Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 2.djvu/338

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BARBOSA


288


BARCELONA


Barbosa-Machado, Ignacio. a Portuguese histo- rian, b. at Lisbon in 1686; d. in 1734. He pursued

his studies at the Uni\'ersity of Coimbra, was later sent to Brazil as a magistrate, and after the death of his wife entered the ecclesiastical state. He has left a number of historical works, the most impor- tant of which is " Fastos Politicos e Militares de Antiqua e Nova Lusitania" (Lisbon, 1745), dealing with the historj' of Portugal and Brazil. He was a brother of the more famous Diego JIachado Barbosa (1682-1772), also a priest and WTiter, and author of a notable monument of Portuguese literature "Bib- liotheca Lusitana, Historica, Critica e Chronologica" (Lisbon, 1741-59). V. Fuentes.

Barbour, John, Scottish ecclesiastic and author of "The Bruce", a historical poem in the early Scot- tish or Northern English dialect, b. about 1320; d. 1395. He was already Archdeacon of Aberdeen in 1357, an honour not likely to have been attained much before his fortieth year. At various times, 1357, 1364, 1365, 1368, he" obtained, originally at the re- quest of Fung Da^id of Scotland, passports from the King of England for travel to Oxford or to France, presumably for the purpose of special study or research, or for the renewal of old college associa- tions. In 1357 he was appointed by the Bishop of Aberdeen one of the commissioners to meet at Edin- burgh and confer about the ransom from England of Da\-id II, captured at Ne\-ille's Cross, 1346. In 1373, and occasionally in later years, he was one of the auditors of the exchequer. In 1378, as a reward for his patriotic poem, he was assigned, from the royal rents payable by the city, a perjjetual pension of twenty shillings, and in 1388, an additional royal pension for life of £10 Scots from the customs of Aberdeen. He received also from the king £10 in 1377, and £5 in 1386. Innes has pointed out that in addition to these pensions and gifts, and perqui- sites incidental to the wardship of a minor, Barbour enjoyed the revenue of a prebend and a considerable income as archdeacon. His pension of twenty shillings he left as a foundation for .Masses for himself and his parents, to be said by all the priests at the cathedral on the Wednesday after Low Sunday. As Jamieson shows, the pension was not bequeathed to a hospital, but probably reverted to the Crown at the Reformation. The copy of the document assigning his pension to the dean and chapter of Aberdeen may be found in Skeat, along with the forty-eight other documents which establish the facts of Barbour's life.

Barbour, "the earliest poet and the first detailed historian of Scotland", writing in that northern •dialect of Middle English which afterward came to be specifically called Scotch, composed, besides "The Brut" and "The Stewart's Original", which are lost, the long patriotic narrative poem called "The Bruce". This work, upon wlaich Barbour was engaged in 1375, exists in two manuscripts, dated 1487 and 1489, ■nTitten by John Ramsay, who has been identified with a later prior of the Carthusian monastery at Perth. The second of these copies was made at the request of Simon Lochmalony, vicar of Auchter Mousey, near Perth. An earlier, incom- plete manuscript, written by Fenton, a monk of Melrose, in 1369, is not extant, "The Bruce", extending through 6,000 octosyllabic couplets, variously divided into fourteen or twenty books, told to a generation of Scotchmen flushed with victory and the sense of dearly-bouglit independence the story of the struggles of their grandfathers, sang the glories of freedom, and pictured the civic and kniglitly virtues of Bruce and Douglas. The narrative runs from the dispute for the crown of Scotland between Balliol and the first Robert, whom Barbour poetically identifies with his grandson, to the death of the Black


Douglas in Spain while on his way to the Holy Land with the heart of Bruce. It pictures such events as Bannockburn, the siege of Berwick, the expedition to Ireland, and the wanderings of the king, and sketches the characters of Stewart, Randolph, Bruce, and Douglas. The author finds a place, too, for descriptions of nature, for touches showing the ten- derness of the true soldier, for snatches of grim humour or sharp dialogue, for digressions on nec- romancy and astrologj-, and for learned allusions to the favourite classic authors of the day. This narrative, which Barbour called a romance, is re- garded as being in essential points a faithful historj-, and was so received bj- generations of readers. Scott used some of its material in "Castle Danger- ous", "The Lord of the Isles", and "Tales of a Grandfather". The principal editions of "The Bruce" are those of Pinkerton (Edinburgh, 1790); Jamieson (Edinburgh, 1820); Cosmo Irmes (Edin- burgh), and, according to more modern require- ments of scholarship, that of Professor Skeat for the "Early English Text Societj'", and the "Early Scottish Text Society". Some fragments on the tale of Troy, and a long poem on the lives of the saints formerly attributed to Barbour are no longer thought to be his work.

Mackat in Diet. Nat. Biog.; Veitch. Feeling for Nature in Scottish Poetry; Lanier, Music and Poetry.

J. Vincent Crowne.

Barbus, P.^ulus, Italian philosopher and theo- logian, b. at Soncino, Lombardy, and hence known also by the name of Soncinas which appears at the head of his books; d. at Cremona, 4 August, 1494. When a mere youth he entered the Dominican Order and made his philosophical and theological studies in its schools. He afterwards taught phi- losophy and theology with great success at Milan, Ferrara, and Bologna. At the time of his death he was prior of the Cremona Convent. Exhibiting extraordinarj' intellectual powers, and expressing his deep thoughts in eloquent speech and finished writing, he merited and received the esteem of his learned contemporaries, notably of Pico della Mirandola. Many of his writings were lost at an early date. The following have been printed frequently: (1) "Quffstiones super divina sapientia Aristotelis" (principal edition, Lyons, 1579); (2) "Divinum Epitoma quaestionum in IV libros sententiarum a principe Thomistarum Joanne Capreolo Tolesano dis- putatarum" (principal edition, Pavia, 1522). The place and date of (3) "In Ubros prsedicabilium et prEedicamentorum expositio " are unknown.

QutxiF AND EcBARD, Scriptores Ordinis Prnditatorum, I. 279.

Arthur L. McM.^hgn.

Barca, a titular see of CjTenaica in Northern Africa. According to most archa-ologists it was situated at Medinet el Merdja, but according to Graham (Roman Africa) at Tolometa, or Tolmeita. After being often destroyed and restored, it became, during the Roman period, a mere borough (Mar- quardt, Staatsverwaltung, I, 459), hut was, never- theless, the site of a bishopric. Its bishop, ZopjTOS (Zephyrius is a mistake), was present at the Coimcil of Nicaea in 325 (Gelzer, Patrum NiciFnorum nomina, 231). The subscriptions at Ephesus (431) and Clialcedon (451) give the names of two other bishops, Zenobius and Theodorus. The see must have dis- appeared when the Arabs conquered the Pentapolis in 643 (Butler, The Arab Conquest of Egj-pt, 430).

Lequien, Oriens Christ., 11, 625: Gams, Series episcop., 462.

L. Petit. Barcelona (Barcino). Diocese of, one of the suf- fragans of the Archdiocese of Tarragona. The city of this name is the capital of Catalonia and of the province of Barcelona. It is situated on the coast of north-eastern Spain, and is familiarly known as the "Queen of the Mediterranean".