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tion, professor of divinity, and became successively bishop of Gottenburgh and Linkæping, and archbishop of Upsal, where he died in 1743. He was not only an able theologian, but versed in languages, history, and antiquities, and in all his writings displays erudition and critical acumen. He published, 1. "Monumenta historica vetera Ecclesiæ Sueco-Gothica," Upsal, 1704, 4to. 2. "Johannis Vastovii Vitis Aquilonia, sive Vitæ Sanctorum regni SuecoGothici," ibid. 1708, 4to. 3. "Dissertatio de Alexandria Ægypti," ibid. 1711, 8vo. 4. "Laudatio funebris Michael. Enemanni," Upsal, 1715, 4to. 5. "Dissertatio de re litteraria Judæorum," ibid. 1716, 4to. 6. "Acta Litteraria Sueciæ, ab 1720 usque ad 1733," ibid. 3 vols. 4to. 7. “Periculum Runicum, sive de origine et antiquitate Runarum," ibid. 1724, 8vo. 8. "Oratio funebris in memoriam Laurentii Molini, theologi Upsaliensis," ibid. 4to. These learned and ingenious works procured him very great reputation, and the correspondence of the most eminent men of learning in every part of Europe. In 1720, when librarian to the university, he associated with some of the professors in founding the academy of sciences of Upsal, which was soon after established by government, and is the oldest institution of that kind in the north; and when the academy of Stockholm was founded in 1739, Benzelius was admitted one of its first members.1

This

BENZELIUS (HENRY), archbishop of Upsal, and brother to the preceding, was born at Strengnes in 1689, and studied at Upsal. During his subsequent travels he happened to arrive at Bender, where Charles XII. was. prince, who had more taste for the pursuit of scientific knowledge than is generally supposed, was desirous at this time to send some men of learning to the East, and Benzelius was one whom he applied to, and who accordingly began his travels in 1714, visiting Syria, Palestine, and Egypt, and returning to Sweden through Italy, Germany, and Holland. The journal of this tour is preserved in manuscript at Upsal; but a considerable part of Benzelius's observations were printed in a Latin collection, under the title of "Syntagma dissertationum in Academia Lundensi habitarum," Leipsic, 1745, 4to. benzelius, after his return to Sweden, was made professor of theology, bishop of Lunden, and archbishop of Upsal, where he died in 1758. He

Biog. Universelle.-Saxii Onomasticon.

was succeeded in the archbishopric by his brother Jacob, who wrote in Latin, an abridgment of theology, and a description of Palestine, and some other works.-H. JASPER BENZELIUS, of the same learned family, who died about the end of the last century, bishop of Strengnes, had studied under Mosheim, and published in 1744 at Helmstadt, a Latin life or dissertation on John Dury, who in the seventeenth century, travelled over a considerable part of Europe, in hopes of reconciling the Lutherans and Calvinists.1

BENZONI (JEROM), a Milanese, was born about 1519. His father, who was not rich, having suffered by the war, sent him on his travels, to seek his fortune in Italy, France, Spain, and Germany. He did not find what he sought, but became so captivated with the accounts recently received from the new world, that he determined to go there. Accordingly in 1541, he went to Spain, and embarked for America, where he remained fourteen years. In 1556, he returned to his country, rich only in the observations he had made, and which he communicated to the public, in a History of the New World," in Italian, Venice, 1565, 4to, reprinted 1572, 8vo, and afterwards translated into Latin, French, German, and Flemish. 2

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BEOLCO (ANGELO), surnamed Ruzzante, was born at Padua, about 1502, and died in 1542. He applied himself early in life to study the manners, gesture, and language of villagers, and copied every particular that savoured of simplicity, drollery, and the grotesque. He was the Vadé of the Italians. His rustic farces, though written in a low and vulgar style, are yet pleasing to people of education, by the correctness with which the countrymen are represented, and by the witticisms with which they are seasoned. He preferred being the first in this species of composition, to being the second in a more elevated line. His principal pieces are, la Vaccaria, l'Anconitana, la Moschetta, la Fiorina, la Piovana, &c. These were printed with other poems of the same kind in 1584 in 12mo, under this title, "Tutte le opere del famosissimo Ruzzante," and have often been republished. 3

BERARDIER DE BATAUT (FRANCIS JOSEPH), a doctor of the Sorbonne, formerly professor of eloquence, and

2 Ibid.

1 Biog. Universelle.
Ibid. Moreri.-Freheri Theatrum.-Baillet Jugemens des Savans.

afterwards grand master of the college of Louis-le-Grand, was born at Paris in 1720. He was deputy from the clergy of Paris, in the constituent assembly, and died at Paris in 1794. He had acquired great reputation in the university, and was not less respected in the above assembly, where he signed the famous protest of Sept. 12, 1791. CamilleDesmoulins, who had been his pupil, celebrated him in his verses entitled "Mes adieux au college ;" and from a sin, gular caprice, this revolutionist chose to receive the nuptial benediction from Berardier, although one of the nonjuring priests, and of totally opposite principles. St. Just and Robespierre were the witnesses on this occasion; and such was the regard Camille-Desmoulins had for him, that he protected him from the massacres of the 2d of September 1792. Berardier wrote, 1. "Precis de l'Histoire universelle," a very excellent introduction to the study of history, which has gone through several editions. 2. " Essai sur le recit," 1776, 12mo, also very successful, but not written with so much perspicuity. 3. "Anti-Lucrece en vers Français," 1786, 2 vols. 12mo. 4. "Principes de la foi sur le gouvernment de l'Eglise, en opposition à la constitution civile du clergé, ou refutation de l'opinion de M. Camus," 8vo. Of this fourteen editions were printed within six months, and it has likewise been published under the title of "Vrais Principes de la Constitution du Clergé."1

BERAUD (LAURENCE), a French mathematician and astronomer, was born at Lyons, March 5, 1703, entered among the Jesuits, and became professor of humanity at Vienne and at Avignon, and of mathematics and philosophy at Aix. In 1740 he was invited to Lyons and appointed professor of mathematics, director of the observatory, and keeper of the medals; and the same year he be came astronomer to the academy, the memoirs of which are enriched by a great many of his observations, particularly that on the passage of Mercury on the Sun, May 6, 1753, during which he saw and demonstrated the luminous ring round that planet, which had escaped the notice of all the astronomers for ten years before. In all his results, he entirely agreed with Lalande, who had made the same observations at Paris, and with the celebrated Cassini. his observations, indeed, are creditable to his talents, and accord with those of the most eminent astronomers.

1 Biog. Universelle.

All

Among his other papers, inserted in the memoirs of the academy, we find several on vegetation, on the evaporation of liquids, and the ascent of vapours, on light, a physical theory on the rotation of the earth and the inclination of its axis, &c. In meteorology, he published observations on the tubes of thermometers, with an improvement in the construction of them, which was the subject of three memoirs read in the academy of Lyons in 1747. He has also endeavoured to account for metals reduced to calcination weighing heavier than in their former state, and maintains, against Boyle, that fire is incapable of giving this additional weight, and likewise refutes the opinion of those who attribute it to air, or to substances in the air which the action of fire unites to the metal in fusion. This memoir was honoured with the prize by the academy of Bourdeaux in 1747, and contained many opinions which it would have been difficult to contradict before the experiments of Priestley, Lavoisier, and Morveau. In 1748, he received the same honour, from that academy, for a paper in which he maintained the connexion between magnetism and electricity, assigning the same cause to both. In 1760, he received a third prize from the same academy, for a dissertation on the influences of the moon on vegetation and animal œconomy. Beraud was also a corresponding member of the academy of sciences in Paris, and several of his papers are contained in their memoirs, and in those of the academy of Lyons. He wrote several learned dissertations on subjects of antiquity. On the dissolution of the society of Jesuits, he left his country for some time, as he could not conscientiously take the oaths prescribed, and on his return, notwithstanding many pressing offers to be restored to the academy, he preferred a private life, never having recovered the shock which the abolition of his order had occasioned. In this retirement he died June 26, 1777. His learning and virtues were universally admired; he was of a communicative disposition, and equal and candid temper, both in his writings and private life. Montucla, Lalande, and Bossu, were his pupils; and father Lefevre of the Oratory, his successor in the observatory of Lyons, pronounced his eloge in that academy, which was printed at Lyons, 1780, 12mo. The Dict. Hist. ascribed to Beraud, a small volume, "La Physique des corps animés," 1755, 12mo.'

1 Biog. Universelle.-Dict. Hist.

BERAULD, or BERAULT (NICHOLAS), was born at Orleans in 1475, and died in 1550. According to the custom of that age, he Latinized his name into BERALDUS AURELIUS, and it is under that name that his friend Nicolas Bourbon celebrates him in one of his Latin poems. Berauld, according to Moreri, was preceptor to cardinal Coligni, his brother the admiral, and to Chatillon. Erasmus, in many parts of his works, acknowledges the kind hospitality of Berauld, when, in 1500, he was travelling` by the way of Orleans into Italy, and highly praises the elegance of his style. In 1522, Erasmus dedicated to him his work "De conscribendis epistolis." Berauld published various works in Latin, of which the principal are, 1. "Oratio de pace restituta et de fœdere sancito apud Cameracum," Paris, 1528, 8vo. 2. "Metaphrasis in œconomicon Aristotelis," Paris, 4to, without date. In 1516, he edited the works of William bishop of Paris, in folio, and the same year an edition of Pliny's natural history, with numerous corrections, yet Hardouin has not mentioned Berauld among the editors of Pliny. He also supplied notes to the Rusticus of Politian, and published a "Greek and Latin Dictionary," that of Crafton, with additions, a preface, and notes. 3. "Syderalis Abyssus," Paris, 1514. 4. "Dialogus quo rationes explicantur quibus dicendi ex tempore facultas parari potest, &c." Lyons, 1534. 5. "De jurisprudentia vetere ac novitiâ oratio," Lyons, 1533. 6. Enarratio in psalmos LXXI. et CXXX." Paris, 1529, 4to. Berauld was greatly respected by Stephen Poucher, bishop of Paris, and afterwards archbishop of Sens, a celebrated patron of learning and learned men.-Berauld's son, Fraucis, born at Orleans, embraced the principles of Calvin; he was esteemed a very learned man and a good Greek and Latin poet. He was particularly eminent for his knowledge of Greek, which he taught at Montbelliard, Lausanne, Geneva, Montargis, of which last college he was principal in 1571, and at Rochelle. Henry Stephens employed him to translate part of Appian, and preferred his translation to that of Cœlius Secundus Curio. 1

BERAULT-BERCASTEL (ANTHONY HENRY), born about the commencement of the last century, in the country of Messin in France, was first a Jesuit, then curate of

1 Gen. Dict,-Moreri.-Biog. Universelle

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