Beattie’s other poetical works include The Judgment of Paris (1765), and “Verses on the death of [Charles] Churchill,” a bitter attack which the poet afterwards suppressed. The best edition is the Poetical Works (1831, new ed. 1866) in the Aldine Edition of the British Poets, with an admirable memoir by Alexander Dyce.
See also An Account of the Life of James Beattie (1804), by A. Bower; and An Account of the Life and Writings of James Beattie (1807), by Sir William Forbes; a quantity of new material is to be found in Beattie and his Friends (1904), by the poet’s great-grand-niece, Margaret Forbes; and James Beattie, the Minstrel. Some Unpublished Letters, edited by A. Mackie (Aberdeen, 1908).
BEATUS, of Liebana and Valcavado, Spanish priest and monk, theologian and geographer, was born about 730, and died in 798. About 776 he published his Commentaria in Apocalypsin, containing one of the oldest Christian world-maps. He took a prominent part in the Adoptionist controversy, and wrote against the views of Felix of Urgel, especially as upheld by Elipandus of Toledo. As confessor to Queen Adosinda, wife of King Silo of Oviedo (774-783), and as the master of Alcuin and Etherius of Osma, Beatus exercised wide influence. His original map, which was probably intended to illustrate, above all, the distribution of the Apostolic missions throughout the world—depicting the head of Peter at Rome, of Andrew in Achaia, of Thomas in India, of James in Spain, and so forth—has survived in ten more or less modified copies. One only of these—the “Osma” of 1203—preserves the Apostolic pictures; among the remaining examples, that of “St Sever,” now at Paris, and dating from about 1030, is the most valuable; that of “Valcavado,” recently in the Ashburnham Library, executed in 970, is the earliest; that of “Turin,” dating from about 1100, is perhaps the most curious. Three others—“Valladolid” of about 1035, “Madrid” of 1047, and “London” of 1109—are derivatives of the “Valcavado-Ashburnham” of 970; the eighth, “Paris II,” is connected, though not very intimately, with “St Sever,” otherwise “Paris I”; the ninth and tenth, “Gerona” and “Paris III,” belong to the Turin group of Beatus maps. All these works are emphatically of “dark-age” character; very seldom do they suggest the true forms of countries, seas, rivers or mountains, but they embody some useful information as to early medieval conditions and history. St Isidore appears to be their principal authority; they also draw, directly or indirectly, from Orosius, St Jerome, St Augustine, and probably from a lost map of classical antiquity, represented in a measure by the Peutinger Table of the 13th century.
The chief MSS. of the Commentaria in Apocalypsin are (1-3) Paris, National Library, Lat. 8878; Lat. nouv. acq. 1366 and 2290; (4) Ashburnham MSS. xv.; (5) London, B. Mus., Addit. MSS. 11695; (6) Turin, National Library 1, ii. (1); (7) Valladolid, University Library, 229; (8) the MS. in the Episcopal Library at Osma, in Old Castile.
There is only one complete edition of the text, that by Florez (Madrid, 1770). See also Konrad Miller, Die Weltkarte des Beatus, Heft I. of Mappaemundi: die ältesten Weltkarten (Stuttgart, 1895); d’Avezac in Annales de ... géographie (June 1870); Beazley, Dawn of Modern Geography, i. 387-388 (1897); ii. 549-559; 591-605 (1901).
(C. R. B.)
BEAUCAIRE, a town of south-eastern France, in the department of Gard, 17 m. E. by S. of Nîmes on the Paris-Lyon railway. Pop. (1906) 7284. Beaucaire is situated on the right bank of the Rhone, opposite Tarascon, with which it is connected by two handsome bridges, a suspension-bridge of four spans and 1476 ft. in length, and a railway bridge. A triangular keep, a chapel, and other remains of a château (13th and 14th centuries) of the counts of Toulouse stand on the rocky pine-clad hill which rises to the north of the town; the chapel, dedicated to St Louis, belongs to the latest period of Romanesque architecture, and contains fine sculptures. The town derives celebrity from the great July fair, which has been held here annually since the 12th century, but has now lost its former importance (see [Fair]). Beaucaire gives its name to the canal which communicates with the sea (near Aigues-Mortes) and connects it with the Canal du Midi, forming part of the line of communication between the Rhone and the Garonne. The town is an important port on the Rhone, and its commerce, the chief articles of which are wine, and freestone from quarries in the vicinity, is largely water-borne. Among its industries are distilling and the manufacture of furniture, and the preparation of vermicelli, sausages and other provisions.
Beaucaire occupies the site of the ancient Ugernum, and several remains of the Roman city have been discovered, as well as (in 1734) the road that led from Nîmes. The present name is derived from Bellum Quadrum, a descriptive appellation applied in the middle ages either to the château or to the rock on which it stands. In 1125 Beaucaire came into the possession of the counts of Toulouse, one of whom, Raymund VI., established the importance of its fairs by the grant of privileges. In the Wars of the League it suffered severely, and in 1632 its castle was destroyed by Richelieu.