BOLOGNA, JOHN OP. 



BONAPARTE. NAPOLEON I. 



Mir^ fa tfe.4teec**rwaH where M also eVe portrait of Bollandus; 

 giUim. SMMue* >, 4to, Brut 1789, torn. L p. 84 j Morori ; 

 ' 



BOLOGNA, JOHN OP, or GIOVANNI DA, a celebrated sculptor 

 ad architect, born at Douay in Flanders. about 1614. He went early 

 to Roue, where be distinguished himself by hi. modeU of celebrated 

 works. Though a Flaming, be fa known only by the above name ; yet 

 h lived the prater put of hi* lib at Florence. He seems to hare 

 acquired the name by wbioh he ig ge 

 BiUbtasii fountain at Bologna, of 



he ia generally dfawnyifahed from his 

 r which 4. crowning colossal bron 



fifure of Neptune is OB* of the masterpieces of modem eouiptore. 



Several of the noblest work* in sculpture at Florence are by the 

 bawl of John of Bologna, two of which are unsurpassed in modern 

 art the marble group of the ' Kape of the Sabioe Woman,' iu the 

 Loggia 6V Least, ia the Piaua Grand uca ; and the well bronze in the 

 Imperial Gallery, of 'Mercury' in the act of springing into the air, 

 with one foot (till upon a globe. John was one of the original forty 

 imieslim of the Academy of Florence, and wu alto sculptor to tbe 

 grand-duke Fraaeeeeo L In 1580 he was invited to Genoa, where he 

 executed ereral admirable work*, chit-fly in bronze. lie died at 

 Florence ia 1408, aged eighty-four. John of Bologna ii the sculptor 

 who. when he thowed to MiobeUngelo, whilat at Borne, a carefully 

 flnhhrrl model, was told by tie latter to learn to sketch before he 



i|*nl to finish a precept which he did not forget. John of 

 Bologna, with tbe exception of Michelangelo, surpassed all the 

 culpton of hia age, or indeed of the 16th century, and he surpassed 

 Michelangelo himself in proportion and execution. 



(Vaaeri, Fife oV Pittori, Ac., ed. of Leghorn ; Baldinucci, Netizie del 

 Pnfatori dei Ditegno, 4c.) 



BOLSWERT, SCHELTIU8, a designer and very celebrated en- 

 graver, born at Bolswert fa FrieeUod, in 1586. He lived and worked 

 chiefly at Antwerp with his elder brother Boetins. His beet works 

 arc after Bnbens and Vaodyck, after whom he has engraved several 

 edmiraHft work* on a Urge scale. He was the personal friend of both 

 painters, and Kubens u said to have examined and touched with the 

 tsayemi all the proofs of Bolswert's engravings after bis Works. Bol- 

 swert's prints are Jittfajiiislinil as true works of art, not as mere 

 exorllejst nainlfaj peifctuiances of the graver a kind of excellence 

 to which they make no pretensions. They are admirably drawn, 

 various and true in their effects of colour, and effective in light and 

 hade : he preserved also the characteristic style of the master after 

 whom be engraved. Bolswert engraved altogether 87 plates after 

 Rubens, including 21 landscapes, and some of hia best historical 

 works; 23 after Vandyck, including Bokrwert's own portrait; 22 after 

 other masters ; and 22 after his own designs. He died at Antwerp at 

 an advanced age. 



(Watelct et Leresque, Dictvnauurc. det Am, *c.; Huber, ifantitl 



BOMBELLI, KAPHAKL, a Bologneee mathematician of the 16th 

 ' iry. We know nothing of hi* birth, life, or death, except his 

 on Algebra, pualishnd in 1572 (Huttou), or in 1679 (Montucla, 

 it, W.llis, beohales, Ue Thou's 'Catalogue,' to.), or in both 

 (Lacroix, Biog. Univ.'). The book iteelf is v<ry scarce. Bombelli is 

 principally known as the first who attempted the solution of what is 

 called the 'irreducible case' in cubic equations. He gave the geo- 

 metrical anlutiea which depends uin tbe bisection of an angle, and 

 observed that tbe Utter problem may be reduced to n cubic equation. 

 lie U also tbe first who attempted the actual extraction of the cube 

 root in the result of Garden's (or Tartalea's) well known formula. 



Bombelli dates that be discovered manuscript of Diophantus in 

 the Vatican Library, and with another had translated the greater part 

 for publication. He says that be found frequent references to Indian 

 authors, from which he learned that Algebra was known to the 

 Hfadoos earlier than to the Arabs. This assertion baa been much 

 censured. Cossall cawed all th<- Vatican 



may h 

 BO 



nil/fa* (three in Dumber) to be closely examined, 

 bat without finding anything to confirm Bombelli's assertion ; which 

 nnulii a puacle, efaoe there is no lusplaiia of deceit, and the work 

 of IHophaatus is in reality fall of questions akin to those treated in 

 the Hindoo ' Viga (ianiu/ But as Bombelli is said, in the Toulouse 

 edition of Ihophantw, to have misinterpreted the question* from 

 thai writer wbioh be inserted in his own algebra, it is possible that he 

 have not well undentood the Gretk. 



ONAPABTK. NAPOLEON I., EMPEROR OK TI1K FKENCH. 

 Mapoleoa Boaapart. was bora at Ajaode, ia tbe island of Corsica, on 

 tbelithof Agu*17. He wu the .eoond ecu (his brother Joeeph 

 being the eldest) of Carlo Bonaparte and LetUia Ramolini, both natives 

 fCurmiea. The booM fa which he was bora forms one side of a court 

 feeding out ef the Hue Charlei In bis baptismal register, which is in 

 the perish heoka, his MM is written Bonaparte, but his fether 

 generally aigaed himself Buonaparte, a mode of spelling which seem* 

 more accordant with Italian ortaoepy. although there are other Italian 



ZOO?. 1 * Wllk " U " <n * 



' *". . for ta 



ettas, similarly nm r paa<iil, suefa as bonerieta, bonaecia, Ac. Thai 



paean fa *eelf queetioB ef tittle moinent, but it has been made tfce 



u> ject of much controversy , to wbioh a sort of national importance 



has been given, as if the dropping of tbe u bad bseo done for the 



purpose of Frenchifying the niais, (Louis Bonaparte's ' Reeponte a 

 Sir Walter Scott') Bonaparte being a family name, the oorreotaesa ef 

 the apelling must depend upon custom, and we End that Napoleon, 

 after he became general of the army of Italy, always signed his natae 

 without the , probably, as Bourienne observes, because it was a 

 shorter way of signing, and probably also because it was bettor 

 adapted to French pronunciation. Napoleon'* name first became 

 known to the world at Bonaparte, as such it is registered fa hie pro- 

 clamations, despatches, and other document*, and an such therefore it 

 ought to ba written in history. Hia brother* likewise adopted the 

 same way of writing it. 



Napoleon's father's family was originally from Tuscany, but had 

 been settled in Cornea for several generations. There is a comedy 

 written by one of his ancestors, Niool6 Buonaparte of Saa Miniate, 

 citizen of Florence, styled 'La Vedova,' Florence, 1568 and ISM. 

 There is likewise a narrative of the pillage of Rome under Charles V., 

 written by a Jacopo Buonaparte, ' lUgguaglio Storioo del Sacco di 

 Roma dell' anno 1527,' Cologne, 1786. Charles, Napoleon's father, 

 was educated at Pisa for the profession of the law. Before the birth 

 of Napoleon, his father had served under 1'aoli in the defence of his 

 country against the French, to whom the Genoese had basely sold the 

 island. The entire submission of Corsica to France took place fa 

 June 1709, about a month before Napoleon's birth, who therefore, 

 legally speaking, was born a subject of France. Ill the following 

 September, when Count Marboeuf, the French commissioner, convoked 

 by the king's letters patent the States of Corsica, consisting of three 

 orders nobility, clergy, and commons the family of Bonaparte, 

 having shown their titles, was registered among the nobility; and 

 Charles, some years after, repaired to Paris as member of a deputation 

 of his order to Louis XVI. He was BOOU after appointed assessor to 

 the judicial court of Ajaccio. He was then in straitened circum- 

 stances, as he had spent most of his little property in a bad speculation 

 of some salt-pans, after baving previously lost a law-suit against tbe 

 Jesuits about an inheritance which he claimed. Through Count 

 Marboeuf ' interest he obtained tbe admission of his sou Napoleon to 

 the military school of lirienue as a king's pensioner. NapoU-on left 

 Corsica for Brienne when he was in his tenth year, in Apnl 177. 

 Bricnne, where he passed five years and a half, he made great progress 

 in mathematics, but showed less disposition for literature and the 

 study of languages. Pichegru was for a time his monitor in the class 

 of mathematics. The annual report made to the king by M. de 

 Keralio, inspector general of the military schools of France, iu 1784, 

 has the following remarks on young Napoleon : "Distinguished in 

 mathematical studies, tolerably veiwd in history and geography, 

 much behind in his Latin and iu belles lettres, and other accomplish- 

 ment)! ; of regular habits, studious and well behaved, and enjoying 

 excellent health." (Bourieune'a ' Memoirs.') Much has been said of 

 young Napoleon's taciturnity and morosene** while at school. 

 Bourienne, who was his schoolfellow, states tlie facts very simply. 

 Napoleon was a stranger, for the French considered the Corsicsus u 

 euch ; he spoke his own dialect until he learnt French at the school ; 

 he had no connections in France, he was comparatively poor, and yet 

 proud-minded, as Corsicans generally are ; the other boys, more fortu- 

 nate or more lively in their disposition, teaaed him and taunted him, 

 and therefore be kept himself distant and was often alone. But that 

 he was susceptible of social and friendly feelings towards those who 

 showed him sympathy, his intimacy with Bourienne sufficiently 

 prove*. Many stories have also been told of his awuuiiiig an autho- 

 rity over hia comrades, showing a precocious ambition, and an instinct 

 for command ; but three are flatly contradicted by Bourionne, with 

 tbe exception that in one instance when the snow had fallen very thick 

 on the ground, and tbe boy* were at a loss what to do to amuse them- 

 selves, he proposed to make entrenchments with the snow, and to 

 perform a sham attack, of which be was the leader. 



There was nothing extraordinary in young Napoleon's school life ; 

 be was a clever, steady, studious lad, aud nothing more. The school 

 of lirienne was under the direction of the monks of the order of St. 

 Francis de 1'aula, called Minimi, and Bourienne speaks rather indif- 

 ferently of their learning and system of education, though the teacher 

 of mathematics seems to have been a favourable exception. Ikiurieuuc 

 also state* that Napoleon bad made more proficiency in history than 

 tbe report above mentioned gives him credit for: his favourite authors 

 were Ciorar, Plutarch, and Arrian ; the lust two he probably read in 

 Latin, or perhaps French transUtions, for he does not appear to have 

 studied Greek. 



Napoleon left Bricnne on October 17, 1784, and proceeded to the 

 Military School at Paris, there to continue his course of studies until 

 he bad attained the age required for entering the army. Tbe Paris 

 school, and tbe students' manner of living, were on an expensive 

 footing, which shocked young Napoleon, who wrote to Father Bertoa, 

 his superior at Bricnne. a long letter (of which Bourienne gives a copy), 

 in which he forcibly exposed the error of such a syntem of education, 

 as luxury and comfort* were a bad preparation for the hardships and 

 privations attendant on the military profession. In the regulations 

 which he afterwards drew up for his military school at Fontainebleau, 

 Najraleon followed the principles be bad thus parly manifested, 

 Napoleon's spirit of observation, his active and inquisitive character, 

 his censorious frankness, would appear to have excited the attention 



