pnugues/EB7 huggingface dataset:
BASIL the Great, one of the most learned and eloquent doctors of the church, was born at Caesarea, in Cappadocia, about the year 328, and went to finish his studies [7:4:426]at Athens, where he contracted an intimate friendship with Gregory Nazianzen. He returned to his native country in 355, where he taught rhetoric for some time. He then travelled into Syria, Egypt, and Libya, for the purpose of visiting the monasteries of these countries; and finding the monastic life suited to his disposition, he resolved, upon his re; turn, to follow it, and in fact became the first monk and the original founder of monasteries in Pontus and Cappadocia. Upon the death of Eusebius, bishop of Caesarea, in 370, Basil was chosen his successor; but it was with difficulty that he accepted of this dignity; and no sooner had he been raised to it than the emperor Valens began to persecute him because he refused to embrace the doctrine of the Arians. As soon as this storm had blown over, the new bishop used his utmost endeavours to bring about a re-union between the eastern and western churches, which were then much divided about some points of faith, and also in regard to Meletius and Paulinus, two bishops of Antioch; but all his efforts were ineffectual, and the dispute was not terminated until nine months after his death. Basil had a share in all the controversies of his time regarding the doctrine of the church. He died in the beginning of January 379. Several editions of his works in Greek and Latin have been published. The best is that of Father Garnier, printed in Greek and Latin, in three volumes folio. Basil’s style is pure and elegant, his expressions often reach the sublime, and his thoughts are noble and full of majesty. Erasmus ranks him among the greatest orators of antiquity.

Basil, in joinery, the sloping edge of a chisel, or of the iron of a plane for working on soft wood. The basil is usually made twelve degrees, and for hard wood eighteen. The more acute it is, the better the instrument cuts; and the more obtuse, the stronger and fitter it is for service.
BASILAN, an island lying amid a cluster of small islands off the south-western extremity of Magindanao, about 60 miles in circumference, with a range of mountains in the centre. The island is fertile, and abounds in grain. Wild hogs and deer inhabit the interior, which is watered by considerable streams, but is thinly peopled. It is 18 miles from Magindanao. Long. 121. E. Lat. 5. 50. N.
BASILEUS, βα<nλsυς, a title assumed by the emperors of Constantinople, exclusive of all other princes, to whom they gave the title rex, or king. The title basileus was subsequently assumed by other kings, particularly the kings of England; as Ego Edgar totius Angliae basileus confirmavi. Hence also the queen of England was anciently styled Basilea or Basilissa.
BASILĨAN Monks, a religious community of the order of St Basil. That saint, having retired into a desert in the province of Pontus, founded a monastery for the convenience of himself and his numerous followers; and, for the better regulation of this society, he drew up in writing the orders and rules which they were to observe. This new order soon spread all over the East, and ere long passed into the West; and it is even said that Basil, before he died, saw himself the spiritual father of more than ninety thousand monks in the East only. The historians of the order state that it produced fourteen popes, several cardinals, and a great number of patriarchs and archbishops, 1805 bishops, 3010 abbots, 11,805 martyrs, with an infinite number of confessors, virgins, &c. It was introduced into the West in 1057, and reformed in 1569 by Pope Gregory XIII., who united the religious of this order in Italy, Spain, and Sicily, into one congregation.
BASILIC, or Basilica, in the ancient architecture, a kind of public hall or court of judicature, where the princes or magistrates sat to administer justice. This word is originally Greek, βαffιλιxη, meaning royal house, or palace.

The basilicae consisted of a great hall, with ailes, porticos, tribunes, and tribunals. The bankers too had one part of the basilica allotted for their residence; and scho- ' lars likewise went thither to pronounce their declamations. In after-times the denomination of basilica was also given to other buildings of public use, as town-houses, exchanges, burses, and the like. The Roman basilicae were covered by which they were distinguished from the for a, which were public places in the open air. The first basilica at Rome was built by Cato the elder, whence it was called Porcia; the second was called Opimia; the third was that of Paulus, built at great expense, and with much magnificence, whence it was called by some regia Pauli; and Julius Caesar erected a fourth called basilica Julia, of which Vitruvius tells us he had the direction. Besides these there were others, to the number of eighteen or twenty. The basilica Julia not only served for the hearing of causes, but likewise for the reception and audience of foreign ambassadors. It was supported by a hundred marble pillars in four rows, and enriched with decorations of gold and precious stones; and in it were thirteen tribunals or judgment-seats, where the praetors sat for the dispatch of judicial business.
BASILICA is also used by ecclesiastical writers for a church; in which sense the name frequently occurs in St Ambrose, St Austin, St Jerome, Sidonius Apollinaris, and other writers of the fourth and fifth centuries. The name was probably thus applied from many of the ancient churches having been formed out of the Roman halls or basilicae above described.

Basilica is chiefly applied, in modern times, to churches of royal foundation, as those of St John de Lateran and St Peter of the Vatican at Rome, founded by the emperor Constantine.

Basilics were also little chapels built by the ancient Franks over the tombs of their great men, so caļled from their resembling the figure of the sacred basilicae or churches.
BASILICATA, a province of the kingdom of Naples. It is bounded on the north by Capitanata, on the northeast by Bari and Otranto, on the east by the Bay of Taranto, on the south by Calabria, on the south-west by the Gulf of Policastro, and on the west by Principato-Ulteriore. It extends 3481 square miles over a country including a great part of the Appennines. The population amounts to 378,160 persons, who speak the Calabrian dialect. The capital of the province is Potenza.
BASILICI, a denomination given in the Greek empire to those who carried the emperor’s orders and commands.
BASILIDIANS, ancient heretics, the followers of Basilides, an Egyptian, who lived near the beginning of the second century. He was educated in the Gnostic school, over which Simon Magus presided, and agreed with his master in holding that Christ was a man in appearance, that his body was a phantom, and that he gave his form to Simon the Cyrenian, who was crucified in his stead. This heresiarch, as we learn from Eusebius, wrote twenty-four books upon the gospel, and forged several prophets, to two of which he gave the names Darcaba and Barcoph. A fragment of a Basilidian gospel is still extant. The Basilidians held much the same opinion with the Valentinians, another branch of the Gnostic family. They asserted that all the actions of men are necessary; that faith is a natural gift, to which men are forcibly determined; and that however irregular or vicious may be the lives of men, they are nevertheless sure to be saved. Irenaeus and others assure us that they acted in perfect consistency with their principles, committing all manner of villanies aιιd impurities, in confidence of their natural election, ihey had a particular hierarchy of divine persons, or Aeons. Under the cabbalistical name Abraxas, they are believed to have worshipped the supreme God, from whom, as a principle, all other things proceeded. There are still extant several gems inscribed with the word Abraxas, and which were probably used by the Basilidians as amu-ets against diseases and evil spirits.
BASILIPPUM, in Ancient Geography, a town of Baetlca in Spain, now Cantìllana in Andalusia.
BASILISK. See Reptilia, Index. Basilisk, in military affairs, a large piece of ordnance, so called from its supposed resemblance to the fabulous serpent of that name. The basilisk threw an iron ball of 200 pounds weight. It was much talked of in the time of Sultan Solyman, particularly during the wars of Hungary, but is now entirely out of use; unless, indeed, the name may still be applied to those enormous pieces of ordnance which the Turks have built into the ramparts of the castles on the Dardanelles, and which carry stone balls of from 200 to 300 pounds weight.
BASILIUS, surnamed the Macedonian, emperor of the Greeks. He was originally a common soldier, and of an obscure family in Macedonia; but having attracted the attention of the emperor Michael by his address in th©- management of horses, he became first equerry, then great chamberlain, and, having assassinated the famous Bardas, was at length associated to the empire in 849. Basilius held the eighth general council at Constantinople deposed the patriarch Photius, but in 858 restored him to the patriarchate; and declared against the popes, who refused to admit him into their communion. He was dreaded by his enemies the Saracens, whom he frequently vanquished, and loved by his subjects on account of his justice and clemency. He died in 886.
BASINGSTOKE, a market and borough-town of the hundred of Basing, in the county of Hants, forty-five miles from London, on the road to Exeter by Salisbury. The canal from hence to the river Wye and the Thames has contributed to increase the trade of the town. In 871 a sanguinary battle was fought here between the Danes and Saxons. The market is held on Wednesday. The inhabitants amounted in 1801 to 2589, in 1811 to 2656, and in 1821 to 3165.
BASKERVILLE, Johk, an eminent artist of the eighteenth century, especially in letter-founding and in printing. He was born in 1706, at Wolverley in Worcestershire, and was heir to an estate of about L.60 a year, the whole of which income he allowed to his parents during their lives. In his early years he conceived a love for caligraphy and cutting in stone; and being brought up to no particular profession, he commenced writingmaster in Birmingham when about twenty years of age. Here the improvements made in different manufactures soon drew his attention, and he applied to the business of japanning, which he carried on for a long time with distinguished excellence and success. In 1750 he turned his attention to letter-founding, which he brought to great perfection at the cost of much labour and expense; and in a few years proceeded to printing. His first work ŵäs an edition of Virgil in royal quarto, which is now in great request. Soon after this the university of Cambridge granted him permission to print a Bible in royal folio, and editions of the Common Prayer in three sizes; a privilege for which he paid a considerable sum to the university. He afterwards printed Horace, Terence, Catullus, Lucretius, Juvenal, Sallust, and Florus, in royal quarto; Virgil in octavo; and several books in duodecimo. He likewise published some of the English classics. The best testimonies to the merit of these performances are to be found in the books themselves, which are admirable specimens of typography; and indeed Mr Baskerville is deservedly ranked among those who, in modern times, have brought the art of printing to its greatest perfection. Not having met with that encouragement which he expected from the booksellers, he set up his letter foundery for sale a [7:4:428]little before his death, which took place in July 1775. He left no issue.
BASMAN, a village of Persia, in the province of Khorassan and district of Kohistan, consisting of about 150 houses, and governed by a chief of the tribe of Beloches. Here is a singular hot well, about twelve yards in circumference, in the centre of which the water boils up with violence from a pipe of burnt clay. There is a tradition that the city of the Guebres once stood here. Long. 59. 52. E. Lat. 28. 36. N. -
BASON, or Basin, in Hydraulics, a reservoir of water, used for various purposes.

Bason, in Jewish Antiquities, the laver of the tabernacle, made of the brass looking-glasses belonging to those devout women who watched and stood as sentinels at the door of the tabernacle.

Bason, or Dish, among glass-grinders. These artificers use basons of different materials, as copper, iron, &c. and of various forms, some deeper, others shallower, according to the focus of the glasses that are to be ground. In these basons it is that convex glasses are formed, as concave ones are formed on spheres or bowls. Glasses are worked in basons two ways. In the first, the bason is fitted to the arbor or tree of a lathe, and the glass, fixed with cement to a handle of wood, is presented and held fast in the right hand within the bason, while the proper motion is given by the foot to the bason. In the other, the bason is fixed to a stand or block, and the glass with its wooden handle is moved. The movable basons are very small, seldom exceeding five or six inches in diameter; but the others are larger, sometimes exceeding ten feet diameter. After the glass has been ground in the bason, it is smoothed with grease and emery, then polished with tripoli, and lastly, finished with paper cemented to the bottom of the bason.

Bason, among hatters, a large round shell or case, ordinarily of iron, in which the matter of the hat is moulded into form over a furnace. The hatters have also basons for the brims of hats, usually of lead, having an aperture in the middle, of a diameter sufficient for the largest block to go through.
BASSAN, Giacomo de Pont, or Le Bassan, a celebrated Venetian painter, was born in 1510. His subjects were generally peasants and villagers, busy at their different rural occupations, according to the various seasons of the year, together with cattle, landscapes, and historical designs; and in all these the figures are well designed, while the animals and landscapes have an agreeable air of simple nature. His compositions cannot boast of much elegance or grandeur of taste, not even those which are historical; but they have abundance of force and truth. His local colours are well observed, his carnations fresh and brilliant, and his chiaroscuro and perspective unexceptionable. His touch is free and spirited; and the distances in his landscapes are always true, if not sometimes too dark in the nearer parts. As he lived to be very old, he finished a great number of pictures; but notwithstanding his age and application, the real pictures of Giacomo are not commonly met with; many of those which are called originals by purchasers as well as dealers being at best no more than copies by the sons of Bassan, who were far inferior to him, or perhaps by some painter of still meaner abilities. The true pictures of Giacomo, however, always bear a considerable price if they happen to be undamaged. He died in 1592, aged eighty-two. Francis and Leander, his sons, made some progress in the same art; but inheriting a species of lunacy from their mother, both came to an untimely end.
BASSANI, Giovanni Battista, maestro di cappella of the cathedral church of Bologna about the middle of the last century, was a very voluminous composer of having given to the world no fewer than thirty-one different works. He is equally celebrated as a composer [7:4:433] for the church and for concerts; and was besides a celebrated performer on the violin, having, it is said, taught Corelli on that instrument. His compositions consist of ' masses, psalms, motets with instrumental parts, and sonatas for violins. His fifth opera, in particular, containing twelve sonatas for two violins and a bass, is most esteemed; being written in a style wonderfully grave and pathetic, and abounding with evidences of great learning and fine invention. The first and third operas of Corelli are apparently formed after the model of this work. Bassani was one of the first who composed motets for a single voice, with accompaniments of violins; a practice which is liable to objection, as it assimilates church-music too nearly to that of the chamber; and of his sol-motets it must be confessed that they differ in style but little from opera airs and cantatas. Two of them, namely, the eighth and thirteenth, were printed in London by Pearson, with the title of Harmonia Festiva.
BASSANO, a city in the Austrian kingdom of Venetian Lombardy, in the delegation of Verona. It stands on the river Brenta, over which there is a bridge 186 feet in length. It is surrounded with walls, and has six gates, one of which, built by Palladio, is very much admired. It contains 30 churches with some fine paintings, several religious houses, and other public edifices, with 1600 houses, and about 11,000 inhabitants, who find employment in various manufactures. Long. 11. 38. 45. E. Lat. 45. 45. 34. N.
BASSANTIN, James, a Scotch astronomer, son of the laird of Bassantin, in Merse, was born in the reign of James IV. Educated at the university of Glasgow, he travelled through Germany and Italy, and then fixed his abode in the university of Paris, where he taught mathematics with great applause. Having acquired some fortune in this occupation, he returned in 1562 to Scotland, where he died in the year 1568. From his writings he appears to have been no contemptible astronomer, considering the times; but, like most of the mathematicians of that age, he was not a little addicted to judicial astrology. Sir James Melville, in his Memoirs, says that his brother Sir Robert, when exerting his abilities to reconcile the two queens, Elizabeth and Mary, met with one Bassantin, a man learned in the high sciences, who told him “that all his travel would be in vain; for, said he, they will never meet together; and next, there will never be any thing but dissembling and secret hatred for a while, and at length captivity and utter wreck to our queen from England.” He added, “that the kingdom of England at length shall fall of right to the crown of Scotland; but it shall cost many bloody battles, and the Spaniards shall be helpers, and take a part to themselves for their labour.” Sir James Melville is an author of credit, and therefore it is not improbable that Bassantin ventured to utter his prediction; but, as it proved true only in part, he either misunderstood the stars, or the stars deceived the astrologer. His works are, 1. Astronomia Jacobi Bassantini Scoti, opus absoiutissimum, &c. ter editum Latine et Gallice. Genev. 1u99, folio. This is the title given it by Tornaesius, who translated it into Latin from the French, in which language it was first published. 2. Paraphrase de l’Astro-labe, avec un amplification de l’usage de l’Astrolabe. Lyons, 1555. Paris, 1617, 8vo. 3. Mathematica Geneth-ιaca. 4. Arithmetica. 5. Musica secundum Platonem.

• De Mathesi in genere.
BASSE Terre, part of the island of St Christopher’s, one of the Caribbee Islands.
BASSEIN, or Persaim, a town of the Burman empire, situated about sixty miles from the sea, on the river Bassein, which is the westernmost branch of the great Irrawady. It is a considerable mart of trade, through which are carried, from the sea-ports to the upper provinces, provisions and other articles. Long. 95. E. Lat. 16. 50. N. Population, according to Crawford, 3000.
BASSETING, in the coal mines, denotes the rise of the vein of coal towards the surface of the earth, till it come within two or three feet of the surface itself. This is also called by the workmen cropping; and stands opposed to dipping, which is the descent of the vein to such a depth that it is rarely, if ever, followed to the end.

BASSO-relievo, or Bas-relief, a piece of sculpture, where the figures or images do not protuberate or stand out much above the plane on which they are formed. All figures or representations which are cut, stamped, or otherwise wrought, so that not the entire body, but only part of it, is raised above the plane, are said to be done in relief or relievo; and when the work is low, flat, and but little raised, it is called low relief. If a piece of sculpture, a coin, or a medal, has its figure raised so as to be well distinguished, it is called bold, and we say its relief is strong.
BASSOON, a musical instrument of the wind sort, blown with a reed, furnished with eleven holes, and used as a bass in a concert of hautboys, flutes, &c.
BASSORA. See Bussorah.
BASTARDY is a defect of birth objected to one born out of wedlock. In relation to its trial in law, bastardy is distinguished into general and special. General bastardy is a certificate from the bishop of the diocese to the king’s justices, after inquiry made whether the party is a bastard or not, upon some question of inheritance. Bastardy special is a suit commenced in the king’s courts against a person who calls another a bastard.

Bastardy, Arms of, should be crossed with a bar, fillet, or traverse, from the right to the left.
BASTARNAE, or Basternae, a people of German original, manners, and language, who extended themselves a great way to the cast of the Vistula, among the Sarmatae, as far as the mouth of the Ister and the Euxine, and were divided into several nations.
BASTARNICAE Alpes, in Ancient Geography, mountains extending between Poland, Hungary, and Transylvania; called also the Carpates, and now the Carpathian Mountains.
BASTIA, a circle in the island and department of Corsica, now a part of France. The circle contains twenty cantons, which are subdivided into eighty-two communes or parishes, with a population of 53,104 persons. The extent is 610 square miles. The city of the same name is the capital of the department. It stands on the eastern coast of the island, on the side of a hill, in the form of an amphitheatre, and has a strong citadel to defend the harbour. It is the see of a bishop, and has a cathedral, two hospitals, several churches, and 11,350 inhabitants. Long. 9. 20. 40. E. Lat. 42. 41. 36. N.
BASTTMENTOS, the name of some small islands near Terra Firma, in South America, at the mouth of the Bay of Nombre de Dios.
BASTINADO, or Bastinade, the punishment of beating or drubbing a criminal with a stick. The word is formed from the French baston, a stick, staff, or eudgel. The bastinade was a punishment used among the ancient Greeks, Romans, and Jews, and still obtains among the l urks. The Romans called it fastigatio, fustium admonitio, fustibus ccedi; which differed from the flagellatio in being done with a stick instead of a rod or seourge. Fustigation was a lighter punishment, and inflicted on freemen; flagellation a severer, and reserved for slaves. It was also called tympanum, because the patient here was beat with sticks like a drum. The punishment of the bastinado is much in use in the East at this day; and it is c∣ιiefly administered on the soles of the feet, which are sometimes beaten almost to a jelly.