became the leading paper in the state. In December 1822 he was chosen alderman of the city of Philadelphia, an office which he held till 1844. He died at Philadelphia on 16 June 1860.
[Recollections of John Binns— Twenty-nine years in Europe and Fifty-three in the United States— written by himself. Philadelphia. 1854.]
BINYON, EDWARD (1830?–1876), landscape painter, born about the year 1830, was a member of the Society of Friends. He painted both in oil and in water-colours, and his works show much power of colouring; one of them, 'The Bay of Mentone,' has frequently been reproduced. He contributed from 1857 to 1876 to the exhibitions of the Dudley Gallery and the Royal Academy, among the pictures which he sent to the latter being, in 1859, 'The Arch of Titus;' in 1860 'Capri;' in 1873 'Marina di Lacco, Ischia;' in 1875 'Coral Boat at Dawn, Bay of Naples;' and in 1876 'Hidden Fires, Vesuvius from Capodimonte.' He lived many years in the island of Capri, where he died in 1876, from the effects of bathing while overheated.
[Bryan's Dictionary of Painters and Engravers, ed. Graves, 1884; Royal Academy Exhibition Catalogues, 1859-76.]
BIONDI, Sir GIOVANNI FRANCESCO (1572–1644), historian and romance writer, was born in 1572 at Lesina, an island in the Gulf of Venice off Dalmatia. Entering the service of the Venetian republic, he was appointed secretary to Senator Soranzo, the Venetian ambassador at Paris; but he soon afterwards returned to Venice, and at the suggestion of Sir Henry Wotton, the English ambassador there, came to England to seek his fortunes. Arriving in 1609 (Cal. Dom. State Paper, 1629–31, p. 347), with an introduction to James I, he was at first employed in negotiating with the Duke of Savoy marriages between his children and Prince Henry and Princess Elizabeth, but the scheme never reached maturity. He was settled in London in the latter half of 1612, when Prince Henry's death ended 'all hope of a Savoyan match,' and was well received by the king, who granted him a pension. Fifteen interesting Italian letters, written between 9 Oct. 1612 and 24 Nov. 1613, by Biondi in London to Carleton, who was then the English ambassador at Venice, are extant among the 'State Papers.' In one of them, dated 28 Oct. 1613, Biondi promises to follow Carleton's advice, and remain permanently in London; and in the latest of them he announces his intention of going to Paris with Sir Henry Wotton, should Wotton be appointed to the English legation there. He had been in early life converted to the protestant faith; but Archbishop Abbot informed Carleton (30 Nov. 1613) that, although he knew nothing to Biondi's disadvantage, he was as suspicious of him as of all 'Italian convertitos.' In 1615 Biondi proceeded to the general Calvinist assembly held at Grenoble as James I's representative, and he assured the assembly of the English king's protection and favour (Marsollier, Histoire de Henri, duc de Bouillon, 1719, livre vii. p. 27). On 6 Sept. 1622 Biondi was knighted by James I at Windsor, and married about the same time Mary, the sister of the king's physician, Sir Theodore Mayerne, 'a very great lump or great piece of flesh,' as Chamberlain describes her (Nichols, Progresses, iii. 777; Cal. Dom. State Papers, 1619–23, p. 495). Soon afterwards Biondi became a gentleman of the king's privy chamber. On 22 Feb. 1625–6 he resigned two small pensions which he had previously held, and received in behalf of himself and his wife, during their lives, a new pension of 200l. On 13 June 1628 an exemption from all taxation was granted him. On 25 Sept. 1630 he sent to Carleton, who had now become Viscount Dorchester and secretary of state, a statement of his affairs, and desired it to be laid before the king. After giving an account of his early life, and of the loss which he had sustained in the death, in 1628, of his patron, William Cavendish, earl of Devonshire, he complained that his pension had been rarely paid, and prayed for its increase by 100l. and its regular payment. The justices of the peace for Middlesex reported (11 May 1636) that Biondi, with other persons of 'quality' residing in Clerkenwell, had refused to contribute 'to the relief of the infected' of the district. There is extant at the Record Office a certificate of payment of Biondi's pension on 7 May 1638. Two years later he left England for the house of his brother-in-law, Mayerne, at Aubonne, near Lausanne, Switzerland. He died there in 1644, and the epitaph on his tomb in the neighboring church was legible in 1737. An admirable portrait of Biondi is given in 'Le Glorie de gli Incogniti,' p. 240. This book, published at Venice in 1647, is an account of deceased members of the Venetian 'Accademia de' Signori Incogniti,' to which Biondi belonged.
Biondi was the author of three tedious chivalric romances, which tell a continuous story, and of a work on English history. They were all written in Italian, but became very popular in this country in English
