Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 3.djvu/867

Anns of Bodmin. county jail, rebuilt in 1859, and a market-house of recent date, are among the chief buildings. The principal manu facture is shoes. Four annual fairs for cattle and horses are held in the town, and at St Lawrence, one mile to the S.W., there is a fair in October for cattle and sheep. Bodmin returned two mem bers to Parliament from the time of Edward I. till 1868, when its representation was reduced to one member. The assizes and quarter-sessions are held in the town, and it is one of the polling-places for the east division of the county. Bodmin or, as the name appears in charters, Bosmana or Bod-minian, grew up in the neighbourhood of a monastic building, which is said to have been founded as early as 926. At the time of the Conquest it was a flourishing town, but fell into decay at the Reformation, and only recovered its prosperity in the course of last century. In 1498 the Cornish insurrection was originated by the people of Bodmin, who again, in the reign of Edward VI., expressed their discontent at the change of religion by resorting to arms. Population of municipal borough in 1871, 4672, and of parliamentary

borough, 6758.

Arms of Bodmin.

BODONI, Giambattista, superintendent of the royal press at Parma, chief printer to his Catholic Majesty, member of various academies in Italy, and knight of several orders, was born in 1740, at Saluzzo in Piedmont, where his father owned a printing establishment. While yet a boy he began to engrave on wood. He at length went to Rome, and there became a compositor for the press of the Propaganda. He made himself acquainted with the Oriental languages, and thus was enabled to render essential service to the Propaganda press, by restoring and accurately dis tributing the types of several Oriental alphabets which had fallen into disorder. The Infante Don Ferdinand having established at Parma, about 1760, a printing-house on the model of those in Paris, Madrid, and Turin, Bodoni was placed at the head of this establishment, which he soon rendered the first of the kind in Europe. The beauty of his typography, &c., leaves nothing further to be desired ; but the intrinsic value of his editions is seldom equal to their outward splendour. His Homer, however, is a truly magnificent work ; and, indeed, his Greek letters are fault less imitations of the best Greek manuscript. His editions of the Greek, Latin, Italian, and French classics are all highly prized for their typographical elegance, and some of them are not less remarkable for their accuracy. Bodoni died at Padua in 1813, aged 73. In 1818 a magnificent work appeared in two volumes quarto, entitled Manuale Tipografico, containing specimens of the vast collection of types which had belonged to this celebrated typographer. See De Lama, Vita dd Cavaliere Giamhattista Bodoni, 1816, 2 vols.

BOECE, or Boyce, Hector, a distinguished Scottish historian, was born at Dundee, about the year 1465, being descended of a family which for several generations had possessed the barony of Panbride or Balbride. The orthography of his surname is extremely fluctuating ; it is to be found under the various modifications of Boece, Boeth, Boeis, Boys, Boyse, Boyes, Boyis, Boiss, and Boyce. He received his early education at Dundee, and completed his course of study in the university of Paris, where he took the degree of B.D. He w r as appointed a professor of philosophy in the college of Montaigu ; and in this seminary he became intimately acquainted with Erasmus, who in two epistles has testified his esteem for Boece s character (Erasmi Opera, torn. i. torn. iii. col. 1784, edit. Clerici). In his academical station he had already distin guished himself when King s College was founded at Aberdeen by the munificence of William Elphinstone, bishop of the diocese. The Papal bull for the erection of a university had been obtained in the year 1494, but the buildings were not sufficiently advanced, nor did the lectures commence, till about the year 1500. It was not without some degree of hesitation that he consented to quit the lettered society of Paris, and to become principal of this new college ; but having at length accepted the con ditions, he proceeded to Aberdeen, and experienced a kind reception from the canons of the cathedral, several of whom he has commemorated as men of learning. It was a part of his duty as principal to read lectures oa divinity. The common branches of science and literature were taught with zeal and success ; and the prosperity of the institution was greatly promoted by the influence of Boece.

The emoluments of his office were not such as appear very dazzling to modern eyes. " Boethius, as president of the university," says Dr Johnson, " enjoyed a revenue of forty Scottish marks, about two pounds four shillings and sixpence of sterling money. In the present age of trade and taxes, it is difficult even for the imagination so to rais& the value of money, or so to diminish the demands of life, as to suppose four and forty shillings a year an honourable stipend ; yet it was probably equal not only to the needs but to the rank of Boethius. The wealth of England was- undoubtedly to that of Scotland more than five to one, and it is known that Henry the Eighth, among whose faults avarice was never reckoned, granted to Roger Ascham, as a reward of his learning, a pension of ten pounds a year." But it is necessary to recollect that this was not the only preferment which Boece enjoyed : he was not only principal of King s College, but was likewise a canon of Aberdeen, and rector of Tyrie in the same county. Under the date of July 14, 1527, we find a " grant to Maister Hector" of an annual pension of 50, to be paid by the sheriff of Aberdeen out of the king s casualties ; and on the 26th of July 1529 was issued a " precept for a lettre to Mr Hector- Boys, professor of theology, of a pension of 50 Scots- yearly, until the king promote him to a benefice of 100 marks Scots of yearly value ; the said pension to be paid him by the customers of Aberdeen/ In 1533 and 1534, one-half of his pension was, however, paid by the king s treasurer, and the other half by the comptroller ; and as no payment subsequent to that of Whitsuntide 1534 has been traced in the treasurer s accounts, he is supposed to have obtained his benefice soon after that period.

His earliest publication, the lives of the bishops of

Aberdeen, appeared under the following title Episcopornm Murthlacensiiim ct Aberdonensium ptr Htctorem Boetium Vitce. Impressa, sunt hcec prelo Ascensiano ad Jdus Maias anno Salutis, M.D.XXIL, 4to. This little volume, which is of great rarity, was reprinted for the members of the Bannatyne Club Hectoris Boetii Murthlacensium ct Aberdonensium Episcoporum Vitce iterum in lucem edit(K t Edin., 1825, 4to. Of this diocese the seat was originally at Murthlack, or Mortlach, in the county of Banff, but it was afterwards transferred to Aberdeen. His notices of the early prelates are necessarily brief and unsatisfactory, and the most interesting portion of the book is that which relates to his liberal patron Bishop Elphinstone, of whose private history and public services he has given a circum stantial detail, which occupies nearly one-third of the volume. Here we likewise find an account of the founda tion and constitution of the college, together with some notices of its earliest members. His more famous work,

the History of Scotland, was published after an interval of