in any military expedition with the object of which they had not been previously made acquainted. The states usually met every two years, and a permanent committee of tho three orders held its session in Brussels. The Brabantine court, under the native dynasty, was famous for the encouragement which it afforded to learning and literature ; and more than one of the dukes have left proof of personal culture in the shape of songs. (See Dinaux,
Trouvcres Brabanfons, Hainuycrs, &c., 18G3.)
Brabant, North, the modern Dutch province, has an area of 231 square miles, and in 1870 the population was 4,832,612. The surface is flat and the soil alluvial. The principal rivers are the Maas, the Aa, and the Dommel. The capital is s Hertogcnbosch, a city of 24,395 inhabitants, and the other chief towns are Breda (14,721), Bcrgen-op- Zoc.m (8352), Helmond (5301), and Tilburg (52G2).
Brabant, South, the modern Belgian province, has an area of 12G2 square miles, and in 1870 the population was 879,814. Its general features are much the same as those of the Dutch province, though the surface is rather more varied in its elevation. The principal rivers are the Senue, the Dyle, and the Demer. The capital is Brussels with 177,954 inhabitants ; and the other cities of import ance are Louvain (32,97G), Tirlemont (12,354), Nivelles (8800), Diest (75G1), and Vilvorde (6844).
BRACCIOLINI, Francesco, an Italian poet, born at Pistoia, of a noble family, in 156G. On his removing to Florence he was admitted into the academy there, and de voted himself to literature. At Rome he entered the service of Cardinal Matfeo Barberini, with whom he afterwards went to France. After the death of Clement VIII. he returned to his own country ; and when his patron Barberini was elected pope, under the name of Urban VIII., Bracciolini repaired to Home, and was made secretary to the Pope s brother, Cardinal Antonio. He had also the honour con ferred on him of taking a surname from the arms of the Barberini family, which were bees ; whence he was after wards known by the name of Bracciolini dell Api. During Urban s pontificate the poet lived at Rome -in considerable reputation, though at the same time he was censured for his sordid avarice. On the death of the pontiff he returned to Pistoia, where he died in 1645. There is scarcely any species of poetry, epic, dramatic, pastoral, lyric, or burlesque, which Bracciolini did not attempt; but he is principally noted for his mock-heroic poem Lo Schema deyli Dei, published in 1C 18, similar but confessedly inferior to the contemporary work of Tassoni, /Secckia Rapita. Of his serious heroic poems the most celebrated is La Croce liacqidstata.
BRACCIOLINI, Poggio. See Poggio.
BRACELET, or Armlet, a personal ornament, made of different materials, according to the fashion of the age and the rank of the wearer. The word is the French bracelet, which Manage derives from braceletum, a diminutive of Iracile, all formed from the Latin brachium, the arm, on which it was usually worn. By the Romans it was called annilla, brachiale, occabus ; and in the Middle Ages boga, bauga, armispatka.
In the Bible there are three different words which the authorized version renders by " bracelet." These are 1. my*X etzadah, which occurs in Num. xxxi. 50, 2 Sam. i. 10, and which being used with reference to men only, may be taken to be the armlet ; 2. *VE* tzamid, which is found in Gen. xxiv. 22, Num. xxxi. 50, Ezek. xvi. 11 ; where these two words occur together (as in Num. xxxi. 50) the first is rendered by " chain," and the second by "bracelet;" 3. Tint? sheroth, which occurs only in Isa. iii. 19. The first probably meant armlets worn by men; the second, bracelets worn by women and sometimes by men; and tho third, a peculiar bracelet of chain-work worn only by women. In 2 Sam. i. 10, the first word denotes the royal ornament which the Amalekitc took from the arm of the dead Saul, and brought with the other regalia to David. There is- little question that this was such a distinguishing band of jewelled metal as we still find worn as a mark of royalty from the Tigris to the Ganges. The Egyptian kings are represented with armlets, which were also worn by the Egyptian women. These, however, are not jewelled, but of plain or enamelled metal, as was in all likelihood the case among the Hebrews. In modern times the most celebrated armlets are those which form part of the regalia of the Persian kings, and which formerly belonged to the Mongol emperors of India. These ornaments are of dazzling splendour, and the jewels in them are of such large size and immense value that the pair are reckoned to be worth a million of our money. The prin cipal stone of the right armlet is famous in the East under the name of the Devid-e-mir, or " Sea of light." It weighs 18G carats, and is considered the diamond of finest lustre in the world. The principal jewel of the left armlet, although of somewhat inferior size (146 carats) and value, is renowned as the Tdg-e-mah t " Crown of the moon." The imperial armlets, generally set with jewels, may also be observed in most of the portraits of the Indian emperors.
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Bracelets.
Bracelets have at all times been much in use among bar baric nations, and the women frequently wear several on the same arm. The finer kinds are of mother of pearl, fine gold, or silver; others of less value are made of plated steel, horn, brass, copper, beads, (fee.
This species of personal ornament was exceedingly com mon in Europe in prehistoric times. The bracelets of the Bronze Age were either of gold or bronze, silver being then unknown. In shape they were oval and penannular with expanding or trumpet-shaped ends, having an opening between them of about half an inch to enable them to bo easily slipped over the wrist. Those of gold were generally plain, hammered rods, bent to the requisite shape, but those of bronze were often chased with elegant designs showing a cultivated taste. Some forms of spiral armlets of bronze, peculiar to Germany and Scandinavia, covered the whole fore-arm, and were doubtless intended as much for defence against a sword-stroke as for ornament. The Etruscan and early Roman forms of bronze bracelet were for the most part cylindrical, with overlapping ends, or spiral and scrpeut-shaped. These were also the common forms in the Iron Age of Northern Europe, while silver bracelets of great elegance, formed of plaited and inter twisted strands of silver wire, and plain penannular hoops, round or lozenge-shaped in section and tapering to the ex tremities, became common towards the close of the pagan period. The late Celtic period in Britain was characterized by serpent-shaped bracelets and massive armlets, with pro jecting ornaments of solid bronze and perforations filled with enamel. In the Middle Ages bracelets were much less commonly used in Europe, but the custom has con tinued to prevail among Eastern nations to the present time, and many of the types that were common in Europe in prehistoric times are still worn in Central Asia. A treatise De Armillis Vetcrum, by Thomas Bartolinus, was published at Amsterdam in 1G7H.
