[1] V.A. Smith, _Early History of India_, p. 295.
BOMBAZINE, or BOMBASINE, a stuff originally made of silk or silk and
wool, and now also made of cotton and wool or of wool alone. Good
bombazine is made with a silk warp and a worsted weft. It is twilled or
corded and used for dress-material. Black bombazine has been used
largely for mourning, but the material has gone out of fashion. The word
is derived from the obsolete French _bombasin_, applied originally to
silk but afterwards to "tree-silk" or cotton. Bombazine is said to have
been made in England in Queen Elizabeth's reign, and early in the 19th
century it was largely made at Norwich.
BOMBELLES, MARC MARIE, MARQUIS DE (1744-1822), French diplomatist and
ecclesiastic, was the son of the comte de Bombelles, tutor and guardian
of the duke of Orleans. He was born at Bitsch in Lorraine, and served in
the army through the Seven Years' War. In 1765 he entered the diplomatic
service, and after several diplomatic missions became ambassador of
France to Portugal in 1786, being charged to win over that country to
the Family Compact; but the madness of the queen and then the death of
the king prevented his success. He was transferred to Vienna early in
1789, but the Revolution cut short his diplomatic career, and he was
deprived of his post in September 1790. He remained attached to Louis
XVI., and was employed on secret missions to other sovereigns, to gain
their aid for Louis. In 1792 he emigrated, and after Valmy lived in
retirement in Switzerland. In 1804, after the death of his wife, he
withdrew to the monastery of Brunn in Austria, and became bishop of
Oberglogau in Prussia. In 1815 he returned to France, and became bishop
of Amiens (1819). He died in Paris in 1822.
His son, LOUIS PHILIPPE, comte de Bombelles (1780-1843), born at
Regensburg, passed his life in the diplomatic service of Austria. In
1814 he became Austrian ambassador to Denmark, and in 1816 filled a
similar position at Dresden. (E. Es.)
BOMBERG, DANIEL, a famous Christian printer of Hebrew books. His chief
activity was in Venice between 1516 and 1549 (the year of his death).
Bomberg introduced a new era in Hebrew typography. Among other great
enterprises, he published the _editio princeps_ (1516-1517) of the
rabbinical Bible (Hebrew text with rabbinical commentaries, &c.). He
also produced the first complete edition of the Talmud (1520-1523).
BONA, JOHN (1609-1674), Italian cardinal and author, was born at Mondovi
in Piedmont, on the 10th of October 1609. In 1624 he joined the
Congregation of Feuillants and was successively elected prior of Asti,
abbot of Mondovi and general of his order. He was created cardinal in
1669 by Clement IX., and during the conclave, which followed that pope's
death, was regarded as a possible candidate for the papacy. He died on
the 27th of October 1674. Bona's writings are mainly concerned with
liturgical and devotional subjects. Of the numerous editions of his
works, the best are those of Paris (1677), Turin (1747) and Antwerp
(1777). Stores of interesting rubrical information, interspersed with
verses and prayers, are to be found in the _De Libris Liturgicis_ and
the _Divina Psalmodia_; recent advances in liturgical studies, however,
have somewhat lessened their value. The _De Discretione Spirituum_
treats of certain higher phases of mysticism; the _Via Compendii ad
Deum_ was well translated in 1876 by Henry Collins, O. Cist., under the
title of _An Easy Way to God_. Sir Roger L'Estrange's translation (_The
Guide to Heaven_, 1680) of the _Manuductio ad Coelum_ was reprinted in
1898, and a new edition of the _Principia Vitae Christianae_, ed. by D.
O'Connor, appeared in 1906. The devotional treatise _De Sacrificio
Missae_ is the classical work in its field (new edition by Ildephonsus
Cummins, 1903).
The chief source for the life of Bona is the biography by the
Cistercian abbot Bertolotti (Asti, 1677); the best modern study is by
A. Ighina (Mondovi, 1874).
BONA (BONE), a seaport of Algeria, in 36 deg. 53' N., 7 deg. 46' E., on
a bay of the Mediterranean, chief town of an arrondissement in the
department of Constantine, 220 m. by rail W. of Tunis, and 136 m. N.E.
of Constantine. The town, which is situated at the foot of the wooded
heights of Edugh, is surrounded with a modern rampart erected outside
the old Arab wall, the compass of which was found too small for its
growth. Much of the old town has been demolished, and its general
character now is that of a flourishing French city. The streets are wide
and well laid out, but some are very steep. Through the centre of the
town runs a broad tree-lined promenade, the Cours Jerome-Bertagna,
formerly the Cours National, in which are the principal buildings
--theatre, banks, hotels. At its southern end, by the quay, is a bronze
statue of Thiers, and at the northern end, the cathedral of St
Augustine, a large church built in quasi-Byzantine style. In it is
preserved a relic supposed to be the right arm of St Augustine, brought
from Pavia in 1842. The Grand Mosque, built out of ruins of the ancient
Hippo, occupies one side of the chief square, the Place d'Armes. There
are barracks with accommodation for 3000 men, and civil and military
hospitals. The Kasbah (citadel) stands on a hill at the north-east of
the town. The inner harbour, covering 25 acres, is surrounded by fine
quays at which vessels drawing 22 ft. can be moored. Beyond is a
spacious outer harbour, built 1857-1868 and enlarged in 1905-1907. Bona
is in direct steamship communication with Marseilles, and is the centre
of a large commerce, ranking after Algiers and Oran alone in Algeria. It
imports general merchandise and manufactures, and exports phosphates,
iron, zinc, barley, sheep, wool, cork, esparto, &c. There are
manufactories of native garments, tapestry and leather. The marshes at
the mouths of the Seybuse and Bujema rivers, which enter the sea to the
south of Bona, have been drained by a system of canals, to the
improvement of the sanitary condition of the town, which has the further
advantage of an abundant water supply obtained from the Edugh hills.
There are cork woods and marble quarries in the vicinity, and the valley
of the Seybuse and the neighbouring plains are rich in agricultural
produce. The population of the town of Bona in 1906 was 36,004, of the
commune 42,934, of the arrondissement, which includes La Calle (q.v.)
and 11 other communes, 77,803.
Bona is identified with the ancient _Aphrodisium_, the seaport of _Hippo
Regius_ or _Ubbo_, but it derives its name from the latter city, the
ruins of which, consisting of large cisterns, now restored, and
fragments of walls, are about a mile to the south of the town. In the
first three centuries of the Christian era Hippo was one of the richest
cities in Roman Africa; but its chief title to fame is derived from its
connexion with St Augustine, who lived here as priest and bishop for
thirty-five years. Hippo was captured by the Vandals under Genseric in
431, after a siege of fourteen months, during which Augustine died. Only
the cathedral, together with Augustine's library and MSS., escaped the
general destruction. The town Avas partially restored by Belisarius, and
again sacked by the Arabs in the 7th century. On the top of the hill on
which Hippo stood, a large basilica, with chancel towards the west,
dedicated to St Augustine, was opened in 1900. An altar surmounted by a
bronze statue of the saint has also been erected among the ruins. The
place was named Hippo Regius (Royal) by the Romans because it was a
favourite residence of the Numidian kings. Bona (Arabic _annaba_, "the
city of jujube trees"), which has passed through many vicissitudes, was
built by the Arabs, and was for centuries a possession of the rulers of
Tunis, who built the Kasbah in 1300. From the beginning of the 14th to
the middle of the 15th century it was frequented by Italians and
Spaniards, and in the 16th it was held for some time by Charles V., who
strengthened its citadel. Thereafter it was held in turn by Genoese,
Tunisians and Algerines. From the time of Louis XIV. to the Revolution,
the French _Compagnie d'Afrique_ maintained a very active trade with the
port. The town was occupied by the French for a few months in 1830 and
reoccupied in 1832, when Captains Armandy and Yusuf with a small force
of marines seized the Kasbah and held it for some months until help
arrived. From that time the history of Bona is one of industrial
development, greatly stimulated since 1883 by the discovery of the
phosphate beds at Tebessa.
BONA DEA, the "good goddess," an old Roman deity of fruitfulness, both
in the earth and in women. She was identified with Fauna, and by later
syncretism also with Ops and Maia--the latter no doubt because the
dedication-day of her temple on the Aventine was 1st May (Ovid, _Fasti_,
v. 149 foll.). This temple was cared for, and the cult attended, by
women only, and the same was the case at a second celebration at the
beginning of December in the house of a magistrate with _imperium_,
which became famous owing to the profanation of these mysteries by P.
Clodius in 62 B.C., and the political consequences of his act. Wine and
myrtle were tabooed in the cult of this deity, and myths grew up to
explain these features of the cult, of which an account may be read in
W.W. Fowler's _Roman Festivals_, pp. 103 foll. Herbs with healing
properties were kept in her temple, and also snakes, the usual symbol of
the medicinal art. Her victim was a porca, as in the cults of other
deities of fertility, and was called _damium_, and we are told that the
goddess herself was known as Damia and her priestess as _damiatrix_.
These names are almost certainly Greek; Damia is found worshipped at
several places in Greece, and also at Tarentum, where there was a
festival called _Dameia_. It is thus highly probable that on the cult of
the original Roman goddess was engrafted the Greek one of Damia,
perhaps after the conquest of Tarentum (272 B.C.). It is no longer
possible to distinguish clearly the Greek and Roman elements in this
curious cult, though it is itself quite intelligible as that of an
Earth-goddess with mysteries attached.