BOAT-BUILDING. See Ship-building.
BOBRUISK, a town of Russia, in the government of Minsk, 110 miles S.E. of that city, in 53º 15′ N. lat. and 28º 52′ E. long., on the right bank of the Berezina, near the confluence of the Bobruiska, on the high road from Mogileff to Brest-Litovsk. Bobruisk was an unimportant place in 1508, when the Moscovite army, sent by the Emperor Basil against the Polish king Sigismund, advanced towards it. In the 17th century there existed a castle, which was burned down in 1649. When the Minsk government was incorporated with Russia, Bobruisk was a small borough; but in 1795 it was raised to the rank of chief town of a department in the Minsk government. In the beginning of the reign of Alexander I. there was erected at Bobruisk, by the advice of General Osterman, a fort, which obtained great importance in 1812, and was made equal to the best in Europe by the Emperor Paul I. The fort proper is built on a height exactly at the confluence of the Bobruiska with the Berezina, nearly a mile from the town. On the right bank of the former river is another small fort, called Fort Frederick William, well supported by a line of defences. In 1860 the population of Bobruisk was 23,761, of whom 11,394 were Jews. It has 2 Greek churches, 17 synagogues, a military hospital, and a departmental college. The only industrial establishments are two potteries. On the river near the town there is a harbour, by which grain and salt are imported from the southern governments.
BOCCACCIO, Giovanni. Comparatively little is known of Boccaccio's life, particularly of the earlier portion of it. He was born in 1313, as we know from a letter of Petrarch, in which that poet, who was born in 1304, calls himself the senior of his friend by nine years. The place of his birth is somewhat doubtful,—Florence, Paris, and Certaldo being all mentioned by various writers as his native city. Boccaccio undoubtedly calls himself a Florentine, but this may refer merely to the Florentine citizenship acquired by his grandfather. The claim of Paris has been supported by Baldelli and Tiraboschi, mainly on the ground that his mother was a lady of good family in that city, where she met Boccaccio's father. The balance of evidence is decidedly in favour of Certaldo, a small town or castle in the valley of the Elsa, 20 miles from Florence, where the family had some property, and where the poet spent much of the latter part of his life. He always signed his name Boccaccio da Certaldo, and named that town as his birthplace in his own epitaph. Petrarch calls his friend Certaldese; and Filippo Villani, a contemporary, distinctly says that Boccaccio was born in Certaldo.
Boccaccio, an illegitimate son, as is put beyond dispute by the fact that a special licence had to be obtained when he desired to become a priest, was brought up with tender care by his father, who seems to have been a merchant of respectable rank. His elementary education he received from Giovanni da Strada, an esteemed teacher of grammar in Florence. But at an early age he was apprenticed to an eminent merchant, with whom he remained for six years, a time entirely lost to him, if we may believe his own statement. For from his tenderest years his soul was attached to that "alma poesis," which, on his tombstone, he names, as the task and study of his life. In one of his works he relates that, in his seventh year, before he had ever seen a book of poetry or learned the rules of metrical composition, he began to write verse in his childish fashion, and earned for himself amongst his friends the name of "the poet." It is uncertain where Boccaccio passed these six years of bondage; most likely he followed his master to various centres of commerce in Italy and France. We know at least that he was in Naples and Paris for some time, and the youthful impressions received in the latter city, as well as the knowledge of the French language acquired there, were of considerable influence on his later career. Yielding at last to his son's immutable aversion to commerce, the elder Boccaccio permitted him to adopt a course of study somewhat more congenial to the literary tastes of the young man. He was sent to a celebrated professor of canon law, at that time an important field of action both to the student and the practical jurist. According to some accounts—far from authentic, it is true—this professor was Cino da Pistoia, the friend of Dante, and himself a celebrated poet and scholar. But, whoever he may have been, Boccaccio's master was unable to inspire his pupil with scientific ardour. "Again," Boccaccio says, "I lost nearly six years. And so nauseous was this study to my mind, that neither the teaching of my master, nor the authority and command of my father, nor yet the exertions and reproof of my friends, could make me take to it, for my love of poetry was invincible."
