B R E 



Tin of this kind. He Jifioven-d likfwift, a little before 

 his dvatli, wliich liappcni-J on the :hth of [aiuiary, i;94, 

 a new method of faciiitatini: the prortfs of melting and rail- 

 in:; ; but tliis he coiiccaltd for the bi.ulit of his heirs. 

 l-Vdin his foundtiy, wliich employed 12 furnaces, and 59 

 ^rorknien, types were fcnt to Rnflia, Sweden, Poland, and 

 even America. He introduced alio fevcval Improvements in 

 hh prtlTes, which were freely prefentcd to the infpedion of 

 tliofe who vifited his print ing-houfL*. 



l^efidts his mechanical ir.ventlon":, which occupied much 

 of his time and attention, his refearches into the orijjin and 

 progrefs of the art of printing were very confidcrablo, and 

 furnifiitd the materials of a hiftory, which he left beliind 

 in manufcript. Of this larger vork, he publiihed, in 1774, 

 an accoimt, in a fmall trcalifc, containing, among other par- 

 ticulars a refutati'^'i of the opii'"c>n of thofe who pretend 

 that printing was iirll employed at Florence, Wirtzburg, 

 or Antwerp. In 17S4, he publiihed the firll part of a 

 work, entitled, " An Attempt to illullrate the origin of 

 playing-cards, the introduttion of paper made from linen, 

 and the i.ivention of engraving on wood in Ei'rnpe." The 

 latter part of this work was finilhed, but not publiflied, 

 before his death. His lal\ publication w.is a fmall " Treatife 

 on Bibliography, S:c." pub ifiicd in I7yJ, and containing 

 extraifls from his larger works, with his reafons lor retain- 

 ing the prefent German charafters, and a refutation of fome 

 afl'ertions refpefting typography. Breitkopf was dillin- 

 guiflied by his afliduity and perfevcrancc ; and devoted his 

 whole life to Ihidy and ufcful emph)ymcnt, with the inter- 

 ruption of only 5 or 6 hours in the 2 (., which he allowed 

 for fleep. SchliirhtegroU's Necrology. Gen. Biog. 



BRKITZENHEIM, in Geography, a lordfiiip of Ger- 

 many, in the circle of the Lower Rhine, on the Nahe, near 

 the town of Creutznach, and deriving its name from an old 

 caftle now in ruins. In the matricula ol the empire it is 

 aireffed at fix florins, in that of the circle at 8, and pays to 

 the chamber of Wetzlar 3 rix-doUars, Ij^ kreutzers. Its 

 inhab-.tants are partly Roman catholics, and partly Lu- 

 therans. 



BRELADE'S, St., a bay on the fouth coafl of the ifland 

 of Jerfey, which takes its name from a village, 5 miles 

 W. from St. Helier. 



BRELANDS, a town of Norway, 7 miles W.N.W. of 

 Chriftianfand. 



BRELLES, a town of France, in the department of 

 Finiilerrc, and diftrift of Breft ; 3^ leagues N.W. of 

 Breit. 



BREM. See Prem. 



BREMA, a town of Italy, in the Milanefe, near the 

 conflux of the Seflia and Po, on the frontiers ol Montferrat ; 

 28 miles W. of Pavia. 



BREMBO, a river of Italy, which rifes on the frontiers 

 of the Valteline, and difcharges itfelf into the Adda, about 

 8 miles from Bergamo. 



BREME, a cape which forms the fouth-eadern fide of 

 the mouth of Oroonoko river, oppofitc to cape Araya, in 

 South America. 



BREMEN, a duchy of Germany, in the circle of Lower 

 Saxony, bounded on the north by the German fea and the 

 Elbe, on the eaft by Hollltin, Luneburg, and Vcrden, on 

 the fouth by Verden, Hoya, and Diepholz, and on the 

 well by the Wefer, Oldenburg, and the German ocean. 

 Its grcateft length is about 60 miles, and breadth about 40. 

 The face of the country is level, and it is almoll furrounded 

 by the Elbe and the Wefer. The air is cald ; but the 

 country ia fertile and well-peopled. The Elbe, Glle, and 

 Wtfcr, are bordered with very rich marfh lands ; thofe on 



B R r. 



the Elbe produce plenty of grain and fniit ; thofe on tlic 

 OHe are alio very productive of grain, and yield a clay for 

 veffels, and a kind of free Hone ; the foil on the border.? of the 

 Wefer, bcfides being fertile in grain, fupports likewifc large 

 breeds of cattle. Between Bremen and Stade, the country 

 is either a barren fand, or a morafs. In order to guard the 

 lands againll the inundations of the river;;, dykes and dams 

 have been creAed, and arc kept in repair at a great cxpence ; 

 and yet in winter they are frequently fo much overflowed, 

 that the inhabitants are obliged to make ufe of long poles 

 to leap over the ditches and other waters, in pafiing from 

 one place to another ; and the inundations of the Wefer in 

 particular are fnch, that cities and villages appear like fo 

 many iflands in the niidll of a fea. The champaign countrv 

 has, in fome parts, good corn land; tlie heaths arc covered 

 with fhetp ; and the culture of bees is an objetl of particu- 

 lar attention. On the moors are dug great quantities of 

 turf, which is exported to Bretnen and Hamburg, and ufed 

 in brickkilns, the glafs-hr.nfe, and as fuel in private houfes. 

 This country yields likewife much flax. The inhabitants 

 likewife, by their lituatiou between navigable rivers, have 

 been induced to turn their thoughts to trade. They have 

 the reputation of being good foldiers ; but on account of 

 the marlhes and inundations of the country, they are fubjeft 

 to agues and fevers, and are hence led to indulge the habit 

 of drinking much brandy. Reilbeck defcribes them as 

 yellow- Ikinned, foft-fie(hed, and full of wrinkles ; and their 

 imall round figures form a ftriking contrail with the tali 

 Geimans of the fouthern parts. Few rofy cheeks are ob- 

 fervcd either among men or women. 



The duchy of Bremen was formed out of an- archbifhop- 

 ric, which was originally a bifhopric, founded by tlie em- 

 peror Charles the Great in 787 or 788, of which Willehad, 

 an Englifliman, was the firft bilhop. In 858, the fee was 

 incorporated with Hamburg, as the archbifliopric of the 

 northern nations ; and the archbifhops gradually got into 

 their hands the counties within the diocefe of Bremen, and 

 acquired the fovereignty over it. But after the death of the 

 archbifliop Roden in 15 11, the chapter elecfted archbifhops 

 out of princely families ; in 1644, ^''^ Swedes made them- 

 felves matters of Bremen ; and, in 164S, at the peace of Welt- 

 phalia, it became a duchy and fief of the empire. In 1675, 

 the duke of Brunfwick and Luneburg, in conjunftion with 

 the bilhop of Munfter and fome Danifli forces, overran this 

 duchy as far as Stade, which place was taken in the follow- 

 ing year by the Luneburg troops. The conquerors firft 

 thought of Iharing the duchies of Bremen and Verden be- 

 tween them ; but Sweden kept the whole to herfelf, except 

 fome fmall part of it, which was rellored to the dukes of 

 Brunfwick and Luneburg, at the peace of Nimegucn in 

 1679. During the northern war, the Danes, in 1 7 12, re- 

 duced the duchies of Bremen and Verden ; and in 17 15, 

 Frederick IV. transferred them to the elcilor of Brunfwick, 

 in lieu of the fum of 700,000 rix-dollars. In 1719, by the 

 peace of Stockholm, they were ceded by the crown of Swe- 

 den for ever to the ekftor of Brunfwick, together with 

 all their rights and appurtenances, in the fame manner as 

 they had been granted to Sweden by the treaty of Ofna- 

 bruck ; for which renunciation the eleftor paid Sweden a 

 million of ris-dollars. In 1732 the elcftor obtained the 

 emperor's inveftiture for Bremen and Verden. The eledor 

 of Brunfwick, as duke of Bremen, poiredcs in the college 

 of princes, the fixth feat on the bench of temporal princes, 

 and in the diet of Lower Saxony, exclufivcly of a vote, is 

 alternately dircdor with Magdeburg. The affeffment of 

 the duchy to a Roman month, is 24 hnrfe and 100 foot, 

 or i5S8 florins, which is alfo its contingent to the raatricu'ia 



of 



