Chapter 11

The first edition of his works, for the most part elaborate sermons, was printed at Lyons in 1501; later ones in 1636, 1650 and 1745. His Life will be found in the Bollandists and inLives of the Saintson the 20th of May: a good modern biography has been written by Paul Thureau-Dangin (1896), and translated into English by Gertrude von Hügel (1906).

(E. C. B.)

BERNAUER, AGNES(d. 1435), daughter of an Augsburg baker, was secretly married about 1432 to Albert (1401-1460), son of Ernest, duke of Bavaria-Munich. Ignorant of the fact that this union was a lawful one, Ernest urged his son to marry, and reproached him with his connexion with Agnes. Albert then declared she was his lawful wife; and subsequently, during his absence, she was seized by order of Duke Ernest and condemned to death for witchcraft. On the 12th of October 1435 she was drowned in the Danube near Straubing, in which town her remains were afterwards buried by Albert. This story lived long in the memory of the people, and its chief interest lies in its literary associations. It has afforded material for several dramas, and Adolf Böttger, Friedrich Hebbel and Otto Ludwig have each written one entitledAgnes Bernauer.

BERNAY,a town of north-western France, capital of an arrondissement in the department of Eure, on the left bank of the Charentonne, 31 m. W.N.W. of Evreux, on the Western railway between that town and Lisieux. Pop. (1906) 5973. It is beautifully situated in the midst of green wooded hills, and still justifies Madame de Stael’s description of it as “a basket of flowers.” Of great antiquity, it possesses numerous quaint wooden houses and ancient ecclesiastical buildings of considerable interest. The abbey church is now used as a market, and the abbey, which was founded by Judith of Brittany early in the 11th century, and underwent a restoration in the 17th century, serves for municipal and legal purposes. The church of Ste Croix, which has a remarkable marble figure of the infant Jesus, dates from the 14th and 15th centuries, that of Notre-Dame de la Couture, which preserves some good stained glass, from the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries, Bernay has a sub-prefecture, a communal college, tribunals of commerce and of first instance, and a board of trade-arbitrators. Among the industrial establishments of the place are manufactories of cotton and woollen goods, bleacheries and dye-works. Large numbers of Norman horses are sold in Lent, at the fair known as theFoire fleurie, and there is also a trade in grain. Bernay grew up round the Benedictine abbey mentioned above, and early in the 13th century was the seat of a viscount. The town, formerly fortifiedwas besieged by Bertrand du Guesclin, constable of France, in 1378; it was taken several times by the English during the first half of the 15th century, and by Admiral de Coligny in 1563. The fortress was razed in 1589.

BERNAYS, JAKOB(1824-1881), German philologist and philosophical writer, was born at Hamburg of Jewish parents on the 11th of September 1824. His father, Isaac Bernays (1792-1849), a man of wide culture, was the first orthodox German rabbi to preach in the vernacular. Jakob studied from 1844 to 1848 at the university of Bonn, the philological school of which, under Welcker and Ritschl (whose favourite pupil Bernays became), was the best in Germany. In 1853 he accepted the chair of classical philology at the newly founded Jewish theological college (the Fränkel seminary) at Breslau, where he formed a close friendship with Mommsen. In 1866, when Ritschl left Bonn for Leipzig, Bernays returned to his old university as extraordinary professor and chief librarian. He remained at Bonn until his death on the 28th of May 1881. His chief works, which deal mainly with the Greek philosophers, are:—Die Lebensbeschreibung des J.J. Scaliger(1855);Über das Phokylidische Gedicht(1856);Die Chronik des Sulpicius Severus(1861);Die Dialoge des Aristoteles im Verhältniss zu seinen übrigen Werken(1863);Theophrastos’ Schrift über Frömmigkeit(1866);Die Heraklitischen Briefe(1869);Lucian und die Cyniker(1879);Zwei Abhandlungen über die Aristolelische Theorie des Dramas(1880). The last of these was a republication of hisGrundzüge der verlorenen Abhandlungen des Aristoteles über die Wirkung der Tragödie(1857), which aroused considerable controversy.

See notices inBiographisches Jahrbuch für Alterthumskunde(1881), andAllgemeine deutsche Biographie, xlvi. (1902); art. inJewish Encyclopaedia; also Sandys,Hist. of Class. Schol.iii. 176 (1908).

His brother,Michael Bernays(1834-1897), was born in Hamburg on the 27th of November 1834. He studied first law and then literature at Bonn and Heidelberg, and obtained a considerable reputation by his lectures on Shakespeare at Leipzig and an explanatory text to Beethoven’s music toEgmont. Having refused an invitation to take part in the editorship of thePreussiche Jahrbücher, in the same year (1866) he published his celebratedZur Kritik und Geschichte des Goetheschen-Textes.He confirmed his reputation by his lectures at the university of Leipzig, and in 1873 accepted the post of extraordinary professor of German literature at Munich specially created for him by Louis II. of Bavaria. In 1874 he became an ordinary professor, a position which he only resigned in 1889 when he settled at Carlsruhe. He died at Carlsruhe on the 25th of February 1897. At an early age he had embraced Christianity, whereas his brother Jakob remained a Jew. Among his other publications were:Briefe Goethes an F.A. Wolf(1868);Zur Enstehungsgeschichte des Schlegelschen Shakespeare(1872); an introduction to Hirzel’s collection entitledDer junge Goethe(1875); and he edited a revised edition of Voss’s translation of theOdyssey. From his literary remains were publishedSchriften zur Kritik und Litteraturgeschichte(1895-1899).

BERNBURG,a town in the duchy of Anhalt, Germany, on the Saale, 29 m. N. by W. from Halle by rail, formerly the capital of the new incorporated duchy of Anhalt-Bernburg. Pop. (1900) 34,427; (1905) 34,929. It consists of four parts, the Altstadt or old town, the Bergstadt or hill town, the Neustadt or new town, and the suburb of Waldau—the Bergstadt on the right and the other three on the left of the river Saale, which is crossed by a massive stone bridge. It is a well-built city, the principal public buildings being the government house, the church of St Mary, the gymnasium and the house of correction. The castle, formerly the ducal residence, is in the Bergstadt, defended by moats, and surrounded by beautiful gardens. Bernburg is the seat of considerable industry, manufacturing machinery and boilers, sugar, pottery and chemicals, and has lead and zinc smelting. Market-gardening is also extensively carried on, and there is a large river traffic in grain and agricultural produce.

Bernburg is of great antiquity. The Bergstadt was fortified by Otto III. in the 10th century, and the new town was founded in the 13th. For a long period the different parts were under separate municipalities, the new town uniting with the old in 1560, and the Bergstadt with both in 1824. Prince Frederick removed the ducal residence to Ballenstedt in 1765.

BERNERS, JOHN BOURCHIER,2nd Baron(1469-1533), English translator, was born probably at Tharfield, Hertfordshire, about 1469. His father was killed at Barnet in 1471, and he inherited his title in 1474 from his grandfather, John Bourchier, who was a descendant of Edward III. It is supposed that he was educated at Oxford, perhaps at Balliol. His political life began early, for in 1484 he was implicated in a premature attempt to place Henry, duke of Richmond (afterwards Henry VII.), on the throne, and fled in consequence to Brittany. In 1497 he helped to put down an insurrection in Cornwall and Devonshire, raised by Michael Joseph, a blacksmith, and from this time was in high favour at court. He accompanied Henry VIII. to Calais in 1513, and was a captain of pioneers at the siege of Therouanne. In the next year he was again sent to France as chamberlain to the king’s sister Mary on her marriage with Louis XII., but he soon returned to England. He had been given the reversion of the office of lord chancellor, and in 1516 he received the actual appointment. In 1518 he was sent to Madrid to negotiate an alliance with Charles of Spain. He sent letters to Henry chronicling the bull-fights and other doings of the Spanish court, and to Wolsey complaining of the expense to which he was put in his position as ambassador. In the next year he returned to England, and with his wife Catherine Howard, daughter of the duke of Norfolk, was present in 1520 at the Field of the Cloth of Gold. But his affairs were greatly embarrassed. He was harassed by lawsuits about his Hertfordshire property and owed the king sums he was unable to repay. Perhaps in the hope of repairing his fortune, he accepted the office of deputy of Calais, where he spent the rest of his life in comparative leisure, though still harassed by his debts, and died on the 16th of March 1533.

His translation ofSyr Johan Froyssart of the Cronycles of England, France, Spayne, Portyngale, Scotland, Bretayne, Flaunders: and other places adjoynynge, was undertaken at the request of Henry VIII., and was printed by Richard Pynson in two volumes dated 1523 and 1525. It was the most considerable historical work that had yet appeared in English, and exercised great influence on 16th-century chroniclers. Berners tells us in his prefaces of his own love of histories of all kinds, and in the introduction to his story of Arthur of Little Britain he excuses its “fayned mater” and “many unpossybylytees” on the ground that other well reputed histories are equally incredible. He goes on to excuse his deficiencies by saying that he knew himself to be unskilled in the “facundyous arte of retoryke,” and that he was but a “lerner of the language of Frensshe.” The want of rhetoric is not to be deplored. The style of his translation is clear and simple, and he rarely introduces French words or idioms. Two romances from the French followed:The Boke of Duke Huon of Burdeux(printed 1534? by Wynkyn de Worde), andThe Hystory of the Moost noble and valyaunt knight Arthur of lytell brytayne. His other two translations,The Castell of Love(printed 1540), from theCarcel de Amorof Diego de San Pedro, andThe Golden Boke of Marcus Aurelius(completed six days before his death, printed 1534), from a French version of Antonio Guevara’s book, are in a different manner. TheGolden Bokegives Berners a claim to be a pioneer of Euphuism, although Lyly was probably acquainted with Guevara not through his version, but through Sir Thomas North’sDial of Princes. Berners is also credited with a book on the duties of the inhabitants of Calais, which Mr Sidney Lee thinks may be identical with the ordinance for watch and ward of Calais preserved in the Cotton MSS. and with a lost comedy,Ite in vineam meam, which used to be acted at Calais after vespers.

A biographical account of Berners is to be found in Mr Sidney Lee’s introduction toHuon of Bourdeaux(Early English Text Society1882-1883). Among the many editions of his translation of Froissart may be mentioned that in the “Tudor Translations” (1901), with an introductory critical note by Professor W.P. Ker.

BERNERS,BarnesorBernes,JULIANA(b. 1388?), English writer on hawking and hunting, is said to have been prioress of Sopwell nunnery near St Albans, and daughter of Sir James Berners, who was beheaded in 1388. She was probably brought up at court, and when she adopted the religious life, she still retained her love of hawking, hunting and fishing, and her passion for field sports. The only documentary evidence regarding her, however, is the statement at the end of her treatise on hunting in theBoke of St Albans, “Explicit Dam Julyans Barnes in her boke of huntyng” (edition of 1486), and the name is changed by Wynkyn de Worde to “dame Julyans Bernes.” There is no such person to be found in the pedigree of the Berners family, and there is a gap in the records of the priory of Sopwell between 1430 and 1480. Juliana Berners is the supposed author of the work generally known as theBoke of St Albans. The first and rarest edition was printed in 1486 by an unknown schoolmaster at St Albans. It has no title-page. Wynkyn de Worde’s edition (fol. 1496), also without a title-page, begins:—“This present boke shewyth the manere of hawkynge and huntynge: and also of diuysynge of Cote armours. It shewyth also a good matere belongynge to horses: wyth other comendable treatyses. And ferdermore of the blasynge of armys: as hereafter it maye appere.” This edition was adorned by three woodcuts, and included a “Treatyse of fysshynge wyth an Angle,” not contained in the St Albans edition. J. Haslewood, who published a facsimile of that of Wynkyn de Worde (London, 1811, folio), with a biographical and bibliographical notice, examined with the greatest care the author’s claims to figure as the earliest woman author in the English language. He assigned to her little else in theBokeexcept part of the treatise on hawking and the section on hunting. It is expressly stated at the end of the “Blasynge of Armys” that the section was “translatyd and compylyt,” and it is likely that the other treatises are translations, probably from the French. An older form of the treatise on fishing was edited in 1883 by Mr T. Satchell from a MS. in possession of Mr A. Denison. This treatise probably dates from about 1450, and formed the foundation of that section in the book of 1496. Only three perfect copies of the first edition are known to exist. A facsimile, entitledThe Book of St Albans, with an introduction by William Blades, appeared in 1881. During the 16th century the work was very popular, and was many times reprinted. It was edited by Gervase Markham in 1595 asThe Gentleman’s Academie.

BERNHARD OF SAXE-WEIMAR,Duke(1604-1639), a celebrated general in the Thirty Years’ War, was the eleventh son of John, duke of Saxe-Weimar. He received an unusually good education, and studied at Jena, but soon went to the court of the Saxon elector to engage in knightly exercises. At the outbreak of the Thirty Years’ War he took the field on the Protestant side, and served under Mansfeld at Wiesloch (1622), under the margrave of Baden at Wimpfen (1622), and with his brother William at Stadtlohn (1623). Undismayed by these defeats, he took part in the campaigns of the king of Denmark; and when Christian withdrew from the struggle Bernhard went to Holland and was present at the famous siege of Hertogenbosch (Bois-le-Duc) in 1629. When Gustavus Adolphus landed in Germany Bernhard quickly joined him, and for a short time he was colonel of the Swedish life guards. After the battle of Breitenfeld he accompanied Gustavus in his march to the Rhine and, between this event and the battle of the Alte Veste, Bernhard commanded numerous expeditions in almost every district from the Moselle to Tirol. At the Alte Veste he displayed the greatest courage, and at Lützen, when Gustavus was killed, Bernhard immediately assumed the command, killed a colonel who refused to lead his men to the charge, and finally by his furious energy won the victory at sundown. At first as a subordinate to his brother William, who as a Swedish lieutenant-general succeeded to the command, but later as an independent commander, Bernhard continued to push his forays over southern Germany; and with the Swedish General Horn he made in 1633 a successful invasion into Bavaria, which was defended by the imperialist general Arldinger. In this year he acquired the duchy of Würzburg, installing one of his brothers asStadthalter, and returning to the wars. A stern Protestant, he exacted heavy contributions from the Catholic cities which he took, and his repeated victories caused him to be regarded by German Protestants as the saviour of their religion. But in 1634 Bernhard suffered the great defeat of Nördlingen, in which the flower of the Swedish army perished. In 1635 he entered the service of France, which had now intervened in the war. He was now at the same time general-in-chief of the forces maintained by the Heilbronn union of Protestant princes, and a general officer in the pay of France. This double position was very difficult; in the following campaigns, ably and resolutely conducted as they were, Bernhard sometimes pursued a purely French policy, whilst at other times he used the French mercenaries to forward the cause of the princes. From a military point of view his most notable achievements were on the common ground of the upper Rhine, in the Breisgau. In his great campaign of 1638 he won the battles of Rheinfelden, Wittenweiher and Thann, and captured successively Rheinfelden, Fieiburg and Breisach, the last reputed one of the strongest fortresses in Europe. Bernhard had in the first instance received definite assurances from France that he should be given Alsace and Hagenau, Würzburg having been lost in thedébâcleof 1634; he now hoped to make Breisach the capital of his new duchy. But his health was now broken. He died on the 8/18th of July 1639 at the beginning of the campaign, and the governor of Breisach was bribed to transfer the fortress to France. The duke was buried at Breisach, his remains being subsequently removed to Weimar.

See J.A.C. Hellfeld,Geschichte Bernhards des Grossen, Herzogs v. Saxe-Weimar(Jena, 1747); B. Rose,Herzog Bernhard d. Grosse von Saxe-Weimar(Weimar, 1828-1829); Droysen,Bernhard v. Weimar(Leipzig, 1885).

BERNHARDT, SARAH(Rosine Bernard) (1845- ), French actress, was born in Paris on the 22nd of October 1845, of mixed French and Dutch parentage, and of Jewish descent. She was, however, baptized at the age of twelve and brought up in a convent. At thirteen she entered the Conservatoire, where she gained the second prize for tragedy in 1861 and for comedy in 1862. Herdébutwas made at the Comédie Française on the 11th of August 1862, in a minor part in Racine’sIphigénie en Aulide, without any marked success, nor did she do much better in burlesque at the Porte St-Martin and Gymnase. In 1867 she became a member of the company at the Odéon, where she made her first definite successes as Cordelia in a French translation ofKing Lear, as the queen in Victor Hugo’sRuy Blas, and, above all, as Zanetto in François Coppée’sLe Passant(1869). When peace was restored after the Franco-German War she left the Odéon for the Comédie Française, thereby incurring a considerable monetary forfeit. From that time she steadily increased her reputation, two of the most definite steps in her progress being her performances of Phèdre in Racine’s play (1874) and of Dona Sol in Victor Hugo’sHernani(1877). In 1879 she had a famous season at the Gaiety in London. By this time her position as the greatest actress of her day was securely established. Her amazing power of emotional acting, the extraordinary realism and pathos of her death-scenes, the magnetism of her personality, and the beauty of her “voix d’or,” made the public tolerant of her occasional caprices. She had developed some skill as a sculptor, and exhibited at the Salon at various times between 1876 (honourable mention) and 1881. She also exhibited a painting there in 1880. In 1878 she published a prose sketch,Dans les nuages; les impressions d’une chaise. Her comedyL’Aveuwas produced in 1888 at the Odéon without much success. Her relations with the othersociétairesof the Comédie Française having become somewhat strained, a crisis arrived in 1880, when, enraged by an unfavourable criticism of her acting, she threw up her position on the day following the first performance of Emile Augier’sL’Aventurière. This obliged her to pay a forfeit of £4000 for breach of contract.Immediately after the rupture she gave a series of performances in London, relying chiefly upon Scribe and Legouvé’sAdrienne Lecouvreurand Meilhac and Halévy’sFrou Frou. These were followed by tours in Denmark, America and Russia, during 1880 and 1881, withLa Dame aux caméliasas the principal attraction. In 1882 she married Jacques Damala, a Greek, in London, but separated from him at the end of the following year. After a fresh triumph in Paris with Sardou’sFédoraat the Vaudeville she became proprietress of the Porte St-Martin. Jean Richepin’sNana Sahib(1883), Sardou’sThéodora(1884) andLa Tosca(1887), Jules Barbier’sJeanne d’Arc(1890) and Sardou and Moreau’sCléopâtre(1890) were among her most conspicuous successes here, where she remained till she became proprietress of the Renaissance theatre in 1893. During those ten years she made several extended tours, including visits to America in 1886-1887 and 1888-1889. Between 1891 and 1893 she again visited America (North and South), Australia, and the chief European capitals. In November 1893 she opened the Renaissance withLes Roisby Jules Lemaitre, which was followed bySylvestreand Morand’sIzeyl(1894), Sardou’sGismonda(1894) and Edmond Rostand’sLa Princesse lointaine(1895). In 1895 she also appeared with conspicuous success as Magda in a French translation of Sudermann’sHeimat. For the next few years she visited London almost annually, and America in 1896. In that year she made a success with an adaptation of Alfred de Musset’sLorenzaccio. In Easter week of 1897 she played in a religious drama,La Samaritaine, by Rostand. In December 1896 an elaborate fête was organized in Paris in her honour; and the value of this public recognition of her position at the head of her profession was enhanced by cordial greetings from all parts of the world. By this time she had played one hundred and twelve parts, thirty-eight of which she had created. Early in 1899 she removed from the Renaissance to the Théâtre des Nations, a larger house, which she opened with a revival ofLa Tosca. In the same year she made the bold experiment of a French production ofHamlet, in which she played the title part. She repeated the impersonation in London not long afterwards, where she also appeared (1901) as the fate-ridden son of Napoleon I., in Rostand’sL’Aiglon, which had been produced in Paris the year before. Of the successful productions of her later years perhaps none was more remarkable than her impersonation of La Tisbé in Victor Hugo’s romantic dramaAngelo(1905).

See Jules Huret,Sarah Bernhardt(1889); and her own volume of autobiography (1907).

BERNHARDY, GOTTFRIED(1800-1875), German philologist and literary historian, was born on the 20th of March 1800, at Landsberg on the Wartia, in Brandenburg. He was the son of Jewish parents in reduced circumstances. Two well-to-do uncles provided the means for his education, and in 1811 he entered the Joachimsthal gymnasium at Berlin. In 1817 he went to Berlin University to study philology, where he had the advantage of hearing F.A. Wolf (then advanced in years), August Böckh and P. Buttmann. In 1822 he took the degree of doctor of philosophy at Berlin, and in 1825 became extraordinary professor. In 1829 he succeeded C. Reisig as ordinary professor and director of the philological seminary at Halle, and in 1844 was appointed chief librarian of the university. He died suddenly on the 14th of May 1875. The most important of Bernhardy’s works were his histories (or sketches) of Greek and Roman literature;Grundriss der römischen Litteratur(5th ed., 1872);Grundriss der griechischcn Litteratur(pt. i., Introduction and General View, 1836; pt. ii, Greek Poetry, 1845; pt. iii., Greek Prose Literature, was never published). A fifth edition of pts. i. and ii., by R. Volkmann, began in 1892. Other works by Bernhardy are:Eratosthenica(1822);Wissenschaftliche Syntax der griechischen Sprache(1829, suppts. 1854, 1862);Grundlinien zur Encyclopädie der Philologie(1832); the monumental edition of the Lexicon of Suidas (1834-1853); and an edition of F.A. Wolf’sKleine Schriften(1869).

See Volkmann,G. Bernhardy(1887).

BERNI, FRANCESCO(1497-1536), Italian poet, was born about 1497 at Lamporecchio, in Bibbiena, a district lying along the Upper Arno. His family was of good descent, but excessively poor. At an early age he was sent to Florence, where he remained till his 19th year. He then set out for Rome, trusting to obtain some assistance from his uncle, the Cardinal Bibbiena. The cardinal, however, did nothing for him, and he was obliged to accept a situation as clerk or secretary to Ghiberti, datary to Clement VII. The duties of his office, for which Berni was in every way unfit, were exceedingly irksome to the poet, who, however, made himself celebrated at Rome as the most witty and inventive of a certain club of literary men, who devoted themselves to light and sparkling effusions. So strong was the admiration for Berni’s verses, that mocking or burlesque poems have since been calledpoesie bernesca. About the year 1530 he was relieved from his servitude by obtaining a canonry in the cathedral of Florence. In that city he died in 1536, according to tradition poisoned by Duke Alessandro de’ Medici, for having refused to poison the duke’s cousin, Ippolito de’ Medici; but considerable obscurity rests over this story. Berni stands at the head of Italian comic or burlesque poets. For lightness, sparkling wit, variety of form and fluent diction, his verses are unsurpassed. Perhaps, however, he owes his greatest fame to the recasting (Rifacimento) of Boiardo’sOrlando Innamorato. The enormous success of Ariosto’sOrlando Furiosohad directed fresh attention to the older poem, from which it took its characters, and of which it is the continuation. But Boiardo’s work, though good in plan, could never have achieved wide popularity on account of the extreme ruggedness of its style. Berni undertook the revision of the whole poem, avowedly altering no sentiment, removing or adding no incident, but simply giving to each line and stanza due gracefulness and polish. His task he completed with marvellous success; scarcely a line remains as it was, and the general opinion has pronounced decisively in favour of the revision over the original. To each canto he prefixed a few stanzas of reflective verse in the manner of Ariosto, and in one of these introductions he gives us the only certain information we have concerning his own life. Berni appears to have been favourably disposed towards the Reformation principles at that time introduced into Italy, and this may explain the bitterness of some remarks of his upon the church. The first edition of theRifacimentowas printed posthumously in 1541, and it has been supposed that a few passages either did not receive the author’s final revision, or have been retouched by another hand.

A partial translation of Berni’sOrlandowas published by W.S. Rose (1823).

BERNICIA,the northern of the two English kingdoms which were eventually united in the kingdom of Northumbria. Its territory is said to have stretched from the Tyne northwards, ultimately reaching the Forth, while its western frontier was gradually extended at the expense of the Welsh. The chief royal residence was Bamburgh, and near it was the island of Lindisfarne, afterwards the see of a bishop. The first king of whom we have any record is Ida, who is said to have obtained the throne about 547. Æthelfrith, king of Bernicia, united Deira to his own kingdom, probably about 605, and the union continued under his successor Edwin, son of Ella or Ælle, king of Deira. Bernicia was again separate from Deira under Eanfrith, son of Æthelfrith (633-634), after which date the kings of Bernicia were supreme in Northumbria, though for a short time under Oswio Deira had a king of its own.

See Bede,Hist. Eccles.ii. 14, iii. 1, 14; Nennius, § 63; Simeon of Durham, i. 339.

(F. G. M. B.)

BERNICIAN SERIES,in geology, a term proposed by S.P. Woodward in 1856 (Manual of Mollusca, p. 409) for the lower portion of the Carboniferous System, below the Millstone Grit. The name was suggested by that of the ancient province of Bernicia on the Anglo-Scottish borderland. It is practically equivalent to the “Dinantien” of A. de Lapparent and Munier-Chalmas (1893). In 1875 G. Tate’s “Calcareous and Carbonaceous” groups of the Carboniferous Limestone series of Northumberland were united by Professor Lebour into a single series, to which he applied the name “Bernician”; but later he speaks of the whole of the Carboniferous rocks of Northumberland and itsborders as of the “Bernician type,” which is the most satisfactory way in which the term may now be used (Report of the Brit. Sub-committee on Classification and Nomenclature, 2nd ed., Cambridge, 1888). “Demetian” was the corresponding designation proposed by Woodward for the Upper Carboniferous rocks.

BERNINI, GIOVANNI LORENZO(1598-1680), Italian artist, was born at Naples. He was more celebrated as an architect and a sculptor than as a painter. At a very early age his great skill in modelling introduced him to court favour at Rome, and he was specially patronized by Maffeo Barberini, afterwards Pope Urban VIII., whose palace he designed. None of his sculptured groups at all come up to the promised excellence of his first effort, the Apollo and Daphne, nor are any of his paintings of particular merit. His busts were in so much request that Charles I. of England, being unable to have a personal interview with Bernini, sent him three portraits by Vandyck, from which the artist was enabled to complete his model. His architectural designs, including the great colonnade of St Peter’s, brought him perhaps his greatest celebrity. Louis XIV., when he contemplated the restoration of the Louvre, sent for Bernini, but did not adopt his designs. The artist’s progress through France was a triumphal procession, and he was most liberally rewarded by the great monarch. He left a fortune of over £100,000.

BERNIS, FRANÇOIS JOACHIM DE PIERRE DE(1715-1794), French cardinal and statesman, was born at St Marcel-d’Ardèche on the 22nd of May 1715. He was of a noble but impoverished family, and, being a younger son, was intended for the church. He was educated at the Louis-le-Grand college and the seminary of Saint-Sulpice, Paris, but did not take orders till 1755. He became known as one of the most expert epigrammatists in the gay society of Louis XV.’s court, and by his verses won the friendship of Madame de Pompadour, the royal mistress, who obtained for him an apartment, furnished at her expense, in the Tuileries, and a yearly pension of 1500 livres (about £60). In 1751 he was appointed to the French embassy at Venice, where he acted, to the satisfaction of both parties, as mediator between the republic and Pope Benedict XIV. During his stay in Venice he received subdeacon’s orders, and on his return to France in 1755 was made a papal councillor of state. He took an important part in the delicate negotiations between France and Austria which preceded the Seven Years’ War. He regarded the alliance purely as a temporary expedient, and did not propose to employ the whole forces of France in a general war. But he was overruled by his colleagues. He became secretary for foreign affairs on the 27th of June 1757, but owing to his attempts to counteract the spendthrift policy of the marquise de Pompadour and her creatures, he fell into disgrace and was in December 1758 banished to Soissons by Louis XV., where he remained in retirement for six years. In the previous November he had been created cardinal by Clement XIII. On the death of the royal mistress in 1764, Bernis was recalled and once more offered the seals of office, but declined them, and was appointed archbishop of Albi. His occupancy of the see was not of long duration. In 1769 he went to Rome to assist at the conclave which resulted in the election of Clement XIV., and the talent which he displayed on that occasion procured him the appointment of ambassador in Rome, where he spent the remainder of his life. He was partly instrumental in bringing about the suppression of the Jesuits, and acted with greater moderation than is generally allowed. He lost his influence under Pius VI., who was friendly to the Jesuits, and the French Revolution, to which he was hostile, reduced him almost to penury; the court of Spain, however, mindful of the support he had given to their ambassador in obtaining the condemnation of the Jesuits, came to his relief with a handsome pension. He died at Rome on the 3rd of November 1794, and was buried in the church of S. Luigi de’ Francesi. In 1803 his remains were transferred to the cathedral at Nîmes. His poems, the longest of which isLa Religion vengée(Parma, 1794), have no merit; they were collected and published after his death (Paris, 1797, &c.); hisMémoires et lettres 1715-58(2 vols., Paris, 1878) are still interesting to the historian.

See Frédéric Masson’s prefaces to theMémoires et lettres, andLe Cardinal de Bernis depuis son ministère;(Paris, 1884); E. et J. de Goncourt,Mme de Pompadour(Paris, 1888), and Sainte-Beuve,Causeries du lundi, t. viii.

BERNKASTEL,a town of Germany, in the Prussian Rhine province, on the Mosel, in a deep and romantic valley, connected by a branch to Wengerohr with the main Trier-Coblenz railway. Pop. 2300. It has some unimportant manufactures; the chief industry is in wine, of which Berncastler Doctor enjoys great repute. Above the town lie the ruins of the castle Landshut. Bernkastel originally belonged to the chapter of Trier, and received its name from one of the provosts of the cathedral, Adalbero of Luxemburg (henceAdalberonis castellum).

BERNOULLI,orBernouilli, the name of an illustrious family in the annals of science, who came originally from Antwerp. Driven from their country during the oppressive government of Spain for their attachment to the Reformed religion, the Bernoullis sought first an asylum at Frankfort (1583), and afterwards at Basel, where they ultimately obtained the highest distinctions. In the course of a century eight of its members successfully cultivated various branches of mathematics, and contributed powerfully to the advance of science. The most celebrated were Jacques (James), Jean (John) and Daniel, the first, second and fourth as dealt with below; but, for the sake of perspicuity they may be considered as nearly as possible in the order of family succession. A complete summary of the great developments of mathematical learning, which the members of this family effected, lies outside the scope of this notice. More detailed accounts are to be found in the various mathematical articles.

I.Jacques Bernoulli(1654-1705), mathematician, was born at Basel on the 27th of December 1654. He was educated at the public school of Basel, and also received private instruction from the learned Hoffmann, then professor of Greek. At the conclusion of his philosophical studies at the university, some geometrical figures, which fell in his way, excited in him a passion for mathematical pursuits, and in spite of the opposition of his father, who wished him to be a clergyman, he applied himself in secret to his favourite science. In 1676 he visited Geneva on his way to France, and subsequently travelled to England and Holland. While at Geneva he taught a blind girl several branches of science, and also how to write; and this led him to publishA Method of Teaching Mathematics to the Blind. At Bordeaux hisUniversal Tables on Diallingwere constructed; and in London he was admitted to the meetings of Robert Boyle, Robert Hooke and other learned and scientific men. On his final return to Basel in 1682, he devoted himself to physical and mathematical investigations, and opened a public seminary for experimental physics. In the same year he published his essay on comets,Conamen Novi Systematis Cometarum, which was occasioned by the appearance of the comet of 1680. This essay, and his next publication, entitledDe Gravitate Aetheris, were deeply tinged with the philosophy of René Descartes, but they contain truths not unworthy of the philosophy of Sir Isaac Newton’sPrincipia.

Jacques Bernoulli cannot be strictly called an independent discoverer; but, from his extensive and successful application of the calculus and other mathematical methods, he is deserving of a place by the side of Newton and Leibnitz. As an additional claim to remembrance, he was the first to solve Leibnitz’s problem of the isochronous curve (Acta Eruditorum, 1690). He proposed the problem of the catenary (q.v.) or curve formed by a chain suspended by its two extremities, accepted Leibnitz’s construction of the curve and solved more complicated problems relating to it. He determined the “elastic curve,” which is formed by an elastic plate or rod fixed at one end and bent by a weight applied to the other, and which he showed to be the same as the curvature of an impervious sail filled with a liquid (lintearia). In his investigations respecting cycloidal lines and various spiral curves, his attention was directed to the loxodromic and logarithmic spirals, in the last of which he took particular interest from its remarkable property of reproducing itself under a variety of conditions.

In 1696 he proposed the famous problem of isoperimetrical figures, and offered a reward for its solution. This problem engaged the attention of British as well as continental mathematicians; and its proposal gave rise to a painful quarrel with his brother Jean. Jean offered a solution of the problem; his brother pronounced it to be wrong. Jean then amended his solution, and again offered it, and claimed the reward. Jacques still declared it to be no solution, and soon after published his own. In 1701 he published also the demonstration of his solution, which was accepted by the marquis de l’Hôpital and Leibnitz. Jean, however, held his peace for several years, and then dishonestly published, after the death of Jacques, another incorrect solution; and not until 1718 did he admit that he had been in error. Even then he set forth as his own his brother’s solution purposely disguised.

In 1687 the mathematical chair of the university of Basel was conferred upon Jacques. He was once made rector of his university, and had other distinctions bestowed on him. He and his brother Jean were the first two foreign associates of the Academy of Sciences of Paris; and, at the request of Leibnitz, they were both received as members of the academy of Berlin. In 1684 he had been offered a professorship at Heidelberg; but his marriage with a lady of his native city led him to decline the invitation. Intense application brought on infirmities and a slow fever, of which he died on the 16th of August 1705. Like another Archimedes, he requested that the logarithmic spiral should be engraven on his tombstone, with these words,Eadem mutata resurgo.

Jacques Bernoulli wrote elegant verses in Latin, German and French; but although these were held in high estimation in his own time, it is on his mathematical works that his fame now rests. These are:—Jacobi Bernoulli Basiliensis Opera(Genevae, 1744), 2 tom. 4to;Ars Conjectandi, opus posthumum: accedunt tractatus de Seriebus Infinitis, et epistola(Gallice scripta)de Ludo Pilae Reticularis(Basiliae, 1713), 1 tom. 4to.

II. Jean Bernoulli(1667-1748), brother of the preceding, was born at Basel on the 27th of July 1667. After finishing his literary studies he was sent to Neuchâtel to learn commerce and acquire the French language. But at the end of a year he renounced the pursuits of commerce, returned to the university of Basel, and was admitted to the degree of bachelor in philosophy, and a year later, at the age of 18, to that of master of arts. In his studies he was aided by his elder brother Jacques. Chemistry, as well as mathematics, seems to have been the object of his early attention; and in the year 1690 he published a dissertation on effervescence and fermentation. The same year he went to Geneva, where he gave instruction in the differential calculus to Nicolas Fatio de Duillier, and afterwards proceeded to Paris, where he enjoyed the society of N. Malebranche, J.D. Cassini, Philip de Lahire and Pierre Varignon. With the marquis de l’Hôpital he spent four months studying higher geometry and the resources of the new calculus. His independent discoveries in mathematics are numerous and important. Among these were the exponential calculus, and the curve called by him thelinea brachistochrona, or line of swiftest descent, which he was the first to determine, pointing out at the same time the relation which this curve bears to the path described by a ray of light passing through strata of variable density. On his return to his native city he studied medicine, and in 1694 took the degree of M.D. Although he had declined a professorship in Germany, he now accepted an invitation to the chair of mathematics at Groningen (Commercium Philosophicum, epist. xi. and xii.). There, in addition to the learned lectures by which he endeavoured to revive mathematical science in the university, he gave a public course of experimental physics. During a residence of ten years in Groningen, his controversies were almost as numerous as his discoveries. His dissertation on the “barometric light,” first observed by Jean Picard, and discussed by Jean Bernoulli under the name of mercurial phosphorus, or mercury shining in vacuo (Diss. physica de mercurio lucente in vacuo), procured him the notice of royalty, and engaged him in controversy. Through the influence of Leibnitz he received from the king of Prussia a gold medal for his supposed discoveries; but Nicolaus Hartsoeker and some of the French academicians disputed the fact. The family quarrel about the problem of isoperimetrical figures above mentioned began about this time. In his dispute with his brother, in his controversies with the English and Scottish mathematicians, and in his harsh and jealous bearing to his son Daniel, he showed a mean, unfair and violent temper. He had declined, during his residence at Groningen, an invitation to Utrecht, but accepted in 1705 the mathematical chair in the university of his native city, vacant by the death of his brother Jacques; and here he remained till his death. His inaugural discourse was on the “new analysis,” which he so successfully applied in investigating various problems both in pure and applied mathematics.

He was several times a successful competitor for the prizes given by the Academy of Sciences of Paris; the subjects of his essays being:—the laws of motion (Discours sur les lois de la communication du mouvement, 1727), the elliptical orbits of the planets, and the inclinations of the planetary orbits (Essai d’une nouvelle physique céleste, 1735). In the last case his son Daniel divided the prize with him. Some years after his return to Basel he published an essay, entitledNouvelle Théorie de la manœuvre des vaisseaux. It is, however, his works in pure mathematics that are the permanent monuments of his fame. Jean le Rond d’Alembert acknowledges with gratitude, that “whatever he knew of mathematics he owed to the works of Jean Bernoulli.” He was a member of almost every learned society in Europe, and one of the first mathematicians of a mathematical age. He was as keen in his resentments as he was ardent in his friendships; fondly attached to his family, he yet disliked a deserving son; he gave full praise to Leibnitz and Leonhard Euler, yet was blind to the excellence of Sir Isaac Newton. Such was the vigour of his constitution that he continued to pursue his usual mathematical studies till the age of eighty. He was then attacked by a complaint at first apparently trifling; but his strength daily and rapidly declined till the 1st of January 1748, when he died peacefully in his sleep.

His writings were collected under his own eye by Gabriel Cramer, professor of mathematics at Geneva, and published under the title ofJohannis Bernoulli Operi Omnia(Lausan. et Genev.), 4 tom. 4to; his interesting correspondence with Leibnitz appeared under the title ofGul. Leibnitii et Johannis Bernoulli Commercium Philosophicum et Mathematicum(Lausan. et Genev. 1745), 2 tom. 4to.

III. Nicolas Bernoulli(1695-1726), the eldest of the three sons of Jean Bernoulli, was born on the 27th of January 1695. At the age of eight he could speak German, Dutch, French and Latin. When his father returned to Basel he went to the university of that city, where, at the age of sixteen, he took the degree of doctor in philosophy, and four years later the highest degree in law. Meanwhile the study of mathematics was not neglected, as appears not only from his giving instruction in geometry to his younger brother Daniel, but from his writings on the differential, integral, and exponential calculus, and from his father considering him, at the age of twenty-one, worthy of receiving the torch of science from his own hands. (“Lampada nunc tradam filio meo natu maximo, juveni xxi. annorum, ingenio mathematico aliisque dotibus satis instructo,”Com. Phil.ep. 223.) With his father’s permission he visited Italy and France, and during his travels formed friendship with Pierre Varignon and Count Riccati. The invitation of a Venetian nobleman induced him again to visit Italy, where he resided two years, till his return to be a candidate for the chair of jurisprudence at Basel. He was unsuccessful, but was soon afterwards appointed to a similar office in the university of Bern. Here he resided three years, his happiness only marred by regret on account of his separation from his brother Daniel. Both were appointed at the same time professors of mathematics in the academy of St Petersburg; but this office Nicolas enjoyed for little more then eight months. He died on the 26th of July 1726 of a lingering fever. Sensible of the loss which the nation had sustained by his death, the empress Catherine ordered him a funeral at the public expense.

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