BANDIERA, ATTILIO (1811-1844) and EMILIO (1819-1844), Italian patriots. The brothers Bandiera, sons of Baron Bandiera, an admiral in the Austrian navy, were themselves members of that service, but at an early age they were won over to the ideas of Italian freedom and unity, and corresponded with Giuseppe Mazzini and other members of the Giovane Italia (Young Italy), a patriotic and revolutionary secret society. During the year 1843 the air was full of conspiracies, and various ill-starred attempts at rising against the Italian despots were made. The Bandieras began to make propaganda among the officers and men of the Austrian navy, nearly all Italians, and actually planned to seize a warship and bombard Messina. But having been betrayed they fled to Corfu early in 1844. Rumours reached them there of agitation in the Neapolitan kingdom, where the people were represented as ready to rise en masse at the first appearance of a leader; the Bandieras, encouraged by Mazzini, consequently determined to make a raid on the Calabrian coast. They got together a band of about twenty men ready to sacrifice their lives for an idea, and set sail on their desperate venture on the 12th of June 1844. Four days later they landed near Cotrone, intending to go to Cosenza, liberate the political prisoners and issue their proclamations. But they did not find the insurgent band which they had been told awaited them, and were betrayed by one of their party, the Corsican Boccheciampe, and by some peasants who believed them to be Turkish pirates. A detachment of gendarmes and volunteers was sent against them, and after a short fight the whole band were taken prisoners and escorted to Cosenza, where a number of Calabrians who had taken part in a previous rising were also under arrest. First the Calabrians were tried by court-martial, and a large number condemned to death or the galleys. The raiders' turn came next, and the whole party, save the traitor Boccheciampe, were condemned to be shot, but in the case of eight of them the sentence was commuted to the galleys. On the 23rd of July the two Bandieras and their nine companions were executed; they cried Viva l'Italia! as they fell.
The Neapolitan government was undoubtedly within its right in executing the Bandieras, and the material results of this heroic but unpractical attempt were nil. But the moral effect was enormous throughout Italy, the action of the authorities was universally condemned, and the martyrdom of the Bandieras bore fruit in subsequent revolutions. It also created a great impression in England, where it was believed that the Bandieras' correspondence with Mazzini (q.v.) had been tampered with, and that information as to the proposed expedition had been forwarded to the Austrian and Neapolitan governments by the British foreign office; recent publications, however, especially the biography of Sir James Graham, tend to exculpate the British government.
See G. Ricciardi, Storia dei Fratelli Bandiera (Florence, 1863); F. Venosta, I Fratelli Bandiera (Milan, 1863); and Carlo Tivaroni's L'Italia durante il dominio austriaco, vol. iii. p. 149 (Turin, 1894).
(L. V.*)
BANDINELLI, BARTOLOMMEO or BACCIO (1493-1560), Florentine sculptor, was the son of an eminent goldsmith, and from him Bandinelli obtained the first elements of drawing. Showing a strong inclination for the fine arts, he was early placed under Rustici, a sculptor, and a friend of Leonardo da Vinci, with whom he made rapid progress. The ruling motive in his life seems to have been jealousy both of Benvenuto Cellini and of Michelangelo, one of whose cartoons he is said to have torn up and destroyed. He is regarded by some as inferior in sculpture only to Michelangelo, with whom a comparison unfavourable to Bandinelli is tempted in such works as the marble colossal group of Hercules and Cacus in the Piazza del Gran Duco, and the group of Adam and Eve in the Bargello. Among his best works must be reckoned the bassi-rilievi in the choir of the cathedral of Florence; his copy of the Laocoon; and the figures of Christ and Nicodemus on his own tomb.
BANDINI, ANGELO MARIA (1726-1800), Italian author, was born at Florence on the 25th of September 1726. Having been left an orphan in his infancy, he was supported by his uncle, Giuseppe Bandini, a lawyer of some note. He received his education among the Jesuits, and showed a special inclination for the study of antiquities. His first work was a dissertation, De Veterum Saltationibus (1749). In 1747 he undertook a journey to Vienna, in company with the bishop of Volterra, to whom he acted in the capacity of secretary. He was introduced to the emperor and took the opportunity of dedicating to that monarch his Specimen Litteraturae Florentinae, which was then printing at Florence. On his return he took orders, and settled at Rome, passing the whole of his time in the library of the Vatican, and in those of the cardinals Passionei and Corsini. The famous obelisk
of Augustus, at that time disinterred from the ruins of the Campus Martius, was described by Bandini in a learned folio volume De Obelisco Augusti. Shortly after he was compelled to leave Rome on account of his health and returned to Florence, where he was appointed librarian to the valuable library bequeathed to the public by the abbé Marucelli. In 1756 he was preferred by the emperor to a prebend at Florence, and appointed principal librarian to the Laurentian library. During forty-four years he continued to discharge the duties of this situation, and died in 1800, generally esteemed and regretted. On his deathbed he founded a public school, and bequeathed the remainder of his fortune to other charitable purposes. The most important of his numerous works are the Catalogus Codd. MSS. Graec., Lat., Ital., Bib., Laurent., 8 vols (1767-1778), and the Vita e Lettere d'Amerigo Vespucci, 1745.
BANDOLIER, or Bandoleer (from Fr. bandoulière, Ital. bandoliera, a little band), a belt worn over the shoulder, particularly by soldiers to carry cartridges. In the 17th century wooden cases were hung to the belt to contain powder charges. The modern bandolier carries the cartridges either in loops sewn to the belt, or in small pouches, similarly attached, containing strips of several cartridges. It has been extensively adopted in the British army, especially for mounted troops.
BANDON, or Bandonbridge, a market-town of county Cork, Ireland, in the south-east parliamentary division, picturesquely situated in a broad open valley on both sides of the river Bandon. Pop. (1901) 2830. It is 20 m. S.W. of the city of Cork by the Cork, Bandon & South Coast railway. It is an important agricultural centre and there are distilleries, breweries and flour-mills. The open park of Castle Bernard (earl of Bandon), on the riverside, is attractive, and 2 m. below Bandon on the river is Innishannon, the head of navigation. Bandon was founded early in the 17th century by Richard Boyle, earl of Cork, and was incorporated by James I. It returned two members to the Irish parliament and thereafter one to the Imperial parliament until 1885. After the destruction of the walls by the Irish in 1689, Bandon long resisted the admission of Catholic inhabitants.
BANEBERRY, or Herb Christopher, popular names for Actaea spicata (nat. ord. Ranunculaceae), a poisonous herb with long-stalked compound leaves, small white flowers and black berries, found wild in copses in limestone districts in the north of England. It is widely distributed in the north temperate zone.