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BARTAN—BARTH
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of the French naval service. The town of Dunkirk has honoured his memory by a statue and by naming a public square after him.

See Richer, Vie de Jean Bart (1780), and many editions since; Vanderest, Histoire de Jean Bart.


BARTAN, more correctly Bartin, a town in the vilayet of Kastamuni, Asiatic Turkey, retaining the name of the ancient village Parthenia and situated near the mouth of the Bartan-su (anc. Parthenius), which formed part of the boundary between Bithynia and Paphlagonia. Various aetiological explanations of the name Parthenius were given by the ancients, e.g. that the maiden Artemis hunted on its banks, or that the flow of its waters was gentle and maiden-like. The town, which is the residence of a kaïmakam, is built on two low limestone hills and its streets are paved with limestone blocks. It is noted for the fine boxwood grown in the vicinity, is a port of call for Black Sea coasting steamers and carries on a considerable trade with Constantinople which might be increased were it not for the obstruction of the harbour by a bar. Pop. 8677, according to Cuinet, La Turquie d’Asie (1894).


BARTELS, HANS VON (1856–), German painter, was born in Hamburg, the son of Dr N. F. F. von Bartels, a Russian government official. He studied first under the marine painter R. Hardorff in Hamburg, then under C. Schweitzer in Düsseldorf and C. Oesterley in Hamburg, and finally at the Berlin School of Art. After travelling extensively, especially in Italy, he settled in Munich in 1885 and was appointed professor of painting in 1891. An oil painter of great power, he is one of the leading German water-colour painters, mainly of marines and scenes of fishing life, painted with rude vigour and a great display of technical skill. He excels in storm scenes and in depicting the strong, healthy fishing-folk of the northern coasts. He became an honorary member of leading English, German, Dutch, Belgian and Austrian art societies. Among his principal works are:—“Sturmflut” (Berlin Gallery); “Lonely Beach” (Hungarian National Gallery); “Potato Harvest—Rügen” (Prague); “Storm—Bornholm” (German emperor’s collection); and “Moonlight on the Zuyder Zee” (New Pinakothek, Munich).


BARTENSTEIN, a town of Germany, in the kingdom of Prussia, on the Alle, 34 m. S. of Königsberg by rail. Pop. (1900) 6805. It has a considerable trade in corn and live stock, and its industries comprise founding and carriage-building, tanneries, breweries and potteries. Bartenstein is celebrated for the treaty concluded here on the 26th of April 1807, between Prussia and Russia.


BARTER (from Fr. barater, to truck, to exchange), the exchange of commodities for commodities, in contra-distinction to the exchange of commodities for money. Barter was the simplest form of trading among primitive communities, but its inconveniences led, at an early stage of civilization, to the adoption of metals as mediums of exchange. Barter, however, is still very common in dealings with uncivilized peoples, and traders in many countries find that the most satisfactory method of effecting exchange is to furnish themselves with such commodities as weapons, tools and ornaments, which are more readily taken than money.

For the history of barter and the steps by which a system of currency was gradually evolved, see Money. Consult also W. S. Jevons, Money and the Mechanism of Exchange; A. Marshall, Economics; W. Ridgeway, Origin of Currency and Weight Standards.


BARTET (Regnault), JEANNE JULIA (1854–), French actress, was born in Paris and trained at the Conservatoire. In 1872 she began a successful career at the Vaudeville, and in 1879 was engaged at the Comédie Francaise, of which she became a sociétaire in 1880. For many years she played the chief parts both in tragedy and comedy, her grand style and exquisite finesse making her supreme among the younger actresses on the French stage. She had a season in London in 1908, when her consummate art was displayed in a number of parts.


BARTH, HEINRICH (1821–1865), German explorer, was born at Hamburg on the 16th of February 1821, and educated at Berlin University, where he graduated in 1844. He had already visited Italy and Sicily and had formed a plan to journey through the Mediterranean countries. After studying Arabic in London he set out on his travels in 1845. From Tangier he made his way overland throughout the length of North Africa, visiting the sites of the ancient cities of Barbary and Cyrenaica. He also travelled through Egypt, ascending the Nile to Wadi Halfa and crossing the desert to Berenice. While in Egypt he was attacked and wounded by robbers. Crossing the Sinai peninsula he traversed Palestine, Syria, Asia Minor, Turkey and Greece, everywhere examining the remains of antiquity; and returned to Berlin in 1847. For a time he was engaged there as Privat-docent, and in preparing for publication the narrative of his Wanderungen durch die Küstenländer des Mittelmeeres, which appeared in 1849.

At the instance of Bunsen and other scientists, Barth and Adolf Overweg, a Prussian astronomer, were appointed colleagues of James Richardson, an explorer of the Sahara who had been selected by the British government to open up commercial relations with the states of the central and western Sudan. The party left Tripoli early in 1850, but the deaths of Richardson (March 1851) and Overweg (September 1852) left Barth to early on the mission alone. He returned to Europe in September 1855, after one of the most fruitful expeditions ever undertaken in inner Africa. In addition to journeys across the Sahara, Barth traversed the country from Lake Chad and Bagirmi on the east to Timbuktu on the west and Cameroon on the south, making prolonged sojourns in the ancient sultanates or emirates of Bornu, Kano, Nupe, Sokoto and Gando and at Timbuktu. He studied minutely the topography, history, civilizations and resources of the countries he visited. The story of his travels was published simultaneously in English and German, under the title Travels and Discoveries in North and Central Africa (1857–1858, 5 vols.). For accuracy, interest, variety and extent of information Barth’s Travels have few rivals among works of the kind. It is a book that will always rank as a standard authority on the regions in question, of which a great part, under the name of Nigeria, has since come under British rule. Except a C.B., Barth himself received no recognition of his services from the British government. He returned to Germany, where he prepared a collection of Central African vocabularies (Gotha, 1862–1866). In 1858 he undertook another journey in Asia Minor, and in 1862 visited Turkey in Europe. In the following year he was appointed professor of geography at Berlin University and president of the Geographical Society. He died at Berlin on the 25th of November 1865.

See Schubert’s Heinrich Barth, der Bahnbrecher der deutschen Afrikaforschung (Berlin, 1897). An edition of the Travels in two volumes was published in London in 1890 (Minerva Library of Famous Books).


BARTH, KASPAR VON (1587–1658), German philologist, was born at Küstrin in the province of Brandenburg on the 21st of June 1587. He was an extremely precocious child, and was looked upon as a marvel of learning. After studying at Gotha, Eisenach, Wittenberg and Jena, he travelled extensively, visiting most of the countries of Europe. Too independent to accept any regular post, he lived alternately at Halle and on his property at Sellerhausen near Leipzig. In 1636, his library and MSS. at Sellerhausen having been destroyed by fire, he removed to the Paulinum at Leipzig, where he died on the 17th of September 1658. Barth was a very voluminous writer; his works, which were the fruits of extensive reading and a retentive memory, are unmethodical and uncritical and marred by want of taste and of clearness. He appears to have been excessively vain and of an unamiable disposition. Of his writings the most important are; Adversaria (1624), a storehouse of miscellaneous learning, dealing not only with classical but also with medieval and modern writers; and commentaries on Claudian (1612, 1650) and Statius (1664).


BARTH, a town of Germany, in the kingdom of Prussia, on the Barther Bodden, a lake connecting with the Baltic, 15 m. N.W. from Stralsund by rail. Pop. (1900) 7070. It contains a fine Gothic Protestant church (St Mary’s) dating from the 13th century and has several educational establishments, notably a