A

POPULAR DICTIONARY

OF

ARTS, SCIENCES, LITERATURE, HISTORY, POLITICS, AND
BIOGRAPHY.

A NEW EDITION;

INCLUDING

A COPIOUS COLLECTION OF ORIGINAL ARTICLES

IN

AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY;

ON

THE BASIS OF THE SEVENTH EDITION OF THE GERMAN

Conversations-Lexicon.

EDITED BY

FRANCIS LIEBER,

ASSISTED BY

E. WIGGLESWORTH.

VOL. II.

BOSTON:

BAZIN AND ELLSWORTH.

1859.

E 35 33

1859

EASTERN DISTRICT OF PENNSYLVANIA, to wit:

BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the tenth day of August, in the fifty-fourth year of the Independence of the United States of America, A. D. 1829, Carey, Lea & Carey, of the said district, have deposited in this office the title of a book, the right whereof they claim as proprietors, in the words following, to wit:

Encyc.opaedia Americana. A Popular Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, Literature, History, Politics and Biography, brought down to the present Time; including a copious Collection of Original Articles in American Biography; on the Basis of the seventh Edition of the German Conversations-Lexicon. Edited by Francis Lieber assisted by E. Wigglesworth."

In conformity to the act of the Congress of the United States, entitled, "An Act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts and books to the authors and proprietors of such copies during the times theroin mentioned:" and also to the act, entitled, "An Act supplementary to an act, entitled 'An Act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts and books to the authors and proprietors of such copies, during the times therein mentioned;' and extending the benefits thereof to the arts of designing, engraving and etching historical and other prints

D. CALDWELL,

Clerk of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

ENCYCLOPÆDIA AMERICANA.

BATTLE-AXE; a weapon much used in
the early part of the middle ages, particu-
larly by the people who fought on foot.
It was not uncommon, however, among
the knights, who used also the mace, a
species of iron club or hammer. Both
are to be seen in the different collections
of old arms in Europe. Both these
weapons, and another kind, called, in
German, Morgenstern (morning star), con-
sisting of a staff, having an iron ball at
the end, with cross iron spikes, served to
give stunning blows, whose force was
felt through the iron armor of the knights.
Knights used chiefly the Morgenstern
and the mace. The Greeks and Romans
did not employ the battle-axe, though it
was found among contemporary nations.
In fact, the axe is one of the earliest
weapons, its use, as an instrument of do-
mestic industry, naturally suggesting its
application for purposes of offence; but,
at the same tinie, it will always be aban-
doned as soon as the art of fencing, at-
tacking and guarding is the least culti-
vated; because the heavier the blow
given with this instrument, the more will
it expose the fighter. It is a weapon
which affords hardly any guard, and it
never would have remained so long in
use in the middle ages, had it not been
for the iron armor, which protected the
Dody from every thing but heavy blows.
In England, Ireland and Scotland, the
battle-axe was much employed. At the
battle of Bannockburn, king Robert Bruce
clave an English champion down to the
chine with one blow of his axe. A blow
of equal force was given by a Suabian
knight, in the Levant, in presence of the
German emperor.
The Lochaber axe
remained a formidable implement of de-

struction in the hands of the Highlanders nearly to the present period, and is still used, by the city-guard of Edinburgh, in quelling riots, &c.

BATTLE-PIECE; a painting which represents a battle, exhibiting large masses of men in action. The armor of the ancients, and the whole array and action of their battles, afford subjects much more favorable to the artist than the straight lines, or condensed columns, and the firearms of the moderns. A painter of battle-pieces ought to have an accurate knowledge of the appearance of horses and men, and, if possible, to have seen a battle, as few persons are able to form from hearsay an accurate idea of such a scene. Some of the greatest pieces of this kind are, the battle of Constantine, of which the cartoons were drawn by Raphael, and which was executed by Giulio Romano; Lebrun's battles of Alexander, and the battles of the Amazons, by Rubens. From these may be distinguished the skirmishes, surprises, &c., which are represented with so much skill by Antonio Tempesta, John Snellink, Jos. van der Velde, John Asselyn Peter Sneyers, Robert von Hoek, Fulcone, called oracolo delle battaglie, James Courtois, Francis van der Meulen, Philip Wouvermann, Charles Breydel, Henry Verschuuring and George Philip Rugendas.

BATTOGES, BATTACKS; two thin sticks, with which criminals in Russia were formerly beaten upon their naked backs The criminal was laid upon the ground, and one of the executioners sat upon his head, another upon his feet By the code of Catherine II, this punishment was abolished.

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