B o d 



which are more valuable, are his " Commentary on Dante," 

 printed at Rome in 1.544, l6to. ; and at Florence, in 1576, 

 8vo. ; fome romances of an amorous kind, intermixed with 

 verfe, as " II Filocopo," " La Fiamctta," " L'Ameto," 

 • II Laberinto d'Amore," &c. &c. But his moll cele- 

 brated proJ.uflion of this kind is his " Decamerone," or 

 colleflion of one hundred llories, or novels, feigned to have 

 been recited in ten days by a company of ladies and gentle- 

 men, who had retired into the country from the plague of 

 Florence in 1348. Thefe (lories are partly founded on faft, 

 and partly the produtlions of the author's own imagination ; 

 and they prcfent a curious exhibition of characters and man- 

 ners in all the ranks of fociety. They abound with fatitical 

 ftrokes levelled againll the vices and frauds of the priefls, 

 and even the mytleries of religion ; and the language, in 

 fome parts, is fo free and licentious, that we may well 

 \vonder at their being recited before females of charafter and 

 condition. However trite and vulgar many of the refleftions 

 may now appear, the ilyle in which they are delivered is 

 confidcred as a model of elegance and purity for the age m 

 which they were written, and places the Italian language far 

 beyond that of any modern nation at fo early a period. No 

 work was ever more popular, or more generally tranflated, 

 than the Decamerone. The llories that occur in this work 

 have fmniflied materials for fome of the moll popular pieces 

 of La Fontaine and other fimilar writers. Boccace affumes 

 the credit of having firll brought the writings of Homer and 

 of fcveral other Greek authois from Greece to Tufcany ; 

 and he was, without doubt, a moll indullrious and indefa- 

 tigable cop \ ill of the remains of antiquity. His poetry is 

 pronounced by his countrymen to be as feeble and languid 

 in its charafter, as his profe is exquifite and admirable. His 

 valuable library was bequeathed to a convent in Florence, 

 where it was long preferved. For a further account of his 

 bfe and writings, fee Fabricius's Bibl. Lat. medii xvi. 

 torn. i. p. 248. &c. ; and Tirabofchi, torn. v. p. 8J.439 — 

 451. Gen. Dia. 



BOCCALE, or BocAL, a liquid meafure ufed at Rome, 

 anfwering to what among us is called a bottle, being equiva- 

 lent to about an Englifh quart. Seven boccahs and an half 

 make the rubbia. 



BOCCALINI, Trajan, in Bkgrnphy, a fatirical writer 

 of the 1 6th century, was the fon of an archit'fl at Carpi, 

 and horn at Loretto in 1.556. At Rome, where he prin- 

 cipally rtfided, he had accefs, by the vivacity of his genius, 

 to feveral petfons of rank, a:id among others to cardinal 

 Bentivoglio, whom he inllrudlcd in geography. Prote£lcd 

 from the danger to which his fatirical turn expofed him, by 

 the influence of the cardinals Borghele and Gaetani, he alfo, 

 by their recommendation, obtained feveral offices of trull and 

 honour in the ecclefiallical (late, and was appointed to the 

 government of Benevcnto. But his public conduft oc- 

 calloned complaints, and he became obnoxious to the 

 Spaniards, .by expollng with freedom and feverity their de- 

 figns aaainll the liberty of Italy, fo that he was under a 

 necedity of retiring to Venice in 1612. In the following 

 J car, it is (aid that he was alTairniated bj four ruffians, who 

 broke into his chamber at an early hour in the morning, 

 and beat hiui fo feverely with fand-bags as to occafion his 

 death. Of his works, the moH celebrated is his " Raggu- 

 agli di Parnafo," or news from ParnafTus, in which, under 

 the fielion of a court in which Apollo prefidcs, he takes oc- 

 cafion to fatirlzc the aftiors and works of feveral perfons who 

 pafs under review ; but his refleftions frequently betray the 

 want of critical judgment and of a re-gard to truth. A lecond 

 part of this work, written with the fame views, is entitled 

 " The Secretary of Apollo." His " Political Touchftone," 



BOG 



levelled againft the Spaniards, is of a fimilar kind. He 

 alfo wrote the " Political Balance," " Commentaries on 

 Tacitus," and fome other works. Tirabofchi. Gen. 

 Diet. 



BOCCARELLA, in the Glafs-Manufaaurc, a fmall 

 hole or aperture of the furnace, one of which is placed on 

 each fide of the bocca. almoft horizontally with it. Out of 

 them the fervitors take coloured or (iner metal from the 

 piling pot. 



BOCCAS, in Ichthyology, the Arabian name of a fifli 

 belonging to the Scomber genus, obferved by Fordval in 

 the Red Sea. Vide Scomber sassun. 



BOCCHERINI, LuiGi, in Biography, who, we hope, is 

 dill living at Madrid, and whofe inllrument is the violoncello, 

 though he writes but little at piefent, has perhaps fupphed 

 the performers on bowed-indruments and lovers of muGc with 

 more excellent compofitions than any mailer of the prefent 

 age, except Haydn. His ftyle is at once bold, mallerly, and 

 elegant. There are movements in his works, of every Ilyle, 

 and in the true genius of the inllruments for which he 

 writes, that place him high in rank among the greateft 

 mailers who have ever written for the violin or violoncello. 

 There is perhaps no indrumental muiic more ingenious, ele- 

 gant, and pleafing, than his quintets ; in which invention, 

 grace, modulation, and good tade, confpire to render them, 

 when well executed, a treat for the mod refined hearers and 

 critical ')udges of mufical compofition. 



BOCCHETTA, in Geography, a chain of mountains, 

 over which is the high road between Lombardy and Genoa ; 

 on the fummit of the highell, which is very deep, is a way 

 fo narrow that three perfons can hardly go a-bread, called 

 " The Pafs of Bocchetta," defended by forts, and confidered 

 as the key to the city of Genoa. In 1746, the imperialids, 

 having made themfelres maders of this pafs, found little 

 difficulty in proceeding to that capital. In 1778, a magni- 

 ficent road was made from the Bocchetta to the north of 

 Genoa, through the Polzevera, which, for the fpace of three 

 years, employed from 5 to 800 men, by the patriotic muni- 

 ficence of one noble family, the Cambiafi. The Polzevera in 

 the Bocchetta yields a beautiful done, which is ferpentine, of 

 various colours veined with marble. 



BOCCHIANICO, a town of Italy, in the kingdom of 

 Naples, and province of Abruzzo citra, 3 miles S. E. of 

 Civita di Chicta. 



BOCCIARDI, Clementi, called Ckmentone, in Biogra- 

 phy, a painter of hidory and portrait, was born at Genoa in 

 1620, and after having been the difciple of Bernardo Strozzi, 

 went to Rome for improvement, by a judicious obfervation 

 of the ancient fculptures, and the works of the celebrated 

 modern artids. By the efforts of his own excellent genius, 

 and a diligent application to defign, he difcovercd the art of 

 blending the antique and modern guds in a dyle both of 

 gracefulnefs and llrcngth. Mod of his works (his portraits 

 excepted, which were lively, natural, and graceful,) are in 

 the chapels of Genoa, Pifa, and other cities of Italy, where 

 they are much edeemed. Pilkington. 



BOCCOLD, BocKHOLDT, or Beukels, John, com- 

 monly called John of Leyden, a journeyman-taylor of 

 Leyden, who, in the earlier part of the i6th century, 

 connedled himfelf with John Matthias, a baker of Haerlem, 

 and with his alTillance difplayed the adonifhing effects of fa- 

 naticifm and enthufiafm. Thefe two anabaptill prophets, 

 for this was the appellation which they afTumed, fixed their 

 refidence at Munller, in Wedphalia, and at length gained 

 fuch a number of profelytes, that they became maders of the 

 city, and edablifhed in it a new form of government, diredled 

 by Matthias, who iffued his commands, with the ilyle, and 



witK 



