BUR 



» ftandard work on this fuhjeft, entitled, " Bibliographie 

 Inftruftivc, ou Traite dcs Livres Rnrcs ct Siiit;iilie'cs," 

 Paris, I7'^3, &c. 7 vols. Svo. He alio publifhcd a " Cata- 

 logue of the Library of M. dela Valierc," 1767, 2 vols. Svo. ; 

 and " Mufcum Typographicum," 1775, unio. His ac- 

 counts of dlflercnt editions are very cxaft. He died in 

 July 1782, rcfpcftcd for integrity as well as Hdll in his pro- 

 teffion. Nonv. Difl. Hill. 



13UREBA, in Geograjihy, a country of Spain, in Old 

 Callile, which was formerly a part of Navarre : its principal 

 town IS IMrvicfca. 



BITREDGIAT, El, a town of Egypt, on the weft fide 

 of the Nile, 10 miles W. of Meimf. 



BUREIL, a town of Aliatic Turkey, in the province of 

 Caraniania ; lo miles S. of Yiircnp. 



BURELLE', in Hsraldry, a term ufrd by the French 

 heralds for cmblafoaing barry ; the fame as the Englilh call 

 barrulct. 



DfRELLK, or C'.v'ilaU BorcUe, in Geography, a fmall 

 epifcopal town of Naples, in the province of Abruzzo Citra, 

 on the eaft fide of the river Sangro. N. lat. 41° j6'. 

 E. long. 15° 5'. 



BUR EN, a town of Germany, in the circle of Weft- 

 phaiia, and bilhopric of PaJerborn, feated on the Almc ; 13 

 miles S. S. W. of Padtrborn. N. lat. 51° 35'. E. long. 

 8^ 25'. 



Bi;ren, a town of the United Provinces, in the duchy of 

 Gueldrcs, and capital of a fiiic corn country, belonging, before 

 the late revolution, to the houfc of Orange, to which it 

 defcended in lj,5'> ^Y ^^e marriage of prince William I. 

 with Anne hcirefs to Maximilian count of Egmond ; 5 

 leagues N. of Bois-le-Duc, and 6 S. E. of Utrecht. With- 

 out the town is a good caftle, walled and furrounded by a 

 double moat. N. lat. 52°. E. long. 5'^ 22'. 



BuREN, a town of Swifllrland, in that diftrift of the 

 canton of Berne, called the Upper Argow, feated on the eaft 

 fide of the Aar, over which it has a bridge ; 9 miles S. W. 

 of Soleuri". N. lat. 47° 6'. E. long. 7" ii'. 



BURETRAS, the name of a village of Sweden, in Weft 

 Bothnia. 



BURETTE, Pierre-Jean, in ^/o^ra/y^y, born at Paris 

 in 1665, was the fon of a furgeon, who, not being very prof- 

 perous in his praftice, had recourfe for his fupport to mufic, 

 which he had learned of his mother, an excellent performer 

 on the liarp and harpfichord. He firft performed, profef- 

 fionally, at Lyons, and afterwards went to Paris and played 

 on the harp to Louis XIV., who was much pleafed with his 

 performance. 



His fon, Peter- John, was fo fickly and feeble during in- 

 fancy, that he paflld almoft his whole youth in amufing him- 

 fel on the fpinet, and in the lUidy of mulic ; but he had lo 

 ftroiig a paflion for this iallrumtnt that he had fcarctly ar- 

 rived at his ninth year when he was heard at court, accom- 

 pained by his father on the harp. Two years after, the 

 king heard him again, when he performed a duet with his 

 father on the harp ; and at eleven years of age, he aflilled 

 him in giving lefloiis to his fcholars. 



It is not generally known that the learned academician, 

 Burette, who had written fo copioiidy on the fubjeft of 

 ancient mufic, was fo well acquainted with the modern ; 

 which muft have rendered his opinions more valid, and given 

 weight to his reafoning on mulical fubjeCts in general, which 

 a mere man of letters ftldom obtains. His talle for mufic, 

 however, did not cxtingHiili his panTion for other fciences. 

 He taught hi.nfelf Latm and Greek with little affiftance 

 from others ; and the lludy of thcfe languages inchntd him 

 to medical inquiries. At cightrcn years oW he attended tor 

 the firll time the public fchools, went through a courfe of 



BUR 



philofophy, and took Icffons in the fchools of medicine. 

 And even during this time he learned Hebrew, Syriac, Ara. 

 bic, Italian, Spanifh, German, and Enghlh, fufficiently to 

 undcvftaiid them in books. 



He was at length admitted of the faculty at Pari?, and 

 pradtifed with rrput.nion duripg thirty three years, havin;^ 

 for his difciplcs almuft all his brethren who have fince en- 

 joyed the highelt reputation in that capital. 



Ill 170J;, he was received into the Academic de Belles 

 Lettres ; and in 1706, he had a confidcrable (hare in the ' 

 publication of the ' Journal des Sijavaiis," at which he 

 labound more than thirty years. In 17 18, he had an ap- 

 pointrwcnt in the Bibliutfaeque du Roi. 



The public are obliged to the abbe Fraguier for the 

 learned difltitation which M. Burette produced on the 

 mufic of the ancients. This learned abbe, fuppofing that 

 the Greeks applied the fame fcnfe to the word harmony, as is 

 given to it by the mcCerns, and that, confequently, they knew 

 counterpoint, or mulic in parts, Burrctte proved that 'la 

 was miliaken, and that the ancients meant no more by the 

 term harmony, than wt do by proprrtioii. He derr.o.iftrattd, 

 that the Greeks piaCtilcd no other fimultaneous ccnfonances 

 than iinifons and ottaves. 



This learned and indefatigable inquirer after the mufic of 

 the ancient Greeks, was Icizcd. in 1745, with a paralytic 

 affection, and after languifliing during the wh^dc year 1746, 

 he died in 1747, at 82. His library, confillnig of 15,000 

 volumes, was compofed of the moll curious and well-chofcn 

 books that could be procured in all languages. 



He has fupplied the memoirs of the Acad, des Infcr'p. et 

 Belles Lcttrts with difiertations on the dancing of the an- 

 cients, on play or gaming, on fiiigle combat, and on horfe- 

 racing. He enriched tliefe memoirs with a trandation of 

 Plutarch's treatife on mulic, with notes and remarks, which 

 are diiperfed through many volumes of the memoirs of that 

 learned fociety. And this writer muft be allowed, on every 

 fuhjedl concerning ancient mufic, the merit of great dili- 

 gence and learning ; but he does not feem always to have 

 been poffeflcd of an equal fhare of fagacity, or with courage 

 fufiicient to confels himfelf unable to explain inexplicable 

 paffages in his author. He never fees a ditficulty ; he ex- 

 plains all. Hence, amidft great erudition, and knowledge 

 of antiquity, there are a thoufand unintelligible explanations 

 in his notes upon Plutarch. " En ecrivant," laid Fontenelle, 

 " j'ai toiijours tache dc m'entendre." — An admirable rule t 

 which every writer ought to adopt. 



Thus much is faid, not with a view to dtprechte the 

 merit of M. Burette, to whom almoft all late writers on mufic 

 have h;id great obligations, and whofe labours have been of 

 lingular fe rvice to ourfelves, among the reft ; but to ftiew how 

 few authors are to be always foUuwcd implicitly, or read 

 without precaution. But though we have frequently dif- 

 fered from him, we have adopted his opinion when we thought 

 it well founded ; and there has been no fubfequent writer 

 on ancient mufic, who has not frequently availed himfelf of 

 his labours. 



BURFORD, in Geography, an ancient town of Oxford- 

 fliiie, in England, is fuppoled by fome writers to be one of 

 the oldeft towns of the Mercian kingdom. It is remarkable 

 in the page of hillory, and in the annals of fporting. Near 

 this tov.-n was the fcene of that decifive engagement between 

 the Weft Saxons and Merciai s, which liberated the former 

 from the tyranny of the latter. In the year 752, a pitched 

 battle was fought here between Culhrcd, king of Welfex, 

 and Ethelbald, king of Meicia, " two princes of high fpirit 

 and ambitious fchemes." The coi;flia was violent, and 

 th- latter monarch was compelled to fly for fafety ; yet, dur- 

 ing the engagement, the banner of Mercia, a golden dragon, 



was 



