B 1 A 



364 



B I A 



enc arc almost unproductive ; and the province yield* no 

 minerals I* (one, rlny, limestone, and a little iron, 



which 11 consumed in the country. Mechanical industry i> 

 ijuito in its infancy, ami the whole province doe not possess 

 a single manufactory, or a commercial establishment of any 

 extent, though it carries on much trade, in timber particu- 

 larly, with D.in/itf. Ki'migsberg, Elbing, and Mcmcl. The 

 population, including a nort of noblemen (ichlachtey or 

 xrnftvht sthutzen, i.e. fighting-men), amounted in 1807 to 

 183.300 souls, and is at present estimated at about 230,000. 

 These noblemen, of whom a vast proportion are so indigent 

 ;is to cultivate their lands with their own hands, or hire 

 themselves as labourers to their superiors in atllucnce, are 

 i exceed 9000 families in number, or nearly 50,000 

 individuals. Jews abound in the province, though not 

 j. -matted by law to reside in any town. Bialystock is di- 

 vided into the four circles of Bialystock, Belz, Droguitchin 

 or Drohiezyn, and Sokolka. 



capital, which gives name to the province, lie* on the 

 little river Bialy ; though not walled, it has five mas-he 

 towers, two suburbs, a spacious market, an extensive range 

 of building for the sale of merchandise, containing nearly 

 forty stores, a palace and park, once belonging to the counts 

 of Potoeky, but at present to the town, two churches and as 

 many chapels, a convent, a gymnasium and civic school, a 

 hospital, lying in institution, &c. It is regularly built, 

 several of the streets are bordered with lime-trees, broad, 

 at right angles to one another, and paved ; and many of the 

 houses (aln)ut 700 in number) are handsome, though in 

 general they are neatly constructed of wood, and do not 

 exceed one story in height. On the whole, the town is 

 deemed sufficiently fine to have deserved, at least among 

 the natives, the appellation of ' the Podlachian Versailles.' 

 In 1~'J7 the number of houses was 459, and of inhabitants 

 3370 : :it the present day the population is above 6000. 

 Uialystock lies in 53 7' N. lat. and 23 18' E. long. 



The province contains altogether twenty-six towns, one 

 market village, and 533 villages and hamlets. Among the 

 first may be mentioned, besides the capital, lielsll (sec that 

 art.), Goniondz on the Bober, a small place in a sandy dis- 

 trict, with about 1370 inhabitants; Snhnlka. an ill-built 

 town near a small lake, with about 1100; Drohiczyn on 

 the Hug, the ancient capital of Podlachia, containing four 

 churches, a college of Piarists, with a public school attached 

 tu it, two monasteries, a convent, and about 1 000 inhabitants ; 

 Citchanoviek, on the Nurzek, with its Jablonofsky palace, 

 two churches, a convent, an hospital, and about 2700 inha- 

 bitants; and Siemiatitshe, a well-built town, with a hand- 

 some palace, which as well as the town belonged to the 

 Jablonofsky family, two churches, a synagogue, and about 

 3600 inhabitants, the greater part of whom are Jews. 



IU A NCI I I'M, FRANCESCO, born at Verona. Decem- 

 ber 13, 1662, studied at Padua, where he applied himself 

 particularly to mathematics under the learned Professor 

 Montanari. At the same time he also made great progress 

 in classical learning, a taste for which induced him, after he 

 left the unher-ity, to proceed, in 1684, to Rome, where Car- 

 dinal Pictro Olioiioni. who knew Bianchini's family, received 

 him into his house and made him his librarian. In this 

 ;i Hianchini devoted all his time to study : he in 

 . the monuments, medals, inscription?, and other 

 remain* of antiquity with which Rome abounds; and he 

 then enncehed the idea of a universal history, grounded 

 -o much upon written authorities, as upon the monu- 

 ments of former times which have been found in various 

 parts of the world. 



In 1 C SO, according to Lalandc in his Ribliographie Astro- 

 n'lniii/iif, he published at Bologna a Dialogo Fisico-Astro 

 uni mntrn il Si.ttfina Cnpernicano. 

 In IGs'i, Cardinal Ottoboni having become pope, under 

 th- name of Alexander VIII., was enabled to provide for 

 Bianchini, by making him a canon of Santa Maria ad Mar- 

 aud bestowing on him some pensions besides. Alex- 

 ander's pontificate wag very short, but it placed Bianchini 

 alxive want. Alexander's nephew, also called Cardinal 

 OltuH .in. continued after his uncle's death to patronise 

 Biani-hini, and retained him in the office of librarian. 



In lii'J" lJunrhini published tlie first-part of his universal 



history: Ittnriu Universale provata cot Monumenti efigu- 



mlfili degli Antichi, 4to. Rome, 1697. It begins 



with the fir-t r<- >nls we have of the pastern nations, and 



with the de-triicti.in of the A--ynan empire under 



Sanlanapalus. The author treat* of the Babylonians, the 



Arabs, the Phooniciani and their colonies, the Egyptians, 

 :he Ethiopians, the Greeks, the Ktruscans, and of all the 

 other nations who have left monumental remains. It i* a 

 xx>k full of curious erudition : it is illustrated by plates. 

 Bianchini, however, did not continue the work. I'lement 

 XI. being raised to the papal chair in 1 700, showed a marked 

 Favour towards Bianchini. He sent him to Naples in 1 7o-J, 

 to accompany the Cardinal Legate Barherini, who went to 

 congratulate Philip V. of Spain when he came to take pos- 

 vc i, in of that kingdom. Clement also made Bianchini a 

 prelate of his court, secretary to several conui-e^ati.n.-., and 

 gave him apartments in the Quirinal 1'aLi'v. II. 

 made him a canon of Santa Maria Maggiore. Bianchini 

 had taken deacon's orders, but through modesty he never 

 would be ordained presbyter. 



In 1703 Bianchini wrote two dissertations on the .Julian 

 Calendar, and on the various attempts made, especial 

 St. Hippolitus, for reforming it previous to the Gregorian 

 reform : De Calendario et Cyclo Ceetaris, of de Canone 

 Pascfiati Sancti Hippoliti marlyrit, Dissertations duo- 

 ad S. D. N. Clementem XL, Pont. Max., Roma?, 

 Bianchini was employed by the pope in drawing a meridian 

 line in the church of La Madonna dcgli Angeli, like 

 that traced by Cassini in the church of S. IVtr.inin 

 at Bologna. In 1705 he was made a patrician of Ron 

 a decree of the senate, and in 1712 he was sent by Clement 

 XI. to France to carry the cardinal's hat to the new-made 

 cardinal, Rohan Soubise. Alter going to Paris, he went to 

 Holland, and afterwards to England, when he visited Oxford, 

 and was received everywhere with marked attention by the 

 learned. Having returned to Rome in June, 1713, he re- 

 sumed his labours both in astronomy and archocology. 

 He superintended, with great care, a fine edition of the 

 lives of the popes by Anastasius, with notes and comments: 

 Vitee Itnmanorum Ponlificum a B. Petro Apnxtnln ml 

 Kicnlaum 1. perductes, curd Anastasii S. R. Ecclesia- liib- 

 liothecarii, 3 vols. folio, 1718-28. The fourth and last 

 volume was published after Bianchini's death by his nephew, 

 Giuseppe Bianchini, in 1745. 



In the year 1726, an antient building was discovered near 

 the Via Appia, about a mile and a half outside of Rome, 

 consisting of three sepulchral chambers of the servants and 

 freedmen of Augustus and his wife Livia. Only one of 

 the three rooms was cleared of the earth and rubbish, which 

 Bianchini inspected carefully. Rows of small niches, like 

 pigeons' nests, one row above the other, ran along the four 

 sides of the room, and every niche contained two or more 

 ' ollse cinerarias,' or little urns of terra cotta, in which the 

 ashes of the dead were deposited. Above the niches were 

 tablets containing the names and the offices of the persons 

 whose remains lay in the urns beneath. Bianchini <:ivcs 

 many of these inscriptions, which throw considerable light 

 on the manners and domestic habits of those times: several 

 of them refer to female servants of Livia. The total numlwr 

 of urns in that one room was above 1000. Another building 

 of the same description had been discovered some years be- 

 fore in another vineyard by the Via Appia, about half a mile 

 nearer Rome. It also consisted of three rooms, which con- 

 tained at least 3000 urns, likewise of servants and liberti of 

 Augustus: Fabbretti published a description of them. Tho 

 names in the inscriptions denote individuals from every part 

 of the Roman empire, some natives of Asia Minor and Syria, 

 and others from the banks of the Danube, the Rhine, or the 

 Ebro. Some of the inscriptions refer to the time of Clau- 

 dius, and even to a later period, but by far the greater num- 

 ber belong to the time of Augustus. Other sepulchral de- 

 posits have been found of the slaves and freedmen of that 

 emperor and his wife Livia, altogether showing the amazing 

 number of servants attached to the great Roman families. 

 Bianchini published the description of the room which he 

 had inspected: Camera cd hiscrizioni Srpn/rrd/i <lci Li- 

 berti, Servi, ed Ufflciali delta Casa di AUgUtto srnperts 

 nrlla J'ia Appia, ed illustrate can le Annnt<i:inni <li Mon- 

 xignore Francesco Itinn-hini, 1'rrnnete, fanno 1720, fol. 

 Roma. 1 727. After exploring by day the sepulchral cham- 

 bers in the Via Appia, Bianchini used to attend to his 

 observatory by night. The planet Venus was the principal 

 object of his observations. By attentively examining tho 

 spots on that planet, he was enabled to determine the pe- 

 riod of its rotation. The result of his observations was 

 published under the title of Hesperi et Photphori nova 

 1'hrpniimfnn. xirt Obxfrratitmfx rirca Ptanetam Veneris, 

 u F. Jilanchino, S. D. N. Papce Prcelato Domestico, Romto, 



