BAS 
be repeated throughout the movement, 
while the upper part or parts pursue a sepa- 
rate air, and supply the harmony. This 
kind of bass is productive of a monotonous 
melody, and has long since been rejected as 
a restraint upon the imagination. 
Bass, thorough, is the art by which har- 
mony is superadded to any proposed bass, 
and includes the fundamental rules ot com- 
position. It is theoretical and practical : 
the former comprehends the knowledge of 
the connection and disposition of the se- 
veral chords, the latter is conversant with 
the manner of taking the several chords on 
an instrument. 
BASSANTIN (James), a Scotch astro- 
nomer, of the 16th century, born in the 
reign of James IV. of Scotland. He was a 
son of the laird of Bassantin, in the Merse. 
After finishing his education at the Univer- 
sity of Glasgow, he travelled through Ger- 
many and Italy, and then settled in the Uni- 
versity of Paris, where he taught mathema- 
tics with great applause. Having acquired 
some property in this employment, he re- 
turned to Scotland in 1562, where he died 
six years after. 
From his writings it appears he was no 
inconsiderable astronomer, for the age he 
lived in ; but, according to the fashion of 
the times, he was not a little addicted to ju- 
dicial astrology. It was doubtless to our 
author that Sir James Melvil alludes in his 
Memoirs, when he says, that his brother 
Sir Robert, when he was using his endea- 
vours to reconcile the two queens, Eliza- 
beth and Mary, met with one Bassantin, a 
man learned in the high sciences, who told 
him, “ that all his travel would be in vain ; 
for,” said he, “ they will never meet toge- 
ther; and next, there will never be any 
thing but dissembling and secret hatred for a 
while, and at length captivity and utter 
wreck to our queen from England.” He 
added, that “ the kingdom of England at 
length shall fall, of right, to the crown of 
Scotland : but it shall cost many bloody 
battles ; and the Spaniards shall be helpers, 
and take a part to themselves for their la- 
bour.” A prediction in which Bassantin 
partly guessed right, which it is likely he 
was enabled to do, from a judicious consi- 
deration of probable circumstances and ap- 
pearances. 
Bassantiri’s works are, on astronomy, mu- 
sic, and various parts of the mathematics. 
BASSET, a game at cards, said to have 
been invented by a noble Venetian, for 
BAS 
which he was banished. The persons con- 
cerned in it are a dealer, or banker, his as- 
sistant, who supervises the losing cards, and 
the punter, or any one who plays against the 
banker. 
BASSIA, in botany, so called in honour 
of Ferdinando Bassi ; a genus of the Dode- 
candriaMonogynia class and order. Natural 
order of Dumosse; Sapotae, Jussieu. Essen- 
tial character. Calyx four-leaved ; corolla 
eight-cleft ; tube inflated ; stamina 16 ; drupe 
five-seeded. There are 3 species, of which 
B. longifolia is a lofty tree, with the out- 
most branches recurved, thickish, and co- 
vered with a grey down; berry fleshy, milky, 
with five seeds, one in each cell ; they are 
oblong, slightly compressed, sometimes acu- 
minate at each end, sometimes only at the 
base, very smooth, shining, yellow', with a 
white band; -native of Malabar and Cey- 
lon. 
BASSOON, a musical instrument of the 
wind sort, blown with a reed, furnished 
with eleven holes, and used as a bass in a 
concert of hautboys, flutes, &c. To render 
this instrument more portable, it is divided 
into two parts, whence it is also called fa- 
got. Its diameter at bottom is nine inches, 
and its holes are stopped like those of a 
large flute. The compass of the bassoon 
comprehends three octaves, extending from 
double B flat, to B above the treble-cliff" 
note. The scale includes every semitone 
between its extremes, and its tone is so as- 
similated to that of the hautboy, as to ren- 
der it the most proper bass to that instru- 
ment. 
BASSO-RELIEVO, or Bass-reliff, a 
piece of sculpture, where the figures or 
images do not protuberate, jet, or stand 
out far above the plane on which they are 
formed. Whatever figures or representa- 
tions are thus cut, stamped, or otherwise 
wrought, so that not the entire body, but 
only a part of it is raised above the plane, 
are said to be done in relief, or relievo : and 
when that work is low, flat, and but a little 
raised; it is called low relief ; when a piece 
of sculpture, a coin, or a medal, has its fi- 
gure raised so as to be well distinguished, 
it is called bold, and we say its relief is 
strong. 
The origin of basso-relievo is said to have 
been described in the story of the maid of 
Corinth, related by Pliny, who says that the 
Sicyonian potter, her father, invented the 
following method of taking likenesses, His 
daughter being in love with a youth going 
to a foreign country, she circumscribed the 
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