by his son-in-law William Roper (1496–1578) and be-
tween 1554 and 1557 George Cavendish (c. 1500–
c. 1561) wrote his Life and Death of Cardinal Wolsey, both
of them accounts of great and complex public figures by
men who knew them intimately; neither biography was
published until the following century.
See also: AUTOBIOGRAPHY
Biondo, Flavio (1392–1463) Italian historian and
archeologist
Born at Forlì and educated at Cremona, he was caught up
in the politics of the time and lived in exile in Imola, Fer-
rara, and Venice until Pope Eugenius IV employed him in
the papal Curia in 1433. Though he had little interest in
the speculative side of the Renaissance he was the first his-
torian who showed awareness of the gap separating the
classical from the medieval world. He published three vol-
umes which collected the antiquities of Italy as far as they
were then known: Roma instaurata (1440–63), Roma tri-
umphans (1456–60), and Italia instaurata (1456–60). The
effect of these books was to stimulate topographical re-
search and encourage the development of chorography,
the study of local history from surviving remains. They
also influenced artists, particularly MANTEGNA. Biondo’s
last work, left incomplete at his death, was his Historiarum
ab inclinatione Romane imperii decades in 42 books, deal-
ing with the period 410–1441.
Biringuccio, Vannoccio (1480–c. 1539) Italian
metallurgist
The son of a Sienese official, Biringuccio began his career
in the arsenal of Pandolfo Petrucci, ruler of Siena. After a
period of exile during which he worked in Parma, Ferrara,
and Venice, he returned to Siena in 1530. In 1538, shortly
before his death, he entered the service of Pope Paul III in
Rome as superintendent of the papal arsenal. Biringuccio’s
observations on his lifetime’s trade were published
posthumously in his Pirotechnia (1540). Lavishly illus-
trated, it contained detailed accounts of the mining and
extraction of ores, the blast furnace, the manufacture of
cannon and gunpowder, and the production of glassware.
There were 10 editions of the work before 1678, including
translations into English and French, keeping Biringuc-
cio’s work in wide use as a practical text well into the 18th
century.
Bisticci, Vespasiano da (1421–1498) Florentine
bookseller, scholar, and biographer
He was agent for the three greatest collectors of MANU-
SCRIPTS of the early Renaissance: Cosimo de’ MEDICI,
Pope NICHOLAS V, and Federico da MONTEFELTRO, duke of
Urbino. Manuscripts from his workshops were exported
all over Europe, even to England and Hungary. He was the
largest employer of copyists in Europe and his reputation
for craftsmanship maintained the market for manuscripts
for some time after the invention of printing. On one oc-
casion he and a team of 45 copyists produced 200 volumes
in 22 months for Cosimo’s library in the Badia, Fiesole. He
took a scholarly interest in the books his workmen pro-
duced and guaranteed the accuracy of the texts as well as
the beauty of the execution. This interest helped him to
make the contacts with scholars and humanists which he
used in his Vite d’uomini illustri del secolo XV (Lives of fa-
mous men of the 15th century; written after 1480), which
gives many biographical details not available elsewhere
and is notable for its lack of malice.Black Death See PLAGUEBlaeu, Willem Jansz. (1571–1638) Dutch cartographer
and astronomer
Born at Alkmaar, Blaeu served a two-year apprenticeship
in Amsterdam, then developed his geographical and astro-
nomical skills under the guidance of Tycho BRAHE. In 1596
he returned to Amsterdam, and established himself as a
maker of both globes and scientific instruments. He also
founded a publishing house (1599), specializing in car-
tography. Blaeu enjoyed universal acclaim for the quality
of his work; his instruments and globes featured unprece-
dented precision, and he developed a new type of press for
mapmaking. His most famous works are a world map
issued in 1605, Het Licht der Zeevaerdt (The Light of Navi-
gation; a three-volume sea atlas, 1608–21), and a magnifi-
cent series of atlases, beginning in 1638 and ongoing at
the time of Blaeu’s death. After Blaeu died, his son Jan
Blaeu (died 1673) continued his work, the 11-volume
Atlas Major (1662) being the firm’s greatest achievement.Blahoslav, Jan (1523–1571) Czech humanist scholar and
theologian
Blahoslav was born in P&rbreve;erov, northeast of Brno,
and was a leading member of the CZECH BRETHREN, whose
bishop he became in 1557. Under his leadership the
brethren became a significant force on the Czech cultural
scene. Blahoslav translated the New Testament into Czech
(1564), and his version was incorporated virtually unal-
tered into the Kralice Bible (1588). His Czech grammar
was influential in establishing Czech as a literary lan-
guage, and he also contributed to musicology, producing
the first theoretical treatise in the vernacular under the
title Musica (1558) and a hymn book (1561) with well
over 700 tunes.block-books See BOOK ILLUSTRATIONBloemaert, Abraham (1564–1651) Dutch painter
Bloemaert was born in Gorinchem, the son of the architect
Cornelis Bloemaert (c. 1540–95). Abraham trained in
Utrecht, visited France (1580–83), and then settled in
Utrecht, where he ran a school that attracted many pupils,BBllooeemmaaeerrtt,, AAbbrraahhaamm 5577