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Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 4, Part 3

V >> Various >> Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 4, Part 3



Transcriber's note: A few typographical errors have been corrected: they
are listed at the end of the text. Volume and page numbers have been
incorporated into the text of each page as: v.04 p.0001.

[v.04 p.0498] volumes x.-xiv., the preface to vol. xi. containing important
researches into the French communes. To the _Table chronologique des
diplomes, chartes, lettres, et actes imprimes concernant l'histoire de
France_ he contributed three volumes in collaboration with Mouchet
(1769-1783). Charged with the supervision of a large collection of
documents bearing on French history, analogous to Rymer's _Foedera_, he
published the first volume (_Diplomatat. Chartae_, &c., 1791). The
Revolution interrupted him in his collection of _Memoires concernant
l'histoire, les sciences, les lettres, et les arts des Chinois_, begun in
1776 at the instance of the minister Bertin, when fifteen volumes had
appeared.

See the note on Brequigny at the end of vol. i. of the _Memoires de
l'Academie des Inscriptions_ (1808); the Introduction to vol. iv. of the
_Table chronologique des diplomes_ (1836); Champollion-Figeac's preface to
the _Lettres des rois et reines_; the _Comite des travaux historiques_, by
X. Charmes, vol. i. _passim_; N. Oursel, _Nouvelle biographie normande_
(1886); and the _Catalogue des manuscrits des collections Duchesne et
Brequigny_ (in the Bibliotheque Nationale), by Rene Poupardin (1905).

(C. B.*)

BRESCIA (anc. _Brixia_), a city and episcopal see of Lombardy, Italy, the
capital of the province of Brescia, finely situated at the foot of the
Alps, 52 m. E. of Milan and 40 m. W. of Verona by rail. Pop. (1901) town,
42,495; commune, 72,731. The plan of the city is rectangular, and the
streets intersect at right angles, a peculiarity handed down from Roman
times, though the area enclosed by the medieval walls is larger than that
of the Roman town, which occupied the eastern portion of the present one.
The Piazza del Museo marks the site of the forum, and the museum on its
north side is ensconced in a Corinthian temple with three _cellae_, by some
attributed to Hercules, but more probably the Capitolium of the city,
erected by Vespasian in A.D. 73 (if the inscription really belongs to the
building; cf. Th. Mommsen in _Corp. Inscrip. Lat._ v. No. 4312, Berlin,
1872), and excavated in 1823. It contains a famous bronze statue of
Victory, found in 1826. Scanty remains of a building on the south side of
the forum, called the _curia_, but which may be a basilica, and of the
theatre, on the east of the temple, still exist.

Brescia contains many interesting medieval buildings. The castle, at the
north-east angle of the town, commands a fine view. It is now a military
prison. The old cathedral is a round domed structure of the 10th (?)
century erected over an early Christian basilica, which has forty-two
ancient columns; and the Broletto, adjoining the new cathedral (a building
of 1604) on the north, is a massive building of the 12th and 13th centuries
(the original town hall, now the prefecture and law courts), with a lofty
tower. There are also remains of the convent of S. Salvatore, founded by
Desiderius, king of Lombardy, including three churches, two of which now
contain the fine medieval museum, which possesses good ivories. The church
of S. Francesco has a Gothic facade and cloisters. There are also some good
Renaissance palaces and other buildings, including the Municipio, begun in
1492 and completed by Jacopo Sansovino in 1554-1574. This is a magnificent
structure, with fine ornamentation. The church of S. Maria dei Miracoli
(1488-1523) is also noteworthy for its general effect and for the richness
of its details, especially of the reliefs on the facade. Many other
churches, and the picture gallery (Galleria Martinengo), contain fine works
of the painters of the Brescian school, Alessandro Bonvicino (generally
known as Moretto), Girolamo Romanino and Moretto's pupil, Giovanni Battista
Moroni. The Biblioteca Queriniana contains early MSS., a 14th-century MS.
of Dante, &c., and some rare incunabula. The city is well supplied with
water, and has no less than seventy-two public fountains. Brescia has
considerable factories of iron ware, particularly fire-arms and weapons
(one of the government small arms factories being situated here), also of
woollens, linens and silks, matches, candles, &c. The stone quarries of
Mazzano, 8 m. east of Brescia, supplied material for the monument to Victor
Emmanuel II. and other buildings in Rome. Brescia is situated on the main
railway line between Milan and Verona, and has branch railways to Iseo,
Parma, Cremona and (via Rovato) to Bergamo, and steam tramways to Mantua,
Soncino, Ponte Toscolano and Cardone Valtrompia.

The ancient Celtic Brixia, a town of the Cenomani, became Roman in 225
B.C., when the Cenomani submitted to Rome. Augustus founded a civil (not a
military) colony here in 27 B.C., and he and Tiberius constructed an
aqueduct to supply it. In 452 it was plundered by Attila, but was the seat
of a duchy in the Lombard period. From 1167 it was one of the most active
members of the Lombard League. In 1258 it fell into the hands of Eccelino
of Verona, and belonged to the Scaligers (della Scala) until 1421, when it
came under the Visconti of Milan, and in 1426 under Venice. Early in the
16th century it was one of the wealthiest cities of Lombardy, but has never
recovered from its sack by the French under Gaston de Foix in 1512. It
belonged to Venice until 1797, when it came under Austrian dominion; it
revolted in 1848, and again in 1849, being the only Lombard town to rally
to Charles Albert in the latter year, but was taken after ten days'
obstinate street fighting by the Austrians under Haynau.

See _Museo Bresciano Illustrato_ (Brescia, 1838).

(T. AS.)

BRESLAU (Polish _Wraclaw_), a city of Germany, capital of the Prussian
province of Silesia, and an episcopal see, situated in a wide and fertile
plain on both banks of the navigable Oder, 350 m. from its mouth, at the
influx of the Ohle, and 202 m. from Berlin on the railway to Vienna. Pop.
(1867) 171,926; (1880) 272,912; (1885) 299,640; (1890) 335,186; (1905)
470,751, about 60% being Protestants, 35% Roman Catholics and nearly 5%
Jews. The Oder, which here breaks into several arms, divides the city into
two unequal halves, crossed by numerous bridges. The larger portion, on the
left bank, includes the old or inner town, surrounded by beautiful
promenades, on the site of the ramparts, dismantled after 1813, from an
eminence within which, the Liebichs Hoehe, a fine view is obtained of the
surrounding country. Outside, as well as across the Oder, lies the new town
with extensive suburbs, containing, especially in the Schweidnitz quarter
in the south, and the Oder quarter in the north, many handsome streets and
spacious squares. The inner town, in contrast to the suburbs, still retains
with its narrow streets much of its ancient characters, and contains
several medieval buildings, both religious and secular, of great beauty and
interest. The cathedral, dedicated to St John the Baptist, was begun in
1148 and completed at the close of the 15th century, enlarged in the 17th
and 18th centuries, and restored between 1873 and 1875; it is rich in
notable treasures, especially the high altar of beaten silver, and in
beautiful paintings and sculptures. The Kreuzkirche (church of the Holy
Cross), dating from the 13th and 14th centuries, is an interesting brick
building, remarkable for its stained glass and its historical monuments,
among which is the tomb of Henry IV., duke of Silesia. The Sandkirche, so
called from its dedication to Our Lady on the Sand, dates from the 14th
century, and was until 1810 the church of the Augustinian canons. The
Dorotheenor Minoritenkirche, remarkable for its high-pitched roof, was
founded by the emperor Charles IV. in 1351. These are the most notable of
the Roman Catholic churches. Of the Evangelical churches the most important
is that of St Elizabeth, founded about 1250, rebuilt in the 14th and 15th
centuries, and restored in 1857. Its lofty tower contains the largest bell
in Silesia, and the church possesses a celebrated organ, fine stained
glass, a magnificent stone pyx (erected in 1455) over 52 ft. high, and
portraits of Luther and Melanchthon by Lucas Cranach. The church of St Mary
Magdalen, built in the 14th century on the model of the cathedral, has two
lofty Gothic towers connected by a bridge, and is interesting as having
been the church in which, in 1523, the reformation in Silesia was first
proclaimed. Other noteworthy ecclesiastical buildings are the graceful
Gothic church of St Michael built in 1871, the bishop's palace and the
Jewish synagogue, the finest in Germany after that in Berlin.

The business streets of the city converge upon the Ring, the market square,
in which is the town-hall, a fine Gothic building, begun in the middle of
the 14th and completed in the 16th century. Within is the Fuerstensaal, in
which the diets of Silesia were formerly held, while beneath is the famous
Schweidnitzer Keller, used continuously since 1355 as a beer and wine
house. [v.04 p.0499] The university, a spacious Gothic building facing the
Oder, is a striking edifice. It was built (1728-1736) as a college by the
Jesuits, on the site of the former imperial castle presented to them by the
emperor Leopold I., and contains a magnificent hall (Aula Leopoldina),
richly ornamented with frescoes and capable of holding 1200 persons.
Breslau possesses a large number of other important public buildings: the
Stadthaus (civic hall), the royal palace, the government offices (a
handsome pile erected in 1887), the provincial House of Assembly, the
municipal archives, the courts of law, the Silesian museum of arts and
crafts and antiquities, stored in the former assembly hall of the estates
(Staendehaus), which was rebuilt for the purpose, the museum of fine arts,
the exchange, the Stadt and Lobe theatres, the post office and central
railway station. There are also numerous hospitals and schools. Breslau is
exceedingly rich in fine monuments; the most noteworthy being the
equestrian statues of Frederick the Great and Frederick William III., both
by Kiss; the statue of Bluecher by Rauch; a marble statue of General
Tauentzien by Langhans and Schadow; a bronze statue of Karl Gottlieb Svarez
(1746-1798), the Prussian jurist, a monument to Schleiermacher, born here
in 1768, and statues of the emperor William I., Bismarck and Moltke. There
are also several handsome fountains. Foremost among the educational
establishments stands the university, founded in 1702 by the emperor
Leopold I. as a Jesuit college, and greatly extended by the incorporation
of the university of Frankfort-on-Oder in 1811. Its library contains
306,000 volumes and 4000 MSS., and has in the so-called _Bibliotheca
Habichtiana_ a valuable collection of oriental literature. Among its
auxiliary establishments are botanical gardens, an observatory, and
anatomical, physiological and kindred institutions. There are eight
classical and four modern schools, two higher girls' schools, a Roman
Catholic normal school, a Jewish theological seminary, a school of arts and
crafts, and numerous literary and charitable foundations. It is, however,
as a commercial and industrial city that Breslau is most widely known. Its
situation, close to the extensive coal and iron fields of Upper Silesia, in
proximity to the Austrian and Russian frontiers, at the centre of a network
of railways directly communicating both with these countries and with the
chief towns of northern and central Germany, and on a deep waterway
connecting with the Elbe and the Vistula, facilitates its very considerable
transit and export trade in the products of the province and of the
neighbouring countries. These embrace coal, sugar, cereals, spirits,
petroleum and timber. The local industries comprise machinery and tools,
railway and tramway carriages, furniture, cast-iron goods, gold and silver
work, carpets, furs, cloth and cottons, paper, musical instruments, glass
and china. Breslau is the headquarters of the VI. German army corps and
contains a large garrison of troops of all arms.

_History._--Breslau (Lat. _Vratislavia_) is first mentioned by the
chronicler Thietmar, bishop of Merseburg, in A.D. 1000, and was probably
founded some years before this date. Early in the 11th century it was made
the seat of a bishop, and after having formed part of Poland, became the
capital of an independent duchy in 1163. Destroyed by the Mongols in 1241,
it soon recovered its former prosperity and received a large influx of
German colonists. The bishop obtained the title of a prince of the Empire
in 1290.[1] When Henry VI., the last duke of Breslau, died in 1335, the
city came by purchase to John, king of Bohemia, whose successors retained
it until about 1460. The Bohemian kings bestowed various privileges on
Breslau, which soon began to extend its commerce in all directions, while
owing to increasing wealth the citizens took up a more independent
attitude. Disliking the Hussites, Breslau placed itself under the
protection of Pope Pius II. in 1463, and a few years afterwards came under
the rule of the Hungarian king, Matthias Corvinus. After his death in 1490
it again became subject to Bohemia, passing with the rest of Silesia to the
Habsburgs when in 1526 Ferdinand, afterwards emperor, was chosen king of
Bohemia. Having passed almost undisturbed through the periods of the
Reformation and the Thirty Years' War, Breslau was compelled to own the
authority of Frederick the Great in 1741. It was, however, recovered by the
Austrians in 1757, but was regained by Frederick after his victory at
Leuthen in the same year, and has since belonged to Prussia, although it
was held for a few days by the French in 1807 after the battle of Jena, and
again in 1813 after the battle of Bautzen. The sites of the fortifications,
dismantled by the French in 1807, were given to the civic authorities by
King Frederick William III., and converted into promenades. In March 1813
this monarch issued from Breslau his stirring appeals to the Prussians, _An
mein Volk_ and _An mein Kriegesheer_, and the city was the centre of the
Prussian preparations for the campaign which ended at Leipzig. After the
Prussian victory at Sadowa in 1866, William I. made a triumphant and
complimentary entry into the city, which since the days of Frederick the
Great has been only less loyal to the royal house than Berlin itself.

See Buerkner and Stein, _Geschichte der Stadt Breslau_ (Bresl. 1851-1853);
J-Stein, _Geschichte der Stadt Breslau im 19ten Jahrhundert_ (1884); O
Frenzel, _Breslauer Stadtbuch_ ("Codex dipl. Silisiae," vol. ii. 1882);
Luchs, _Breslau, ein Fuehrer durch die Stadt_ (12th ed., Bresl. 1904).

[1] In 1195 Jaroslaw, son of Boleslaus I. of Lower Silesia, who became
bishop of Breslau in 1198, inherited the duchy of Neisse, which at his
death (1201) he bequeathed to his successors in the see. The Austrian part
of Neisse still belongs to the bishop of Breslau, who also still bears the
title of prince bishop.

BRESSANT, JEAN BAPTISTE PROSPER (1815-1886), French actor, was born at
Chalon-sur-Saone on the 23rd of October 1815, and began his stage career at
the Varietes in Paris in 1833. In 1838 he went to the French theatre at St
Petersburg, where for eight years he played important parts with
ever-increasing reputation. His success was confirmed at the Gymnase when
he returned to Paris in 1846, and he made his _debut_ at the Comedie
Francaise as a full-fledged _societaire_ in 1854. From playing the ardent
young lover, he turned to leading roles both in modern plays and in the
classical repertoire. His Richelieu in _Mlle de Belle-Isle_, his Octave in
Alfred de Musset's _Les Caprices de Marianne_, and his appearance in de
Musset's _Il faut qu'une porte soit ouverte ou fermee_ and _Un caprice_
were followed by _Tartuffe_, _Le Misanthrope_ and _Don Juan_. Bressant
retired in 1875, and died on the 23rd of January 1886. During his
professorship at the Conservatoire, Mounet-Sully was one of his pupils.

BRESSE, a district of eastern France embracing portions of the departments
of Ain, Saone-et-Loire and Jura. The Bresse extends from the Dombes on the
south to the river Doubs on the north, and from the Saone eastwards to the
Jura, measuring some 60 m. in the former, and 20 m. in the latter
direction. It is a plain varying from 600 to 800 ft. above the sea, with
few eminences and a slight inclination westwards. Heaths and coppice
alternate with pastures and arable land; pools and marshes are numerous,
especially in the north. Its chief rivers are the Veyle, the Reyssouze and
the Seille, all tributaries of the Saone. The soil is a gravelly clay but
moderately fertile, and cattle-raising is largely carried on. The region
is, however, more especially celebrated for its table poultry. The
inhabitants preserve a distinctive but almost obsolete costume, with a
curious head-dress. The Bresse proper, called the _Bresse Bressane_,
comprises the northern portion of the department of Ain. The greater part
of the district belonged in the middle ages to the lords of Bage, from whom
it passed in 1272 to the house of Savoy. It was not till the first half of
the 15th century that the province, with Bourg as its capital, was founded
as such. In 1601 it was ceded to France by the treaty of Lyons, after which
it formed (together with the province of Bugey) first a separate government
and afterwards part of the government of Burgundy.

BRESSUIRE, a town of western France, capital of an arrondissement in the
department of Deux-Sevres, 48 m. N. of Niort by rail. Pop. (1906) 4561. The
town is situated on an eminence overlooking the Dolo, a tributary of the
Argenton. It is the centre of a cattle-rearing and agricultural region, and
has important markets; the manufacture of wooden type and woollen goods is
carried on. Bressuire has two buildings of interest: the church of
Notre-Dame, which, dating chiefly from the 12th and 15th centuries, has an
imposing tower of the Renaissance period; and the castle, built by the
lords of [v.04 p.0500] Beaumont, vassals of the viscount of Thouars. The
latter is now in ruins, and a portion of the site is occupied by a modern
chateau, but an inner and outer line of fortifications are still to be
seen. The whole forms the finest assemblage of feudal ruins in Poitou.
Bressuire is the seat of a sub-prefect and has a tribunal of first
instance. Among the disasters suffered at various times by the town, its
capture from the English and subsequent pillage by French troops under du
Guesclin in 1370 is the most memorable.

BREST, a fortified seaport of western France, capital of an arrondissement
in the department of Finistere, 155 m. W.N.W. of Rennes by rail. Population
(1906) town, 71,163; commune, 85,294. It is situated to the north of a
magnificent landlocked bay, and occupies the slopes of two hills divided by
the river Penfeld,--the part of the town on the left bank being regarded as
Brest proper, while the part on the right is known as Recouvrance. There
are also extensive suburbs to the east of the town. The hill-sides are in
some places so steep that the ascent from the lower to the upper town has
to be effected by flights of steps and the second or third storey of one
house is often on a level with the ground storey of the next. The chief
street of Brest bears the name of rue de Siam, in honour of the Siamese
embassy sent to Louis XIV., and terminates at the remarkable swing-bridge,
constructed in 1861, which crosses the mouth of the Penfeld. Running along
the shore to the south of the town is the Cours d'Ajot, one of the finest
promenades of its kind in France, named after the engineer who constructed
it. It is planted with trees and adorned with marble statues of Neptune and
Abundance by Antoine Coysevox. The castle with its donjon and seven towers
(12th to the 16th centuries), commanding the entrance to the river, is the
only interesting building in the town. Brest is the capital of one of the
five naval arrondissements of France. The naval port, which is in great
part excavated in the rock, extends along both banks of the Penfeld; it
comprises gun-foundries and workshops, magazines, shipbuilding yards and
repairing docks, and employs about 7000 workmen. There are also large naval
barracks, training ships and naval schools of various kinds, and an
important naval hospital. Brest is the seat of a sub-prefect and has
tribunals of first instance and of commerce, a chamber of commerce, a board
of trade-arbitrators, two naval tribunals, and a tribunal of maritime
commerce. There are also lycees for boys and girls and a school of commerce
and industry. The commercial port, which is separated from the town itself
by the Cours d'Ajot, comprises a tidal port with docks and an outer
harbour; it is protected by jetties to the east and west and by a
breakwater on the south. In 1905 the number of vessels entered was 202 with
a tonnage of 67,755, and cleared 160 with a tonnage of 61,012. The total
value of the imports in 1905 was L244,000. The chief were wine, coal,
timber, mineral tar, fertilizers and lobsters and crayfish. Exports, of
which the chief were wheat-flour, fruit and superphosphates, were valued at
L40,000. Besides its sardine and mackerel fishing industry, the town has
flour-mills, breweries, foundries, forges, engineering works, and
manufactures of blocks, candles, chemicals (from sea-weed), boots, shoes
and linen. Brest communicates by submarine cable with America and French
West Africa. The roadstead consists of a deep indentation with a maximum
length of 14 m. and an average width of 4 m., the mouth being barred by the
peninsula of Quelern, leaving a passage from 1 to 2 m. broad, known as the
Goulet. The outline of the bay is broken by numerous smaller bays or arms,
formed by the embouchures of streams, the most important being the Anse de
Quelern, the Anse de Poulmie, and the mouths of the Chateaulin and the
Landerneau. Brest is a fortress of the first class. The fortifications of
the town and the harbour fall into four groups: (1) the very numerous forts
and batteries guarding the approaches to and the channel of the Goulet; (2)
the batteries and forts directed upon the roads; (3) a group of works
preventing access to the peninsula of Quelern and commanding the ground to
the south of the peninsula from which many of the works of group (2) could
be taken in reverse; (4) the defences of Brest itself, consisting of an
old-fashioned _enceinte_ possessing little military value and a chain of
detached forts to the west of the town.

Nothing definite is known of Brest till about 1240, when it was ceded by a
count of Leon to John I., duke of Brittany. In 1342 John of Montfort gave
it up to the English, and it did not finally leave their hands till 1397.
Its medieval importance was great enough to give rise to the saying, "He is
not duke of Brittany who is not lord of Brest." By the marriage of Francis
I. with Claude, daughter of Anne of Brittany, Brest with the rest of the
duchy definitely passed to the French crown. The advantages of the
situation for a seaport town were first recognized by Richelieu, who in
1631 constructed a harbour with wooden wharves, which soon became a station
of the French navy. Colbert changed the wooden wharves for masonry and
otherwise improved the post, and Vauban's fortifications followed in
1680-1688. During the 18th century the fortifications and the naval
importance of the town continued to develop. In 1694 an English squadron
under John, 3rd Lord Berkeley, was miserably defeated in attempting a
landing; but in 1794, during the revolutionary war, the French fleet, under
Villaret de Joyeuse, was as thoroughly beaten in the same place by the
English admiral Howe.

BREST-LITOVSK (Polish _Brzesc-Litevski_; and in the Chron. _Berestie_ and
_Berestov_), a strongly fortified town of Russia, in the government of
Grodno, 137 m. by rail S. from the city of Grodno, in 52 deg. 5' N. lat. and
23 deg. 39' E. long., at the junction of the navigable river Mukhovets with the
Bug, and at the intersection of railways from Warsaw, Kiev, Moscow and East
Prussia. Pop. (1867) 22,493; (1901) 42,812, of whom more than one-half were
Jews. It contains a Jewish synagogue, which was regarded in the 16th
century as the first in Europe, and is the seat of an Armenian and of a
Greek Catholic bishop; the former has authority over the Armenians
throughout the whole country. The town carries on an extensive trade in
grain, flax, hemp, wood, tar and leather. First mentioned in the beginning
of the 11th century, Brest-Litovsk was in 1241 laid waste by the Mongols
and was not rebuilt till 1275; its suburbs were burned by the Teutonic
Knights in 1379; and in the end of the 15th century the whole town met a
similar fate at the hands of the khan of the Crimea. In the reign of the
Polish king Sigismund III. diets were held there; and in 1594 and 1596 it
was the meeting-place of two remarkable councils of the bishops of western
Russia. In 1657, and again in 1706, the town was captured by the Swedes; in
1794 it was the scene of Suvarov's victory over the Polish general
Sierakowski; in 1795 it was added to the Russian empire. The Brest-Litovsk
or King's canal (50 m. long), utilizing the Mukhovets-Bug rivers, forms a
link in the waterways that connect the Dnieper with the Vistula.

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