BERG AMOTS BERGM ANN. 



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which produced, on an average, 150,000 sterling 

 yearly. I.i 1428, the Bergamese put themselves 

 under the republic of Venice. In 1796, Bonaparte 

 took B., and it was subsequently made the capital of 

 the department of the Serio, in the kingdom of Italy. 

 Lon. 9 38' E. ; lat. 45 42' N. The city is the seat 

 of a bishop and of the authorities of the district. It 

 has an academy of painting and sculpture, a museum, 

 an athenaeum, a public library, several academies, 

 many manufactories, especially of silk. There is, also, 

 a small Protestant congregation in this city. The 

 comic characters, Arlechino, or Truffaldino, and Brig- 

 hella, in the Italian masqued comedy, are Bergamese, 

 or affect the dialect of the country people in the 

 neighbourhood of this city. 



BERGAMOTS are a variety of citron. It is said to 

 have been produced at first by grafting a citron on 

 the stock of a bergamot pear-tree. The fruit has a 

 fine taste and smell, ami its essential oil is in high es- 

 teem as a perfume. 



BERGEN ; a bishopric in the kingdom of Norway, 

 that borders on Aggerhuus to the east, Drontheim to 

 the north, Christiansand to the south, and the German 

 ocean to the west ; ion. 4 45'-6 55' E. ; lat. 59 34' 

 --62 39' N. It contains about 13,900 square miles, 

 57 parishes, 180 churches and chapels, 137,700 in- 

 habitants, or nearly 10 to a square mile. 



Bergen, the fortified capital, with a citadel (Ber- 

 genhuus), the largest city in Norway, is situated in 

 Ion. 5 21' E., lat. 60 10' N., 180 miles N. of Sta- 

 vanger, 270 S.W., of Drontheim, at the bottom of 

 the bay of Waag, that stretches far into the country, 

 forming a safe harbour, surrounded by high and 

 steep rocks. The entrance, however, is dangerous. 

 The wall of rocks also makes the access to the city 

 on the land side difficult. The climate is compara- 

 tively mild, on account of the sheltered situation of 

 the town. It is remarkable for frequent rains. B. 

 is well built, yet several streets are crooked and un- 

 even, on account of the rocks. The city contains 

 2200 houses, 18,000 inhabitants, one German and 

 three Danish churches : it has a bishop, a classical 

 school, a seminary, founded by bishop Pontoppidan, 

 for twelve students, who are instructed gratis in the 

 higher branches of literature, a naval academy, an 

 hospital for such as are infected with the scurvy, 

 which is common among the fishermen, arising from 

 their food, principally smoked or salt meat and fish ; 

 besides other useful institutions. The inhabitants of 

 the middle coast of Norway bring 1 their boards, masts, 

 laths, firewood, tar, train oil, hides, &c., and particu- 

 larly dried fish (stock-fish), to B., to exchange them 

 for corn and other necessaries, brought thither by the 

 British, Dutch, and Germans. B. thus carries on 

 its commerce with but a hundred vessels of its own. 

 In the year 1445, a factory and several warehouses 

 were established here by the Hanseatic cities of 

 Germany, and the German traders, as they called 

 themselves, enjoyed for some time, the protection of 

 the Hanseatic league. The German factory consist- 

 ed of about sixty warehouses. The roads leading 

 into the interior of the country are frequented only 

 in the winter, when they are passable in sleds. B. 

 is the native place of the poet Holberg. 



Bergen is also the name of other places ; amongst 

 them is, 1, a town in the Netherlands, a post of some 



consequence in the wars of 1739 and 1814 2. A 



town in the electorate of Hesse. A bloody battle 

 was fought here, April 13, 1759, between the French 

 and allies, in the seven years' war, in which the for- 

 mer were victorious. It is three miles N. E. Frank- 

 fort. 3. The capital of the island of Rugen, in the 

 Baltic, now subject to Pnissia. 4. A small island in 

 the Indian ocean, 60 miles W. of Sumatra lat. 3 



go's. 



BERGERAC ; a town of France, in the department of 

 the Dordogne, 48 miles E. of Bordeaux, which gives 

 the name to an agreeable wine, cultivated on the 

 banks of the Dordogne. There is a white and a red 

 sort. In France, it is sometimes also called petit 

 Champagne. 



BERGHEM, Nicholas, an eminent painter, was born 

 at Harlem, in 1624, and received his first instruction 

 in painting from his father, Peter of Harlem, who was 

 a very indifferent artist. He then continued his stu- 

 dies under van Goyen, and the elder Weenix. It is 

 related, that once, when pursued by his father, he 

 fled into the workshop of van Goyen, who, to protect 

 him, called to his pupils, " Berg hem " (conceal him) : 

 this, it is said, occasioned his new name. Love of 

 his art, and the great demand for his paintings, as 

 likewise the avarice of his wife, prompted him to la- 

 bour with extreme assiduity. To buy engravings, 

 of which he was very fond, he was often compelled 

 to borrow money from his students, which he could 

 only refund by deceiving his wife in regard to the 

 price of his paintings. In this manner, he obtained 

 a rich collection. B.'s landscapes and representations 

 of animals, adorn the most celebrated galleries. The 

 distinguishing characters of the pictures of B. are 

 the breadth and just distribution of the lights, the 

 grandeur of his masses of light and shadow, the 

 natural ease and simplicity in the attitudes of his 

 figures, the brilliancy and harmony as well as trans- 

 parency of his colouring, the correctness and true 

 perspective of his design, and the elegance of his 

 composition. Although he hardly ever left his work- 

 shop, yet he had closely observed nature, during a 

 long residence in the palace of Benthem. He died 

 at Harlem, 1683. Charles Dujardin and Glauber 

 were among his pupils. At the auction of P. de 

 Smeth's collection of paintings, Amsterdam, 1810, 

 four of B.'s were sold for 800, 1000, 1625, 2500 

 Dutch guilders. 



BERGMANN, Torbern Olof, a natural philosopher 

 and chemist, was born at Catharineberg, hi the Swed- 

 ish province of West Gothland, March 9, 1735, and 

 obtained, after many difficulties, the permission of his 

 family to devote himself entirely to the sciences. At 

 that time, disciples flocked from all quarters to Lin- 

 naeus, at Upsal. They were joined by B., in 1752, 

 who, by his acuteness and his discoveries, which were 

 facilitated by his attainments in geometry and physics, 

 excited the notice of this great man. In 1758, he 

 became doctor of philosophy and professor of physics 

 at Upsal. Upon the resignation of the celebrated 

 Wallerius, B. was a candidate for the professorship 

 of chemistry and mineralogy. His competitors 

 charged him with ignorance of the subject, be- 

 cause he had never written on it. To refute them, 

 he shut himself up for some time in a laboratory, 

 and prepared a treatise on the manufacture ot 

 alum, which is still considered as a standard work. 

 In 1767, he became professor of chemistry, and de- 

 voted himself with ardour to this science. He 

 invented the preparation of artificial mineral-waters, 

 and discovered the sulphuretted hydrogen gas of 

 mineral springs. We are indebted to him for a 

 knowledge of the characters which distinguish nickel 

 from other metals. On a number of minerals he 

 made chemical experiments, with an accuracy before 

 uncommon. He published a classification of minerals, 

 in which the chief divisions are based on their che- 

 mical character, and the subdivisions on their exter- 

 nal form. In preparing this work, he was much 

 aided by his former discovery of the geometrical 

 relations between different crystals of the same sub- 

 stance, which may be deduced from one primitive 

 form, and are produced by the aggregation of similar 

 particles, according to fixed and obvious laws. H is 

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