Chapter 47

The Latin word _broccus_ is related equally to the Italian _brocato_, the Spanish _brocar_ and the French _brocarts_ and _brocher_, and implies a form of stitching or broaching, so that textile fabrics woven with an appearance of stitching or broaching have consequently come to be termed "brocades." A Spanish document dated 1375 distinguishes between _los draps d'or é d'argent o de seda_ and _brocats d'or é d'argent_, a difference which is readily perceived, upon comparing for instance cloths of gold, Indian kincobs, with Lyons silks that are _brochés_ with threads of gold, silk or other material. Notwithstanding this, many Indian kincobs and dainty gold and coloured silk-weavings of Persian workmanship, both without floating threads, are often called brocades, although in neither is the ornamentation really _broché_ or brocaded. Contemporary in use with the Spanish _brocats_ is the word _brocado_. In addition to _brocarts_ the French now use the word _brocher_ in connexion with certain silk stuffs which however are not brocades in the same sense as the _brocarts_. A wardrobe account of King Edward IV. (1480) has an entry of "satyn broched with gold"--a description that fairly applies to such an enriched satin as that for instance shown in fig. 4. But some three centuries earlier than the date of that specimen, decorative stuffs were partly _brochés_ with gold threads by oriental weavers, especially those of Persia, Syria and parts of southern Europe and northern Africa under the domination of the Saracens, to whom the earlier germs, so to speak, of brocading may be traced. Of such is the 11th or 12th century Siculo-Saracenic specimen in fig. 1, in which the heads only of the pairs of animals and birds are broched with gold thread. Another sort of brocaded material is indicated in fig. 2, taken from a part of a sumptuous Siculo-Saracenic weaving produced in coloured silks and gold threads at the famous Hotel des Tiraz in Palermo for an official robe of Henry IV. (1165-1197) as emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, and still preserved in the cathedral of Regensburg. Fig. 3 is a further variety of textile that would be classed as _brocat_. This is of the 12th or 13th century manufacture, possibly by German or Rhenish-Byzantine weavers, or even by Spanish weavers, many of whom at Almeria, Malaga, Grenada and Seville rivalled those at Palermo. In the 14th century the making of satins heavily brocaded with gold threads was associated conspicuously with such Italian towns as Lucca, Genoa, Venice and Florence. Fig. 4 is from a piece of 14th-century dark-blue satin broached in relief with gold thread in a design the like of which appears in the background of Orcagna's "Coronation of the Virgin," now in the National Gallery, London. During the 17th century Genoa, Florence and Lyons vied with each other in making brocades in which the enrichments were as frequently of coloured silks as of gold intermixed with silken threads. Fig. 5 is from a piece of crimson silk damask flatly brocaded with flowers, scroll forms, fruit and birds in gold. This is probably of Florentine workmanship. Rather more closely allied to modern brocades is the Lyons specimen given in fig. 6, in which the brocading is done not only with silver but also with coloured silks. Early in the 18th century Spitalfields was busy as a competitor with Lyons in manufacturing many sorts of brocades, specified in a collection of designs preserved in the national art library of the Victoria and [v.04 p.0622] Albert Museum, under such trade titles as "brocade lutstring, brocade tabby, brocade tissue, brocade damask, brocade satin, Venetian brocade, and India figured brocade." Brocading in China seems to be of considerable antiquity, and Dr Bushell in his valuable handbook on Chinese art cites a notice of five rolls of brocade with dragons woven upon a crimson ground, presented by the emperor Ming Ti of the Wei dynasty, in the year A.D. 238, to the reigning empress of Japan; and varieties of brocade patterns are recorded as being in use during the Sung dynasty (960-1279). The first edition of an illustrated work upon tillage and weaving was published in China in 1210, and contains an engraving of a loom constructed to weave flowered-silk brocades such as are woven at the present time at Suchow and Hangchow and elsewhere. On the other hand, although they are described usually as brocades, certain specimens of imperial Chinese robes sumptuous in ornament, sheen of coloured silks and the glisten of golden threads, are woven in the tapestry-weaving manner and without any floating threads. It seems reasonable to infer that Persians and Syrians derived the art of weaving brocades from the Chinese, and as has been indicated, passed it on to Saracens as well as Europeans.

(A. S. C.)

Illustration: FIG. 5.--Piece of crimson silk damask brocaded in gold thread with symmetrically arranged flowers, scrolls, birds, &c. Italian (?Florentine). Late 17th century; about 2 ft. 6 in. long.]

BROCCHI, GIOVANNI BATTISTA (1772-1826), Italian mineralogist and geologist, was born at Bassano on the 18th of February 1772. He studied at the university of Pisa, where his attention was turned to mineralogy and botany. In 1802 he was appointed professor of botany in the new lyceum of Brescia; but he more especially devoted himself to geological researches in the adjacent districts. The fruits of these labours appeared in different publications, particularly in his _Trattato mineralogico e chemico sulle miniere di ferro del dipartimento del Mella_ (1808)--treatise on the iron mines of Mella. These researches procured him the office of inspector of mines in the recently established kingdom of Italy, and enabled him to extend his investigations over great part of the country. In 1811 he produced a valuable essay entitled _Memoria mineralogica sulla Valle di Fassa in Tirolo_; but his most important work is the _Conchiologia fossile subapennina con osservazioni geologiche sugli Apennini, e sul suolo adiacente_ (2 vols., 4to, Milan, 1814), containing accurate details of the structure of the Apennine range, and an account of the fossils of the Italian Tertiary strata compared with existing species. These subjects were further illustrated by his geognostic map, and his _Catalogo ragionato di una raccolta di rocce, disposto con ordine geografico, per servire alla geognosia dell' Italia_ (Milan, 1817). His work _Dello stato fisico del suolo di Roma_ (1820), with its accompanying map, is likewise noteworthy. In it he corrected the erroneous views of Breislak, who conceived that Rome occupies the site of a volcano, to which he ascribed the volcanic materials that cover the seven hills. Brocchi pointed out that these materials were derived either from Mont Albano, [v.04 p.0623] an extinct volcano, 12 m. from the city, or from Mont Cimini, still farther to the north. Several papers by him, on mineralogical subjects, appeared in the _Biblioteca Italiana_ from 1816 to 1823. In the latter year Brocchi sailed for Egypt, in order to explore the geology of that country and report on its mineral resources. Every facility was granted by Mehemet Ali, who in 1823 appointed him one of a commission to examine the district of Sennaar; but Brocchi, unfortunately for science, fell a victim to the climate, and died at Khartum on the 25th of September 1826.

BROCHANT DE VILLIERS, ANDRÉ JEAN FRANÇOIS MARIE (1772-1840), French mineralogist and geologist, was born at Villiers, near Nantes, on the 6th of August 1772. After studying at the École Polytechnique, he was in 1794 the first pupil admitted to the École des Mines. In 1804 he was appointed professor of geology and mineralogy in the École des Mines, which had been temporarily transferred to Pezay in Savoy, and he returned with the school to Paris in 1815. Later on he became inspector general of mines and a member of the Academy of Sciences. He investigated the transition strata of the Tarantaise, wrote on the position of the granite rocks of Mont Blanc, and on the lead minerals of Derbyshire and Cumberland. He was charged with the superintendence of the construction of the geological map of France, undertaken by his pupils Dufrénoy and Elie de Beaumont. He died in Paris on the 16th of May 1840. His publications include _Traité élémentaire de minéralogie_ (2 vols., 1801-1802; 2nd ed., 1808), and _Traité abrégé de cristallographie_ (Paris, 1818).

BROCHANTITE, a mineral species consisting of a basic copper sulphate Cu_4(OH)_6SO_4, crystallizing in the orthorhombic system. The crystals are usually small and are prismatic or acicular in habit; they have a perfect cleavage parallel to the face lettered a in the adjoining figure. They are transparent to translucent, with a vitreous lustre, and are of an emerald-green to blackish-green colour. Specific gravity 3.907; hardness 3½-4. The mineral was first found associated with malachite and native copper in the copper mines of the Urals, and was named by A. Lévy in 1824 after A.J.M. Brochant de Villiers. Several varieties, differing somewhat in crystalline form, have been distinguished, some of them having originally been described as distinct species, but afterwards proved to be essentially identical with brochantite; these are königine from the Urals, brongniartine from Mexico, krisuvigite from Iceland, and warringtonite from Cornwall. Of other localities, mention may be made of Roughten Gill, Caldbeck Fells, Cumberland, where small brilliant crystals are associated with malachite and chrysocolla in a quartzose rock; Rézbánya in the Bihar Mountains, Hungary; Atacama in Chile, with atacamite, which closely resembles brochantite in general appearance; the Tintic district in Utah. A microscopical examination of the green copper ores of secondary origin in the Clifton and Morenci district of Arizona proves brochantite to be of extremely common occurrence mostly intergrown with malachite which effectually masks its presence: it is not unlikely that the malachite of other localities will on examination be found to be intergrown with brochantite.

Mention may be here made of another orthorhombic basic copper sulphate not unlike brochantite in general characters, but differing from it in containing water of crystallization and in its fine blue colour; this is the Cornish mineral langite, which has the composition CuSO_4·3Cu(OH)_2+H_2O.

(L. J. S.)

BROCK, SIR ISAAC (1769-1812), British soldier and administrator, was born at St Peter Port, Guernsey, on the 6th of October 1769. Joining the army at the age of fifteen as an ensign of the 8th regiment, he became a lieutenant-colonel in 1797, after less than thirteen years' service. He commanded the 49th regiment in the expedition to North Holland in 1799, was wounded at the battle of Egmont-op-Zee, and subsequently served on board the British fleet at the battle of Copenhagen. From 1802 to 1805 he was with his regiment in Canada, returning thither in 1806 in view of the imminence of war between Great Britain and the United States. From September 1806 till August 1810 he was in charge of the garrison at Quebec; in the latter year he assumed the command of the troops in Upper Canada, and soon afterwards took over the civil administration of that province as provisional lieutenant-governor. On the outbreak of the war of 1812 Brock had to defend Upper Canada against invasion by the United States. In the face of many difficulties and not a little disaffection, he organized the militia of the province, drove back the invaders, and on the 16th of August 1812, with about 730 men and 600 Indians commanded by their chief Tecumseh, compelled the American force of 2500 men under General William Hull (1753-1825) to surrender at Detroit, an achievement which gained him a knighthood of the Bath and the popular title of "the hero of Upper Canada" From Detroit he hurried to the Niagara frontier, but on the 13th of October in the same year was killed at the battle of Queenston Heights. The House of Commons voted a public monument to his memory, which was erected in Saint Paul's cathedral, London. On the 13th of October 1824, the twelfth anniversary of his death, his remains were removed from the bastions of Fort George, where they had been originally interred, and placed beneath a monument on Queenston Heights, erected by the provincial legislature. This was blown up by a fanatic in 1840, but as the result of a mass-meeting of over 8000 citizens held on the spot, a new and more stately monument was erected.

His _Life and Correspondence_ by his nephew, Ferdinand Brock Tupper (2nd edition, London, 1847), still remains the best; later lives are by D.R. Read (Toronto, 1894), and by Lady Edgar (Toronto and London,1905).

(W. L. G.)

BROCK, THOMAS (1847- ), English sculptor, was the chief pupil of Foley, and later became influenced by the new romantic movement. His group "The Moment of Peril" was followed by "The Genius of Poetry," "Eve," and other ideal works that mark his development. His busts, such as those of Lord Leighton and Queen Victoria; his statues, such as "Sir Richard Owen" and "Dr Philpott, bishop of Worcester"; his sepulchral monuments, such as that to Lord Leighton in St Paul's cathedral, a work of singular significance, refinement and beauty; and his memorial statues of Queen Victoria, at Hove and elsewhere, are examples of his power as a portraitist, sympathetic in feeling, sound and restrained in execution, and dignified and decorative in arrangement. The colossal equestrian statue of "Edward the Black Prince" was set up in the City Square in Leeds in 1901, the year in which the sculptor was awarded the commission to execute the vast Imperial Memorial to Queen Victoria in front of Buckingham Palace. Brock was elected an associate of the Royal Academy in 1883 and full member in 1891.

BROCKEN, a mountain of Germany, in Prussian Saxony, the highest point (3733 ft.) of the Harz. It is a huge, bare, granite-strewn, dome-shaped mass and, owing to its being the greatest elevation in north Germany, commands magnificent views in all directions. From it Magdeburg and the Elbe, the towers of Leipzig and the Thuringian forest are distinctly visible in clear weather. Access to the summit is attained by a mountain railway (12 m.) from Dreiannen-Hohne, a station on the normal gauge line Wernigerode-Nordhausen, and by two carriage roads from the Bodetal and Ilsenburg respectively. In the folklore of north Germany the Brocken holds an important place, and to it cling many legends. Long after Christianity had penetrated to these regions, the Brocken remained a place of heathen worship. Annually, on Walpurgis night (1st of May), curious rites were here enacted, which, condemned by the priests of the Christian church, led to the belief that the devil and witches here held their orgies. Even to this day, this superstition possesses the minds of many country people around, who believe the mountain to be haunted on this night. In literature [v.04 p.0624] it is represented by the famous "Brocken scene" in Goethe's _Faust_.

See Jacobs, _Der Brocken in Geschichte und Sage_ (Halle, 1878); and Pröhle, _Brockensagen_ (Magdeburg, 1888).

BROCKEN, SPECTRE OF THE (so named from having been first observed in 1780 on the Brocken), an enormously magnified shadow of an observer cast upon a bank of cloud when the sun is low in high mountain regions, reproducing every motion of the observer in the form of a gigantic but misty image of himself.

BROCKES, BARTHOLD HEINRICH (1680-1747), German poet, was born at Hamburg on the 22nd of September 1680. He studied jurisprudence at Halle, and after extensive travels in Italy, France and Holland, settled in his native town in 1704. In 1720 he was appointed a member of the Hamburg senate, and entrusted with several important offices. Six years (from 1735 to 1741) he spent as _Amtmann_ (magistrate) at Ritzebtütel. He died in Hamburg on the 16th of January 1747. Brockes' poetic works were published in a series of nine volumes under the fantastic title _Irdisches Vergnügen in Gott_ (1721-1748); he also translated Marini's _La Strage degli innocenti_ (1715), Pope's _Essay on Man_ (1740) and Thomson's _Seasons_ (1745). His poetry has small intrinsic value, but it is symptomatic of the change which came over German literature at the beginning of the 18th century. He was one of the first German poets to substitute for the bombastic imitations of Marini, to which he himself had begun by contributing, a clear and simple diction. He was also a pioneer in directing the attention of his countrymen to the new poetry of nature which originated in England. His verses, artificial and crude as they often are, express a reverential attitude towards nature and a religious interpretation of natural phenomena which was new to German poetry and prepared the way for Klopstock.

Brockes' autobiography was published by J.M. Lappenberg in the _Zeitschrift des Vereins für Hamburger Geschichte,_ ii. pp. 167 ff. (1847). See also A. Brandl, _B. H. Brockes_ (1878), and D.F. Strauss, _Brockes und H.S. Reimarus_ (_Gesammelte Schriften_, ii.). A short selection of his poetry will be found in vol. 39 (1883) of Kürschner's _Deutsche Nationalliteratur_.

BROCKHAUS, FRIEDRICH ARNOLD (1772-1823), German publisher, was born at Dortmund, on the 4th of May 1772. He was educated at the gymnasium of his native place, and from 1788 to 1793 served an apprenticeship in a mercantile house at Düsseldorf. He then devoted two years at Leipzig to the study of modern languages and literature, after which he set up at Dortmund an emporium for English goods. In 1801 he transferred this business to Arnheim, and in the following year to Amsterdam. In 1805, having given up his first line of trade, he began business as a publisher. Two journals projected by him were not allowed by the government to survive for any length of time, and in 1810 the complications in the affairs of Holland induced him to return homewards. In 1811 he settled at Altenburg. About three years previously he had purchased the copyright of the _Konversations-Lexikon_, started in 1796, and in 1810-1811 he completed the first edition of this celebrated work (14th ed. 1901-4). A second edition under his own editorship was begun in 1812, and was received with universal favour. His business extended rapidly, and in 1818 Brockhaus removed to Leipzig, where he established a large printing-house. Among the more extensive of his many literary undertakings were the critical periodicals--_Hermes_, the _Literarisches Konversationsblatt_ (afterwards the _Blätter für literarische Unterhaltung_), and the _Zeitgenossen_, and some large historical and bibliographical works, such as Raumer's _Geschichte der Hohenstaufen_, and Ebert's _Allgemeines bibliographisches Lexikon_. F.A. Brockhaus died at Leipzig on the 20th of August 1823. The business was carried on by his sons, Friedrich Brockhaus (1800-1865) who retired in 1850, and Heinrich Brockhaus (1804-1874), under whom it was considerably extended. The latter especially rendered great services to literature and science, which the university of Jena recognized by making him, in 1858, honorary doctor of philosophy. In the years 1842-1848, Heinrich Brockhaus was member of the Saxon second chamber, as representative for Leipzig, was made honorary citizen of that city in 1872, and died there on the 15th of November 1874.

See H. E. Brockhaus, _Friedrich A. Brockhaus, sein Leben und Wirken nach Briefen und andern Aufzeichnungen_ (3 vols., Leipzig, 1872-1881); also by the same author, _Die Firma F. A. Brockhaus von der Begrundung bis zum hundertjahrigen Jubilaum_ (1805-1905, Leipzig, 1905).

Another of Friedrich's sons, HERMANN BROCKHAUS (1806-1877), German Orientalist, was born at Amsterdam on the 28th of January 1806. While his two brothers carried on the business he devoted himself to an academic career. He was appointed extraordinary professor in Jena in 1838, and in 1841 received a call in a similar capacity to Leipzig, where in 1848 he was made ordinary professor of ancient Semitic. He died at Leipzig on the 5th of January 1877. Brockhaus was an Oriental scholar in the old sense of the word, devoting his attention, not to one language only, but to acquiring a familiarity with the principal languages and literature of the East. He studied Hebrew, Arabic and Persian, and was able to lecture on Sanskrit, afterwards his specialty, Pali, Zend and even on Chinese. His most important work was the _editio princeps_ of the _Katha-sarit-sagara_, "The Ocean of the Streams of Story," the large collection of Sanskrit stories made by Soma Deva in the 12th century. By this publication he gave the first impetus to a really scientific study of the origin and spreading of popular tales, and enabled Prof. Benfey and others to trace the great bulk of Eastern and Western stories to an Indian, and more especially to a Buddhistic source. Among Prof. Brockhaus's other publications were his edition of the curious philosophical play _Prabodhachandrodaya_, "The Rise of the Moon of Intelligence," his critical edition of the "Songs of Hafiz," and his publication in Latin letters of the text of the "Zend-Avesta."

BROCKLESBY, RICHARD (1722-1797), English physician, was born at Minehead, Somersetshire, on the 11th of August 1722. He was educated at Ballitore, in Ireland, where Edmund Burke was one of his schoolfellows, studied medicine at Edinburgh, and finally graduated at Leiden in 1745. Appointed physician to the army in 1758, he served in Germany during part of the Seven Years' War, and on his return settled down to practise in London. In 1764 he published _Economical and Medical Observations_, which contained suggestions for improving the hygiene of army hospitals. In his latter years he withdrew altogether into private life. The circle of his friends included some of the most distinguished literary men of the age. He was warmly attached to Dr Johnson, to whom about 1784 he offered an annuity of £100 for life, and whom he attended on his death-bed, while in 1788 he presented Burke, of whom he was an intimate friend, with £1000, and offered to repeat the gift "every year until your merit is rewarded as it ought to be at court." He died on the 11th of December 1797, leaving his house and part of his fortune to his grand-nephew, Dr Thomas Young.