE'A, BOODICEA, BONDICEA, or BOUNDORICEA, lived 

 in the middle of the first century, and was the wife of Prasutogus, 

 the king of the Iceni, a tribe of Britons inhabiting Norfolk aud 

 Suffolk. Prasutagus at his death bequeathed his wealth, which was 

 very great, to his two daughters and to the Roman emperor, a device 

 resorted to in those times with the hope that it would confine the 

 emperor to a share of the deceased's possessions, and would rescue 

 the remainder from his officers. Nero was at this time emperor; and 

 Suetonius Paullinus, a general of great skill and energy, commanded 

 in Brita'.a. While Suetonius was occupied in attacking the Isle of 

 Anglesey (then called Mona), Catus, the procurator or collector of the 

 revenue, was guilty of great rapacity among the Britons in the east. 

 He caused Boadicea, on whom the government of her nation had 

 devolved by the death of her husband, to be scourged, and her 

 daughters to be violated. In consequence of these atrocities, the Iceni 

 and their neighbours, the Trinobuntes (who dwelt in what is now 



Essex and Middlesex), flew to arms. They first attacked and destroyed 

 the Roman colony of Camalodunum (Colchester), and defeated a. Roman 

 legion which was coming to the relief of the place, under the com- 

 mand of Petilius Cerialis. The insurgents also massacred the Romaus 

 at Verolamium (St. Alban's), and at London, which was then famous 

 for its commerce. Catus fled into Gaul. Tacitus says that the Romans 

 and their allies were destroyed to the number of 70,000, many of 

 whom perished under torture. 



Suetonius hastened to the scene of this revolt; and abandoning 

 London, which he had no means of defending, posted himself with an 

 army of about 10,000 men in a narrow pass, his rear being guarded 

 by a wood, A.D. 61. The Britons were commanded by Boadicea, who, 

 in a chariot with her two daughters, went from one tribe to another 

 exhorting them to fight bravely. They seem however to have met tho 

 usual fate of uncivilised armies. Without combination, ineumbered 

 by their very multitude, impeded by their women who surrounded 

 them, and by their unwieldy chariots, they suffered a terrible caruage. 

 Tacitus, a nearly contemporary historian, estimates the destruction at 

 80,000 persons, an incredible number, although he says that the 

 Romans did not spare even the women and the animals, who added to 

 the heaps of slain. Boadicea, he tells us, killed herself by poison. 



(Tacitus, Annul, xiv. 31, &c.) 



BOBROV, SEMEN SERG^EEVITCH, a Russian poet of some dis- 

 tinction, who commenced his literary career about 1784. His most 

 important, if not most extensive work is the ' Khersonida,' a poem 

 descriptive of the wild scenery, natural history, and antiquities of the 

 Tarn-id a. In this production, which first appeared in 1803, aud was 

 afterwards corrected and enlarge'!, there is much originality both of 

 subject and manner, and it is further remarkable for being written in 

 blank verse, a form before unknown to Russian poetry. Besides con- 

 taining many very animated pictures of nature in the mountainous 

 regions of the Tauridan peninsula, there are mauy lyrical passages 

 of great vigour, which, while they relieve the sameness of landscape 

 description, breathe a powerful moral strain, and are replete with 

 elevated sentiment and religious fervour. Some of the episodical 

 parts are of a dramatic cast, being thrown into the form of dialogue, 

 and along with these may be classed the narrative of the aged Shereef 

 Omar, in the course of which he relates the history of the Taurida 

 from the fabulous ages of Greece. Bobrov was gifted with much 

 imagination and feeling, but in aiming at energy and loftiness he was 

 occasionally inflated in his language. He was exceedingly well read 

 in English poetry, to which he is perhaps in some measure indebted 

 for the best characteristics of his own. He died at St. Petersburg 

 in 1810. 



BOCCA'CCIO, GIOVANNI, born in 1313, was the sou of Boccaccio 

 di Chellino, a merchant of Florence, whoas family belonged to Certaldo 

 in the Val d'Elsa in the territory of Florence. His mother was a 

 Frenchwoman, with whom his father had become acquainted during 

 a visit to Paris, where Boccaccio was born. He studied at Florence 

 under the grammarian Giovanni da Strada until he was ten years of 

 age, when his father apprenticed him to a merchant at Paris, where 

 he spent six years. On his return to Florence, having expressed a 

 dislike of mercantile pursuits, his father set him to study the canon 

 law. After some years passed in this study, he was sent to Naples, 

 where he became acquainted with several learned men about the court 

 of King Robert, who was a patron of learning. Boccaccio says that 

 the sight of Virgil's tomb near Naples determined hia literary vocation 

 for life, and that he then renounced all other pursuits. 



In 1341, on Easter-eve, as he was attending service in the church 

 of San Lorenzo, he was struck by the appearance of a beautiful young 

 lady, with whom he fell deeply in love. The object of Boccaccio's 

 admiration proved to be Mary, of the family of Aquino, aud a pre- 

 sumed daughter of King Robert of Naples. Boccaccio's attachment 

 was returned ; and to please hia mistress he wrote ' II Filocopo,' a 

 romance in prose, at the beginning of which he relates the history of 

 their love, and afterwards ' La Teseide,' a poem in ottava rima on 

 the fabulous adventures of Theseus. This was the first romantic and 

 chivalrous poem in the Italian language. Chaucer borrowed from the 

 'Teeeide' his 'Knighte's Tale,' afterwards remodelled by Drydeu 

 under the name of ' Palamon and Arcite.' Boccaccio dedicated the 

 ' Teseide ' to his Fiammetta, the name which he gave to his mistress 

 Mary. In 1342 Boccaccio was recalled home by his father, but in 

 1344 he returned to Naples, where he remained for several years. 

 He there wrote the ' Amorosa Fiammetta ; ' ' II Filostrato,' a poem in 

 ottava rima, and ' L' Amorosa Visione,' a poem in terza rima, of which 

 the initial letters of the first line of each terzina being placed in suc- 

 cession together by way of acrostic, compose two sonnets and a can- 

 zone in praise of his mistress, aud this is the only way in which he has 

 called her by her real name ' Mirja.' At this time he frequented tho 

 court of Queen Joanua who had succeeded her father Robert. He 

 read his works to the queen, and at her desire, as it appears, he wrote 

 his ' Decamerone,' a hundred tales, ten of which are supposed to be 

 told every afternoon of ten successive days by a society of seven young 

 women and three young men, who, having fled from the plague 

 which afflicted Florence in 1348, had retired to a country-house some 

 distance from the town. Most of the stories turn upon love-intrigues ; 

 they are full of humour and admirably told, but the details are often 

 very licentious. Several of the tales however aro unexceptionable. 



