BODENBACH (Czech Podmokly), a town of Bohemia, Austria, 83 m. N.N.E. of Prague by rail. Pop. (1900) 10,782, almost exclusively German. It is situated on the left bank of the Elbe opposite Tetschen, and is an important railway junction, containing also an Austrian and a Saxon custom-house. Bodenbach, which in the middle of the 19th century had only a few hundred inhabitants, has become a very important industrial centre. Its principal manufactures include cotton and woollen goods, earthenware and crockery, chemicals, chicory, chocolate, sweetmeats and preserves, and beer. It has also a very active transit trade.
BODENSTEDT, FRIEDRICH MARTIN VON (1819–1892), German author, was born at Peine, in Hanover, on the 22nd of April 1819. He studied in Göttingen, Munich and Berlin. His career was determined by his engagement in 1841 as tutor in the family of Prince Gallitzin at Moscow, where he gained a thorough knowledge of Russian. This led to his appointment in 1844 as the head of a public school at Tiflis, in Transcaucasia. He took the opportunity of his proximity to Persia to study Persian literature, and in 1851 published a volume of original poetry in oriental guise under the fanciful title, Die Lieder des Mirza Schaffy (English trans. by E. d’Esterre, 1880). The success of this work can only be compared with that of Edward FitzGerald’s Omar Khayyam, produced in somewhat similar circumstances, but differed from it in being immediate. It has gone through 160 editions in Germany, and has been translated into almost all literary languages. Nor is this celebrity undeserved, for although Bodenstedt does not attain the poetical elevation of FitzGerald, his view of life is wider, more cheerful and more sane, while the execution is a model of grace. On his return from the East, Bodenstedt engaged for a while in journalism, married the daughter of a Hessian officer (Matilde, the Edlitam of his poems), and was in 1854 appointed professor of Slavonic at Munich. The rich stores of knowledge which Bodenstedt brought back from the East were turned to account in two important books, Die Völker des Kaukasus und ihre Freiheits-Kämpfe gegen die Russen (1848), and Tausend und ein Tag im Orient (1850). For some time Bodenstedt continued to devote himself to Slavonic subjects, producing translations of Pushkin, Lermontov, Turgweniev, and of the poets of the Ukraines, and writing a tragedy on the false Demetrius, and an epic, Ada die Lesghierin, on a Circassian theme. Finding, probably, this vein exhausted, he exchanged his professorship in 1858 for one of Early English literature, and published (1858–1860) a valuable work on the English dramatists contemporary with Shakespeare, with copious translations. In 1862 he produced a standard translation of Shakespeare’s sonnets, and between 1866 and 1872 published a complete version of the plays, with the help of many coadjutors. In 1867 he undertook the direction of the court theatre at Meiningen, and was ennobled by the duke. After 1873 he lived successively at Altona, Berlin and Wiesbaden, where he died on the 19th of April 1892. His later works consist of an autobiography (1888), successful translations from Hafiz and Omar Khayyam, and lyrics and dramas which added little to his reputation.
An edition of his collected works in 12 vols. was published at Berlin (1866–1869), and his Erzählungen und Romane at Jena (1871–1872). For further biographical details, see Bodenstedt’s Erinnerungen aus meinem Leben (2 vols., Berlin, 1888–1890); and G. Schenck, Friedrich von Bodenstedt. Ein Dichterleben in seinen Briefen (Berlin, 1893).
BODHI VAMSA, a prose poem in elaborate Sanskritized Pali, composed by Upatissa in the reign of Mahinda IV. of Ceylon about A.D. 980. It is an adaptation of a previously existing work in Sinhalese on the same subject, and describes the bringing of a branch of the celebrated Bo or Bodhi tree (i.e. Wisdom Tree, under which the Buddha had attained wisdom) to Ceylon in the 3rd century B.C. The Bodhi Vamsa quotes verses from the Mahāvamsa, but draws a great deal of its material from other sources; and it has occasionally preserved details of the older tradition not found in any other sources known to us.
Edition in Pali for the Pali Text Society by S. Arthur Strong (London, 1891).
BODICHON, BARBARA LEIGH SMITH (1827–1891), English educationalist, was born at Watlington, Norfolk, on the 8th of April 1827, the daughter of Benjamin Smith (1783–1860), long M.P. for Norwich. She early showed a force of character and catholicity of sympathy that later won her a prominent place among philanthropists and social workers. In 1857 she married an eminent French physician, Dr Eugène Bodichon, and, although wintering many years in Algiers, continued to lead the movements she had initiated in behalf of Englishwomen. In 1869 she published her Brief Summary of the Laws of England concerning Women, which had a useful effect in helping forward the passage of the Married Women’s Property Act. In 1866, co-operating with Miss Emily Davies, she matured a scheme for the extension of university education to women, and the first small experiment at Hitchin developed into Girton College, to which Mme Bodichon gave liberally of her time and money. With all her public interests she found time for society and her favourite art of painting. She studied under William H. Hunt, and her water-colours, exhibited at the Salon, the Academy and elsewhere, showed great originality and talent, and were admired by Corot and Daubigny. Her London salon included many of the literary and artistic celebrities of her day; she was George Eliot’s most intimate friend, and, according to her, the first to recognize the authorship of Adam Bede. Her personal appearance is said to be described in that of Romola. Mme Bodichon died at Robertsbridge, Sussex, on the 11th of June 1891.
BODIN, JEAN (1530–1596), French political philosopher, was born at Angers in 1530. Having studied law at Toulouse and lectured there on jurisprudence, he settled in Paris as an advocate, but soon applied himself to literature. In 1555 he published his first work, a translation of Oppian’s Cynegeticon into Latin verse, with a commentary. The celebrated scholar, Turnebus, complained that some of his emendations had been appropriated without acknowledgment. In 1588, in refutation of the views of the seigneur de Malestroit, comptroller of the mint, who maintained that there had been no rise of prices in France during the three preceding centuries, he published his Responsio ad Paradoxa Malestretti (Réponse aux paradoxes de M. Malestroit), which the first time explained in a nearly satisfactory manner the revolution of prices which took place in the 16th century. Bodin showed a more rational appreciation than many of his contemporaries of the causes of this revolution, and the relation of the variations in money to the market values of wares in general as well as to the wages of labour. He saw that the amount of money in circulation did not constitute the wealth of the community, and that the prohibition of the export of the precious metals was rendered inoperative by the necessities of trade. This tract, the Discours sur les causes de l’extèrme cherté qui èst aujourdhuy en France (1574), and the disquisition on public revenues in the sixth book of the République, entitle Bodin to a distinguished position among the earlier economists.
His learning, genial disposition, and conversational powers won him the favor of Henry III. and of his brother, the duc d’Alençon; and he was appointed king’s attorney at Laon in 1576. In this year he married, performed his most brilliant service to his country, and completed his greatest literary work. Elected by the tiers état of Vermandois to represent it in the states-general of Blois, he contended with skill and boldness in extremely difficult circumstances for freedom of conscience, justice and peace. The nobility and clergy favoured the League, and urged the king to force his subjects to profess the Catholic religion. When Bodin found he could not prevent this resolution being carried, he contrived to get inserted in the petition drawn up by the states the clause “without war,” which practically rendered nugatory all its other clauses. While he thus resisted the clergy and nobility he successfully opposed the demand of the king to be allowed to alienate the public lands and royal demesnes, although the chief deputies had been won over to assent. This lost him the favour of the king, who wanted money on any terms. In 1581 he acted as secretary to the duc d’Alençon
