BALZAC, Jean Louis Guez de (1597-1654). A noted French essayist, and stylist. He was born at Angoulême of wealthy parents, and having received a good education was taken by Cardinal de la Valette to Rome, and wrote thence letters to persons prominent at court that made him recognized on his return as master of composition and style in a generation that regarded such abilities excessively. His letters, collected in 1624, are empty, bombastic, and affected, but they entitle Balzac to rank as a reformer of prose, as his contemporary, Malherbe (q.v.), is of verse. He underwent bitter accusations of plagiarism in 1G25, and withdrew to Angoulême, where he produced his uninspired and laborious lucubration, Le Prince (1631); Discours (1644): Le Barbon (1648); Aristippe. He was elected to the Academy in 1634. Balzac's Works were collected in 2 vols. (Paris, 1665, 1854). The Letters are well edited by Larroque (Paris, 1874).
BALZICO, bal-tse'ko, Alfonso (1825 — ). An
Italian sculptor, born at Cava di Tirreni, near
8alerno. He was educated at the Academy of
Naples and at Pionie. where he completed the
statues of Flavio Gioja and of ,Tohn the Baptist,
the latter a work of colossal dimensions. Upon
his return to Naples he received an order from
King Victor Emmanuel for the statues entitled
"Cleopatra," "The Coquette," "Revenge," "The
Free." Among the other works of Balzieo are:
"Massimo d'Azeglio" (187.3, Turin). "Vincenzo
Bellini," a fine marble statue of the composer,
surrounded by female figures emblematic of his
operas (Naples) ; "Duke Ferdinand of Genoa"
(Turin) : and "Victor Emmanuel" ( 1897, Naples).
BAMBA, biim'ba. A Bantu tribe of the Ba-
Fyot. ur Ba-Kongo group, Angola. They are of
medium stature, the figure well rounded and well
proportioned, with woolly hair, dark brown
color, beardless, and little hair on the body.
They have adopted some of the arts of Euro-
peans, though they easily revert under tribal
influences. They play on a musical bow having
a gourd resonator resting over the stomach.
They are polygamists and ancestor worshipers,
and ])ractice witchcraft, although images of
Roman Catholic saints are employed as fetiches.
Small terra-cotta images are placed on the
graves of important men.
BAMBARRA, bam-biir'ra. A former king-
dom in Western Africa, sitiuited on both sides
of the Upper Niger, and now divided into the
several States of Kaarta, Segu, Massina and
Beledugu. It is mountainous in the southwest
and fiat and often swampy in its northern part.
It has a soil of remarkable fertility, yielding
annually two crops of corn, rice, yams, and many
kinds of fruit. The climate is very hot, and the
lower parts of the country are subject to inun-
dation from time to time by the Niger. The
principal industries are the weaving of cloth, a
work performed exclusively by w'onien, and the
mamifacture of metal and leather products. The
commerce is quite extensive. The principal
towns are Segu, Sansandig, and Bamaku. The
inhabitants, a mixed negro and Fulah people,
belong to the Jlandigan family. Their food con-
sists chiefly of maize, rice, cassava, and dates.
In the arts, the Bambarra have been advanced
because of their position as middlemen between
the coast and the interior. The population is
estimated at 2,000,000. Politically Bambarra
belongs to the French sphere of influence. See
Sudan.
BAMBERG, biirn'berK. A city in the District
of Upper Franconia, Bavaria, beautifully situ-
ated on the banks of the Regnitz, not far from its
confluence with the Main, about ,30 miles north
of Nuremberg (Map: Germany, D 4). Numer-
ous bridges connect the various sections of
the city, which is intersected by three branches
of the river. The streets are wide and well
built, and there are a number of artistically
laid out squares. The most noteworthy of its
public buildings is the cathedral, a magnifi-
cent edifice in the Byzantine style, founded by
Henry II., in 1004, and restored after a fire in
1110. It contains, among other monuments, the
elaborately carved tomb of the founder and his
consort, Cunigunda. Attached to the cathedral
is a library of over 300,000 volumes, with valu-
able missals and manuscripts and what is. repre-
sented to be the prayer-book of Henry II. There
are several other fine ecclesiastical structures of
early date and the old palace of the former prince-
bishops of Bamberg. The ruins of the Castle of
Altenburg, originally the seat of the Count of
Babenberg, and the scene of many important his-
torical events, stand on an eminence about a mile
and a half from the town. The educational insti-
tutions of Bamberg are numerous, as are also the
charitable institutions, which include a municipal
hospital, an orphan and an insane asylum. The
industries consist chiefiy of the manufacture of
beer — which is famous throughout Germany — cot-
ton, woolens, gloves, musieal instruments, leather,
tobacco, sugar, starch, etc. The United States is
represented by a consular agent. The city's gov-
ernment is in the hands of a municipal council
of 42 members and an executive board of 19,
elected by the former. Bamberg received mu-
nicipal privileses in 073. Population, in 1890,
36,000; in 1901, 41,600. Consult VJige, "Ueber
die Bamberger Domsculpturen," in Repertorium
filr Kunstivissenschaft, Vol. XXII. (Berlin,
1899).
BAMBERGER, bäm'bĕrK-ẽr, Friedrich
(1814-73). A German painter. He was born
at Würzburg, and studied at the Berlin Academy
and under Primavesi, at Cassel, and Rottmann,
at Munich. In 1845 he made a tour through
Normandy and England, as a result of which he
produced the fine painting entitled “The Battlefield
of Hastings,” with its magnificent view of
the sea. Among his best works, most of which
are studies of Spanish landscapes, are the views
of Gibraltar (at Munich), Algeciras, and
Granada.
BAMBERGER, Ludwig (1823-99). A German
parliamentarian and writer on political and
economic subjects. He was born at Mainz, of
Jewish parentage, and studied law at Giessen,
Heidelberg, and Göttingen. Implicated in the
Revolution of 1849 as editor of the Mainzer
Zeitung, he was condemned to death, but was amnestied
in 1866. As a member of the National
Liberal Party in the Reichstag (1871-80) he
defended the gold standard against the bimetallists,
opposed the economic policy of Prince Bismarck
(after 1879), and advocated free trade, becoming
the founder and president of the Verein zur
Förderung der Handelsfreiheit. Compelled by
his antagonism to Prince Bismarck's theories to
resign from the National Liberal Party, he
