B X G 
France. This he did at the command of the king, for 
the inffru£tion of his fon Philip duke of Burgundy. The 
abbe Goujet attributes this poem to Gallon de Foix, from 
its being printed at the end of the Miroir de la Challe by 
that prince, but greatly different from the manufcripts. 
He died about 1374. 
Bignh (Marguerin de la), fprung from the fame fa¬ 
mily with the foregoing, dodfor of Sorbonne, and grand- 
doyen of the church of Mans, was bornin 1546, at Bayeux, 
and was living in 1591. He publilhed a Bibliotheca Pa- 
trum, in 8 vols. folio, which he re-publilhed in 1589, in 
9 vols. He was the firft that undertook a work of that 
kind. The mod copious edition we have of it is in 27 
vols. in folio, Lyons, 1677. We have one in 16 vols. fo¬ 
lio, of 1644, which is much efteemed, as containing the 
leffer Greek fathers. Pere Philip de St. Jaques gave an 
abridgment of this collection in 2 vols. folio, 1719. To 
the Biblioth. pp. are generally added, Index Locorum 
Scripturae Sacra, Genoa, 1707, folio, and the Apparatus 
of Nourri, Paris, 1703 and 1715, 2 vols. folio. Such is 
the completed: edition. La Bigne didinguifhed himfelf 
alfo by his harangues and his f'ermons. He gave a col- 
le< 5 tion of Synodal Statutes in 1578, odlavo, and an edition 
Jfidore of Seville, in 1580, folio. He was a very dudious 
man; and, having got into fome quarrels that were brought 
before the magidrates of Bayeux, he rather chofe to give 
lip his benefices than his literary piirfuits. He retired to 
Paris, where it is fuppofed he died. 
BI'GNESS,y. Bulk; greatnefs of quantity.—The brain 
of man, in refpeft of his body, is much larger than any 
other animal’s ; exceeding in bignefs three oxen’s brains. 
Ray. —Size, whether greater or fmaller; comparative bulk. 
—Several forts of rays make vibrations of feveral bignejfes, 
which, according to their bignejfes, excite fenfations of fe¬ 
veral colours; and the air, according to their bignejfes, 
excite fenfations of feveral founds. Newton. 
BI'GNON (Jerome), a French writer, born at Paris in 
1590. His father tpok the care of his education upon him¬ 
felf, and taught him the languages, philofophy, mathe¬ 
matics, civil law, and divinity. Jerome acquired great 
knowledge in a very diort time, and at ten years of age 
publilhed his Defcription of the Holy Land ; and three 
years after two other works, which gained him great re¬ 
putation in France. Henry IV. appointed him page of 
honour to the dauphin, afterwards Louis XIII. He wrote 
a treatife of the precedency of the kings of France, which 
he dedicated to the king, who ordered him to continue his 
refearches upon the fubjedl ; but the death of this prince 
interrupted his defign, and made him leave the court ; 
whither he was foon recalled at the folicitation of M. le 
Fevre, preceptor to Louis XIII. and continued there till 
the death of his friend. In 1613 he publilhed an edition 
of the Formulae of Marculphus; and the year following 
took a journey to Italy, where he received many marks 
of edeem from Paul V. Upon his return from his tra¬ 
vels, he applied himfelf to the pradlice of the bar with 
great fuccefs. His father procured for him the poll of 
advocate-general in the grand council; in the difcharge of 
which he raifed himfelf fo great a reputation, that the 
king nominated him counfellor of date, and advocate-ge¬ 
neral in the parliament. In 1641 he refolved to confine 
himfelf entirely to his bufinefs in the council of date, and 
therefore refigned his place of advocate-general to M. 
Briquet, his fon-in-law. The year following he was ap¬ 
pointed the king’s librarian. His fon-in-law dying in 1645, 
he was obliged to refume his pod of advocate-general, in 
order to preferve it for his fon. He had alfo a confidera- 
ble Ihare in the ordinance of the year 1639; and he dif- 
charged with great integrity the commiflions of arriere- 
ban, and other pods which he was intruded with at diffe¬ 
rent times. Queen Anne of Audria, during her regency, 
fent for him to council upon the mod important occafions. 
He adjuded the differences between M. d’Avaux and M. 
Servien, plenipotentiaries at Munder ; and he had a fhare, 
with M. de Brienne ai^d d’Emery, in making the treaty 
BIG 23 
of alliance with the dates of Holland in 1649- He was 
appointed, in 165 j, to regulate the great affair of the fuc- 
cedion of Mantua ; and, in 1654, to conclude the treaty 
with the Hanfe Towns. M. Bignon died, aged lixty-lix, 
on the 7th of April, 1656. 
BIGNO'NIA,yi [fo named by Tournefort, in compli¬ 
ment to abbe Bignon, librarian to LouisXIlI ] Trumpet- 
flower, or Scarlet Jasmine. In botany, a genus of 
the clafs didynamia, order angiofpermia, natural order pcr- 
fonatae. The generic chara6Iers are—Calyx : perianthium 
one-leafed, erect, cup-form, five-cleft. Corolla: monope- 
talous, campanulate; tube very fmall, the length of the 
calyx ; throat very long, ventricofe beneath, oblong-cam- 
panulate ; border five-parted, the two upper divi(Ions re¬ 
flex, lower patulous. Stamina: filaments four, fubulate, 
fhorter than the corolla, two longer than the other two ; 
antheras reflex, oblong, as it were doubled. Pidillunt : 
germ oblong; dyle filiform, fituation and form of the (la- 
mens; ffigma capitate. Pericarpium: filique two-celled, 
two-valvecl; partition membranaceous, parallel, thicken¬ 
ed at the futures. Seeds : very many, imbricate, com- 
preffed, membrane-winged on both (ides.— EJjenlial Cha- 
rabler. Calyx, five-cleft, cup-form ; corolla, throat bell- 
form, five-cleft, ventricofe beneath; filique two-celled; 
feeds membrane-winged. 
Species. 1. Bignonia catalpa, or common catalpa-tree : 
leaves fimple, cordate ; dem erect; feeds winged with 
membranes. The catalpa is a deciduous tree, riling with 
an upright dem, covered with a fmooth brown bark, to 
the height of thirty or forty feet; it fends out many drong 
lateral branches, having very large, heart-diaped (or ovate) 
leaves on them, placed oppofite at every joint. The flow¬ 
ers are produced in large branching panicles towards the 
end of the branches ; they are of a dirty white colour, 
with a few purple fpots, and faint ffripes of yellow on 
their infide : the tube of the corolla is much fhorter, and 
the upper part more fpreading than in the fourteenth fort; 
the fegments alfo are deeper cut, and waved on their 
edges. Two ffamens have anthers, and two are without. 
The flowers are fucceeded by long taper pods; but thefe 
have not as yet been produced in England. Mr. Mark 
Catefby found it growing naturally on the back of South- 
Carolina, at a great didance from the Englifh fettlements, 
and brought it into England about the year 1726. It is 
now not uncommon in our nurferies and plantations. This 
tree has a good effefl, when it dands in the middle of large 
openings, where it can freely fend forth its (ide branches, 
and fhew itfelf to advantage. The leaves however come 
out extremely late in our climate ; and it requires a fhel- 
tered fituation, for where it is much expofed to drong 
winds, the large leaves are often torn and rendered un- 
fightly, and many times their branches are fplit and bro¬ 
ken by the wind. It flowers in Augud; and is known in 
the nurferies by its Indian name catalpa. The branches 
dye wool a kind of cinnamon colour. Thunberg men¬ 
tions, that the Japanefe lay the leaves on parts of the body 
affefled with pains, fuppofing them to be beneficial to the 
nerves; and that a decoftion of the pods is edeemed fer- 
viceable in the adbma. 
2. Bignonia tomentofa: leaves fimple, cordate, tomen- 
tofe beneath ; flowers axillary, panicled. Native of Japan. 
3. Bignonia fempervirens, or Carolina yellow jalmine,: 
leaves fimple, lanceolate; ftem twining. This rifes with 
dender dalks, which twift themfelves round the neigh¬ 
bouring plants, and mount to a confiderable height; the 
leaves come out fingle, and oppofite to each other at every 
joint; they remain green through the year. The flowers 
come out from the wings of the leaves at every joint, forne- 
times but two, at other times four, at each joint ; thefe 
dand ereft, are trumpet-diapcd, yellow, and have a very 
fweet fcent; and, in the countries where they naturally 
grow, they are fucceeded by ffiort taper pods, filled with 
fmall winged feeds. It grows naturally in South Caro¬ 
lina, where it fpreads over the hedges, and, at the feu fon 
of flowering, perfumes the.air to a great diltance ; it alfo 
grows 
