JS 



BORROMEO, FEDERICO. 



BORROW, GEORGE. 



himself to check their disorders, one of them shot at the cardinal while 

 he was at prayer in his chapel. The ball perforated his garments 

 without hurting his person. The assassin, named Farina, was taken 

 and executed, together with two of his superiors who had instigated 

 the crime. Pope Pius V. suppressed the order, and applied their 

 revenues to other purposes. 



Cardinal Borromeo used to visit every part of his diocese, reforming 

 abuses, examining the conduct of Ms clergy, and providing for the 

 wants of the poor. He established colleges, schools, and asylums 

 -for destitute children. He held several provincial synods, the trans- 

 actions of which are found in liis 'Acta Ecclesia; Mediolanensis,' folio, 

 1599. When the plague broke out at Milan in 1576, he exerted him- 

 self, at the risk of his life, in assisting the sick and relieving the wants 

 of the population in that calamitous time. In some particulars, 

 Cardinal Borromeo shared the errors and prejudices of his age, for we 

 find that he believed in the existence of sorcery. His conduct how- 

 ever was exemplary, and his zeal for the flock committed to his care 

 unremitting. He died the 3rd of November 1594. His body, dressed 

 in hia pontifical robes, is to be seen in a sarcophagus of natural 

 crystal, in the subterraneous chapel of the cathedral of Milan. Borro- 

 meo wan canonised by Pope Paul V. in 1610. He left many theological 

 and aid-tic works, homilies, and sermons, of which a catalogue is given 

 by Mn/..,iclielli. Ripamonti and liascapo have written his life. 



BORUOME'O, FEDERI'CO, the son of Giulio Cesare Borromeo, and 

 uncle of St. Charles Borromeo, and of Margherita Trivulzio, was born 

 nt Milan, in 1564. He resided first at Bologna and then at Pavia, and 

 afterwards went to Rome, where he was made a cardinal, in 1587. 

 He was both a classical and oriental scholar ; and was intimate at 

 Rome with Barouio, Bellarmino, and the pious philanthropist Filippo 

 Neri. In 1595 he was made Archbishop of Milan, where he adopted 

 the views of his cousin and predecessor St. Charles, and enforced his 

 regulations concerning discipline with great success. He used to visit 

 by turns all the districts, however remote and obscure, in his diocese; 

 and his indefatigable zeal for the good of his flock, his charity and 

 enlightened piety, are attested by Ripamonti and other contemporary 

 writers, and have been recently eloquently eulogised by Manzoni, in hia 

 ' Promessi Sposi.' He was the founder of the Ambroaian Library, on 

 which he spent very large sums ; and he employed various learned 

 men, who went about several parts of Europe and the East, fur the 

 purpose of collecting manuscripts. Olgiati was sent to Germany, 

 Holland, and France; Ferrari to Spain, Salmazi to Greece, a Maronite 

 priest, called Michael, to Syria, &c. About 9000 manuscripts were 

 thus collected. Cardinal Borromeo established a printing press, 

 annexed to the library ; and appointed several learned professors to 

 examine and make known to the world these literary treasures. He 

 also established several academies, schools, and charitable foundations. 

 His philanthropy, charity, and energy of mind, were exhibited espe- 

 cially on the occasion of the famine which afflicted Milan in 1627-28 ; 

 and also during the great plague of 1630. He died the 22nd of Septem- 

 ber 1631, universally regretted. Mazzuchelli gives a list of his printed 

 work/). He left also a number of works in manuscript. 



BORROMI'NI, FRANCESCO, was born in the district of Como, in 

 the year 1599, and at the early age of nine was sent by his father, who 

 was an architect, to study sculpture at Milan. After passing seven 

 year* in that city he proceeded to Rome, where hia relative, Carlo 

 M.i'loruo, was then employed in finishing St. Peter's. On the death 

 of Maderno, in 1629, although Bernini was appointed to succeed him 

 aa architect to that building, Borromiui continued under him as 

 he had done under his predecessor. Borromini could not brook the 

 superiority thus given to Bernini, and endeavoured to supplant him 

 whenever occasion offered, and so far succeeded as to ingratiate himself 

 with Urban VIII. Owing to the patronage of that pontiff, he was 

 employed upon a variety of important works, most of which would 

 have afforded ample scope for the display of architectural talent, had 

 he not chosen to throw away the opportunities thus offered him. 

 Instead of seeking to distinguish himself by showing that he was 

 capable of turning hia art to greater account than either his prede- 

 cessors or contemporaries, he sought to astonish by novelties, and by 

 caprices altogether at variance with the established principles both of 

 the art itself and of construction, altering and reversing members, and 

 applying them contrary to all analogy. His designs are of a singularly 

 heterogeneous description, and the iuvention which he unquestionably 

 potiomrd, ia rendered for the most part valueless by the capricious use 

 made of it. Nearly all the productions of Borromini offer to the eye 

 a mass of confusion, and for the most part are as ungraceful as they 

 are unmeaning. It must nevertheless be acknowledged that there are 

 occasionally some happy accidents some glimpses and glimmerings of 

 beauty and gracefulness in his works. 



It murt also be allowed that he frequently exhibited an unusual 

 degree of constructive nkill ; in fact, it required no ordinary ability to 

 contrive the execution of some of his designs, because the supports 

 ore all disguised, and what ought to contribute to strength, required 

 no little artifice to make it support itself. He appears to have been 

 a man of perverse disposition as well as taste ; and at length, although 

 be obtained great wealth aa well aa popularity, he fell into a state of 

 hypochondria, caused it has been said by envy of Bernini's auperior 

 reputation ; but really there can be little doubt, by the approaches of 

 insanity. In order to dissipate the malady, he made a journey 



Bioo. DIV. VOL. j. 



through Italy, but on his return again to Rome shut himself up in 

 seclusion, occupying himself solely in drawing whatever fantastic 

 architectural ideas occurred to him, with the intention of having them 

 engraved. His disorder however continued to gather strength ; and 

 it was no doubt increased by his attendants not permitting him to 

 apply himself any longer to the studies which they considered the 

 cause of his disorder. One night when he was unable to sleep, and 

 had ordered pens and paper to be brought him, he leaped out of bed 

 and stabbed himself with a sword that happened to be hanging 

 up in his chamber. This desperate act was committed in the year 

 1667, when he had reached the advanced age of sixty-eight. Borro- 

 miui is said to have exhibited a morbid jealousy of temper and 

 inordinate ambition, yet he was possessed of many estimable qualities : 

 he was generous and disinterested, and his morals were unblemished. 



Among his principal works is the church of La Sapienza at Rome, 

 which he waa commissioned to execute by his patron, Pope Urban, 

 and which bears ample testimony to his singular taste, both outside 

 and hi the interior. The dome has the peculiarity of being formed 

 externally by steps, and it has a spiral staircase placed above its lantern. 

 His other more important works include the church of the College 

 di Propaganda ; the oratory of the fathers of Chiesa Nuova, which is 

 perhaps one of his least faulty productions, after the church of St. 

 Agnes ; and the fa;ade of the Doria Palace, a strange composition yet 

 displaying considerable grandeur of effect seen from certain positions. 

 His church of San Carliuo alle Quattro Foutaue is generally considered 

 his masterpiece of extravagance, chiefly perhaps on account of the 

 waving lines and surfaces of its facade. Besides the above and a great 

 many other works, Borromini restored, or rather modernised, the nave 

 of San Giovanni Laterauo, which, capricious as the parts and decora- 

 tions are, has nevertheless somcttung grand and imposing in its general 

 character. 



BORROW, GEORGE, was born near Norwich early in the present 

 century. From intimations scattered through his various writings he 

 would appear (even whilst with his parents) to have led a somewhat 

 erratic life, and to have received a very irregular education, for which 

 he was more than usually indebted to his own exertions. Early in 

 life he was thrown into greater or less intimacy with several persons 

 of literary and intellectual habits, among others William Taylor of 

 Norwich, and from them he acquired a decided taste for literature 

 with a predilection for the acquisition of languages ; without how- 

 ever impairing his natural fondness for adventures, and especinlly 

 for such as were to be found in roving among gipsies and other 

 wandering tribes. For this kind of life his great physical strength, 

 pliability of temper, readiness in the acquisition of living languages, 

 dialects, patois, and even slang, fitted him in a very uncommon 

 degree. In England he made himself perfectly familiar with the 

 language, habits, and traditiona of the gipsies, and then spent a 

 considerable time amongst the gipsies of the continent, more par- 

 ticularly those of Spain. The result of his experience he published 

 in a work, the character of which is sufficiently indicated by ita 

 title; and which opened quite a new field of information to the 

 philologist and the student of human nature, while its popular 

 interest was manifested by its quickly reaching a third edition. Thij 

 work was entitled ' The Ziuculi ; or an Account of the Gypsies of 

 Spain, with an original Collection of their Songs and Poetry, and a 

 copious Dictionary of their Language,' 2 jok. 8vo, 1811. In Spain 

 Mr. Borrow undertook a mission which would seem at first ill-suited to 

 his tastes, and for which he must have appeared to some of the graver 

 members of the committee of the society singularly unfitted, that of 

 distributing for the Bible Society of London, copies of the Bible in 

 the Spanish language. Mr. Borrow certainly set about his task in an 

 original manner, though perhaps one better fitted to the circum- 

 stances of the country than any other which could have been adopted, 

 but which no other man probably could have carried out in practice. 

 Of this mission he published in 1843 a pretty full narrative: 'The 

 Bible in Spain ; or the Journeys, Adventures, and Imprisonments of 

 an Englishman in an attempt to circulate the Scriptures in the penin- 

 sula,' 3 vols. 8vo. In many respects this remarkable book as a mere 

 work of amusement might take its place alongside of ' Gil Bias.' It 

 is unquestionably one of the most original and interesting narratives 

 of travelling adventure in a well-known country which has recently 

 appeared ; and it won at once for its author a higli place among 

 English writers. Both of these works have been issued in a cheaper 

 form in Murray's Home and Colonial Library. In 1851 Mr. Borrow 

 published a very singular work which was apparently intended to be 

 understood as half .autobiography, half fiction. But although abun- 

 dantly piquant in style, and narrating a course of life in England and 

 Ireland to which the reading public had scarcely been previously intro- 

 duced, and intended, in the words of the writer, to satisfy the reader 

 that " there ara no countries in the world less known by the British 

 than these self-same British Islands, or where more strange things are 

 every day occurring, whether in road or street, house or dingle " the 

 work disappointed the expectations raised by the ' Zincali,' and the 

 ' Bible in Spain,' and has not we believe reached a second edition. 

 The narrative terminates abruptly, leuviug the hero, while still little 

 more than a youth, in the midst of a wood, with his adventures 

 hardly begun ; but no continuation of it has hitherto appeared or 

 been formally promised. Mr. Borrow's first publication was a small 



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