Bordone, Paris
(1500-1571) Italian painter Bordone came from a noble family at Treviso and was probably a pupil of titian and of giorgione in Venice. Although there is very little originality in his pictures Bor-done had a very successful career and was regarded as highly as Titian for the quality of his work and its rich coloring and chiaroscuro. An excellent portraitist, he received commissions from many parts of Europe, including the royal houses of Poland, Austria, and France, and he was knighted by King Francis II of France. He also painted mythological pictures such as his Daphnis and Chloe (National Gallery, London) and religious works, which included frescoes and numerous easel paintings, many still in Treviso. His Fisherman presenting St. Mark’s Ring to the Doge (Accademia, Venice) features a characteristically attractive architectural backdrop.
Borgia, Cesare
(1475/76-1507) Italian soldier and nobleman
The second son of Rodrigo Borgia (Pope alexander vi) and Vanozza Catanei, Cesare was carefully educated and destined for the Church. His father made him archbishop of Valencia (1492) and cardinal (1493), but Cesare renounced holy orders after his brother’s death. As part of a deal made between Alexander VI and louis xii of France, Cesare became duke of Valentinois and married (1499) Charlotte d’Albret, a sister of the king of Navarre. With his father’s support Cesare began to conquer a state for himself in central Italy (1499-1503), making rapid advances in a successful military campaign and winning the title of duke of Romagna (1501). The model state he established was admired by many, and Cesare partly inspired machi-avelli’s concept of the prince. Alexander’s death (1503) ruined Cesare. He was imprisoned by Pope julius ii, released, and imprisoned again in Spain. In 1506 he escaped to Navarre and died at the siege of Viana, fighting for his brother-in-law.
Borgia, Lucrezia
(1480-1519) Italian noblewoman The daughter of Rodrigo Borgia (Pope alexander vi) and Vanozza Catanei, Lucrezia seems to have been a pawn in her family’s intrigues, and accusations against her of poisoning and incest appear unfounded. Her marriage (1493) to Giovanni Sforza, lord of Pesaro, was annulled (1497) after her father quarreled with the Sforza clan. Furthering his plan to strengthen the Neapolitan alliance, Alexander then married her to Alfonso of Aragon (1498), an illegitimate son of alfonso ii of Naples. When this alliance collapsed Alfonso was murdered (1500), probably at Cesare’s command. Lucrezia then married Alfonso d’Este, the duke of Ferrara’s heir (1502). This apparently happy marriage produced seven children. Lucrezia devoted herself to charitable works and her children’s education; after becoming duchess of Ferrara (1505) she made the court a center for artists, poets, and scholars, among them titian and ariosto.
Borgia family
A Spanish-Italian family of great power and influence during the late 15th and the 16th centuries, which has earned an unsavory reputation for immorality, treachery, nepotism, and greed. Alfonso Borgia (1378-1458), the founder of the family fortunes, became Calixtus III (pope 1455-58). He was known not only for his enthusiasm for a crusade against the Turks but also for his nepotism, which led him to make his nephew, Rodrigo, a cardinal in his mid-twenties. As Pope alexander vi, Rodrigo schemed to advance the fortunes of his illegitimate children, Cesare and Lucrezia. The family also included a number of cardinals, a viceroy of Sardinia, a viceroy of Portugal, a general in Flanders, and a saint. St. Francis Borgia (1510-72), great-grandson of Alexander VI, was third general of the Jesuits (1565-72) and did much to redeem his family’s reputation: he founded the university of Gandia and his generosity led to the foundation of the gregoriana at Rome.
Borromeo family
An Italian family of Tuscan origin which from the 12th century held land near Lake Maggiore. In the 15th century the family amassed great wealth from banking in Milan and acquired the title of counts of Arona. Notable members of the family include St. charles borromeo, a leading counter-reformation figure, and Cardinal Federico Borromeo (1564-1631), archbishop of Milan from 1595 and founder of the Bibliotheca ambrosiana, for which he collected 9000 manuscripts. The family built beautiful gardens on the Borromean islands in Lake Maggiore.
Bos, Cornelis
(c. 1506-1556) Netherlands engraver Bos was born at ‘s-Hertogenbosch, but many other details of his biography are uncertain. As a young man he seems to have studied in Rome under raimondi. By 1540 he was in Antwerp, but was forced to leave for religious reasons in 1544. He died in Groningen. Bos was particularly influential in his engravings after Italian or Flemish-influenced Italian paintings of his day, but he was also significant in his own original designs. His brother Balthasar Bos (1518-80) was also a Raimondi-trained engraver.
Boscan de Almogaver, Juan (Juan Bosca Almugaver)
(c. 1492-1542) Spanish poet
Born at Barcelona into an aristocratic Catalan family, but brought up in Castile, Boscan was tutor to the future duke of alba and an attendant at the court of Charles V. There he met and became a friend of his younger fellow-poet, garcilaso de la vega. In Granada in 1526 Boscan met the Venetian ambassador, Andrea navagiero, who suggested that Boscan try his hand at writing sonnets and other types of verse practiced by Italian poets. Boscan, who was already acquainted with the hendecasyllabic line of Provencal and Catalan lyric poetry, rapidly mastered the Italian forms and introduced into Spanish the 11-syllable meters that effected a transformation of Spanish poetry. He wrote ottava rima in imitation of Ariosto, sonnets, tercets (terza rima), and blank verse (verso suelto). Although the quality of his poetry cannot match that of Garcilaso, who also started to write in the Italian mode, the impact of his metrical innovations was enormous.
Published posthumously by Boscan’s widow, Las obras de Boscdn y algunas de Garcilaso de la Vega repartidas en quatro libros (The Works…in Four Books; Barcelona, 1543) is customarily taken as initiating the Golden Age (siglo de oro) of Spanish literature. At Garcilaso’s urging, Boscan also translated Castiglione’s the courtier (El Cortesano; 1534).
Bosch, Hieronymus
(c. 1453-1516) Netherlands painter Bosch’s grandfather and father were both painters and he probably trained in the family workshop. In 1486/87 he joined the Brotherhood of Our Lady at the church of St. Jan in his native town of ‘sHertogenbosch; to this he apparently belonged for the remainder of his life. He executed works for Philip the Handsome and margaret of austria, and after his death his paintings were avidly collected by philip ii; thus, the better part of his oeuvre is now in Spain. None of Bosch’s paintings is precisely dated and, as his style changed relatively little, the course of his development remains elusive.
Bosch’s pictures are primarily important for their subject matter. The Seven Deadly Sins (Madrid), originally a pair with a lost Seven Sacraments, depicts the Sins in a circular narrative strip with a circular painting of the Man of Sorrows in the center and four roundels of the Four Last Things (Death, Judgment, Heaven, and Hell) around the main composition. The meaning of the picture is elucidated by a text scroll: "Beware, beware, God is watching." Other presumably early works include the Berlin St. John on Patmos and the Washington Death of the Miser; both reveal a growing taste for the fantastic in the inclusion of tiny demonic figures. Demons appear in force in Bosch’s extraordinary triptych The Haywain (Madrid). The shutters depict the fall of man, with the fall of Lucifer in the background, and, while in the center panel men and women of every estate crowd around a haywain, drawn by devils towards hell, ignoring an apparition of Christ as the Man of Sorrows. Bosch’s iconography probably relates to Isaiah’s text, "All flesh is grass," and is evidently a denunciation of pride leading to materialism and sinfulness.
Temptation is the central theme of Bosch’s Temptation of St. Anthony triptych (Lisbon). In this painting the dilemma of the saint is almost lost in an extensive, stricken landscape, peopled by all manner of demons, some part animal or vegetable, of every conceivable shape and size. In Bosch’s most famous work, The Garden of Earthly Delights (Madrid), three fantastic landscapes are presented. One shutter depicts the creation of man in a beautiful Eden filled with wonderful animals and flowers, and the other a black hell, lit by burning buildings, in which sinners are tormented by swarming devils, utilizing enormous musical instruments as instruments of torture. The central panel portrays an alien landscape filled to capacity with nude men and women, animals, and colossal fruits. While the subject matter is presumably a denunciation of hedonism, the painting is primarily memorable for its superb decorative patterns, glowing colors, and boundless inventiveness.
Over the centuries innumerable theories, many of them as fantastic as the painter’s imagery, have grown up around Bosch’s work. His membership of a religious confraternity and his aristocratic patrons and collectors indicate that his own religious ideas and those embodied in his work were considered entirely respectable. The roots of his personal iconography lie so deep in popular belief that it is unlikely ever to be entirely understood. In a sense, his pictures are the ultimate exotic fruit of the taste for concealed religious symbolism that so proccupied 15th-century Netherlands artists.
Bosio, Antonio (c. 1576-1629) Maltese-born Italian archaeologist
The nephew of Giacomo Bosio, he succeeded his uncle as agent for the Knights of Malta in Rome. From 1593 he used his leisure time to explore the underground areas of ancient Rome, particularly the catacombs. These researches formed the basis for Roma sotteranea, which his executor published in 1634. The volume, often reprinted, was the first, and until the 19th century the fullest, work on the subject.
Botanic gardens (physic gardens)
Collections of growing plants designed originally to teach student physicians to recognize the sources of most of the medicines they used. The earliest were established in Italy in the 16th century, first at Pisa (c. 1543) and Padua (1545) and soon in many other university towns, including Leipzig (1579), Leyden (1587), Montpellier (1592), Oxford (1621), and Paris (as the Jardin du Roi; 1635). Under the direction of Carolus clusius from 1594, the Leyden Hortus Academi-cus became the center to which numerous plants new to Europe were sent and from which they were disseminated to other gardens. From plants with known benefits, the scope of physic gardens thus grew to include plants newly introduced to Europe from the Americas and elsewhere, whose possible virtues had still to be discovered; this innovation soon made the gardens attractive to visitors other than students. Herbaria (reference collections of dried plants) were added to the living ones, and cabinets of natural history curiosities were often situated in botanic gardens too, as in Bologna, where Ulisse aldrovandi was professor of natural history and first director of the garden. A few private botanic gardens, like Cardinal Odoardo Farnese’s in Rome and the short-lived one at Eichstatt, near Nuremberg, belonging to the Prince Bishop Johann Konrad von Gemmingen, had their contents described in print, as did many of the academic gardens.
Botany
Perhaps the most obvious feature of botany during the Renaissance is an increasing concern with the accurate identification of plants, including new ones brought to Europe by explorers of distant lands, and the emergence of schemes of classification to reduce the plant kingdom to an orderly pattern. Aristotelian botany, transmitted through the work of his pupil Theophrastus (first printed in 1483), divided plants into herbs, sub-shrubs, shrubs, and trees and gave some account of plant structure as well as descriptions of individual plants. herbals, practical handbooks of medical advice based on remedies from plants and other sources, which had a much wider audience, mainly relied on the work of the first-century Greek physician Dioscorides. The famous Byzantine illustrated manuscript of the latter’s De materia medica, made about 512, was rediscovered in Constantinople in the mid-16th century and sold to the Holy Roman Emperor. This so-called Codex Vindobonensis is still in Vienna. Other manuscripts of Dioscorides had been copied and then printed, but this one remains a landmark for the quality of its illustrations, obviously made from live plants. Elsewhere naturalism was rarely seen in manuscript herbals until late in the 14th century, when, for example, the artist of the Carrara Herbal (British Library, MS. Egerton 2020) was certainly drawing from life rather than copying his illustrations from increasingly stylized ones in earlier manuscripts. Herbals spread some knowledge of plants among a wide public, for demand placed them among the earliest scientific books to be written and then printed in vernacular languages.
Accurate illustrations were needed as one route to accurate identification, and the great herbals of the 16th century, foremost among them those of brunfels, fuchs, and mattioli, are distinguished by the quality of their pictures. The texts, in general, still dwell in the shadow of Dioscorides, though descriptions of local plants from northern Europe began to be added to those he had known. Mattioli’s book, like some earlier herbals, included instructions on distillation in some editions, a skill considered necessary in the preparation of effective remedies. Even the 16th-century doctrine of signatures, by which plants were said to help the parts of the body they resembled, necessitated reliable identification of the plants concerned.
Practical instruction in the study of plants was made easier by the establishment of botanic gardens to teach medical students about the sources of their remedies. From the 1540s these gardens spread from Italy to most other parts of Europe, often in association with newly established professorships of botany. Herbaria (reference collections of dried plants, both wild and cultivated) began to be made about the same time. The gardens soon became centers for the introduction of new plants as they were discovered, for it was assumed that anything new might have useful properties. Travelers imported new plants from the East and West Indies, Asia, and North and South America, among them cocoa, tobacco, and the potato. Francisco Hernandez (c. 1514-87), physician to Philip II of Spain and the earliest traveler in the New World to focus on plants, wrote up the results of his 1571-77 expedition to Mexico for the king in his massive manuscript "Rerum medicarum novae Hispaniae thesaurus" (Treasury of the medical things of New Spain); much of this manuscript was unfortunately lost in a fire in the Escorial in 1671, by which time it had been published only partially and long after the author’s death (Mexico, 1615; illustrated edition Rome, 1651). More fortunate was the Colo-quios dos Simples, e Drogas he Cousas Medifinais da India, by the Portuguese doctor Garcia da Orta (or Da Horta; died 1570), who spent the last 36 years of his life in Goa, where his book was published in 1563; the Flemish botanist Carolus clusius made a Latin abridgment of it (1567, and several times reprinted), and the abridgment was itself retranslated into English (1577), Italian (1582), and French (1619). Betel nut and several kinds of spices (cloves, nutmeg, mace) are among the plants discussed by da Orta. A little later the Tractado de las drogas y medicinas de las Indias Orientales, which although written in Spanish was the work of another Portuguese doctor who visited Goa, Cristoval Acosta (died 1580), was published at Burgos in 1578, illustrated with woodcuts drawn from nature.
The greater the number of plants known, the greater the need to classify them by a more sophisticated method than by grouping those with similar uses or effects. The important herbal compiled by Hieronymus Bock (1539) echoed Theophrastus in its suggested divisions of the plant kingdom, adding observations of his own to support the arrangement. Other botanists proposed the form of leaves or other parts of plants as a basis for classification, but cesalpino’s scheme, using the characters of seeds and fruit as criteria for subdividing the larger groups of trees, shrubs, and herbs, was the outstanding one of its period. Gaspard bauhin, in his Pinax (1623), grouped plants with common properties, and made divisions that roughly resemble genera and species, giving them distinctive names that foreshadow the standard binomial nomenclature developed in the 18th century by Linnaeus. Bauhin’s system started with relatively simple plants like grasses and ended with more complex ones like trees, though he seems to have been puzzled by the question of an appropriate niche for the cryptogams. His classification seems a recognizable precursor of those of John Ray and Joseph Tournefort later in the century, and even that of Linnaeus. The Swiss naturalist Konrad gesner also distinguished genera and species, but most of his botanical work remained unpublished until the 18th century.
As early as 1592, in his Methodi herbariae, Adam za-luzansky argued for the separation of botany from medicine, although this independence was not achieved until much later. Even so, the progression from early herbals, mixing plant descriptions with folklore and stylized illustrations, to more rigorous ones with accurate drawings from live specimens and accounts of new plants, shows the development of the science. The systematic recording and classification of all known plants established a base for the growth of botanical studies, as more material became available through exploration within Europe and beyond.
Botero, Giovanni
(1544-1617) Italian political theorist Botero was born in Cuneo, Piedmont, and was sent to a Jesuit seminary in Palermo, from which he joined the order. While a Jesuit he pursued his studies in a number of centers, including Paris, but in 1580 he left the order to take service with Cardinal (later St) charles borromeo. After the latter’s death (1584), Botero was secretary to Cardinal Federico Borromeo, but from 1599 he was tutor and adviser at the Turin court of Carlo Emanuele I, duke of Savoy.
Botero’s reputation as a political consultant was made by the publication of two works: Cause della grandezza… delle cittd (1588) and Della ragion di stato (1589). The former broke new ground with its analysis of factors determining the growth and prosperity of cities, and the latter argues, against machiavelli, for Christian ethics as a viable component in political life. Relazioni universali (1596) expands his views on population studies, a field in which he often anticipates the English theorist Malthus.
Botticelli, Alessandro di Mariano Filipepi
(14441510) Italian painter
Botticelli was born into the family of a poor Florentine tanner and was apprenticed first to a goldsmith before becoming (1458/59) the pupil of Filippo lippi, whose assistant he seems to have remained until 1467. The influence of verrocchio, who also ran an important workshop in Florence at this time, is less definite but is perhaps visible in the earliest dated work by Botticelli, the figure of Fortitude from a series representing the Virtues (1470; Uffizi, Florence). The socalled Madonna of the Rose-bush (Uffizi) also dates from this early period.
In the 1470s Botticelli attracted the patronage of the Medici; portraits of family members and their adherents (with Botticelli himself on the extreme right) feature prominantly in the Uffizi Adoration of the Magi (c. 1477). Moving in the circles surrounding Lorenzo de’ medici ("the Magnificent"), Botticelli became imbued with their brand of platonism and created for the first time in Renaissance art a series of paintings in which pagan mythological subjects embody profound philosophical and even spiritual truths. There is doubt about the exact dates of these allegories, but at least two—la primavera and The Birth of Venus (both Uffizi; see Plate III)—were painted for the Villa di Castello on the outskirts of Florence, which was acquired by Lorenzo the Magnificent in 1477; the man who commissioned them was probably Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de’ Medici, a second cousin and ward of Lorenzo the Magnificent, for whom Botticelli certainly executed in the early 1490s a famous set of drawings illustrating Dante’s Divine Comedy. Minerva and the Centaur (Uffizi) and Mars and Venus (National Gallery, London) are the other two mythological paintings in which decorative and allegorical elements perfectly combine to epitomize Platonic theory on the ideal relationship between beauty of form and truth.
Botticelli also continued a steady output of religious subjects, notable among which is the powerful fresco of St. Augustine in his study (1480; Ognissanti, Florence). In 1481-82 he was in Rome, his only significant sojourn away from Florence; while there he was employed on the frescoes of the Sistine Chapel. Another venture at this time was the series of small illustrations to landino’s edition of the Divine Comedy (1481). In the later 1480s he executed several altarpieces and the tondi known as the Madonna of the Magnificat and the Madonna with a Pomegranate (both Uffizi). The Calumny of Apelles (Uffizi), which tells a story taken from Lucian, is a conscious exercise in the revival of the antique. He also painted frescoes in the Villa Lemmi (1486; Louvre, Paris) and a number of accomplished portraits.
According to vasari, Botticelli was profoundly influenced by savonarola; certainly Botticelli’s brother Si-mone, who shared the artist’s house from 1493, was one of the friar’s most devout disciples. After 1498 there is no further record of any relationship between Botticelli and the Medici, and his latest works are all religious in character. Ecstatic religious feeling informs such works as the Munich Pietd and the London Mystic Nativity (1500). Later records show him on the committee of artists convened (1503-04) to decide the placing of Michelangelo’s colossal David and finally note his burial in the garden of Ognissanti, Florence.
Bourgeois, Louyse
(1563-1636) French midwife Her barber-surgeon husband trained her in obstetric techniques. Dispossessed after the siege of Paris in 1590, the couple lived in poverty, but their fortunes changed in 1601 when Bourgeois, now a member of the Guild of Mid-wives, was summoned to deliver the first child of Queen Marie de’ Medici. Royal patronage brought her status and rich clients, until the duchesse d’Orleans died from puerperal fever, after which Bourgeois came under attack. She defended her methods, in 1609 publishing a treatise on midwifery, in which she criticized the manhandling of women in labor by incompetent practitioners and emphasized the importance of cleanliness. With diagrams and detailed observations based on some 2,000 deliveries, Observations diverses sur la sterilite, perte de fruict, fecondite, accouchements et maladies des femmes et enfants nouveaux naiz proved a landmark study. Translated into Dutch, English, French, German, and Latin, it was influential on practitioners throughout Europe. Despite her accomplishments, Bourgeois was forced to abandon her practice in 1630. She also published Recit veritable de la naissance desenfants en France (1625) and Receuil des secrets de Louise Bourgeois (1635).
Bourgeois, Loys
(c. 1510/15-c. 1560) French composer and theorist
Bourgeois, as a singer at the churches of St. Pierre and St. Gervais in Geneva, taught the choristers to lead congregational singing according to the monophonic Calvinistic Psalter. His book of psalm tunes (1551) proved highly unpopular with the Geneva council, who claimed that the new melodies confused congregations. Bourgeois was imprisoned, but was released the next day on the intercession of calvin. In August 1552 he took leave to visit Lyons and did not return. By 1560 he had moved to Paris. Bourgeois is chiefly known for his Calvinistic psalm settings, in which he adapted popular chansons and Latin hymns as well as composing new melodies for translations by Clement marot and beza. He also wrote Le droict chemin de musique (1550), the first didactic manual in French dealing with singing and sight reading. In this he introduced the concept of solfege and advocated a simplified system of music theory and practice.
Bourges, Pragmatic Sanction of (1438)
A decree of Charles VII, in response to a resolution of an assembly of prelates and delegates, named by the king, to regulate the affairs of the Church in France. It was designed to limit papal power in France, especially concerning nomination to bishoprics and other benefices, and to protect the liberties of the Gallican (French) Church. It was terminated by the Concord(at) of bologna (1516).
Bouts, Dirk
(c. 1415-1475) Netherlands painter Bouts was born in Haarlem, but from 1445/48 until his death was based in Louvain. His key work is the Last Supper triptych (1464-67) for the Brotherhood of the Holy Sacrament at the church of St. Peter’s, Louvain. Its central panel reveals the early use of one-point perspective. For the municipal authorities of his home town Bouts painted a Last Judgment triptych, of which the wings survive in Lille, and a diptych of The Justice of the Emperor Otto, now in Brussels, which was unfinished on his death. His London Portrait of Man (1462) may be a self-portrait. Bouts’s angular and undemonstrative style is derived from Rogier van der weyden but has a peculiar intensity of its own. He had a number of followers, including his sons Dirk (died 1490/91) and Aelbrecht (died 1548).
Bracciolini, Poggio
(1380-1459) Italian humanist scholar and collector of manuscripts
Born at Terra Nuova d’Arezzo and educated at Florence under John of Ravenna and Manuel chrysoloras, he attracted the attention of Coluccio salutati, who found work for him (1403) in the Curia, which he served for 50 years. In his capacity as secretary Poggio attended the
Council of constance
(1414-18); this gave him the opportunity to make four journeys to French and German monasteries in search of manuscripts. He discovered numerous manuscripts of classical authors, including hitherto unknown speeches of cicero with the commentaries of the first century ce scholar Asconius, and important texts of works by quintilian, Valerius Flaccus, lucretius, Silius Italicus, vitruvius (see also architecture), and Sta-tius. His Ciceronian discoveries in particular caused a sensation when they reached Italy. In 1418 Poggio accompanied Cardinal Henry Beaufort to England where he remained four years, occupying himself with patristic studies and looking unsuccessfully for manuscripts. On his return to Rome he continued his textual studies and added archaeology to his interests. In 1453 he retired to Florence as chancellor and composed a history of the city covering the previous century.
Poggio was also famous as a story-teller and his Liber facetiarum, anecdotes often of a salacious and scandalous nature, became very popular (see facetiae). He was a great letter-writer, corresponding with most leading scholars of the day, and his letters are a valuable source of information; they include, for instance, an eyewitness account of the trial and execution of Jerome of Prague (1416). Poggio’s last years were clouded by a furious quarrel with Lorenzo valla; he actually tried to have Valla murdered. The quarrel arose from Valla’s insistence that Latin should be written according to classical models, while Poggio wrote Latin as if it were a living language. The feud marked a turning point in the resurrection of ancient literature: the stylistically naive approach of the first-generation humanists was replaced by a more selfconsciously artistic observance of Ciceronian canons, which in turn led to the kind of extravagances later parodied by erasmus.
