649 



BOTTA, CARLO GIUSEPPE. 



BOTTARI, GIOVANNI. 



850 



he was allowed twelve days to depart thence for the Orkney Isles. 

 Being pursued in his voyage, he sailed for the Danish shores, where he 

 was seized and put in prison. He prolonged a miserable life till 1576, 

 when he expired in the castle of Malmoy. He left no children, and all 

 his honours and estates were forfeited to the crown. 



^BOTTA, CARLO GIUSEPPE, born at San Giorgio in Piedmont, in 

 1766, studied medicine in the University of Turin, and took a doctor's 

 degree in 1786. He also manifested an early turn for literary and 

 historical studies. At the outbreak of the French revolution, Botta 

 committed himself so far in some revolutionary plot, that he was 

 arrested and confined in the citadel of Turin for two years, when being 

 liberated, he emigrated to France. After living some time at Grenoble 

 he was appointed surgeon to the French army called ' of the Alps,' 

 and stationed at Gap. In 1796, after the first success of Bonaparte, 

 he followed the French through their campaigns in Lombardy, and in 

 the following year was present in Venice at the fall of that ancient 

 republic, a catastrophe which he has related with lively grief and 

 indignation in his history. From Venice he sailed with the expedi- 

 tion that went to take possession of Corfu and the other Venetian 

 islands in the name of France. At Corfu he wrote a professional 

 work on the military hospital of that garrison, with digressions on 

 the climate and the natural history of the island. Botta returned to 

 Italy in 1798, and was employed in his professional capacity with a 

 detachment of Cisalpine troops stationed in the Valtellina, where he 

 wrote a disquisition, in the form of a letter, on the analytical noso- 

 graphy of 1'ineL At the end of that year, General Joubert, acting 

 for the French Directory, nominated Botta a member of the provisional 

 government of Piedmont. This government was driven away a few 

 months after by the victorious Suvarow, and Botta being thus obliged 

 to emigrate to France a second time, was appointed surgeon to the 

 new army of the Alps. He returned to Italy after the battle of 

 Marengo, June 1800, anJ was appointed member of the Consulta, or 

 council of administration for Piedmont. The country was in a 

 deplorable state, after being drained by so mauy revolutions and in- 

 va--iuns ; the French acted as imperious taskmasters, and the council 

 had few means of doing good. In the twentieth book of his history 

 Botta describes at length the calamities of the times. One import- 

 ant benefit was secured by Botta and his colleagues to their native 

 country, namely, an annual permanent income of half a million of 

 francs out of the public domain, for the support of the University, 

 Colleges, and Academy of Sciences of Turin ; a benefit which survived 

 all Rtibsequent political vicissitudes. 



When Napoleon resolved, in 1803, to unite, definitively, Piedmont 

 to France, Botta was one of the deputation sent to Paris on the occa- 

 sion. He then published a ' Prdcis Historique de la Maisou de Savoie 

 et du Pidmont.' In 1804 he was elected deputy to the French legis- 

 lative body, for the department of the Dora, and in consequence 

 removed to Paris. He retained his seat in the legislative body, having 

 been re-elected for the department of the Loire, till the fall of Napo- 

 leon. Botta now availed himself of his ample leisure in preparing 

 for the press his history of the North American revolution and war 

 of independence, which he had begun during his first French emigra- 

 tion, and which he published at Paris in 1810 : 'Storia della Guerra 

 dell' Indipendenza d' America.' 



In April 1814, Botta, with the other members of the legislative body, 

 swore allegiance to the Bourbon dynasty ; but at the end of March 

 1815, Napoleon's restored government appointed him Rector of the 

 University of Nancy. He resigned his rectorship at the second Bour- 

 bon restoration, but was appointed instead Rector of the University 

 of Rouen, an office which he did not retain long, for in 1816 he was 

 living at Paris as a foreigner without employment or pension. He 

 then applied himself to write a contemporary history of Italy during 

 the French occupation, an arduous task amidst the growling of angry 

 passions wbicli had not yet had time to subside. He determined to 

 write ' the whole truth,' as far as his means of information went ; to 

 speak with honest sincerity, not only of princes and ministers, but 

 lo of the people ; to flatter no party ; to calumniate no enemy. 

 Disregarding the prejudices of men of all parties, he produced a book 

 which went far to re'leem Italian literature from the charge of almost 

 Oriental servility which it had incurred during the period of Napo- 

 leon's reign. Alone perhaps among the nations of Europe, the Italians, 

 or rather, a numerous and active class among them, had, or thought 

 they had, reason to regret the fall of the Bonaparte dynasty. Botta 

 displeased mauy of these by his plain speaking, nor did ho care to 

 conciliate the advocates of old absolutism. He published his work 

 at Paris in 1821 : ' Storia d'ltalia dal 1789 al 1814,' 4 vols. 8vo. The 

 book was assailed by strictures and denunciations, some of them very 

 abusive and personal; but it stood its ground, went through numer- 

 ous editions, both in Italy and abroad, and it has long since taken its 

 place in every Italian library. The work is one of lasting interest : 

 the author excels in the description of stirring events, the bustle of 

 the camp, the alarms of a siege, the din and tumult of popular insur- 

 rections, the calamities of the devoted inhabitants the victims of 

 famine, pestilence, or the sword. His style however is upon the 

 whole unequal, and his sentiments at times seem inconsistent with 

 one another. There is nlso a disproportion between the various parts 

 of the work ; twenty-books are bestowed upon the Italian wars and 

 vicissitudes from 1792 to the peace of Lunoville in 1801, and only 



8100. DtV. VOL. L 



seven upon the subsequent period down to 1814. But notwithstand- 

 ing these faults, Botta's history is a work that does honour to Italian 

 literature. 



Encouraged by the success of this work, a certain number of Italian 

 and French lovers of literature urged Botta to attempt a continua- 

 tion of GuicciarJiui's history of Italy, from 1530, down to 1789, so 

 that the end should meet the beginning of his contemporary history. 

 These friends made a subscription among themselves sufficient to allow 

 the writer a decent annual income during the time that he should bo 

 engaged in his laborious undertaking. Botta accepted the task in 

 1826, and he completed it at the end of 1830 : ' Storia d'ltalia in Con- 

 tinuazione al Guicciardini, sino al 1789,' 10 vols., 8vo, Paris, 1832. 

 This larger work was received with applause, owing in part to the 

 author's already established reputation as an historian. The Academy 

 of La Crusca bestowed on the author its decennial prize, and Charles 

 Albert, king of Sardinia, created him a knight and gave him a pension. 

 In 1832 Botta revisited his native Piedmont, and was very favourably 

 received there. He afterwards returned to France, where he made au 

 Italian translation of the journal of a French maritime expedition of 

 discovery round the globe, which one of his sons accompanied in a 

 medical capacity, and also as a naturalist. The translation was pub- 

 lished after the father's death : ' Viaggio iutorno al Globo, principal- 

 meute alia California e alle isole Sandwich, negli anni 1826-29, di A. 

 Duhaut Cilly ; con Note del giovane Botta,' Turin, 1841. Botta lived 

 and died poor. He died at Paris, in August 1837. His native town 

 San Giorgio has raised him a monument. 



Besides the works mentioned in this article, Botta wrote 1, ' II 

 Camillo, o Vejo conquistato,' a poem, Paris, 1815; 2, ' Storia deiPopoli 

 Italian! da Costantino fino a Napoleone,' a compilation published first 

 in French in 1825, and afterwards in Italian in 182G. His history of 

 American independence has been translated into English by Otis, and 

 has been greatly praised in the United States. As a literary work 

 however it is much inferior in merit to the two histories of Italy. 



BOTTA, PAUL-EMILE, was born about the year 1800. He is the 

 son of Botta the historian. He studied medicine, and accompanied 

 A. D. Cilly, as a surgeon, in his voyage round the world in 1 826-29. 

 [BOTTA, C. G.] He early distinguished himself as a naturalist. He 

 spent some years in Egypt, was for a time consul at Alexandria, and 

 visited the countries on the Upper Nile, Senaar, and tho tracts 

 inhabited by tho Bishareen. In 1837 he made a journey through a 

 portion of Arabia, of which he published a short but very interesting 

 account, 'Relation d'un Voyage dans 1'Yemeu, entrepris en 1837 pour 

 le MuscSum d'Histoire Naturelle de Paris,' 8vo. 



In 1843 M. Botta was at Mosul as French consul. This town is 

 situated on the west bank of the Tigris, about 220 miles N.N.W. from 

 Baghdad. On the eastern bank, nearly opposite, is a large mound 

 called by the inhabitants Kouyunjik, supposed to have been a portion 

 of the ancient city of Nineveh. M. Botta, early in 1843, soon after 

 his arrival at Mosul, began to make excavations in this mound, on a 

 small scale, but found only fragments similar to others which had 

 been found there previously. While the small party employed by 

 him were still at work on the mound of Kouyunjik, an Arab peasant 

 happened to visit the spot, and being informed that they wcri 

 searching for sculptured stones, advised them to try the mound on 

 which hU village was situated, where, he said, such stones had becu 

 found. This village, called Khorsabad, is about 14 miles N. by W. 

 from Mosul. M. Botta followed the man's suggestion. A hole was 

 dug into the mound of Khorsabad, the top of a wall was reached, and 

 the whole of tho apartments of au Assyrian palace were ultimately 

 laid open. Tho walls were faced with slabs of stone sculptured with 

 figures anu cuneiform characters, and there were huge human-headed 

 bulls and other statues, the whole being similar to those now in the 

 British Museum, which have been brought from the mounds of 

 Nimroud and Kouyunjik. The discoveries at Khorsabad were made 

 before Mr. Layard had commenced his excavations at Nimroud, which 

 is 18 miles S. from Kouyunjik ; so that M. Botta led the way in tho 

 recent Assyrian discoveries. The French government supplied him 

 with funds, and sent M. Flandin, an experienced artist, to make 

 drawings. The palace at Khorsabad appears to have been destroyed 

 by fire, and it was consequently found to.be impossible to prevent 

 the greater part of the slabs from being broken. Such however of the 

 sculptures and other objects as have been saved are now exhibited in 

 the Musde Assyrien of the Louvre at Paris. M. Botta, after his return 

 to Paris, in conjunction with M. Flandin, and assisted by other scholars 

 and artists, published ' Monument de Nineve", decovert et descrit par 

 P.-fi. Botta, mesurd jet dessiud par E. Flandin,' 5 torn, folio, Paris, 

 1847-50. The two first volumes contain the plates of architecture 

 and sculpture, the third and fourth the inscriptions, and the fifth 

 the text. 



BOTTA'RI, GIOVA'NNI, was born at Florence in 1689, studied 

 Latin and belles-lettres under tho learned Biscioni, and Greek under 

 Salvini, and afterwards philosophy, mathematics, and theology, in 

 which last he took his doctor's degree in 1716 in the University of 

 Florence. The Academy of La Crusca made him one of its members, 

 and entrusted him with the task of preparing a new edition of its 

 great vocabulary, in company with Audrea Alamanni and Rosso 

 Martini. This laborious work lasted several years, and tho new 

 edition was published in 1738, in 6 vols. folio. Bottari was also made 



