B E H 



eminent engraver, flouriflsed about the year 1540. Like 



Henry AIJegre\er ar.d Albert Durer, whofe works were 



the lources from which he derived liis greateft improvf- 



nicnt, he engraved in wood, and alio on copper, and etched 



foir.e few plates. He was alio a painter of reputation, and 



celebrated by the poets of that age under the name of Bo- 



hemus. He was a man of good genius, and diilinguiQieJ 



by fertility of invention. But the Gothic talle which pre- 

 vailed in Germany in his time, is too apparent in all his 



vork?. His br;tlier Bartolomeo Btham ilouridicd as an 



engraver about the fame time. He is faid to have iludied 



under Marc Antonio Raimondi, whofe manner he imitated. 



His chief rtfidence was at Rome, where he died. Strutt. for the' means of undertaking a great exped 111°; towards°Ji„ 

 BEHAMBERG, in Geography, a town of Germany, in fouth-weft. In the profccntion of this undertaking lie dif- 



the archduchy of Anftria, 3 miles eaft of Steyr. covered that part of America, which is now called Brjzl, 



BEHAMKIRCHER, a town of Germany, in the arch- and failed to the llraits ot ^Iagellan, or t-o the country of 



duchy of Aultria, 6 miles foutheaft of St. Polten. fome favage tribes, whom he called Patagonians, becaufe 



BEHAVIOUR, Good, in Laiu. See Good Jbeanng. the extremities of their bodies were covered with a fkin more 

 BEHBEHAN, a town of Periia, in the province of Ears, like a bear's paws than human hands ai-d feet. One of the 

 BEHDUROO, a country of Hindoilan, in the northern records, preferved in the archives of Nuremberg, and con- 

 parts of ^Lahore, near the ^Imaus mountains, where one taining this fad, affirms, that " Martin Belem, traveding 



B E H 



of the duchy of Burgnndv and Flanders ; and having in- 

 formed her of iiis dcli^ns, he procured a veflel, in which he 

 difcovered the idand of Fayal ui 1460. Here he eftabhfhed 

 a colony of Flemings, whole del'cendants are faid ftill to exift 

 in the Azores, which for fome time were ca'.'ed the " Flemifh 

 iflands." For the proof of this fact M. Otto nfcrs to the 

 records of Nuremberg, and to the ttft.mony of Wagenfeil, 

 one of the moll learned men of t!ie laft century, in his " Uni- 

 verfiil Hillory and Geography." Having obtained a grant 

 of Fayal from the regent Ifabella, ar.d after having refidcd 

 there 20 years, Beheni applied, in 14S4, eight years before 

 the expedition of Columbus, to John II. 'king of Portngal, 



branch of the river Rauvee fprings 



BEHEADING, a capital punifliment, wherein the 

 head is fevered from the body by the Itroke of an ax, 

 fword, or other cutting inftrument 



the Atlantic ocean for feveral years, examined the American 

 iflands, and difcovered the ftiait, which bears the name of 

 Magellan, before either Chriflopher Columbus or Magellan 

 failed thofe feas ; and even mathematically delineated, on a 



Beheading was a military punifhment among the Romans, geographical chart, for the king of Lufitania, tlie fituation 

 known by the name of decollat'w. Among them the head of the coaft, around every part of that famous and renowned 

 was laid on a c'lppus, or blocl*, placed in a pit dug for the ftrait." This alTertion is fupported by Behem'sown letters, 

 purpofe ; in the army, without the vallum ; in the city, written in German, and preferved in the fame arcliives ; 

 without the walls, at a place near \!at porta decumana. Pre- which letters are dated in i486. The difcovery of Behera 

 paratory to the ftrokc, the criminal was tied to a ftake, and is alfo noticed by contemporary writers. In the chronicle 

 whipped with rods. In the eariy ages the blow was given of Hartman Schedl, or Herman Schedel, entitled " Chro- 

 with an ax ; but in after-times with a fword, which was nicon Mundl," and of which a German tranflation was pub- 

 thought the more reputable manner of dying. The execu- lifted at Nurembeig in 1493, we have the following palfage 

 tion was but clumfily performed in the firll times ; but after- to this purpofe : " In the year 1485, John II., king of For- 

 wards they grew more expert, and took the head off clean tugal, a man of a magnanimous fpiric, furnifhed fome gallies 

 with one circular ilroke. with provifions, and fent them to the fouthward beyond the 



In England and France, beheading is the punifhment of ftraits of Gibraltar. He gave the command of his fquadron 



nobles ; being reputed not to derogate from nobihty, as to James Canus, a Portuguefe, and Martin Behem, a Ger- 



hanging does. man of Nuremberg in Upper Germany, defcended of the 



Beheading is part of the punilhment of high treafon, af- family of Bonna, a man very well acquainted with the fitua- 



fcfting the king's perfon or government. The king may, tion of the globe, bleifed with a conftitution able to bear the 



and often does, difcharge all the punifhment, except beh£ad- fatigues of the fea, and who, by actual experiments and long 



In Scotland they do not behead with an ax, as in Eng- ocean, and having eroded the equator," got Into the other 

 land ; nor with a fword, as in Holland and formerly in France lu mifphere, where facing to the eaft ward, their (hadows pro- 

 where they now ufe the guillotine ; but with an edged inllru- jefted to the fouth and right hand. Thus, by their induilry, 

 ment called the maiden. they may be faid to have opened to us another world hitherto 



BEHEM, Beheim,Behen,Boehm, Martin, in5/5frfl- unknown, and for many years attempted by none but the 

 phy, fuppofcd to be the fame with Martin Behenira, to whom Genoefe, and by them in vain. Having fmllhed this cruife 

 GarcilalTo de la Vega afcribes the firft difcovery of America, in the fpace of 26 months, they returned to Portugal, with 

 was a famous geographer and navigator of the ijlh centur)'. the lofs of many of their feamcn, by the violence of the 

 The chriltian name, fays M. Otto, [uH infra) is the fame climate." This palfage was cited by the pubhfhers of the 

 ■with that of Garcilafib, and the fyllables " ira" he conceives, works of .lEneas Sylvius, afterwards pcpe Pius II. Two 

 were added to his name in confequence of his receiving the years before the expedition of Columbus, Petrus Matseus, 

 honour of knighthood from John II, king of Portugal, a writer on the canon law, remarks, that " the firft Chriltian 

 Behem was born of a noble family, of which fome branches voyages to the newly difcovered illands became frequent, un- 

 ftiU remain at Nuremberg, an imperial city in the circle of der tlie reign of Henry, fon of John king of Lufitania. Af- 

 Franconia. Addifted from his infancy to the ftudy ot geo- ter his death, Alphonfus V. profecuted the defign ; and 

 graphy, aftronomy, and navigation, and having enjoyed the John, who fucceeded him, followed the plan of Alphonfus, 

 advantage of Rcgiomontanus'sinftruftion, he entertained the by the affiftance of Martin Boehm, a very experienced navi- 

 thought, at more mature age, of tlie poffibihty of the ex- gator ; fo that, in a Ihort time, the name of Lufitania became 

 iilence of the antipodes, and of a weftern continent. Under famous over the whole world." Cellarius alfo fays exprefsly, 

 the influence of this imagination, he paid a vifit, in 1459, to «* Bcehm did not think it enough to fur^ey the ifland of 

 Ifabella, daughter of John I, king of Portugal, and regent Fayal, which he firft difcovered, or the other adjacent iflands 



which. 



