BRABANT, NORTH, the largest province in Holland, bounded S. by Belgium, W. and N.W. by the Scheldt, the Eendracht, the Volkerak and the Hollandsch Diep, which separate it from Zealand and South Holland, N. and N. E. by the Merwede and Maas, which separate it from South Holland and Gelderland, and E. by the province of Limburg. It has an area of 231 sq. m. and a pop. (1900) of 553,842. The surface of the province is a gentle slope from the south-east (where it ranges between 80 and 160 ft. in height) towards the north and north-west, and the soil is composed of diluvial sand, here and there mixed with gravel, but giving place to sea-clay along the western boundary and river-clay along the banks of the Maas and smaller rivers. The watershed is formed by the north-eastern edge of the Belgian plateau of Campine, and follows a curved line drawn through Bergen-op-Zoom, Turnhout and Maastricht. The landscape consists for the most part of waste stretches of heath, occasionally slightly overlaid with high fen. Between the valleys of the Aa and the Maas lies the long stretch of heavy high-fen called the Peel (“marshy land”). Deurne, a few miles east of Helmond, the site of a prehistoric burial-ground, was an early fen colony. The work of reclamation was removed farther eastwards to Helenaveen in the second half of the 19th century. Agriculture (potatoes, buckwheat, rye) is the main industry, generally combined with cattle-raising. On the clay lands wheat and barley are the principal products, and in the western corner of the province beetroot is largely cultivated for the beet sugar industry, factories being found at Bergen-op-Zoom, Steenbergen and Oudenbosch. There is a special cultivation of hops in the district north-west of ’s Hertogenbosch. The large majority of the population is Roman Catholic. The earliest development of towns and villages took place along the river Maas and its tributaries, and the fortified Roman camps which were the origin of many such afterwards developed in the hands of feudal lords. The chief town of the province, ’s Hertogenbosch, may be cited as an interesting historical example. Geertruidenberg, Heusden, Ravestein and Grave are all similarly situated. Breda is the next town in importance to the capital. Bergen-op-Zoom had originally a more maritime importance. Rozendaal, Eindhoven and Bokstel (or Boxtel) are important railway junctions. Bokstel was formerly the seat of an independent barony which came into the possession of Philip the Good in 1439. The castle was restored in modern times. The precarious position of the province on the borders of the country doubtless militated against an earlier industrial development, but since the separation from Belgium and the construction of roads, railways and canals there has been a general improvement, Tilburg, Eindhoven and Helmond all having risen into prominence in modern times as industrial centres. Leather-tanning and shoe-making are especially associated with the district called Langstraat, which is situated between Geertruidenberg and ’s Hertogenbosch, and consists of a series of industrial villages along the course of the Old Maas.
BRACCIANO, a town in the province of Rome, Italy, 25 m. N.W. of Rome by rail, situated on the S.W. shore of the Lake of Bracciano, 915 ft. above sea-level. Pop. (1901) 3987. It is chiefly remarkable for its fine castle (built by the Orsini in 1460, and since 1696 the property of the Odescalchi) which has preserved its medieval character. The beautiful lake is the ancient Lacus Sabatinus, supposed to derive its name from an Etruscan city of the name of Sabate, which is wrongly thought to be mentioned in the Itineraries; the reference is really to the lake itself, which bore this name and gave it to one of the Roman tribes, the tribus Sabatina, founded in 387 B.C. (O. Cuntz in Jahreshefte des Österr. Arch. Instituts, ii., 1899, 85). It is 22 sq. m. in area, 538 ft. above sea-level, and 530 ft. deep; it is almost circular, but is held to be, not an extinct crater, but the result of a volcanic subsidence. The tufa deposits which radiate from it extend as far as Rome; various small craters surround it, while the existence of warm springs in the district (especially those of Vicarello, probably the ancient Aquae Apollinares) may also be noted. Many remains of ancient villas may be seen round the lake: above its west bank is the station of Forum Clodii, and on its north shore the village of Trevignano, which retains traces of the fortifications of an ancient town of unknown name. About half-a-mile east of it was a post station called Ad Novas. The site of Anguillara, on the south shore, was occupied by a Roman villa. The water of the lake partly supplies the Acqua Paola, a restoration by Paul V. of the Aqua Traiana.
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BRACCIOLINI, FRANCESCO (1566-1645), Italian poet, was born at Pistoia, of a noble family, in 1566. On his removing to Florence he was admitted into the academy there, and devoted himself to literature. At Rome he entered the service of Cardinal Maffeo Barberini, with whom he afterwards went to France. After the death of Clement VIII. he returned to his own country; and when his patron Barberini was elected pope, under the name of Urban VIII., Bracciolini repaired to Rome, and was made secretary to the pope’s brother, Cardinal Antonio. He had also the honour conferred on him of taking a surname from the arms of the Barberini family, which were bees; whence he was afterwards known by the name of Bracciolini dell’ Api. During Urban’s pontificate the poet lived at Rome in considerable reputation, though at the same time he was censured for his sordid avarice. On the death of the pontiff he returned to Pistoia, where he died in 1645. There is scarcely any species of poetry, epic, dramatic, pastoral, lyric or burlesque, which Bracciolini did not attempt; but he is principally noted for his mock-heroic poem Lo Scherno degli Dei, published in 1618, similar but confessedly inferior to the contemporary work of Tassoni, Secchia Rapita. Of his serious heroic poems the most celebrated is La Croce Racquistata.
For the Italian humanist Poggio Bracciolini see [Poggio].
BRACE, CHARLES LORING (1826-1890), American philanthropist, was born on the 19th of June 1826 in Litchfield, Connecticut. He graduated at Yale in 1846, studied theology there in 1847-1848, and graduated from Union Theological Seminary in 1849. From this time he practically devoted his life to social work among the poor of New York, and to Christian propaganda among the criminal classes; and he became well known as a social reformer, at home and abroad. He started in 1852 to hold “boys’ meetings,” and in 1853 helped to found the Children’s Aid Society, establishing workshops, industrial schools and lodging-houses for newsboys. In 1872 he was a delegate to the international prison congress which met in London. He died at Campfer, in Tirol, on the 11th of August 1890. He published from time to time several volumes embodying his views on practical Christianity and its application to the improvement of social conditions.