BEL 



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BEL 



and entitling the whole ' Bellendenus de Statu.' With this 

 view he recalled the few copies of his last work that were 

 abroad, arid, after a short delay, published the three trea- 

 tises under their new title in 1616. A copy of the original 

 edition of the ' De Statu prisci Orbis,' dated 1615, is in the 

 British Museum. The great work being now completed, 

 Bellenden looked forward (we still follow Dr. Bennett) with 

 a pretty well-grounded expectation of that applause which 

 his labour and ingenuity deserved. Unfortunately, however, 

 the vessel in which the whole impression was embarked was 

 overtaken by a storm before she could reach the English 

 coast, and foundered with all her cargo. A few copies only, 

 which Bellenden had kept for his own use, or made presents 

 of, were saved ; and accordingly the work, from its scarcity, 

 was hardly known to even the most curious of book col- 

 lectors. Dr. Bennett states that no mention is made of the 

 work in either the ' Observationes Literarite,' published at 

 Magdeburg in 1705, or in the ' Amacnitates Literariae,' 

 published at Frankfort in 1 728, though both are devoted to 

 a hi story of scarce and learned books. 



Bellenden, though naturally much concerned, was not, it 

 seems, discouraged at his loss ; but immediately set about 

 arranging his materials in a new form. His studies had 

 made him familiar with the works of the great Latin writers, 

 particularly Cicero ; and he designed a work with the title 

 ' De Tribus Luminibus Roraanorum,' in which he proposed 

 to explain the character, literary merits, and philosophical 

 opinions of Cicero, Seneca, and Pliny the elder according 

 to some, the younger according to other critics. The first 

 of these he finished, and was proceeding with the others 

 when he died. The republication of the three original 

 works above named of ' Bellendenus de Statu' in 1787, with 

 a preface remarkable fur its Latinity, and still more, per- 

 haps, as being the vehicle of much fierce political invective 

 against the character and administration of Mr. Pitt, and 

 of unmeasured eulogy of the author's ' Triu Lumina An- 

 gl.jrum ' Mr. Burke, Lord North, and Mr. Fox from the 

 f Dr. Parr, has made Bellenden's name more familiar 

 ID the English reader than it otherwi.se might have been. 

 In his preface, Parr affirms that Middlelon, in his ' Life of 

 Cicero,' borrowed largely from Bellenden, without making 

 any mention of his name. 



(See the works of Dr. Samuel Parr, edited by J. Jolm- 

 i, M.D., vols. i. and iii. ; and, The Biographia Bri- 

 tanniru.) 



BELLE'ROPHON (Zoology), a fos-il shell, the animal 

 of which is unknown, but which probably was allied to that 

 of Argonauta and Carinariu. Deny* de Montfort esta- 

 blished the genus, but he placed it among the polythalam- 

 ous or chambered shells. De France cut in half the very 

 specimen which belonged to De Montfort, and thus proved 

 tliat it was unilocular like Argonauta; and in truth, Belle- 

 r'tjihnn is the only fossil which bears any resemblance to 

 the- structure of that shell, though it is much thicker. The 

 genus is characteristic of the carboniferous formation and 

 some of the older strata, llellerophon hiukus may be 

 taken as an example of the species. 



[Bellerophon hiulcus.] 



BELLES LETTRES, a vague term used by the French, 

 which has been adopted by other nations, to signify various 

 branches of knowledge, which are the produce of the ima- 

 gination and taste, rather than of serious study and reflec- 

 tion. We do not find that the limits of this description of 

 knowledge have been clearly defined. Rhetoric, poetry, 

 history, philology, are generally understood to come within 

 the definition of belles lettres ; but the mathematical and 

 natural sciences, jurisprudence, metaphysics, ethics, and 

 theology, the fine arts, and the mechanical arts, are consi- 

 dered distinct from them. Antiquarian and classical re- 

 searches are not always included among the belles lettres : 

 the French Academy des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres, 

 teems by its very title to make a distinction between the 



two, as the first part of the title, 'Inscriptions,' refers to the 

 investigation of antient or oriental inscriptions, medals, &c. 

 Belles lettres may be said to answer to the literte hu- 

 manioresof the Latin language, and to the English expres- 

 sion ' polite literature.' A 



BELLESME, BELLEME, or BELESME, a town in 

 France, in the department of Orne, formerly included in the 

 district of Perche. It is near the source of the little river 

 Meme (a tributary of the Huine, which flows into the Sarthe), 

 93 miles W.S.W. of Paris, 48 22' N. lat., 31' E. long. 

 It disputes with Mortagne the title to be considered as the 

 capital of Perche. It was under counts of its own at an 

 early period, but the last of these was deprived of his domains 

 by Henry I., King of England and Duke of Normandy, who 

 gave Bellesme to the Counts of Mortagne, whose successors 

 assumed the title of Counts of Perche. In 1228 Bellesme 

 was besieged by the army of Louis IX. (St. Louis) of 

 France, and taken in fifteen days, although it was then ac- 

 counted one of the strongest places in Europe. 



The town is tolerably well built, and stands on an emi- 

 nence which commands the surrounding country. To the 

 north of the town is the small forest of Bellesme, in which 

 are some mineral springs, and also some iron mines. The 

 wood of this forest is much used for cask staves, and fur- 

 nishes the town with one of its most considerable articles of 

 trade. Common linens and cottons are manufactured. The 

 population in 1832 was 3264 for the town, or 3413 for the 

 whole commune. / 



In the neighbouring forest of Bellesme, in the earlier part 

 or the middle of the eighteenth century (as we gather from 

 the phrase used by Expilly in 1 762, ' il y a quelques annees'), 

 two antient inscriptions were dug up, apparently the inscrip- 

 tions of an antient temple of Venus. The first contained 

 simply the word ' APHRODISIUM ;' the second consisted of 

 the words ' Dns INFERIS VENERI MARTI ET MERCURIO 

 SACRUM.' (Expilly, Dictionnaire des Gaules, tye.) 

 BELLEVUE LES BAINS. [See BOURBON LANCY.] 

 BELLEY, a town in France, formerly capital of the dis- 

 trict of Bugey, or Bugei, a subdivision of Bourgogne, or 

 Burgundy [see BUOBY], and now the capital of an arron- 

 dissement in the department of Aix. It lies amidst the 

 ridges of Jura, and not far from the banks of the Rhone, 

 which in this neighbourhood is the boundary of the French 

 and Sardinian territories. It is in 45 45' N. lat., and 5 42' 

 E. long. 



According to Martiniere, no mention of this town is known 

 to have been made of earlier date than the time of the 

 Merovingian kings of France ; but Malte-Brun* speaks of 

 its having'been destroyed by Alaric, A.D. 390, and rebuilt 

 A.D. 412. A bishop of Belley (Latin, Belica) was at the 

 second council of Paris in the middle of the sixth century ; 

 and tradition speaks of a bishop, Audax, at the commence- 

 ment of the fifth century. The see is said to have been 

 transferred here from Nyon in Switzerland. The town con- 

 tinued under the dominion of its bishops; and Frederick 

 Barbarossa, emperor of Germany, granted to the then bishop 

 all the rights of regality, including that of coining money. 

 These ecclesiastics obtained also a seat in the Diet, which 

 they retained as long as Bugey was an incorporated part of 

 the German empire. Belley, with the district of Bugey, 

 came subsequently into the hands of the dukes of Savoy, 

 but in the year 1601 they were ceded to France by the Duke 

 Charles Emanucl. The town is said to have been burned 

 wholly or in part in 1385, and rebuilt by Amadeus VIII., 

 duke of Savoy. 



Before the Revolution, Belley possessed a cathedral and a 

 parish church, an abbey for Cistertian nuns, convents for 

 Cordeliers and Capuchins, and nunneries of Ursulines and 

 Visitandines, besides a seminary for priests, a college, and 

 an hospital. The cathedral is well built. The principal 

 manufacture carried on is of calico and muslin, which is sent 

 to Lyons and Avignon. (Dictionnaire Universal de la 

 France, Paris, 1804.) Population, in 1832,3550 for the town, 

 and 4286 for the whole commune. 



The arrondissement of Belley is bounded on the west by 

 the Am, and on the east and south by the Rhone. It con- 

 tains 540 square miles, or 345,600 acres, and is subdivided 

 into 9 cantons, and 1 18 communes. The population in 1832 

 was 79,744. The country round Belley is fertile, and the 

 situation of the town agreeable. The river Foran, or Furand, 



M. Maltp-Bnm even gixi o fat us to nay that llelley existed when Brail. 

 nuimaiV' hil expedition :.i;uini<t Rome, and thut it was destroyed by those 

 who fled before Uic ni>]>tuach of the Uerco Oaul, B.C. 390. 



202 



