April 1524, he received a musket-shot in the reins, which broke the spinal bone. The moment he was struck he pronounced himself a dead man, kissed the guard of his sword, which had the figure of a cross, and recommended himself to God in prayer. He then ordered them to lay him under a tree, with his face towards the enemy, and to support his head by placing a stone under it, which he saw lying upon the ground. "Having never yet turned my back upon an enemy," said he, "I will not begin the last day of my life." He desired the seigneur d'Alegre to tell the king that he should die contented because he died in his service, and that he regretted nothing but that with his life he should lose the power of serving him longer. He then made his military testament, and confessed himself. When the constable, Charles de Bourbon, who pursued the French army after the defeat, came up to the spot where Bayard was dying, he expressed his concern to see him in that condition. "Alas, captain Bayard, how sorry am I to see you thus! I have always loved and honoured you for your wisdom and valour, and I now sincerely pity your misfortune."—"Sir," said Bayard, "I thank you; but there is no reason why you should pity me who die like añ honest man in the service of my king, though there is great reason to pity you who are carrying arms against your prince, your country, and your oath.' The constable, far from taking offence at the freedom of Bayard's address, endeavoured to justify himself by motives arising from the disgrace he had endured; but Bayard exhorted him, with a feeble and faltering voice, to reconcile himself to his sovereign, and quit the part which he had unjustly and precipitately taken, in obedience to the dictates of his passion. Bayard very soon after expired, in the forty-eighth year of his age, and was buried in the cathedral of Grenoble, with great funeral honours. Many anecdotes are told highly to the honour of Bayard's courage, disinterested spirit, generosity, and presence of mind; but the religion so often attributed to him, seems to have consisted in a superstitious regard to forms and ceremonies; if, for example, before fighting a duel, he heard mass, he was satisfied with the propriety of his conduct; but this, however, is to be attributed to the times in which he lived. life was first written by Champier, Paris, 1525, 4to. 2. By one of his secretaries, 1619, 4to. 3. By Lazare Bocquillot, prior of Louval, 1702, 12mo; and 4. by Goyard de Berville,

His

1760, 12mo, from which the present article is principally taken. A short, but well written memoir of him was published at London by the Rev. Joseph Stirling in 1781.

BAYER (JOHN) was a German lawyer and astronomer of the latter part of the sixteenth and beginning of the seventeenth century, but in what particular year or place he was born, is not certainly known; however, his name will be ever memorable in the annals of astronomy, on account of that great and excellent work which he first published in 1603, under the title of "Uranometria," being a complete celestial atlas, or large folio charts of all the constellations, with a nomenclature collected from all the tables of astronomy, ancient and modern, with the useful invention of denoting the stars in every constellation by the letters of the Greek alphabet, in their order, and according to the order of magnitude of the stars in each constellation. By means of these marks, the stars of the heavens may, with as great facility, be distinguished and referred to, as the several places of the earth are by means of geographical tables; and as a proof of the usefulness of this method, our celestial globes and atlasses have ever since retained it; and hence it is become of general use through all the literary world; astronomers, in speaking of any star in the constellation, denoting it by saying it is marked by Bayer, a, or ß, or y, &c.

Bayer lived many years after the first publication of this work, which he greatly improved and augmented by his constant attention to the study of the stars. At length, in 1627, it was republished under a new title, viz. "Čœlum stellatum Christianum," or the "Christian stellated Heaven," or the "Starry Heavens Christianized;" for in this work the heathen names and characters, or figures of the constellations, were rejected, and others, taken from the scriptures, were inserted in their stead, to circumscribe the respective constellations. This was the project of one Julius Schiller, a civilian of the same place. But this attempt was too great an innovation to find success, or a general reception, and would have occasioned great confusion. And we even find, in the later editions of this work, that the ancient figures and names were restored again; at least in the two editions of 1654 and 1661.2

See also Dict. Hist.-Moreri.

Martin's Biographia Philosophica.-Hutton's Math. Dict.

BAYER (THEOPHILUS SIEGFRID), grandson of the preceding, was born in 1694. He was first educated at Konigsburgh, where, besides philosophy and theology, he devoted much of his time to the study of the Oriental languages, under some rabbis, and under Dr. Abraham Wolff, professor of theology. In 1713 he began the study of the Chinese language, but his severe and uninterrupted application having injured his health, he was recommended to try change of air. With this view he went to Dantzic, to John Sartorius, professor of rhetoric, who was his maternal great-uncle, and as soon as he was able to return to Konigsburgh, he went through his disputation, and obtained a pension. Soon after, he went to Berlin, where M. Grabe, a privy-counsellor, assisted him with the means of prosecuting his studies, and there he formed an intimacy with de la Croze, Jablonski, des Vignoles, Chauvin, and many other learned men of the time. At Halle, professor Frank introduced him to Solomon Assadi, whose lessons removed many of the difficulties he had encountered in learning the Arabic; and M. Michaelis and Heineccius furnished him with much useful information respecting the Ethiopian and Greek churches. From Halle he went to Leipsic, where, in Feb. 1717, he was admitted to the degree of M. A. Here M. Sieber permitted him the free use of his fine library, and M. Goëtze gave him access to the manuscripts of the public library, of which he made a catalogue. At the request of M. Mencke he drew up several curious articles for the Leipsic "Acta eruditorum," particularly one on the triumphal arch of Trajan, another on the Malabaric new Testament, a third on the Coptic new Testament, &c. with all which Mencke was so well satisfied, as to make him very advantageous offers if he would consent to reside at Leipsic. The magistrates of Konigsburgh wrote to him at the same time, that if he wished to continue his travels, his expences should be defrayed; but the bad state of his health obliged him to return home. Recovering a little, he went to Wirtemberg and Berlin, where M. de la Croze gave him some lessons in the Coptic ; and at Stettin he had the happiness to be admitted to inspect the Chinese collections made by Andrew Muller, which are preserved there. About the end of autumn 1717, having returned to Konigsburgh, the magistrates appointed him librarian, and in 1720 and 1721 he was chosen co-rector and pro-rector of the principal college. VOL. IV.

P

About the beginning of 1726, he was invited to Petersburgh to be professor of Greek and Roman antiquities. The same year he delivered some orations in the presence of the empress Catherine, who laid the foundation of the new academy, in honour of the coronation of Peter II. In 1730 the royal academy of Berlin enrolled him among its members. He was about to have retired to Konigsburgh, with his family, when he was attacked by a disorder which proved fatal, Feb. 21, 1738. Besides a number of philological and antiquary dissertations in the literary journals, he published, 1. "Museum Sinicum, in quo Sinica Linguæ et Literaturæ ratio explicatur; item grammatica, lexicon, et diatriba Sinicæ reperiuntur," Petrop. 1730, 2 vols. 8vo. The first volume contains the grammar, the characters cut on numerous copperplates. The lexicon, in the second, is also on copperplates, with a Latin translation. This is a work of singular erudition, and the most perfect we have on the Chinese language. 2. "Historia regni Græcorum Bactriani," ibid. 1738, 4to. 3. "Historia Osrhoena et Edessena ex nummis illustrata, in qua Edessæ urbis, Osrhoeni regni, Abgarorum regum, &c. fata explicantur," ib. 1734, 4to. Many of his academical dissertations were published by Christ. Adolphus Klotz, under the title of "Opuscula ad historiam antiquam, chronologiam, geographiam, et rem nummariam spectantia," Halle, 1768, 8vo.1

*

BAYF (JOHN ANTHONY DE LA NEUVILLE), the natural son of the subject of the next article, was born at Venice in 1532, during his father's embassy there, and studied under Ronsard, making particular progress in the Greek tongue. He devoted himself afterwards to French poetry, which he disfigured not a little by a mixture of Greek and Latin words. His object was to give to the French the cadence and measure of the Greek and Latin poetry, in which he was very unsuccessful. Cardinal Perron said of him, that he was a good man, but a bad poet. He set his own verses, however, to music; not, says Dr. Burney, to such music as might be expected from a man of letters, or a dilletanti, consisting of a single melody, but to counterpoint, or music in parts. Of this kind he published, in 1561, "Twelve hymns or spiritual songs;" and, in 1578, several books of "Songs," all in four parts, of which both the words and the music were his own. In all he was allowed to be as good

3 Moreri.-Clarke's Dict. Bibl.—Saxii Onomasticon,

a musician as a poet; but what mostly entitles him to notice, is his having established a musical academy at Paris, the first of the kind; but in this he had to encounter many difficulties. The court was for it, and Charles IX. and Henry III. frequently attended these concerts; but the parliament and the university opposed the scheme as likely to introduce effeminacy and immorality. The civil wars occasioned their being discontinued, but they were long after revived, and proved the origin of the divertissements, the masquerades, and balls, which formed the pleasures of the court until the time of Louis XIV. Bayf died in 1592. His poems were published at Paris in 1573, 2 vols. 8vo, and consist of serious, comic, sacred, and profane pieces; the first volume is entitled "Euvres en rime," the other "Les Jeux." His mode of spelling is as singular as his composition, but the whole are now fallen into oblivion.

1

BAYF (LAZARUS DE), father to the above, a gentleman of family in Anjou, was educated under Budæus, and brought up to the profession of the bar. Happening, however, to go to Rome, he studied Greek under Musurus, a learned Candiot, and pursued it with such pleasure and success, that on his return he determined to devote himself entirely to the study of classical and polite literature. From this design, however, he was partly diverted by Francis I. who being made acquainted with his merit, sent him, in 1531, as ambassador to Venice, where he remained near three years, and formed an intrigue with a lady of family in that place, by whom he had the subject of the preceding article. After his return to Paris he was made counsellor of parliament. In 1539 he was sent as ambassador to Germany, and about 1541 was appointed master of the requests. The abbeys also of Grenetiere and Charroux were bestowed upon him. Moreri says, that in 1547 he assisted at the funeral of Francis I. as one of the eight masters of the requests; but Saxius says that he died in 1545. In order to make his countrymen acquainted with the Greek drama, he published translations into French. poetry, of the "Electra" of Sophocles, 1537, 8vo, and the "Hecuba" of Euripides, 1550, 12mo. His original works were principally, 1. "De re vestiaria liber," Basil, 1526, 4to. 2. "Annotationes in Legem II. de captivis et post

! Moreri.-Burney's Hist. of Music, vol. III.—Marchand, see Index.