BODLEY, Sir Thomas, founder of the Bodleian Library. Few names demand more respectful mention in a work so much occupied as the present with bibliographical references, than the name of the generous and accomplished Englishman, whose untiring labours in collecting and arranging the literary treasures of his country are attested by so magnificent a monument as the great library of Oxford. Sir Thomas Bodley was born in 1545 at Exeter, where his father, John Boadley, or as he spelled the name, Boadleigh, the descendant of an opulent Devonshire family, was then residing. John Boadley being a known enemy to popery, shortly after the commencement of the reign of Queen Mary, found it convenient to exchange his residence at Exeter for a safer one at Geneva, and accordingly arrived in the latter town with his family in 1557. Here Thomas, who had previously learned grammar, attended lectures on Hebrew and Greek, and those of Calvin and Beza on divinity, manifesting for these studies remarkable talents and enthusiasm. The family having returned to England on the death of Queen Mary, he was entered at Magdalen college, Oxford, in 1559; shortly after was received B.A.; and in 1563 was elected fellow of Merton college. In 1566, after earning considerable reputation by reading lectures to his college on the Greek language, he proceeded M.A.; next year read natural philosophy in the public schools; and in 1569 served the office of junior proctor. In 1583 we find him employed on a mission to the king of Denmark, the duke of Brunswick, and other German princes; some time afterwards intrusted with an embassy of great secrecy and importance, which resulted, as a state communication from the great protestant princess to Henry III. could not fail to do, in advantage to the protestant party in France; and still later, in charge of English interests at the Hague, which he did not finally quit till 1597. On his return to England, Burghley recommended him for secretary of state; but his claims to that high distinction having also been urged by Esses, the former withdrew his patronage, and Bodley, disappointed of a reward to which his diplomatic services had fairly entitled him, retired altogether from the arena of politics, carrying with him, however, a determination to make himself useful to his country in a private station. That determination, as he says himself, at last took the shape of setting up his staff at the library door of Oxon, and of endeavouring to reduce that place, which then in every part lay ruined and waste, to the public use of students. When in 1598 he set about the accomplishment of this toilsome work, in consequence of the desolation which attended the wars of the Roses, still more of the Vandalism which marked the period of the Reformation, and yet more of the worse Vandalism of theftuous visitors, all that remained of the ancient library of Oxford was so insignificant a part of the riches bequeathed to it by Roger Lisle, Humphrey of Gloucester, and others, as to be at once an insult to their memory and a reproach to the nation. In 1602 the task which Bodley had assigned himself, and which, as Camden says, "would have suited the character of a crowned head," was so far advanced, that 2000 volumes having been deposited in the library and duly catalogued, a solemn procession of members of the university was ordered, to mark so important an epoch in its history. After this period the literary stores of Oxford increased so rapidly, that a larger building was required for their accommodation, and of this Bodley, who had shortly before been knighted, had the satisfaction of laying the foundation-stone. Before its completion, however, his honourable and useful life closed at his house in London, January, 1617.—J. S., G.
BODMER, Johann Jacob, a celebrated German critic and poet, was born at Greifensee, near Zurich, July 19, 1698. At an early age he became conversant not only with the ancients, but also with the classical poets of France, England, and Italy, and thus was awakened to a sense of the low state of German literature, and of its want of sound criticism. Both by his critical writings—"Discurse der Maler;" "Kritische Briefe," &c.,—and his able editions of old German poetry—the "Nibelungen," and the "Manesse Collection of the Minnesingers,"—he greatly improved the prevalent taste of his countrymen, and rendered such important services to German literature, that he is justly reckoned one of the forerunners of its golden age. He and his friends, Bretinger, &c., are distinguished by the name of the Swiss school, and are particularly famous for their controversy with Gottsched, the head of the Saxon school. His own poetical writings, of which only the "Noachide," an epic poem, is worth mentioning, are deficient in elevation and imagination. He died at Zurich in 1783, where he had been professor of history and member of the great council.—K. E.
BOECE or BOYCE, Hector, a Scottish historian, born at Dundee about the year 1465. He received the first rudiments of learning in his native town, and completed his education in Montague college, Paris, where he took the degree of A.M. in 1494. Three years later he was appointed professor of philosophy in the same college. Here he gained the friendship of a number of learned men, among others of the celebrated Erasmus, who kept up a correspondence with him, and as a mark of his regard, dedicated to him a catalogue of his works; he calls Boece "vir singularis ingenii felicitatis et facundioris." On the establishment of King's college, Aberdeen, by Bishop Elphinstone, Boece was induced to resign his professorship, and to accept the office of principal of the new seminary. His zealous efforts, combined with those of his coadjutor William Hay, his fellow-student both in Scotland and France, contributed greatly to promote the cause of learning and education in the northern districts of the country. In 1522, Boece published his first work, the "Lives of the Bishops of Mortlach and Aberdeen, from 1015 down to 1518." One-third of the work is occupied with the biography of his friend, the excellent Bishop Elphinstone. Five years later appeared Boece's most famous work, "The History of the Scots." The publication of Major's history in 1521, is supposed to have led Boece to undertake a similar work. He professes to have found in the monastery of Icolmkill, the writings of certain Scottish historians, among others, of Veremundus, archdeacon of St. Andrews, and Cornelius Campbell, and to have made these the groundwork of his history. Bishop Stilling-fleet, however, alleges that these authors and their writings never existed, save in Boece's fertile imagination, and it is at least certain that not a single vestige of their works is now to be found. Boece's object seems to have been to clothe the rude chronicles of his native land in a classical dress, and to embellish the meagre lists of its fictitious kings with what he considered suitable characters and actions, without the slightest regard to facts. According to Bishop Lloyd, he put Fordun's tales "into the form of a history, and pieced them out with a very good invention—that part in which he chiefly excelled." His work, indeed, which once enjoyed a high reputation, and undoubtedly displays great command of the Latin language, is now remembered only as a receptacle for the wildest of the fables which used to be authoritatively received as a faithful record of the early history of Scotland. In justice to Boece, however, we must not pass unnoticed the ardent patriotism and love of freedom, which his work displays throughout. It has been well remarked by Maitland, that, "in forming a final estimate of the literary character of Boece we must bear in mind that when scholarcraft—in this country at least—was rare, he was a scholar, and contributed by reviving ancient learning to dispel the gloom of the middle ages; and that while the history of his country existed only in the rude pages of the chroniclers who preceded him, or in the fading records of oral tradition, he embodied it in narrative so interesting, and language so beautiful, as to be worthy of a more refined age." In 1527, the year of the publication of his history, James V. bestowed upon Boece a pension of fifty pounds, which apparently was doubled two years later. He was also appointed a canon of Aberdeen, and subsequently rector of Fyvie in the same county, which preferment he held till his death in 1536, when he must have attained the age of threescore and ten. Bellenden's translation of Boece's history was published in the same year. The learning and ability of Boece seem to have been highly appreciated by the citizens of Aberdeen, for in 1528 the magistrates voted him a present of a tun of wine when the new wines should arrive, or, according to his option, the sum of twenty pounds Scots, "to help to buy him bonnets." His brother Arthur, a doctor of canon law, and a licentiate in civil law, held the office of professor of canon law in King's college, while Hector was principal. He was the author of a book of excerpts from the canon law.—(Irving's Literary Scotchmen of the last four centuries, vol. i.; Maitland's Biog. Introduction to Bellenden)—J. T.
* BOECKH, August, one of the greatest living philologists, was born at Karlsruhe, November 24, 1785, and studied at Halle under F. A. Wolf. As early as 1807 he was appointed professor extraordinary, and two years later professor ordinarius, at Heidelberg. In 1811 he was called to a chair at Berlin. The results which for more than half a century have been flowing from his lectures, his writings, and his example, have been most
