abbé de la Bleterie had an uncommon predilection; he spoke of him incessantly to his friends. "To Tacitus," said he, "I am much indebted; I ought therefore in justice to dedicate to his glory the remainder of my life." 4. "Tiberius, or the six first books of the Annals of Tacitus, translated into French," Paris, 1768, 3 vols. 12mo. This work was not so popular among his countrymen, who blame the affected style, and say they very seldom discover in it the elegant historian of Julian. It occasioned at the time these two lines:

Des dogmes de Quesnel un triste prosélyte

En bourgeois du Marais fait parler Tacite.

This translation is in other respects sufficiently exact. 5. "Letters occasioned by the account of Quietism given by M. Phelipeaux," 1733, 12mo. This pamphlet, which is scarce, and very well written, contains a defence of the conduct of madame de Guyon. 6. Some highly esteemed dissertations in the memoirs of the academy of belles lettres. 7. "Most humble Remonstrances of M. de Montempuis ;" an obscure and indifferent work, in favour of a pedant, who had made himself ridiculous by an absurd and unlucky adventure. The abbé de la Bleterie died at an advanced age, June 1, 1772. He was a man of learning, attached to religion, and his morals did not belie his principles. His knowledge being solid and diversified, rendered his conversation useful and interesting. With sound rather than brilliant talents, endowed with more judgment than imagination, he had the merit of knowing how to choose his friends, and how to retain them.

Besides the works above-mentioned, Bleterie was editor of Masclef's Hebrew Grammar; when studying that language he took a fancy to Masclef's method, and in order to support it, published a work entitled "Vindiciæ methodi Masclefianæ," in elegant Latin, and afterwards inserted it in his edition of the grammar published in 1731. We have already mentioned that he was a member of the academy of belles-lettres, and was a candidate for the French academy. His rival on this occasion was Racine, the son, but both were rejected as Jansenists. Bleterie submitted to the disappointment, and when his friends were about to interest themselves in the repeal of this sentence of exclusion, he would upon no account co-operate with them, contenting himself with the esteem of the academicians, who, the president Henault says, consi

dered him as a colleague of whom they had been deprived. '

BLOCH (MARK ELIEZER), an eminent naturalist, and a Jew by birth, was born at Auspech, in 1723, of very poor parents. He began to study very late; at the age of nineteen, he knew neither German or Latin, and had read only some of the writings of the Rabbis, notwithstanding which, he was employed as a tutor in the family of a Jew surgeon at Hamburgh. There he himself was taught German, and a poor Bohemian Catholic gave him some instructions in Latin; he picked up also some knowledge of anatomy. Afterwards he made rapid progress in regaining lost time, and having removed to live with some relations he had at Berlin, he applied himself with eagerness and success to the study of anatomy and natural history, and received a doctor's degree at Francfort on the Oder, with which he returned to practise as a physician at Berlin. Here the celebrated naturalist Martini procured him to be elected a member of the society of the "Curious in nature," and he soon became highly distinguished among the scientific men of his time. He died Aug. 6, 1799, in the seventy-sixth year of his age. His principal work was his "Natural history of Fishes, particularly those of the Prussian states," four parts, Berlin, 1781 and 1782, large 4to. He wrote afterwards a "Natural history of foreign Fishes," Berlin, 1784, and "The natural history of German Fishes," 1782. These different works, of which the descriptions are in German, were afterwards united under the title of "Ichthyology, or the natural history of Fishes," Berlin, 1785, 12 vols. 4to, published by subscription, in seventy-two parts; the text was translated into French by Laveaux, and was published in 12 vols. fol. and reprinted in 1795. This is unquestionably one of the most splendid books in natural history, but the author, who had begun to have his drawings, engravings, and the colouring executed at his own expence, never could have completed it, had not his countrymen considered it as a national work, and princes, nobles, and amateurs, came forward with the most liberal assistauce, and enabled him to finish the last six volumes upon the same scale of elegance as the former. The French edition in 12 vols. 8vo, Berlin, 1796, is greatly inferior to the former. Bloch

1 Biog. Universelle.—Dict. Hist.

wrote also, a "Treatise on the generation of worms in the intestines, and on the method of destroying them," which gained the prize offered by the royal society of Denmark, and was printed at Berlin, 1782, 4to, and a "Treatise on the waters of Pyrmont," both in German, Hamburgh,

1774, 8vo.1

BLOCH (GEORGE CASTANEUS), bishop of Ripen, in Denmark, who was born in 1717, and died in 1773, cultivated the science of botany, particularly with a view to illustrate those passages of Scripture in which plants, &c. are mentioned. In 1767, he published at Copenhagen "Tentamen Phoenicologices sacra, seu dissertatio emblematico-theologica de Palma," 8vo, a work containing many curious remarks on the palm or date-tree of Palestine and Idumea, which was called the phoenix by the Greeks and most of the eastern nations. It often occurs in the Bible, and the learned author has collected and explained the several passages. This species of palm is the phoenix dactylifera of modern botanists.-A third author of the same name, JOHN ERASMUS BLOCH, a Danish gardener, published at Copenhagen a treatise on the art of cultivating gardens, under the title "Horticultura Danica,” 1647, 4to.2

BLOCK (JOANNA KOERTEN), a female artist, on whose singular talents Descamps has bestowed a long article, was born at Amsterdam, Nov. 17, 1650. Her genius first showed itself in wax models of fruit, &c. beautifully coloured; she then engraved with diamond on crystal and glass, and copied paintings in coloured silks, but at last devoted her whole time to cutting paper, in which she excelled. Whatever others produced in a print by a graver, she effected by a pair of scissars. In this way she executed all kinds of subjects; landscapes, sea-pieces, animals, flowers, &c. and even portraits, in which the resemblance was preserved in a striking degree. This new art of expressing representations of objects upon white paper became the object of universal curiosity, and the artist was encouraged by all the courts of Europe. The elector Palatine offered her a thousand florins (about an hundred guineas) for three little pieces, which she refused. The empress of Germany gave her orders for a trophy with the arms of the emperor Leopold I. In this piece

were crowns supported by eagles, and round the borders. garlands of flowers, and other ornaments relative to the subject, for which she received four thousand florins.

also cut the portrait of the emperor, which in Descamps' time was preserved in the emperor's cabinet at Vienna. Her works were all in a correct and beautiful style. She died Dec. 28, 1715.1

BLOEMART (ABRAHAM), painter of landscape, cattle, history, and portrait, was born at Gorcum in 1564, according to Houbraken; but according to Sandrart, whose authority seems to claim the preference, he was born in 1567, and lived mostly at Utrecht. In his youth he applied himself diligently to design after the works of Francis Floris, and afterwards received instructions from several artists of no great repute; but the power of his own genius proved his principal director in the art of painting. He formed a manner peculiar to himself, making nature his model for many of the objects he painted, particularly his cattle, in which he excelled. He died in 1647. He left four sons, two of them, Henry and Adrian, were artists of considerable merit, but inferior to the youngest, the subject of the following article.*

BLOEMART (CORNELIUS), the youngest son of Abraham, was born in 1603, at Utrecht. The first principles of drawing and painting he learned from his father; but his natural inclination for the art of engraving was so powerful, that he applied himself wholly to the pursuit of

He first studied under Crispin de Pass, an engraver much more famous for the neatness than the good taste of his works. Not satisfied with what he learned from this artist, he went to Rome, in order to profit by studying the works of the greatest masters; and in that city (where the far greater part of his engravings were made) he died in a very advanced age. "The manner of engraving adopted by this excellent artist, appears to me (says Mr. Strutt) to be not only quite original, but the source from which we may trace that style in which the greatest and best French masters excelled; those, I mean, who worked with the graver only. He covered the lights upon his distances, and the other parts of his plates which required tinting, with great care. The lights, whether on the distant hills, trees, buildings, or figures, in the engravings prior to his Pilkington.-Argenville.-Strutt.

Descamps, vol. III.

time, had been left quite clear, and by so many white spots scattered in various parts of the same design, the harmony was destroyed, the subject confused, and the principal figures prevented from relieving with any striking effect. By this judicious improvement, Bloemart gave to his prints a more clear and finished appearance than all the laboured neatness even of Jerome Wierix had been able to produce. He drew correctly; but from his style of engraving, which was executed entirely with the graver, the extremities of his figures are heavy, and his heads are not always equally beautiful or expressive. With respect to the mechanical part of the work, few indeed have excelled him, either in clearness or freedom of execution. His great fault, however, is want of variety. The naked parts of his figures, the draperies, and the back-ground, are equally neat, and engraved precisely in the same manner. Hence the effect is flat; and the flesh, for want of sufficient distinction, appears cold and silvery. His works are justly held in high estimation. They are very numerous, and many of them difficult to be procured."

BLOND (CHRISTOPHER LE), was an artist of whose life we have very few particulars, till he was known at Rome, in the year 1716, being at that time painter to count Martinetz; and his reputation, as a good painter of portrait in miniature, was well established in Italy. By the solicitation of Overbeke, he was induced to go to Amsterdam, and in that city was employed to paint small portraits for bracelets, rings, and snuff-boxes; and although they were painted in water-colours, yet the colouring was as lively and as natural as if they had been painted in oil. However, as he found his sight much impaired by the minuteness of his work, he discontinued water-colour painting, and attempted the use of oil, with a reasonable degree of success. After he had resided for some years in the Low Countries, he went to England, and set up a new method of printing mezzotinto plates in colours so as to imitate the pictures of which they were copies. In this manner he executed in England several large plates, from pictures of the greatest masters, and disposed of the prints by lottery. But those who obtained the prizes (Mr. Strutt says) appear not to have held them in any very great estimation. "The prints," he adds, "certainly possess some merit,

Pilkington.Argenville,-Strutt,