pnugues/EB7 huggingface dataset:
BRUCK, a circle in the Austrian province of Stcycr-mark, extending over 1496 square miles, or 917,440 acres. It is situated in a mountainous district, with valleys between the ranges, of moderate fertility. In 1817 it contained 62,538 inhabitants. The chief place, of the same name, at the junction of the river Mur with the Murz, contains about 2000 inhabitants.
BRUCKENAU, a city of 1550 inhabitants, the capital of a magistracy of the same name, in the circle of the Lower Maine, and kingdom of Bavaria. It extends over a hundred and nine square miles, and contains, besides the city, twenty-two villages, with 9350 inhabitants. It is a poor district, yielding little corn, but abundance of potatoes. The chief employment of the inhabitants consists in making wood ware, especially platters and bowls, and some spinning and weaving flax.
BRUGES, a city, the capital of the province of East Flanders, and of the circle, containing seven cantons and seventy-six communes, to which it gives the same name, in the Netherlands. At one period it was the greatest commercial city in Europe; and though, from political events, its importance has been reduced, the remains of its ancient wealth are visible in the houses and public buildings. It stands on the canal which passes from Ghent to the sea at Ostend, and which is navigable for large flat-bottomed barks. It is still a manufacturing city of considerable industry, producing a variety of goods in linen, woollen, and silk, and furnishing many articles, chiefly for home consumption. The land around it is brought to the highest possible state of cultivation, and furnishes ample stores of necessaries to the dense population. The churches, especially that of Notre Dame, are objects of curiosity to all visitors, as well as the Gothic town-house and the hall of justice. The inhabitants arc about 35,000. Long. 3. 7. 47. E. Lat. 51. 12. 40. N.
BRUIN, John de, professor of natural philosophy and mathematics at Utrecht, was born at Gorcum in 1620. He had uncommon skill in dissecting animals, and was a great lover of experiments. He also made observations in astronomy. He published dissertations De vi altrice ; De corporum gravitate et levitate ; De cognitione Dei naturali ; De lucis causa et origine, &c. He had a dispute with Isaac Vossius, to whom he wrote a letter, printed at Amsterdam in 1693, wherein he criticises Vossius’s book De Natura et Proprietate Lucis, and strenuously maintains the hypothesis of Descartes. He died in 1675, after he had been professor twenty-three years; and his funeral oration was pronounced four days after by Μ. Graevis.
BRUMALIA, in Roman Antiquity, festivals of Bacchus, celebrated twice a year, the first on the 12th of the kalends of March, and the other on the 18th of the kalends of November. They were instituted by Romulus, who, during these feasts, used to entertain the senate. Among the heathen festivals which the primitive Christians were much inclined to observe, Tertullian mentions the brumae or brumalia.
BRUMOY, Peter, a learned Jesuit, born at Rouen in 1668, distinguished himself in his youth by his talents for the belles lettres; and during his whole life was beloved for his probity, his virtue, and the goodness of his heart. He wrote many works, the most considerable of which is his Theatre of the Greeks. He died at Paris in 1742.
BRUN, Charles le, was descended of a family of distinction in Scotland, and born in the year 1619. His father was a statuary by profession. He discovered, it is said, such an early inclination for painting, that at three years of age he used to take coals, and design on the hearths and sides of the chimney, only by the light of the fire; and at twelve he drew the picture of his uncle so well that it still passes for a fine piece. His father being employed in the gardens at Sequier, and having brought his son along with him, the chancellor of that name took a liking to him, and placed him with Simon Vouet, an eminent painter. He was afterwards sent to Fountainbieau to copy some of Raphael’s pieces. The chancellor sent him next to Italy, and supported him there for six years. Le Brun, in his return, met with the celebrated Poussin, by whose conversation he greatly improved himself in his art, and contracted a friendship with him which terminated [7:5:612]only with their lives. A painting of St Stephen, which he finished in 1651, raised his reputation to the highest pitch. Soon after this, the king, upon the representation of Μ. Colbert, made him his first painter, and conferred on him the order of St Michael. His majesty employed two hours every day to see him work while he was painting the family of Darius at Fontainebleau. About the year 1662 he began his five large pieces of the history of Alexander the Great, in which he is said to have set the actions of that famous conqueror in a more glorious light than Quintus Curtius has done in his history. He procured several advantages for the royal academy of painting and sculpture at Paris, and formed the plan of another for the students of his own nation at Rome. There was scarcely any thing done for the advancement of the fine arts in which he was not consulted. It was through the interest of Μ. Colbert that the king gave him the direction of all his works, particularly of his royal manufactory at the Gobelins, where he had a handsome house with a genteel salary assigned to him. He was also made director and chancellor of the royal academy, and showed the greatest desire to encourage the fine arts in France. He was endowed with a vast inventive genius, which extended itself to arts of every kind; and he was well acquainted with the manners and history of all nations. Besides his extraordinary talents, his manners were so polished, and his address so pleasing, that he attracted the regard and affection of the whole court of France, where, by the places and pensions conferred on him by the king’s liberality, he made a very considerable figure. Le Brun was the author of two treatises, one on physiognomy, and the other on the different characters of the passions. He died at Paris in 1690.
BRUNDUSIUM, or Brundisium. See Brindisi.
BRUNN, a circle in the Austrian province of Moravia, extending over 1815 square miles, or 1,116,600 acres. It comprehends thirteen cities, with their respective suburbs, fifty-six market-towns, 649 villages, and 52,143 houses. The inhabitants amounted in the year 1823 to 354,175. The northern part of the circle is a portion of the Moravian mountain range, which yields abundant mineral riches. Between the mountains the land is highly productive in corn and cattle. It is the chief manufacturing district of the imperial dominions, and produces good woollen, linen, and cotton goods of all descriptions. The city of Brunn is the capital of the circle of that name, as well as of the province of Moravia. It stands at the junction of the river Zwittawa with the Schwartza. It is fortified, but in too weak and ancient a way to be now defensible, and the citadel, from neglect, is falling to decay. The situation is very picturesque, and the buildings are magnificent, but the streets rather narrow. It is on the whole the most pleasing city in the Austrian dominions. Its trade is very extensive. Its manufactures are chiefly fine woollen and linen goods; it is also the principal mart for the exchange of the commodities of the south and north of Europe, and is benefited by the excellent roads through it to Vienna and Italy on the one hand, and to Poland, Prussia, and Saxony on the other. The increase of inhabitants has been rapid. In the year 1814 they were 25,760, and in the year 1827 they amounted to 33,350. Long·. 16. 30 30. E. Lat. 49. 11. 32. N. °
BRUNO, Jordano, was born at Nola, in the kingdom of Naples, and about the year 1582 began to call in question some of the tenets of the Romish church, which occasioned his retiring to Geneva; but after two years stay there he expressed his aversion to Calvinism in such a manner that he was expelled the city. After having staid some time at Lyons, Toulouse, and Paris, he came to London, and continued two years in the house of Μ. Castle-nau, the French ambassador. He was very well received by Queen Elizabeth and the politer part of the court. His principal friends were Sir Philip Sidney and Sir Fulk Greville. With these and some others of their club Bruno held assemblies; but as they treated of subjects of a very delicate nature, which could not suit the taste or capacity of every body, they kept the door always shut, and none but select persons were admitted into their company. At Sir Philip’s request he composed his Spaccio della Bestia Triumphante, which was printed in 8vo, 1584, and dedicated to that gentleman. From England he went to Wittemberg, and thence to Prague, where he printed several tracts, in which he openly avowed atheistical principles. After visiting some other towns in Germany, he made a tour to Venice, where he was apprehended by order of the inquisition, tried, condemned, and, refusing to retract, burnt at the stake on the 9th February 1600.
BRUNSWICK, Duchy of. See Germany. Brunswick, a city, the capital of the duchy of the same name, in Germany. It is situated on the small navigable river Oker, which joins the Aller, and then falls into the Weser. It is an open place, the fortifications having been demolished and converted into public walks. It is a well-built city, on a fruitful plain. The palace, in the ancient German style, is large, inelegant, and incommodious. There are eleven churches, of which nine, including the cathedral, are allotted to the Lutheran worship, and one each to the Catholics and the Reformed. The number of inhabitants in 1827 was 36,200. These find employment partly in the trades and professions arising from the seat of government, partly from the trade created by the great fairs annually held, but chiefly from manufactures of almost every kind of commodity, the principal of which is perhaps that of brewing beer and vinegar, and the distillation of corn. There are several cabinets, museums, libraries, and collections of pictures belonging to or under the patronage of the duke. Long. 10. 26. 22. E. Lat. 52. 15. 35. N.

Brunswick, a post-town of Maine, in Cumberland county, United States. It is situated on the south-west side of the Androscoggin, and contains 2931 inhabitants. Long. 69. 55. W. Lat. 43. 53. N.
BRUNTISLAND. See Burntisland.
BRUSH, an assemblage of hairs and hogs’ bristles, fastened in the holes of a wooden handle or board, pierced for that purpose, and serving to cleanse divers bodies by rubbing therewith. The manner of making brushes is by folding the hair or bristle in two, bringing it by means of a packthread, which is engaged in the fold, through the holes with which the wood is pierced all over, and afterwards fastening it therein with glue. When the holes are . thus filled, the ends of the hair are cut to make the surface even.

Shearmen's Brush is made of wild boars’ bristles, and serves to lay the wool or nap of cloth, after shearing it for the last time.

Brush, among painters, a larger and coarser kind of pencil, made of hogs’ bristles, wherewith to lay the colours on their large pieces. The Chinese painter’s brush consists of the stalk of a plant, whose fibres being fretted at both ends, and tied again, serve for a brush.
BRUSSELS, a city, one of the capitals of the kingdom of the Netherlands, and, till the separation of Holland with Belgium, alternately with the Hague the seat of the government. It is also the capital of the province of South Brabant, and of the circle, containing ten cantons and a hundred and twenty-nine communes, takes its name. It is built partly on a plain through whic the river Senne runs, and partly on the side of a hi which rises above it. The buildings in the lower part or [7:5:613]old town are larger, and, though of antique forms, handsome; but the upper or new town is one of the most splendid collection of buildings to be found on any part of the Continent. The park, near to which are the royal palace, the houses of the legislature, and the dwellings of persons of the first rank, is a very pleasing object. The most remarkable buildings are the town-house, with a beautiful tower three hundred and sixty-five feet in height, the theatre, the arsenal, the church of St Gudule, the cathedral, and the church of the Capuchins. Brussels is a manufacturing city of great activity. It has long been celebrated for its lace and its carpets; but though the demand for these goods has rather diminished, there have been substituted others whose demands exceed theirs. .Very extensive establishments have been formed for making cotton goods of all kinds, woollens of a superior quality, hats, paper, glass, soap, starch, chemical preparations, and various minute articles for dress and furniture. There are, besides, distilleries, refineries for salt and sugar, and several large breweries. Coach-making is a very important branch of industry, and all kinds of carriages are elegantly built. This trade employsmany hundreds of workmen. There are in Brussels establishments for the promotion of learning, science, and the fine arts, with collections of paintings, and a valuable library of 120,000 volumes. With the exception of London, no city in Europe has made so great progress, either in extent, in wealth, or in embellishments, as Brussels. The population in 1814 was 72,000, but it is now 100,000. Long. 4. 16.10. E. Lat. 50. 59. 50. N.
BRUTTI, in Ancient Geography, one of the two peninsulas of Italy (the ancient Calabria being the other); stretching to the south towards Sicily; bounded by the sea on every side except by the isthmus, between the river Laus and the Thurii, where it is terminated by Lucania; and inhabited by the Brutii, for whose country the ancient Romans had no peculiar name, calling both the people and the country indiscriminately Prutiï.
BRUTON, a market-town of the hundred of the same name, in the county of Somerset, a hundred and nine miles from London, on the river Brue. It is a well-built town, at which the quarter-sessions for the county are held. Some silk mills have been established here, and some trade is carried on in stockings and woollen goods. The market is held on Saturday. The inhabitants amounted in 1801 to 1631, in 1811 to 1536, and in 1821 to 1858.
BRUTUS, or Bkute, according to the old exploded history of this country by Geoffroy of Monmouth, was the first king of Britain. He is said to have been the son of Sylvius, who was the son of Ascanius the son of Aeneas, and born in Italy. Killing his father by chance, he fled into Greece, where he took prisoner King Padrosus, who kept the Trojans in slavery, but released him on condition of his providing ships for the Trojans to quit the land. Being advised by the oracle to sail west beyond Gaul, he, after some adventures, landed at Totness in Devonshire. Albion was then inhabited by a remnant of giants, whom Brutus [7:5:618]destroyed. He called the island after his own name, Britain. He built a city called New Troy, since London; and having reigned there twenty-four years, at his death parcelled the island among his three sons: Locrine having the middle, called Loegria ; Camber, Wales; and Alba-nach, Scotland.

Brutus, Lucius Junius, the avenger of the rape of Lucretia, and founder of the Roman republic, flourished five hundred years before Christ. See Rome. Brutus, Marcus, the passionate lover of his country, and chief conspirator against Caesar, slew himself on losing the battle of Philippi,forty-two years before Christ. See Rome.
BRUX, a city in the circle of Saatz, and Austrian kingdom of Bohemia. It is situated on the river Vila, and contains a philosophical institution with six professors, four churches, a monastery, and 2950 inhabitants, who carry on cotton and mineral acid manufactures.
BRUYERE, John de la, a celebrated French author, was born at Dourdan in the year 1664. He wrote Characters describing the manners of his age, in imitation of Theophrastus; which characters were not always imaginary or general, but descriptive, as was well known at the time, of persons of considerable rank. In the year 1693 he was by an order of the king chosen a member of the French Academy, and died in the year 1696. “The Characters of Bruyère,” says Voltaire, “may justly be ranked among the extraordinary productions of his age. Antiquity furnishes no examples of such a work. A style rapid, concise, and nervous; expression animated and picturesque; a use of language altogether new, without offending against its established rules, struck the public at first; and the allusions which are crowded in almost every page completed its success. When La Bruyère showed his work in manuscript to Malesieux, this last told him that the book would have many readers, and its author many enemies. It somewhat sunk in the opinion of men, when that whole generation whose follies it attacked were passed away; yet as it contains many things applicable to all times and places, it is more than probable that it will never be forgotten.”
BRYENNIUS, Manuel, a Greek writer on music, is supposed to have flourished under the elder Palaeologus, namely, about the year of Christ 1120. He wrote three books of harmonics, the first of which is a kind of commentary on Euclid, as the second and third are illustrative of Ptolemy. Meibomius had given the public expectations of a translation of this work, but not living to complete it, Dr Wallis undertook it; and it now forms part of the third volume of his works, published at Oxford in three volumes folio, 1699.
BRZEZANI, a circle in the Austrian province of Galicia, extending over 2316 square miles, or 1,482,240 acres, and comprehending four cities, fourteen towns, 317 villages, and 30,371 houses. The inhabitants in 1817 amounted to 182,300, of whom 11,320 were Jews; but they have much increased since that period. The district is woody, but the rest of the land is highly fertile, and produces good corn, hemp, flax, tobacco, and fruit. The capital is a city of the same name on the river Lipa, containing a Greek, an Arminian, and a Catholic church, with 4650 inhabitants. Long. 24. 35. 40. E. Lat. 49. 30. 25. N.
BUA, an island in the Adriatic Sea, belonging to the province of Spalatro, in the Austrian kingdom of Dalmatia. It is situated on the coast, opposite to Trau; is rich in wine, oil, and fruit; and contains six populous villages. There is in it a remarkable well of asphaltum. Long. 14. 10. E. Lat. 43. 8. N.
BUAT-NANCAY, Louis Gabriel, Count du, was born of an old family in Normandy on the 2d of March 1732. At an early age he entered into the order of Malta; and, by a fortunate accident, he became acquainted with the Chevalier Folard, author of the Commentaries on Polybius, who received him into his house and superintended his education. Folard had a nephew, who was minister for France at different German courts, and under whom Buat studied history and diplomacy. He was successively minister for France at Ratisbon and Dresden; but afterwards, becoming disgusted with this career, he retired from public life in the year 1776. He died at Nançay, in Berry, on the 18th of September 1787.

Buat was a man of some talents and considerable literary attainments, but possessing little knowledge of the world; which circumstance seems to have in a great measure disqualified him for public employment. He appears to have written with great facility; but his style is very unequal. His works are: 1. Tableau du Gouvernement actuel de l’Empire d Allemagne, translated from the German of Schmauss, with notes historical and critical, Paris, 1755, 12mo. 2. Les Origines, ou 'l ’ Ancien Gouvernement de la France, de l’Italie, et de l’Allemagne, published at the Hague, 1757, 4 vols. 12mo. 3. Histoire Ancienne des Peuples de l’Europe, Paris, 1772, 12 vols. 12mo. This is the [7:5:620]largest and perhaps the best work of Buat. 4. Les Elemens de la Politique, ou Recherches sur les vrais Principes de l’ Economic Sociale, 1773, 6 vols. 8vo. 5. Les Maximes du Gouvernement Monarchique, pour servir de suite aux Eléniens, 4 vols. 8vo. There is also ascribed to Buaţ a work entitled Remarques d’un Français, ou Examen impartial du livre de Μ Necher sur les Finances, Geneva, 1785, 8vo. In his youth he had composed a tragedy, entitled Charlemagne, ou le Triomphe des Lois, published at Vienna, 1764, 8vo. He likewise contributed several articles to the journals of his tim - e, on different points of history, literature, and political economy; in particular, some excellent observations on the character of Xenophon, inserted in the fourth volume of the Variétés Littéraires. (See Biographie Universelles
BUBASTIS, in the Egyptian mythology, one of the names of Isis or the moon. The Egyptians bestoweddif-ferent names on the sun, either to characterize his effects or his relations with respect to the earth; and they followed the same method respecting the moon. Chaeremon, a sacred writer of Egypt, leaves no doubt on this subject. “Every thing which is published of Osiris and Isis, all the sacerdotal fables, allude only to the phases of the moon and the course of the sun. Bubastis was one of the principal attributes of Isis. Theology having personified her, formed of her a divinity, in whose honour a city of that name was built, as described by Herodotus, and where the people collected from all parts of Egypt at a certain period of the year. The symbol of this deity was a cat, which the priests fed with sacred food; and when it died they embalmed its body, and carried it in pomp to the tomb prepared for it. The ancients have explained this worship variously. The Greeks pretend that when Typhon declared war against the gods, Apollo transformed himself into a vulture, Mereury into an ibis, and Bubastis into a cat, and that the veneration of the people for the latter animal took its rise from that fable; but they ascribe their own ideas to the Egyptians, who thought very differently. However that may be, the cat was greatly honoured in Egypt; and a Roman soldier having imprudently killed one, was immediately put to death by the populace. In the language of the priests, Bubastis was deemed the daughter of Isis, and even represented her in certain circumstances. It is for this reason that the Greeks, who honoured the moon by the name of Diana, bestowed it also on this Egyptian divinity. Bubastis, says Herodotus, is called Diana by the Greeks. The Egyptians attributecí to her the virtue of assisting pregnant women; while the Greeks and Latins, disciples of the Egyptians, ascribed the same power to Diana.
BUC, George, a learned English antiquary, flourished in the beginning of the seventeenth century. In the reign of King James I. he was made one of the gentlemen of his majesty’s privy chamber, and knighted; he was also constituted master of the revels. What he mostly distinguished himself by was his writing the History of the Reign of Richard III.; in which he takes great pains to wipe off the bloody stains which have tarnished the character of that prince, and represents his person and actions in a much less odious light than any other historian has done. He also wrote, a Treatise of the Art of Revels; and a work entitled the Third Universitie of England.
BUCAREST, or Bucharest, a city in the district of Ilfow, and the capital of the province of Wallachia. It is situated on a fine and extensive plain, upon the banks of the Dumbowitza, which falls into the Danube above the fortιeSs of Silistria. It is the seat of a Greek archbishop, and contains sixty churches of that communion, and also twenty monasteries. It is an ill-built town, the streets being paved with trees, and excessively filthy. There is a Greek college, with twelve professors and two hundred and sixty students. There arc some manufactures, and considerable domestic trade. The inhabitants are stated to be between 50,000 and 60,000. Long. 27. 2. 10. E. Lat. 44. 26. 45. N.
BUCCARI, a city in the Austrian province of Trieste, and circle of Montano. It is a well-frequented port for small vessels, being situated on a bay of the same name in the Gulf of Quarano. It has considerable traffic in wine and in wood, and a tunny fishery. The inhabitants are about 2000. Long. 14. 26. 12. E. Lat. 45. 18. N.