Bar-sur-Aube (ba˙r-su˙r-ōb), an ancient town, France, department Aube, where, in 1814, a hotly-contested action was fought between Napoleon and the Allies. Pop. 4533.
Bart, Barth, or Baert (bärt), Jean, a famous French sailor, born at Dunkirk, 1650, the son of a poor fisherman. He became captain of a privateer, and after some brilliant exploits was appointed captain in the royal navy. In recognition of his further services he was made commodore, subsequently receiving letters of nobility. Brusque, if not vulgar, in manner, and ridiculed by the Court for his indifference to ceremony, he made the navy of the nation everywhere respected, and furnished some of the most striking chapters in the romance of naval warfare. After the Peace of Ryswick he lived quietly at Dunkirk, and died there while equipping a fleet to take part in the War of the Spanish Succession, 1702.
Bartas (ba˙r-tä), Guillaume de Salluste du, a French poet, termed 'the divine' by contemporary English writers, born 1544. Principal work, La Semaine ou la Création du Monde, a poem on the creation, translated into English by Joshua Sylvester. It is said to have had a considerable influence on Milton's Paradise Lost. He died of wounds received at Ivry, 1590.
Bartfeld (ba˙rt´felt), an old town in Czecho-Slovakia, formerly Hungary, county of Saros, on the Tepl, with mineral springs in the neighbourhood. Pop. 6160, mostly Slovaks.
Barth (bärt), Heinrich, African traveller, born at Hamburg, 1821, died in 1865. He graduated at the University of Berlin as Ph.D. in 1844, and set out in 1845 to explore all the countries bordering on the Mediterranean. The first volume of his Wanderungen durch die Küstenländer des Mittelmeeres was published in 1849, in which year he was invited by the British Government to join Dr. Overweg in accompanying Richardson's expedition to Central Africa. The expedition set out from Tripoli in Feb., 1850, and, in spite of the death both of Richardson and Overweg, Barth did not return to Tripoli till the autumn of 1855. His explorations, which extended over an area of about 2,000,000 sq. miles, determined the course of the Niger and the true nature of the Sahara. The English account of it was entitled Travels and Discoveries in North and Central Africa (5 vols., 1857-8). An important work on the African languages was left unfinished.
Barth, Jean. See Bart.
Barthélemy (ba˙r-tāl-mē), Jean Jacques, French author, born 1716. He was educated under the Jesuits, for holy orders, but declined all offers of clerical promotion above the rank of Abbé He gained considerable repute as a worker in philology and archæology; and after his appointment as Director of the Royal Cabinet of Medals, in 1753, spent some time travelling in Italy collecting medals and antiquities. His best-known work, not inaptly characterized by himself as an unwieldy compilation, was his Voyage du Jeune Anacharsis en Grèce (1787). It was very popular and was translated into various tongues. Though taking no part in the revolution, he was arrested on a charge of being an aristocrat in 1793, but was set at liberty, and subsequently offered the post of librarian of the National Library. He died in 1795.
Barthélmy-Saint-Hilaire (ba˙r-tāl-mē-san-tē-lār), Jules, French scholar and statesman, born 1805, died in 1895. He was professor of Greek and Latin philosophy in the Collège de France, but resigned the chair after the coup d'état of 1852 and refused to take the oath. He was reappointed in 1862; and in 1869 was returned to the Corps Législatif. After the revolution he was a member of the National Assembly; and was elected Senator for life in 1876. He published a translation of Aristotle, and works on Buddhism, Mohammed and Mohammedanism, the Vedas, &c.
Barthez (ba˙r-tā), Paul Joseph, an eminent French physician, born at Montpellier 1734, died 1806. At Montpellier he founded a medical
school, which acquired a reputation throughout all Europe. Having settled in Paris, he was appointed by the king consulting physician, and by the Duke of Orleans his first physician. The Revolution deprived him of the greatest part of his fortune, and drove him from Paris, but Napoleon brought him forth again, and loaded him in his advanced age with dignities. Among his numerous writings may be mentioned Nouvelle Mécanique des Mouvements de l'Homme et des Animaux; Traitement des Maladies Goutteuses; Consultation de Médecine, &c. His Traité du Beau was published posthumously (1807).