B E R 



iiid it contains 2i communes. N. lat. 49" 6*. E. long. 

 <j' 50'. 



BERNBURG, in Latin, Bimlurgum, Araopolh, and Ur- 

 fopolis, a town of Germany, in the i;iick of Upper Saxony, 

 the capital of Anlialt Bernburg, ami the icfidence of the 

 prince, featcd on the Sala. It is divided into the Old and 

 New Town, whieh had each its own magiUracy, till they were 

 united in 1560; hcfides which, there is a third part, called 

 " VordenhurtT," fcated on a hill on the other lidc of the Sala, 

 under a diilinct inajjiftracy. The church in this part fenx-s 

 for the callle and the court. The calUe is one of the moll 

 ancient and moll celebrated fortrclfes in the principality of 

 Anhak; 20milcs wal of Deflau. N. lat. 5 1° 55'. E. long. 



BERNCASTEL, a town of Germany, in the circle of 

 the Lower Rhine, and electorate of Treves, and chief place 

 of a canton in the dillrid of Treves, and department of the 

 Sane, fexted on the Mofelle, and owin;;; its privileges to the 

 emperor Rodolphus 1. ; 8 miles E. N. E. of Treves. Its po- 

 pulation includes I26j(, and that of the canton 11,718 per- 

 foiis. It contains 34 communes. N. lat. 50' i'. E. long. 

 i," 36'- 



BERNE, a townfliip of America, in Albany county, New 

 Yoik. According to tiie Hate cenlus of 1796, there appear 

 to be 4'' 7 eleftors. 



BERNECK, a town of Germany, in the circle of Fran- 

 conia, and principality of Bayreuth. 



BERNECOURT, a town of France, in the department 

 of the Meurte, and ciiief place of a canton in the dillridlof 

 Pont-a-MoulTon, 3 leagues S.W. of Pont-a-MoufTon. 



BERNERA, or Berneray, one of the weftcrn iflands 

 of Scotland, lo only about four miles in length, and one and 

 a half in breadth. The foil of it is fandy, but when well 

 nianurtd proves extremely fertile, and produces fome fine 

 corn and clover paflures. It has a frelhwater lake, called 

 Lochbrnis, which has fonie fmall iflands, and abounds with 

 eels. Thefe are frequently caught in great numbers by the 

 inhabitants, wlio rcfort in the night, with lights, to a fmall 

 rivulet, where the eels are found going towards the fea. 

 They are often caught twilled together in heaps. The tides 

 of the fea often produce very lingular eftefts round this ifland. 

 In their ordinary courfe the flood runs eatl in the Frith, 

 where Berrcra lies, and the ebb runs well ; the fea ebbing 

 and flowing regularly for four days before, and as long after 

 the full and change of the moon. The fpring tides com- 

 monly rife to the height of 14 feet perpendicular, and the 

 others prooortionably ; but for tour days bifore and after 

 the quarter moons, there is a lingular variation ; at ihofe 

 times the tide runs ea.lward f>»r twelve hours lucceffively, 

 from mne o'clock in the morning till nine at niglit, when the 

 cirrent ti'ns, and runs weilward for the twelve following 

 hours^. Thus tlie reciprocations continue ; one flood and 

 ebb running ta.lward, and another weilward, till within four 

 davs of the full and change of t!ie moon, when they refume 

 ttieir ordinary courfe, running tail during the fix hours of 

 flood, and weit dining the iix liours of ebb. There is ano- 

 ther phenomenon in tliefe tides equally remarkable. Between 

 the vernal a^nl autumnal equiniixcs, the tides about the quar- 

 ter moons run all day to the eall, and all night to the well ; 

 and during the other fix months, their courfe is revcrfed, 

 being weilward in the day, and eallward in the night. The 

 number of inhabitants in Bernera and the ifle of Pabbay, 

 which lies between the former and Harris, was 494 in the 

 year 1792. W. long. 7^ 3a'. N. lat. 67^ 45'. The Rev. 

 Mr. M'Lcod's Account in Sir I. Sinclair's .Statiflical Hifto- 

 ry of Scotland. — Alfo, a town of Scotland, in the county 

 of Invcriiefs, in which are barracks; 52 miles K. W. of 

 Fort AViliirtTr.. 



BE R 



BERNESSO, a town of Piedmont, in ihcdiftiiiflof Coni} 

 4i miles W.N.W. of Coni. 



BERNEVILLE,a town of France, in the department of 

 the Sti-aits of Calais, and chief place of a canton, in the dillridt 

 of Arras, 4 miles S.W. of Arras. 



BERNEUT Bay, lies at the point of Qiiibcron, on the 

 coall of France. 



BERNEX,atown of Savoy, 2} milesN.N.E.oFSt. Julien. 



BERNHARDUS, m Entomohgy, a fpccies of Cancer, 



with heart-fnaped, muriated hand-claws ; that on the right 



fide largeft. Inhabits whelks, 8tc. common on moll iea- 



fliorcs. See Bernard tie Hurviit. 



BERNHARTS, in Geography, a town of Germany, in 

 the archduchy of Aullria, 7 miles E.S.E. ot Feldfburg. 



BERNI, or Bermia, Francis, in Bwyi-aphy, an Ita- 

 lian poet, was a delceudant of a noble but indigent family of 

 Bibiena, in Tufcany, and born at Campovecchio, about the 

 dole of the i5Ch century. He palfcd the firft 19 years 

 of hio life in poverty at Florence ; and though he was after- 

 wards patronized by cardinal Bernardo of Bibiena, Angelo, 

 and Giberti,lii(hopsof Verona, his loveof unreftrained liberty, 

 and inclination to pleafure and raillery, prevented his deriving 

 any permanent advantage from their patronage. At Rome, 

 however, he was greatly elleemed by the literati, and was 

 one of the moll illullrious members of the famous academy 

 " Dc Vignajuoli." At length, he retired to Florence, and 

 fublill!d on a canonry in the cathedral, under the protedlion 

 of cardinal Hippolito dc' Medici, and duke Alexander. It 

 has been faid, that he was taken off by poifon, becaufe, in 

 a quarrel between thefe two princes, he refufcd to comply 

 with the defire of one of them, who requclled him to ad- 

 miniiler poifon to the other. The aera of his death, as well 

 as the truth of this ftory, are uncertain : it has been fixed by 

 fome to the year 1536; but others have fuppofed that he 

 lived to a later periods Mr. Rofcoc, in his " Life of Lorenzo 

 de Medici," fays, that he cultivated a branch of poetry (a 

 kind of burlefque) with fu much fuccels, that it has from 

 him obtained the name of " Bernefcae." The charafterif- 

 tic of this fpccies of poetry is an extreme fimphcity, which 

 the Italians denominate '' ideotifmo." The moll extrava- 

 gant fentiments, the mod fevere llrokes of fatire, are ex- 

 prelfed in a manner fo natural and ealy, that the author 

 himfclf feems fcarcely to be confcious of the effeft of his 

 own work. Perhaps the only indication, fays Mr. Rofcoe, 

 of a fimilar talle in this country, appears in the writings of the 

 facetious Peter Pindar. Berni, though he feems to have 

 blotted and correcled much, has neverthelefs not been fuf- 

 ficiently careful in expunging licentious images, and free 

 equivoque ; and his wit is often mere buflfoonery. One ot 

 his principal peformances, was the recompofiiion of Boiardo's 

 " Orlando Inamorato," which he has rendered much more 

 pure and poetical. The bed edition of it is that of Venice, 

 in 154J. His other poems were collefled and publilhed, 

 with tliofe of other burlefque writers, in 1548, in 2 vols. 

 8vo. and reprinted at London in 172 1 and 1724, after 

 the edition of Venice. Berni was a caullic fatiriil, and the 

 avowed enemy of Peter Arttin, whole life lie wrote in a 

 llrain of bitter inveftivc. He excelled in Latin poetry, and 

 imitated the llyle of Catullus with fuccefs. Gen. Biog. 



BERNICIA, in ^W/j/X GfooTfl/i/iv, one of the kingdoms 

 of the Saxon heptarchy. Although the Saxons, foon after 

 the landing of Hengill, had been planted in Northumber- 

 land, their progrcfs was flow in overcoming the obllinate re- 

 fillance with which they were oppofed, and none of their 

 princes for a long time ali'umed the appellation of king. At 

 lafl, in 547, Ida, a Saxon prince of great valour, who claimed 

 a defccnt, as did all the other princes of that nation, from 

 Woden, brought over a reinforcement from Germany in 



50 



