B E C 



B E C 



BECABUNGA, Bro&klime, in Botany, See Vero- 

 nica. 



BECAH, or Be.<ah, a Jewifh coin, being half a fhekel. 

 In Br. Arbuthnot's tfble of reductions, the bekah amounts 

 to 13 -g-ji/. ; in Dr. Prideaux's computation to is. 6d. 



Every Ifraehte paid a hundred bekahs a head every year 

 for the fuDport of the temple. Calmet. 



BECALMING, in the Sea Language, is when any thing 

 keeps the wind ofFor away from the vcflel. 



Thus one fhip i« faid to becalm anoth.er, when fhe comes 

 up with her on the weather-fide : the like is faid of the 

 fhore, when it keeps the wind away. A (hip is likcwife 

 faid to be becalmed, when there is no wind ftirring. 



I5ECANER, in Geography, a town of Hindooftan, feated 

 on tl'e Ganges, nearly ealt of Dehli. 



B£CARDE, in Ornithology, a name under which Buf- 

 fon defcrib -s fome birds of the Linnaean genus Lanius : 

 as for example, his hecarde is lanius cnyantu Gmel. and 

 becardc a •oentre jaune, lanius fulphuratus of the fame au- 

 thor. 



BE'CASSE, Be'c ASSISE, a generical term in BufTon's 

 Nat. Hift. for fome birds of the Scolopax genus, in the 

 Linnaean fyftem. 



BE'CASSEAU o« Cul-blanc, is alfo a name given by 

 Buffon to the tringa ochropus of Linnseus. 



BECCA, in the Materia Medica of the Ancients, a name 

 given to a fine kind of refm collected from the turpentine 

 and maftich-trees of Greece and Syria, and mixed together 

 for ufe. It was much efteemed formerly, and not only 

 ufed in the country where it was produced, but carried in 

 great quantities to Mecca, and other parts of the Turkifh 

 dominions, where it was valued at a very great rate. 



BECCABUNG^, in Entomology, a fpecies of CuR- 

 CULIO, of a black colour; wing-cafes rufous; entirely 

 bordered with black. Fabricius. In fize and appearance it 

 refembles curcuUo ceraji ; inhabits Sweden ; feeds on the 

 beccnhun'^a. 



BECCADELLI, Antonio, in Biogmphy, called An- 

 tiny of Palermo, from the place of his birth ; was born in 

 1374, lludied the law at Bologna, and entered into the fer- 

 vice of the duke of Milan, who allowed him an honourable 

 penfion. He alfo became profelTor of belles lettres and 

 rhetoric in the univerfity of Pavia, and, in 1432, was ho- 

 noured by the emperor Sigifmund, with the poetic laurel. 

 When Alphonfo kin-r of Naples left Milnn in 1435, he 

 took Antonio with him to his court ; and from this time, 

 he became the infeparable companion of this prince, who 

 conferred upon him many honours and gifts, and intruiled 

 him with many important commiflion?. I-.i 145 1 he was 

 deputed to folicit of the Hate of Venice, the fuppofed arm- 

 bones of the hiftorian Livy, which he obtained. Such in- 

 deed, was his veneration for Livy, that he is faid to have 

 fold a farm in order to purchafe a copy of Livy, written 

 by the hand of Poggio the Florentine. After the death 

 of Alphonfo, Antonio became the ftcretary and counfellor 

 of his fon and lucceiTor Ferdin:;nd. He died at Naples in 

 147 1 ; leaving behind him ample teftiraonials of his talents 

 as a Latin writer, both in profe and verfe. For his work 

 " De Diesis et faftis Alfonfi regis Arragonum," he re- 

 ceived the recompence of a thoufand gold crowns ; which 

 work has been frequently reprinted, with additions. A 

 collection of live books of his cpiftles, two harangues, and 

 fome vcrfes, was printed at Venice in 1453. His " Her- 

 maphroditus," which was a coUeflion of Ihort poems in two 

 books, excited by its obfocnity loud clamours againil its 

 a.ithor; and was publicly burnt in feveral cities of Italy, 

 together with the ^.Titer's own eCigy. Gen. Biog. 



Beccadelli, Ludovico, was bom of a noble family at 

 Bologna in 1502, ftudied at Padua, and accompanied car- 

 dinal Pole in his legation to Spain. He affifted at the coun • 

 cil of Trent, and was delegated by the papal court to 

 Venice and Augfburg. In recompence of his f£r\ices, he 

 was promoted to the archbilhopric of Ragufa ; but being 

 appointed in 1563 to fuperintend the education of the fon 

 of Cofmo I., grand duke of Tufcany, and expecting the 

 archbifhopnc of Pifa, he renounced that of Ragufa. His 

 expeftations, however, were difappointed ; and he was 

 obliged to content himfelf with the provollfhip of the cathe- 

 dral of Prato, in which office he died in 1572. He was 

 reckoned eminent as a man of letters, and wrote in Latin 

 the lives of the cardinals Bembo and Pole, and in Italian 

 a life of Petrarch, efteemed more correft than any other. 

 Nouv. Diet. Hift. 



BECCAFICO Canapino, in Ornithology, a name of 

 motacilla curruca, in Olina. 



Beccafico, and Becfque, are alfo names given by Olina 

 and Buffon to motacilla Jicedula. Linn. 



BECCAFUMI, DoMENico, in Biography, called Mica- 

 rino and Mecherino, was the fon of a peafant near Sienna, 

 whofe name was Pacio, born in 14*4, and employed by his 

 father in keeping (heep. Bcccafumi, a citizen of Sienna, 

 whofe name he alTumed, being prepoffefled with a favour- 

 able opinion of his talents by obfer\ing figures which he 

 drew, with his ftick upon the fand, whilft he was furrounded 

 by his flock, took him under his patronage, and placed him 

 under the inftruftion of a painter, called Cavanna ; and 

 after having been, as fome fay, the difciple of Pietro Peru- 

 gino, or according to others, after having been employed 

 in copying the pictures of this artift, he went to Rome, and 

 made further improvement by ftudying the works of Ra- 

 phael and Michael Angclo. After two years he returned 

 to Sienna, and finifhed feveral pieces, not only in oil, but 

 in diftemper and frefco, which gained him great reputation. 

 But he was chiefly admired for his performance on the 

 pavement of the great church, which he wrought by com- 

 bining ftones of ditTere.it colours, with pitch poured in holes 

 for the dark fhades, in fuch a manner as the light and 

 ftadow of the object required. This kind of performance 

 is faid to have been invented by one Duccio of Sienna in 

 1356; but it was brought to perfection by Beccafumi. 

 He had a fine invention ; his tafte was elegant ; his ex- 

 pru-ffion good ; and his colouring beautiful. He was alfo 

 an excellent engraver on wood and metal, and alfo a founder. 

 His ufual mark on his plates is a B divided in the middle by 

 a horizontal line. This artift died at Genoa in 1549. 

 Piikington and Strutt. 



BECCARIA, Cesar Bonesasa, marquis of, an emi- 

 nent Italian writer, was born about the year 1720. To t!;e 

 ftudy of philofophy he was attached from his infancy, and 

 he availed himfelf of the light and intelleftual freedom, 

 v/hich about his time found their way into Italy from 

 France, England, ard otlier countries. At Naples, Geno- 

 vefi taugiit the Italians how to think, and Bcccaria diftin- 

 guifhed him by the title of " his learned and venerable maf- 

 ter." At Milan alfo count Firmian was a diftinguiflied 

 patron of literature and fcience, and a promoter of every 

 reform, that had philanthropy for its bafis. With fuch 

 enlightened men Bcccaria cj-opei-ated by writing in 1767 

 his fa-nous work, " On Crimes and Punifhments," which 

 had an extenfive fpread, and produced a great change in the 

 prevailing, ideas on thefe fiibjccls. Voltaire, in his commen- 

 taries on this v.ork, fays, that this (hort treatifc is in morals 

 what a fimple drug would be in medicine, which (liould be 

 adequate to the cure of every tilfcafe to which the human 



body. 



