the Italian opera in England, adapted it to English words, and produced it at the theatre in the Haymarket, London, in the year 1706. So deep was the impression which the music made on the minds of the English public, that, for three or four years afterwards, the managers were under the necessity of introducing into every opera they exhibited some of the melodies of the same composer. One of the airs in "Camilla" has lately been revived, and attributed, upon the authority of Mr. Hogarth's Memoirs of the Opera, to Marc Antonio Bononcini—an injustice which we hope to see corrected. In 1694 Bononcini visited Rome and produced his operas of "Tullio Ostilio" and "Xerse." From this period down to 1716 he composed a number of operas, which were performed with success at Rome, Berlin, and Vienna. In the latter year, upon the foundation of the Royal Academy of Music in London, Bononcini (then at Rome) was sent for to assist in composing for it; and in consequence of his engagement with the directors, he wrote, during a period of about seven years, the operas of "Astartus," "Crispus," "Griselda," "Pharnaces," "Erminia," "Calphurnia," and "Astyanax." A great degree of rivalry soon took place betwixt Bononcini and Handel (the latter was at the head of the academy), and two parties were formed amongst the nobility, each professing to patronize their favourite. Handel was honoured with the immediate notice and protection of the electoral family, and Bononcini by that of the duke of Marlborough. So strange and capricious are sometimes the motives of party opposition, that the former was patronized by the tories, and the latter by the whigs. The contest betwixt the friends of the two composers was brought to a crisis by the performance of the opera of "Muzio Scævola," of which Handel, Bononcini, and Attilio Ariosti, each contributed an act. The judgment of the public was given in favour of Handel, which put an end to the competition, and left the giant without a rival. On the death of the duke of Marlborough, Bononcini was employed to compose the anthem performed at his interment in Westminster abbey, which was afterwards printed in score. The countess of Godolphin (who, on the decease of her father, by a peculiar limitation of the title, became duchess of Marlborough) took Bononcini into her family, and settled upon him a pension of £500 per annum. She had concerts twice a week at her house, which chiefly consisted of the music of this her favourite master. But, being a man of haughty and imperious disposition, he at length rendered himself unworthy of the patronage which he had so long enjoyed. He was convicted of the paltry dishonesty of pretending to be the composer of an Italian madrigal, which had been written many years before by Lotti, organist of St. Mark's at Venice, who proved his claim. The surges of party feeling, which had been powerfully excited, continued to heave and murmur, and Bononcini was compelled to leave the kingdom. He did not quit it alone, but became a sharer in the fortunes of a man who, under the assumed name of Count Ughi, was a common swindler, and a pretender to the secret of making gold. Their connection, however, did not last long, and Bononcini was again compelled to have recourse to his profession in order to procure a sustenance. He visited Paris, and composed for the royal chapel there a motet with an obligato accompaniment for the violoncello, which he himself performed before the king. This composition was afterwards printed at Paris. At the conclusion of the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, he was sent for to Vienna by the emperor of Germany, in order to compose the music for that celebration, and was rewarded with a present of eight hundred ducats. He next visited Venice, in company with Monticelli (a singer who had appeared at the opera in London), the one as composer, the other as principal singer. In this city he is supposed to have died about 1750. The merits of Bononcini were very great, and it can scarcely be considered any diminution from his talents as an operatic composer, to say that he had no superior but Handel. His melodies are peculiarly tender and pathetic, and his harmonies are original and at the same time natural. A list of his works will be found in Fetis' Biographie Universelle des Musiciens.—E. F. R.
BONONE, Carlo, born at Ferrara in 1569. He studied till twenty under Bastaruoli, and became the stripling rival of Scarzellino, falling below him in tenderness of tint and beauty of expression, but excelling him in the opposite pole of bold design and vigorous colouring. But Bonone was born not to circumnavigate unknown seas, but to hug the well-known shore, and ply the ferry between the narrow eclectic wastes. He first went to Bologna and studied the Caracci; then Rome, and fed on the antique; then back to Bologna; then to Paul Veronese's great tapestries at Venice; then to the skirts of heaven, that roof, Correggio's dome, at Parma, always borrowing, always imitating. In his smaller works he was called the Caracci of Ferrara. In his machinal pageantries he looks more like Veronese grown doting. Ferrara is full of his works, and his academy peopled the city with painters. His best spectacle works are the "Feast of Ahasuerus," the "Feast of Herod," and the "Miracle at Cana." He ceased to imitate in 1632. His nephew, Lionello, promised excellency, but fell away.—W. T.
BONPLAND, Aimé, a celebrated traveller and naturalist, was born on 22d August, 1773, at Rochelle, where his father practised medicine. His medical studies were interrupted by political disturbances in France, and for a time he entered the naval service as an assistant-surgeon. After the revolutionary period had passed, he went to Paris, for the purpose of continuing his studies, and there he was introduced to many medical men of eminence. Among others he became acquainted with Corvisart, whose pupil he became. At his house he met Alexander von Humboldt, who was then studying in Paris. These two young naturalists became intimate friends, and carried on their scientific studies together with zeal and enthusiasm. Bonpland turned his attention in a special manner to botany and anatomy. Soon afterwards Humboldt began to make preparations for his great scientific journey, and he requested Bonpland to accompany him. The two travellers visited the equinoctial regions of America, and made varied and extensive observations in all departments of science. Bonpland was intrusted chiefly with the botanical part of the expedition, and he collected and dried more than 6000 hitherto unknown species of plants. On his return to France, after five years' travel, Bonpland handed over his extensive collection to the Museum of Natural History at Paris. He became director of the gardens at Malmaison, and he devoted himself assiduously to the publication of his travels. He became the friend of Gay Lussac, Arago, Thenard, and other celebrated men of that day. After Napoleon's reverses he resolved to return to America, and at the end of 1816 he sailed from Havre for Buenos Ayres, carrying with him a large collection of useful European plants and fruit-trees. He was elected there professor of natural history, but he held this office only for a short period. His desire of enterprise led him to take a journey across the Pampas, the provinces of Santa-Fé, Great Chaco and Bolivia, to the foot of the Andes, which he wished to explore a second time. He located himself at Parana. The wars which prevailed in the Argentine confederation under Dr. Francis, rendered his residence here unsafe, and in December, 1821, he was seized by the soldiers of Francis, and was sent to Santa Maria, where for two years he supported himself by his medical and pharmaceutical practice, and did much good by his attention to the poor. He was liberated in 1858, and he then proceeded to Brazil, and took up his residence in the little village of San Borgia. There he continued to devote his attention to botany and horticulture, and died in 1858, at the advanced age of more than eighty, retaining to the last his vigour of mind and body. He published various works, among which may be noticed, "Plantes Equinoxiales, collected in Mexico, the island of Cuba, the provinces of Caracas, Cumana, the Andes of Quito, and the banks of the Orinoco and the Amazon;" a "Monograph of Melastomaceæ;" and a "Description of the Rare Plants of Navarre and of Malmaison." He was associated with Humboldt in the publication of his "Voyages aux Regions Equinoxiales du Nouveau Continent," and in his "Vues des Cordillères;" and along with Humboldt and Kunth he published "Mimosées et autres plantes Legumineuses du Nouveau Continent," and "Nova Genera et Species Plantarum." All these works are standard books of reference.—J. H. B.
BONSENIOR, Rabbi Ibn Yachia, lived in Provence. He composed in Hebrew an elegantly written poem on the game of chess, which T. Hyde published in a Latin translation, with a preface on the history of that game, at Oxford in 1694, under the title "De Ludo Scacchico." The Hebrew poem had been previously printed at Mantua in 1557. Several editions of it have appeared since.—T. T.
BONSTETTIN, Charles Victor de, born in 1745 at Berne; died in 1832. A moralist and philosopher of the Leibnitzian school, and an ardent admirer of the writings of Bonnet. His studies were prosecuted successively at Berne, Iverdun, and
