B E S 



B E S 



the citadel. The cathedral of St. John gloried formerly in 

 the poMMsion of a sacred relic the winding-sheet of Christ 

 (If taint ntairt), which was exliilnted with great solemnity 

 .tain great festivals of the church, and attracted an 

 incredible multitude of persons. It retains now a fine paint- 

 ing of the resurrection, by Vanloo ; a St. Sebastian, by Fra 

 Bartholomew, the master of Raphael ; and on the sides of 

 the high altar are two angels in marble, the work of Breton, 

 sculptor of Besancon. The churches of St. Pierre (St. 

 Peter) and de la Madeleine (the Magdalen) deserve notice, 

 the first for its fine portal, the second for the beauty of its 

 structure. 



Before the suppression of the religious houses at the Revo- 

 lution, Besancon possessed several. There were four abbeys, 

 one of the order of St. Augustin, two of Benedictines (one of 

 which was held in commendam), and one of Cistercian 

 nuns. There were eleven convents; six of men, viz. two of 

 Carmelites, and one each of Cordeliers, Capuchins, Obser- 

 vantines, and Minims ; and five of women, via. of Ursuline 

 nuns, of nuns of the Annunciation, of the Visitation, of St. 

 Clare, and of an order called ' Tiereelins,' who were not 

 bound by any vow or restricted to the walls of their convent. 

 There were, besides, an association of persons for pious 

 purposes called ' the Brotherhood of St. George,' a com- 

 mandery of the order of Malta, a house of the Jesuits, and 

 one of the priests of the oratory, a seminary for the educa- 

 tion of the priesthood, and a college under the direction of 

 the Jesuits. Besides the chapter of the cathedral there was 

 one attached to the church de la Madeleine which was col- 

 legiate. There were at the same period eight parish 

 churches (besides the cathedral and the church de la Made- 

 leine), and several benevolent institutions ; three hospitals, 

 two of which were for the bringing up of poor children and 

 foundlings, and a penitentiary house for women. Of these 

 charities modern authorities do not speak, or at least not 

 with sufficient clearness to enable us to identify them as 

 DOW in existence. 



Of buildings not devoted to ecclesiastical purposes there 

 are Le Palais de Justice, an edifice of the 1 6th century : 

 the general hospital, the military hospital, the theatre, 

 and the barracks. The remains of Roman antiquity have 

 been noticed already. (Martiniere; Expilly; Malte-Brun : 

 Balbi.) There are some public promenades ; the name ol 

 the finest, Le Chamars, points out the Campus Martins 

 of the Romans. It is well laid out and planted, and extends 

 along the banks of the Doubs. 



Besancon is a place of considerable importance for its 

 manufactures and trade. Thread, cotton, and silk stock- 

 ings ; carpets, which are sent to different parts of France, 

 especially to Paris, or exported to Switzerland; linen 

 yarn, coarse woollen and linen fabrics for the use of the 

 working class and the peasantry ; fire-arms and leather are 

 made here. The town is also the centre of the watch and 

 clock manufacture introduced into France about the close 

 of the last century. The different pieces or works are 

 manufactured by the workmen and their families in their 

 own habitations : it is the business of another mechanic, the 

 ' finisher,' to unite them into a clock or watch. Watches 

 of all kinds, repeaters, and chronometers, are made here. 

 Watch-cases are cast and turned or otherwise finished in 

 different places in the department. The Canal de Man 

 tieur, which joins the Rhine with the Rhone by means ol 

 the navigation of the Doubs and the Sadne, contributes to 

 the trade of Hesancon, which consists in iron goods ol 

 various kind*, deals, cheese, grain, wine, and cattle, besides 

 the manufactures already mentioned. 



The population of the town is considerable, and a refer- 

 ence to different authorities enables us to trace its gradual 

 increase. Piganiol de la Force, in his Nouvelle Description 

 drln Vmni-f (Paris, 1722), gives it at 11,520; Expilly, in 

 hi* Dii-ti'innnirc d'.i Gaules et de la France (Paris, 1762), 

 at about 20,000 ; the Dictinnnaire Universel de la France 

 (I'.irin, 1804), 27,469 : Maltc-Brun, taking the number from 

 -rtsui before the last, 28,795. The last two numbers 

 are the population of the commune, and exceed probably by 

 about 5000 the population of the town itself at their re- 

 pwttvc periods. Bv the last census (of 1st January, 1832) 

 tha popubr .11 of the town was 24,042, and of the whole 

 .'. To these we may add 7000 or 8000 

 L'ers, students of the Academic, or soldiers of the gar- 

 rison. 



The literary institutions and places of education in Be- 

 sancon are numerous and important. The public library 



eighty thousand volumes, besides some valuable 

 Le Muscu Paris, the gift of an architect of the 



contains 

 MSS. Le 



name of Paris, a native of BeKuucon, comprehends anti- 

 quities, paintings, and drawings ; and the Museum of Na- 

 tural Hi.-tury contains a rich and extensive collection. The 

 Academia Universitaire has replaced the university which 

 existed previous to the Revolution. The university was esta- 

 blished in or about 1422 and 1423, at Dole, by Philippe le Bon 

 (Philip the Good), Duke of Burgundy, and was transferred 

 to Besancon in 1691. Some give to this institution a much 

 higher antiquity, asserting that it was founded at Gray in 

 1292, by the Emperor Otho, and that the Duke Philippe 

 le Bon only re-established it and transferred it to Dole. The 

 present Academie appears to consist of one faculty only, that 

 of literature (faculte de lettres). There ore a college royal, 

 or high school ; a seminary for the priesthood ; a secondary 

 school of medicine, surgery, and pharmacy ; a school of 

 drawing and sculpture ; a deaf and dumb school for both 

 sexes; and a school of artillery, formerly at Auxonne. 

 There are also a royal academy of sciences, belles lettres 

 and arts; a society of medicine; and a society of agriculture 

 and the arts. Before the Revolution there was a military 

 literary society, intended chiefly to engage the oflicers of the 

 garrison to pursue the study of those branches of science 

 suited to their profession. (Malte-Brun; Balbi; Dupin, 

 Fbrces Productive! de la Fr< 



Besancon is the seat of an archbishoprick. The diocese 

 is said to have been established in the third century ; and 

 the possessor of the see, after his claim to pre-eminence had 

 been much contested, possessed without dispute the rank of 

 metropolitan in the eighth century. His diocese did not con- 

 tain the whole of Franche Comte : and his suffragans were 

 only three in number, viz., the bishops of Belley, in France, 

 and Bale and Lausanne in Switzerland. At present the 

 diocese of Besanc,on comprehends the two departments of 

 Doubs and Haute Sadne, with a population of above 

 600,000 ; and the suffragans of the archbishop are the 

 bishops of Strasbourg, Met/, Verdun, Belley, St. DIP, and 

 Nancy. 



Besancon was the capital of Franche Comte, under tlio 

 old territorial division of France, and is now the capital of 

 the department of Doubs [see DOUBS], which has a popula- 

 tion of 265,535. It has a Cour Royale, the jurisdiction of 

 which extends over the departments of Doubs, Haute Saone, 

 and Jura ; and a Tribunal de Commerce for the settlement 

 of commercial disputes. It is the chief place of the sixth of 

 the military divisions into which France has been partitioned: 

 this sixth division includes the departments of Ain, Doubs, 

 Jura, and Haute Sadne. 



The arrondissement of Besancon contains 560 square 

 miles, or 358,400 acres; and had in 1832 a population of 

 96,032. It is subdivided into eight cantons and two hun- 

 dred and one communes. 



Among the eminent natives of Besancon were, Jean 

 Jacques Chifllet, a .writer on history, antiquities, politics, 

 and medicine, author of a ' History of Besan9on ;' Antoinc 

 Perrenot, Cardinal de Granvelle, according to Piganiol and 

 Expilly (but in the Ringraphie Universelle he is said to 

 have been born at Ornans), an eminent statesman, in the 

 service of the Emperor Charles V., and bis son Philip II. 

 of Spain ; Jean Baptistc Antoine Suard, an eminent lite- 

 rary character, and translator of Robertson's ' History of 

 Charles V.' and ' History of America;' and the Manrhal 

 Moncey, Duo de Cornegliano, one of the soldiers of the lie- 

 volution and the empire of Napoleon. 



BESANT. [See BEZANT.]. 



BESITTOON, properly BISUTUN. The plain of Ker- 

 manshah, in that part of modern Persia which corresponds 

 to the antient Media, is bounded on the north by a long 

 range of barren mountains, which terminates most abruptly 

 to the east in a naturally scarped precipice, presenting a 

 nearly perpendicular surface about 1500 feet in height. 

 A portion of the lower part of this surface, about "0 or 80 

 feet from the base of the rock, and perhaps 100 feet above 

 the general level of the plain, has been cut smooth by art, 

 so as to form an immense tablet, extending about 150 feet 

 in length, by 100 in height, and about two \ 

 the level of the outer surface of the rock in which it is 

 formed. Below this tablet projects a rocky terrace, which 

 slopes gradually to the level of the plain. The ba- 

 this ten ace is faced with large hewn stones; and 

 of stone, wholly or partially hewn, art- si 

 about in all directions, so as to render it probable that 



