Bruges (Flemish Brugge)
A city in the province of West Flanders, Belgium, situated a few miles from the coast, to which it is now linked by canals. The Flemish name, Brugge (bridge), is of Norse origin. The town was a trading center by 1000, the capital of Flanders, and chief residence of its counts. Although the capital moved to Ghent in the late 12th century, Bruges continued as a major mercantile center, especially for the wool trade with England, under the auspices of the hanseatic league; during the 14th century its bourse governed the rates of exchange in northern Europe. Like the burghers of the other rich Flemish cities, the merchants of Bruges stubbornly resisted any attempts by princes to encroach upon their privileges. In 1440 Bruges’s defiance of its Burgundian overlord, philip the good, brought upon it severe punishment, but generally it continued to thrive under Bur-gundian rule and under the early Hapsburgs, and some fine buildings remain from this period. The silting up of the Zwyn, total by 1490, however, ended Bruges’s position as a maritime trading center and in the late 16th century it suffered depopulation and depression as a result of the Netherlanders’ uprising against their Spanish Catholic rulers (see netherlands, revolt of the).
Bruges was a significant cultural center during its 14th- and 15th-century heyday. Jan van eyck and Petrus christus worked there, and later Hans memling. It was home to perhaps the most famous of the chambers of rhetoric, De Drie Santinnen, one of whose stars was the poet and comic playwright Cornelis Everaert (c. 14801556). The city’s first printing press was set up in 1474/75 by caxton.
Brunelleschi, Filippo
(1377-1446) Italian architect He trained first as a goldsmith, but at some time (c. 1401) appears to have gone to Rome where his studies of antique monuments led him to formulate the law of perspective (developed by alberti in his treatise Della pittura) and provided him with structural solutions to technical building problems. His execution of the dome (1420) for the cathedral of his native Florence was an achievement of constructional engineering which looked to the Pantheon for inspiration and inaugurated the Renaissance in Italy. The lantern (1445-67) exemplifies Brunelleschi’s experimental approach to the antique with the employment of inverted classical consoles, in place of flying buttresses.
The Ospedale degli Innocenti in Florence (1421-44) was hailed as the first Renaissance building, despite being influenced by Tuscan Romanesque form. The implementation of a strict modular system, based on the square and circle, to provide a regularized plan had a profound impact on town palace architecture. All’ antiqua quotations are evident in the symmetrically aligned facade with arches carried on Corinthian columns, forming a loggia of pendentive vaults, which established a new canon of architectural beauty. Brunelleschi’s preoccupation with the classically inspired values of harmony and geometric proportion is demonstrated in the basilica of San Lorenzo, begun in 1419. Using the square of the crossing as his module, Brunelleschi established a visual rapport between the semicircular arches of the nave arcade and the transverse arches of the side aisles. The combination of pietra serena and white plaster became Brunelleschi’s decorative leitmotif, used to great effect in the old sacristy of the same church (1421-28). Once again, the design centered upon the interplay of a square, that of the main cella, and a circle, the umbrella dome. The transition of one shape into another was effected by the pendentives of the dome. A more sophisticated version of this design was realized in the Pazzi chapel (1429-69: Sta. Croce, Florence), where a combination of grey Corinthian pilasters and arches incised onto the white plaster walls, with glazed terracotta reliefs in the spandrels, subtly emphasized the harmonious proportions of the interior. Although the Spanish chapel (Sta. Maria Novella, Florence), a Tuscan Romanesque design, exerted a certain influence on the Pazzi chapel, Brunelleschi’s stress on logical spatial organization is a typically Renaissance feature.
Brunelleschi’s later designs are characterized by a more sculptural approach to the treatment of wall mass, suggesting a renewed study of antiquity. The incomplete Florentine church of Sta. Maria degli Angeli (1434-37), with its alternating concave and convex niches scooped from the outer walls, is the first centrally planned church of the Renaissance, reflecting the temple of Minerva Med-ica, Rome. The radiating chapels of Sta. Maria degli Angeli were adapted to the basilica of San Spirito (1434-82; Florence), the foundations of which were laid on a chequer-board grid. The flat pilasters of San Lorenzo were replaced by half-columns giving a richly plastic spatial rhythm. All of Brunelleschi’s important works are in Florence, yet his fame spread to Milan and Urbino, influencing bramante and underlying the emergence of the High Renaissance in Rome. His claim to be considered the first Renaissance architect was acknowledged and established by his pupil and biographer, Antonio Manetti (1423-97).
Brunfels, Otto
(1489-1534) German physician and botanist
His Herbarum vivae eicones (1530-36), the first of the great printed herbals, was illustrated with plants drawn from nature by Hans (II) weiditz, using live models rather than earlier drawings. In spite of his artist’s originality, Brunfels’ text still concentrated on the plants known to the first-century authority Greek Dioscorides, instead of those of northern Europe.
Bruni, Leonardo (Leonardo Aretino)
(c. 1370-1444) Italian humanist scholar and translator
His other name, "Aretino," derives from his native Arezzo. Bruni was a pupil of Coluccio salutati and learned Greek from Manuel chrysoloras in Florence. His thorough knowledge of the language enabled him to make the first idiomatic translations of Greek literature. He spent most of his mature years as a papal secretary but in 1415 returned to Florence, where, like his master Salutati, he became secretary to the republic (1427-44).
Most of Bruni’s translations were of prose works, although he also translated some passages of Homer and Aristophanes. In 1406 he produced a translation of Demosthenes’ De corona and De falsa legatione. By 1414 he had begun to translate Aristotle’s Ethics. Between 1414 and 1437 he translated six of Plato’s dialogues, including the Phaedo and Apology, and he sought to reconcile Pla-tonism with Christian doctrine. These translations were the means by which the political thought of Greece entered into the life of 15th-century Italy. Bruni also translated plutarch’s Lives—his Latin was the basis of all early vernacular translations—and works by the Greek historian Xenophon. In 1437, at the request of Humfrey, Duke of Gloucester, he translated Aristotle’s Politics. He wrote De interpretatione recta to defend his theory of translation and also discoursed on Ciceronian prose rhythm.
As early as 1404 Bruni had begun work on his history of Florence, the 12-book Historiarum Florentini populi libri; this remained unfinished at his death. The work represented a new departure in historiography, showing the influence of petrarch and Salutati as well as classical models. It was translated into Tuscan and published by Donato acciaiuoli at Venice (1476). The estimate Bruni made of his own Latin scholarship can be gauged by the fact that he "restored" the lost second decade of the Roman historian Livy in his work De bello punico primo. Bruni was buried in Sta. Croce, Florence, at public expense. With his friends Salutati and niccoli, he was one of the first to use "Humanitas" as a term for literary studies.
Bruno, Giordano
(1548-1600) Italian philosopher The son of a soldier, Bruno was born at Nola, near Naples, and joined the Dominican Order in 1563. For unknown reasons he was forced in 1576 to flee both Naples and his order. By this time he had already established his reputation as a teacher of the then fashionable discipline of mnemonics (see memory, art of) and was probably already committed to the hermetic neoplatonic views that he later expounded throughout his extensive European travels. After visiting Italy and Switzerland, he appeared at the court of henry iii in Paris in 1581, and in 1585 he discussed his system with the scholars of Oxford. In 1591 he was arrested in Venice, extradited to Rome, and later tried and burnt at the stake as a heretic. Unfortunately, the precise nature of Bruno’s offense remains a matter of speculation as the trial papers were not preserved. It is known, however, from his Cena de le ceneri (The Ash Wednesday supper; 1584) that he supported the copernican system. More likely to have sent him to the stake were the claims, expressed in his De l’infinito universo e mondi (1584), that "there are innumerable suns, and an infinite number of earths revolve around these suns, just as the seven we can see revolve around the sun close to us."
Brussels
A city in the Netherlands (now Belgium). By the late Middle Ages Brussels had developed from an island fort into a thriving market community at a road-river junction in the duchy of Brabant. Thousands of workers employed in the manufacture of luxury fabrics made a few merchant families very rich. These families abused their considerable political power and provoked a number of workers’ revolts (1280, 1303, 1421); after the 1421 revolt the guilds of workers and craftsmen gained some political influence. The count of Flanders occupied Brussels briefly; his expulsion from the city (1357) was followed by the construction of strong city walls.
Under Burgundian rule Brussels prospered as a center of art, learning, and administration. Its most distinguished artist at this time was Rogier van der weyden. Under Hapsburg rule (from 1477) the guilds were excluded from the administration of the city by charles v (1528), but Brussels remained the administrative center of the Netherlands. In 1577 radical supporters of the Calvinist cause seized power in Brussels, but the Spanish Hapsburgs regained control in 1585. Notable buildings from the Renaissance period include the Coudenberg palace, the Hotel de Ville (1402-54), and fine early 17th-century baroque buildings. Otto van veen and rubens were attached to the court of the Hapsburg Archdukes in Brussels in the early 17th century.
Bucer, Martin
(Martin Butzer, 1491-1551) German reformer and theologian
Born at Schlettstadt (now Selestat in France), Bucer became a Dominican monk, but was won to the side of Reformation by Martin luther at the Heidelberg Disputation (1518), and embarked on a career as a Lutheran preacher. In 1523 he settled in Strasbourg where he remained for 25 years, emerging in this period as a leading figure among the reformers. He attempted to mediate in the Eucharistic controversy between Luther and zwingli and later took a leading role in the conferences with leading Catholic theologians at Worms and Regensburg (1540-41) aimed at reuniting the Church. His organizational work at Strasbourg also had a profound influence, particularly on John calvin, who spent three formative years there.
Forced to leave Strasbourg in 1549 by the imposition of the augsburg Interim, Bucer settled in England, where cranmer secured for him the post of regius professor of divinity at Cambridge. Although he died less than two years later, he exercised a major influence on the English Reformation, submitting at Cranmer’s request detailed suggestions for the revision of the 1549 Prayer Book (known as the Censura of 1550; see book of common prayer). His last work, De regno Christi, a blueprint for a godly commonwealth dedicated to King Edward VI, was published posthumously (c. 1557). It is available in English translation, together with Philipp Melanchthon’s Loci communes, in Melanchthon and Bucer (London: SCM Press, 1969). Brill of Leyden began to issue an edition of Bucer’s correspondence (in Latin with French or German commentary), edited by Jean Rott et al, in 1979. His Censura was republished in Latin with English text by the Alcuin Club in 1974.
Buchanan, George
(1506-1582) Scottish humanist scholar
Buchanan was born at Killearn and attended St. Andrews university (1524). In 1526 he moved to Paris, where he subsequently taught. Back in Scotland (1536) he became tutor to an illegitimate son of James V, but the furore caused by his verse satires against the friars forced him to flee back to France. There he established his reputation for scholarship and wrote some highly admired Latin poetry and four tragedies on classical models, including Bap-tistes (1554); montaigne was among his pupils who acted in these plays. Invited to Coimbra (1547), he fell foul of the Inquisition and was imprisoned (1549-51). He held several more teaching posts in Europe before returning to Scotland (c. 1560) where, although now openly a Protestant, he was tutor to mary, Queen of Scots, and active in state affairs. After her downfall, in which Buchanan played a role by identifying her handwriting in the casket letters, incriminating her in Darnley’s murder, he was tutor (1570-78) to young James VI, later james i of England. Buchanan’s major prose works were De jure regni (1579), which influenced 17th-century writers on the theory of kingship, and a Scottish history, Rerum Scoticarum historia (1582).
Bucintoro
The state barge of the doge of Venice. The name derives from Italian buzino d’oro (golden barque). It headed the procession of boats in the Ascension Day ceremony of the sposalizio del mar (marriage of the sea), in which the doge sailed to the Porto del Lido and threw a consecrated ring into the Adriatic. The custom commemorated Venice’s conquest of Dalmatia in 1000 ce. Remains of the last bucintoro, destroyed by the French in 1798 for the sake of its gold ornamentation, survive in the Museo Correr, Venice.
Bude, Guillaume (Budaeus)
(1468-1540) French scholar and humanist
He was born in Paris and studied law at Orleans, before learning Greek with John Lascaris and Jerome of Sparta. He was employed as secretary and ambassador by louis xii and as court librarian by francis i, and helped the latter develop his idea of a university (the College Royal, later the College de France) to provide an alternative to the scholasticism of the Sorbonne. By his influence on Francis I he shaped the curriculum of the new institution to include the new learning that he had met on his diplomatic missions to Rome in 1503 and 1515, although he rejected the secular emphasis of the Italian scholars. Bude wrote on Roman law (Annotationes ad Pandectas, 1508), Roman coinage (De asse eiusque partibus, 1514), and the Greek language (Commentarii linguae Graecae, 1529). In 1532 he published De philologia, a general account of classical scholarship. J. C. scaliger called him the greatest Grecian in Europe. Bude brought the critical approach of humanism to the study of Christian texts and set an early example of that personal interpretation of the Scriptures that led to the Reformation.
Bugenhagen, Johannes
(1485-1558) German Lutheran theologian
After a career as a Premonstratensian canon at Treptow in his native Pomerania, Bugenhagen became, through a reading of luther’s De captivitate Babylonica ecclesiae, an early convert to the Reformation. In 1521 he abandoned his post as rector of the city school in Treptow and enrolled as a theology student in Wittenberg, where he was appointed minister of the town church in 1523 and professor in 1535. He became one of Luther’s closest friends and associates, serving as his confessor and assisting him in his New Testament translations. Although Bugenhagen remained in Wittenberg until his death, his most important work was undertaken in missions away from the city, particularly in northern Germany and Denmark. As the architect of numerous church orders (for Hamburg in 1529, Lubeck in 1531, and Denmark in 1537) Bugen-hagen played an essential role in the establishment of the Reformation in these northern lands. His contribution to the Danish Reformation, during an extended stay of two years (1537-39), was particularly important. He translated several of Luther’s works and was responsible for the production of a Lower German edition of Luther’s Bible. He was one of the signatories of the saxon confession.
Bull, John
(c. 1562/63-1628) English composer, organist, and virginalist
As a boy chorister Bull sang at Hereford cathedral and the Chapel Royal. In 1583 he was appointed organist and master of the choristers at Hereford; on his dismissal from Hereford, he became a gentleman of the Chapel Royal (1586). Bull gained doctorates in music at both Oxford and Cambridge and in March 1597 was elected first public reader in music at Gresham College, London, on Elizabeth I’s recommendation; this post he was obliged to resign in 1607 on account of his marriage. Throughout this period he continued his duties at the Chapel Royal. By 1610 he had probably entered the service of James I’s heir, Prince Henry, to whose sister, Princess Elizabeth, he dedicated the first printed volume of virginal music: Parthenia (1613). In 1613 Bull was charged with adultery and fled to the Netherlands, never to return. Archduke Albert employed him at Brussels but he was dismissed the following year at the request of James I, displeased at the flight of his organist. In 1617 Bull was appointed cathedral organist at Antwerp, where he died.
Bull was a keyboard virtuoso and is chiefly remembered for his keyboard music, which makes unprecedented technical demands on the player. Among his most astounding works are the hexachord fantasias, most suitable for organ. Bull’s virginal music mainly comprises settings of pavans, galliards, and other dance tunes, employing brilliant technical and rhythmical devices. His canons, of which 200 survive, are extraordinary in their complexity and ingenuity.
Bullant, Jean
(1520/25-1578) French architect Born at Amiens, Bullant studied in Italy where he was influenced by the classical style. He returned to France in 1540 to enter the service of Constable Anne de mont-morency, for whom he worked on the Chateau d’Ecouen (c. 1555), and became the first French architect to make use of the colossal order by modelling his work on the Pantheon in Rome. Subsequent works included the Petit Chateau (Capitainerie) at Chantilly (c. 1561) and a bridge and gallery combining ancient Roman and mannerist ideals at Fere-en-Tardenois (1552-62). In 1570 Bullant succeeded delorme as architect to catherine de’ medici, for whom he executed work at the Chapelle des Valois and the tuileries and drew up plans for the enlargement of the chateaux of St.-Maur and chenonceaux and for the Hotel de Soissons. He was also the author of a treatise on architecture, La Regle generale d’architecture, etude des cinq or-dres de colonnes (1564), which became a textbook for French architects.
Bullinger, Johann Heinrich
(1504-1575) Swiss reformer and theologian
The son of a parish priest, Bullinger studied in Germany before returning to take up his father’s post in his native Bremgarten. In 1531 Bullinger was appointed minister in Zurich in succession to zwingli; his resolute defence of the church there preserved it through the many difficulties that followed Zwingli’s death. In the Eucharistic controversy Bullinger defended the Zwinglian position, but he also associated himself with bucer in attempts to reconcile the German and Swiss churches. In 1549 he and calvin made the important zurich agreement (Consensus Tigurinus), which defined a common sacramental doctrine for the Zurich and Geneva churches. By this time Bullinger enjoyed a considerable international influence, largely through his enormous correspondence (12,000 surviving pieces). A prolific writer, he wrote sermons (published as the Sermonorum decades quinque) that had an enduring popularity, particularly in England where his reputation rivaled that of Calvin. Bullinger was also the architect of the Second helvetic confession (1566) and the author of a history of the Reformation down to 1532.
Buon, Bartolommeo (Bartolommeo Bon)
(c. 1374-c. 1467) Italian architectural sculptor
Trained by his father Giovanni Buon, Bartolommeo is first recorded collaborating with him on the facade of Sta. Maria dell’ Orto in his native Venice (1392). They next appear in 1422 working, with others, on the Ca d’Oro (until 1437); the large well-head in its courtyard, adorned with allegorical figures, is documented to Bartolommeo in 1427. From the late 1430s date a lunette over the entrance to the Scuola di San Marco and the Porta della Carta of the ducal palace, with its Lion of St. Mark, statue of Justice and several Virtues, and many subsidiary ornaments. This is Buon’s masterpiece. An important carving is the lunette of the Madonna of Mercy (now Victoria and Albert Museum, London) from the facade of the Misericordia, a charitable brotherhood. Buon’s style, with its emphasis on luxuriant foliage and heraldry, is still basically Gothic and has an attractive boldness, owing to the relatively hard local stones he used: Verona red marble and Istrian limestone.
Buondelmonti, Cristoforo
(c. 1385-1430) Italian traveler and monk
Buondelmonti received a sound humanist education, learning Greek from guarino da verona. After 1414, when he abandoned his church duties in Florence, he spent much of the rest of his life traveling in the Levant, indulging his enthusiasm for the Greek classics, and collecting books for Florentine friends and patrons. At least one book he obtained in Crete is still in Florence’s Biblio-theca Laurenziana. Basing himself on Rhodes, he crisscrossed the eastern Mediterranean from Crete to Constantinople. His manuscript Librum insularum archi-pelagi, sent to Cardinal Giordano Orsini in 1422, is known from later copies but remained unpublished until 1824. His description of Mount Athos is the earliest Western account to describe details of the monastic routine there.
Buontalenti, Bernardo
(c. 1536-1603) Italian architect, engineer, painter, and sculptor
Buontalenti was born in Florence and when he was 11 years old, his parents were ruined as a result of flooding and he was taken under the protection of cosimo i de’ medici. The duke had Buontalenti trained in architecture, painting, and sculpture and from 1567 employed him as a river engineer. Buontalenti built the Casino Mediceo in Rome in the early 1570s and the Casino di San Marco, now the Palazzo dei Tribunali, in Florence in 1574 in an exuberantly mannerist style (see mannerism). Parts of the Uffizi and Palazzo Vecchio are his, built in the 1580s. As a theater architect and technician he was responsible for spectacular court productions and created special effects, costumes, and firework displays of a kind never seen before. He designed automata and waterworks for villa gardens and he even arranged a naval battle inside the Palazzo Pitti. He also worked on fortifications and wrote two books on military engineering. His best-known paintings are the miniatures he did for Francesco, son of Cosimo I, and his self-portrait in the Uffizi.
Burgi, Jost
(1552-1632) Swiss-born horologist and mathematician
After serving as court clockmaker to william iv of Hesse-Kassel (from 1579), Burgi moved in 1603 to a similar post at the Prague court of Emperor rudolf ii. One of the first clockmakers to use second hands, Burgi also introduced into his designs the cross-beat escapement and the re-montoire, an ingenious device providing the escapement with a constant driving force. In mathematics Burgi took the fundamental step in the 1580s of working out a comprehensive system of logarithms, a quarter-century before napier published his own system. Burgi’s work remained unknown until 1620 when he published his Arithmetische und Geometrische Progress-Tabulen. By this time the glory had gone to Napier, and Burgi’s own role remained unrecognized until relatively recent times.
Burgkmair, Hans
(1473-1531) German painter and print maker
Born at Augsburg, Burgkmair received his initial training from his father, and between 1488 and 1490 studied with Martin schongauer in Colmar. On his return to Augsburg (1490) he designed woodcuts for the printer ratdolt and assisted holbein the elder with portraits and altarpieces. In 1498 he was admitted to the Augsburg guild. Burgk-mair traveled to Cologne in 1503 and in about 1507 visited northern Italy, including Venice and Lucca. His portraits, such as the Sebastian Brant in Karlsruhe, are remarkable for their realism and psychological intensity. Classicizing architectural motifs of Italian derivation appear in his altarpieces, such as the Nuremberg Virgin and Child (1509). Burgkmair was a prolific designer of woodcuts, executing the largest part of the Triumphal Procession of the Emperor Maximilian and the Weisskunig. As a print maker he is important as a pioneer of the multicolored chiaroscuro woodcut.
Busbecq, Ogier Ghislain de
(c. 1520-1591) Flemish diplomat
Born at Comines (Komen) in the Spanish Netherlands (now on the Franco-Belgian border), he studied at the University of Leuven in the 1530s, then at Paris, Venice, Bologna, and Padua. He began his diplomatic career by acompanying the representative of Ferdinand of Austria (later Holy Roman Emperor ferdinand i) to England for the marriage of Mary I to Philip II of Spain (1554). The same year Ferdinand appointed him his ambassador to Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent at the Ottoman Porte, where he remained nearly seven years (1555-62); his efforts to check Ottoman expansionism by means of diplomacy eventually resulted in a satisfactory treaty. He was knighted for his achievements and spent the remainder of his life in the imperial diplomatic service, dying in France while personal representative of rudolf ii at the French court.
Busbecq wrote four letters about his Turkish mission which, despite their purported dates (1554, 1555, 1560, 1562), were probably composed after 1579. The first edition was published under the title Itinera Constantinopoli-tanum et Amasianum (Travels to Constantinople and Amasya) by Christopher Plantin of Antwerp (1581); this contained only the first letter and Busbecq’s small treatise Exclamatio, sive de re militari contra Turcam instituenda consilium (Appeal, or plan for waging war on the Turks), written in 1576. Plantin added the second letter to the second edition of 1582; letters three and four first appeared in the 1589 Paris edition. Busbecq was an open admirer of many aspects of Ottoman military and administrative organization. An accomplished linguist, he wrote elegant Latin and took an interest in a wide range of topics: antiquities, numismatics, flora and fauna, and the now extinct East Germanic language of Crimean Gothic. He is popularly, but wrongly, credited with having introduced the tulip, a flower much admired at the Ottoman court, into western Europe.
