BOOMER, JOHANN JACOB. 



BOECK, HECTOR 



7.11 



After nearly five years' residence in Holland, Mr. Bodley obtained 

 leave to return into England to look after hi* private attain, but was 

 shortly afterwards remanded back to the Hague, About a year after- 

 wards be came into England again, to communicate some private dis- 

 coveries to the queen, and presently returned to the States for the 

 Mention of the counsels which be bad secretly proposed. He obtained 

 his final recall in 1697. After his return, finding his advancement at 

 court obstructed by the jealousies and intrigues of the great men, he 

 retired from it and from all public business, and never could be pre- 

 vailed with to return, or to accept any new employment. In the 

 same year be set about the noble work of restoring or rather founding 

 anew the public library at Oxford, which was completed in 1699. 

 After Kins James's accession to the throne, Mr. Bodley received the 

 honour of knighthood. He died the 2Sth of January 1612, and was 

 buried with great solemnity at the upper end of Merton College 

 choir. Sir Thomas Bodley wrote hi* own life to the year 1609, which, 

 together with the first draught of his statute* for bis library, and a 

 CTJlsjotiovi of his letters, were published from the originals in the 

 Bodleian by Thomas Hearne under the title of ' Reliquuo Bodleiantc, 

 or some genuine Remains of Sir Thomas Bodley, 8vo, London, 

 1703. The ' Life ' alone had been previously published in 4to, Oxford, 

 1847. 



BOOMER, JOHANN JACOB, the son of a clergyman, was born 

 at Zurich in July 1698. He applied himself particularly to the study 

 of history and to poetry. Bodmer was struck with the want of 

 nti^Vm* 1 character in the German literature of his time, the style and 

 manner of which were heavy imitations of the French. Bodmer and 

 his friend Breitinger began publishing a series of critical articles on 

 the subject, which were violently opposed by Gottsched, the Aris- 

 tarchua of Germany in those days, who treated the two Swiss critics 

 with great superciliousness; but thin controversy, which continued 

 for some years, was the means of effecting a complete revolution in 

 German literature. Several young and gifted writers embraced 

 Bodmer's views, and a thoroughly German school was formed, which 

 produced Klopstock, Leasing, Schiller, Gothe, and a host of others. 



Bodmer was deeply read in the Greek and Latin, as well as in the 

 Knglrrh poeta, and he translated Homer and Milton into German. 

 But bis special delight was in the old romantic and chivalrous poetry 

 of Germany, and he made the value of ancient German poetry known 

 by publishing in 1758 a collection of the Minnesinger, or old German 

 romantic poeta. He likewise published the ' Helvetische Bibliothek,' 

 Zurich, 1735-41, which is a collection of tracts relative to the history 

 of Switzerland. He also wrote a poem in twelve cantos on the Deluge, 

 which was translated into English under the title of 'Noah,' by 

 J. Collyer, London, 1767. Bodmer filled for fifty years the chair of 

 literature in the academy of his native town, Zurich. He died at a 

 very advanced age in January 1783. In the latter part of his life he 

 was regarded as the patriarch of German literature, and he took 

 delight in directing ana encouraging young men in their studies. His 

 books and mantucripta he bequeathed to the National Library of 

 Zurich. His correspondence was published, together with that of hU 

 countryman Solomon Geasner, by Korte, Zurich, 1804. 



BUDOM, JOHN BAPTIST, one of the most eminent printers of 

 UM 18th century, was born at Saluzso in the Sardinian states, 

 February 16, 1740. He learned the rudiments of his art in the office 

 of his father. In his earlier days he showed a taste for design, and 

 at hour* of leisure engraved vignettes on wood. At eighteen years of 

 age a dssiri to improve his condition induced him to undertake a 

 journey to Borne. He left Saluno with a school-fellow, Dominic 

 Costa, who expected to receive assists nee from an uncle, at that time 

 secretary to a Roman prelate. With some difficulty arising from their 

 scarcity of means, they reached Rome, when CosU's uncle told them 

 be could do nothing for them, and advised them to return. Bodoni 

 yielded to the advice ; but, before he quitted Rome, thought he would 

 visit the printing-house of the Propaganda. His general demeanour 

 and vivacity on this occasion attracted the notice of the Abbate 

 Kuggieri. the superintendent of that establishment, who gave him an 

 engagement Hera he attracted the notice of the Cardinal Spinelli, 

 at that time the bead of the Propaganda, who became his patron, and 

 by whose advice he attended a course of lectures on the Oriental 

 language* iu the University of La Sapimza, and learned to read Arabic 

 and Hebrew. Being intrusted with the printing of the ' Arab-Copbt 

 Missal,' Mid the ' Afphabetum Tibetannm,' edited by Fora Qiorgi, he 

 acquitted himself so well, that Ruggieri put his name at the end of 

 UM volume, with that of his town : Roma) exeudebat Johannes 

 Baptist* BodosMM Salutiensis, MOOCUIL' Ruggieri's suicide however 

 in 1768 (or as other account* ay, a* early as 1762) rendered Bodoni's 

 loafer stay at Rome insupportable from regret At this time he bad 

 also accepted a proposal to come to England, but going to Saluxzo to 

 see his parents, be Ml ill ; and the Marquis d* Fslino, in the interval, 

 ofleriaw to place him at UM bead of the press intended to be esta- 

 blished at Parma, upon the model of that of the Louvre, Bodoni 

 broke through his engagement*, and settled there in 1768. In 1771 

 be pubUehed spioimiM of his art in 'Seggio Tipogranco di fregi e 

 majasoole,' in Svo; followed in 1774 by ' Isorizioni esotiche,' com- 

 posed by J. a de Rossi ; and in 1776, on occasion of the marriage of 

 UM Prince of Piedmont with UM Princess Clotilde of France, a third 

 work of the same description, entitled ' Kpithtlaoua exoticis linguis 



reddita,' exhibiting the alphabets of twenty-five languages. Between 

 1775 and 1788, although his fame became universal, his press was not 

 over-actively employed. In 1789 the Duke of Parma furnished 

 Bodoni with a portion of his palace and a press, from which issued 

 some of the most beautiful, though not the most correct editions of 

 the classics known : especially a 'Horace' in folio, in a single volume, 

 in 1791; ' Virgil' in two volumes in folio, in 1793; 'Catullus, Tibul- 

 lus, and Propertiua,' in 1794; and ' Tacitus' s Annals,' in three vols., 

 folio, iu 1795. In 1794 Bodoni produced a most beautiful edition of 

 the ' Gerusalemme Liberata ' of Tasso, in three vols. folio. 



His most sumptuous work of all was his ' Homer,' in three volumes 

 in folio, printed in 1808, with a prefatory dedication to the Emperor 

 Napoleon in Italian, French, and Latin. When the French armies 

 entered Italy, in the early part of the revolutionary war, Bodoni and 

 bis labours had received a marked protection. On the 21st of January 

 1810 Bodoni presented a copy of this splendid work, print..! U|...M 

 vellum, in two volumes, to the emperor, in the gallery at St. Cloud, 

 ami in return, received a pension of 3000 franci. After this titm-, 

 while Italy was under the French rule, Bodoni received the most 

 tempting offers to quit Parma. Prince Eugene Beauharnois offered 

 him the superintendence of the press at Milan, and Mur.it that of 

 Naples ; but he pleaded age and infirmities, and his wish to remain 

 at Parma. In 181 1, having received the Cros* of the Two Sicilies 

 from Murat, ho proposed to publish for the education of the young 

 prince, the son of Murat, a series of French classics, and commenced 

 the execution of bis project by a folio ' Telemachus' in 1812. 

 'Racine 'was to have followed ; but it was not published till 1814, 

 after Bodoni's death. Bodoni bad long suffered from the gout, to 

 which a fever was at last superseded. He died November 20th, 1813. 

 Within a few months of his death the Emperor Napoleon nominated 

 him a ' Chevalier de la Reunion,' and sent him a present of 18,000 

 francs to aid him in the publication of the French classics. 



BOECE, or BOETIUS, HECTOR, the Scottish historian, was of the 

 family of Boece of Balbride, or Panbride, in the shire of Angus (now 

 Forfarshire). He was born about the year 1465-66 in the town of 

 Dundee : whence he had the appellation of Deidonanus, as he is styled 

 in the edition of his history published by Ferrarius. He received bis 

 early education in his native town and at Aberdeen, whence he went 

 to Montague College in the University of Paris, where he took the 

 degree of A.M. iu 1494, and in 1497 was appointed professor of 

 philosophy. At Paris he became acquainted with many of the learned 

 persons of his time; amongst others Erasmu*, who kept up on 

 epistolary correspondence with him, and, as a mark of his regard, 

 dedicated to him a catalogue of his works. He colls Boece " vir siugu- 

 laris iugenii, felicitatig, et facuudi oris;" and says of him that "he 

 knew not to lie." 



In the beginning of the 16th century, Boece was induced to accept 

 an invitation made by Bishop Elphiustoue of Aberdeen, to be principal 

 of the college about to be erected in that city. When he came to 

 Aberdeen he was made a canon of the cxthedral, and chaplain of the 

 chantry of St. Ninian. In the end of the year 1514 his friend and 

 patron, Bishop Elphinstone, died. 



In the beginning of 1522 Boece published at Paris his 'Vita Epis- 

 coporum Murthlacensium et Aberdoneusiuin,' a work to which be was, 

 it seems, led by the exemplary life of the late bishop, an account of 

 whom, indeed, occupies the greater part of it. The dedication, 

 which is to Bishop Dunbar, is dated from the College of Aberdeen, 

 prid. CaL Sept. 1521. Major's or rather Mair's History of Scotland ' 

 appeared about this time ; and its appearance probably led Boece to 

 undertake a similar work. In 1526 the first edition of Boece's 

 ' History of Scotland ' was published. In estimating this work we 

 must apply to it the standard of the day in which it was issued : when 

 knowledge was in the hands of few, and in those few hands meagre 

 and inaccurate; when communication was difficult, and intercourse 

 rare ; and when physical science was in its infancy. Taking these things 

 into account, we must admit that Boece merited the admiration and 

 reward which lie received. In 1527 the king gave him a pension of 

 SOL Scots yearly, to be paid until tha king should promote Boece to a 

 benefice of 100 merks Scots of yearly value, Boece subsequently 

 obtained the rectory of Fy vie in the shire of Aberdeen, which he held 

 at his death in 1636. Bellenden's translation of Boece's ' History ' was 

 published in 1536 at Edinburgh. This translation was made at the 

 command of King Jame* V., whose limited education precluded him 

 from perusing tho Latin original. Bellenden's trsnslation of Boece 

 was a very free translation, the author having added and altered as he 

 thought proper; and it again was put from the Scottish dialect, in 

 which it was written, into English, with equal freedom, by Harrison. 

 (Ap. Holinsbed's ' Chron.' vol. i.) 



In 1527, Boece's brother Arthur, who was a doctor of the canon law, 

 and a licentiate in the civil law, and the author of a book of 'KxeerpU' 

 From the canon law, appears to have been appointed canonist of King's 

 College. (Kennedy, 'Annals of Aberdeen.) The next year Bocco 

 bimaolf took the degree of Dootor iu Divinity in the college; and on 

 this occasion the magistrates and town-council of Aberdeen voted him 

 present of a tun of wine, when the new wines arrived, or 201. to buy 

 a new bonnet ('Council Register,' ap. Kennedy, 'Annals,' vol. ii. 

 x 367.) Boece died about the year 1536, and was buried in the chapel 

 of the college near the tomb of Bishop Klphinstone. 



