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BIBLIOGRAPHER, [from /3‘?xo;, and ysaiaj, to write,] awriter of books; a transcriber. Also a man skilled in literaryhistory, and in the knowledge of books.
BIBLIOGRAPHIA , a branch of arclneographia," employed inthe judging and perming of ancient MSS. whether written inbooks, paper, or parchment. The sense of it is now' extended ;and it signifies a work intended to give information concerningthe tirst and best editions of books, and the ways of selecting anddistinguishing them properly. In short, it is used for nntitiu, ordescription of printed books', either in the order of the alphabet,of the times wh-n printed, or of the subject matters. '
BIBLIOMANCY, [/Si?.-iov and r.1 a kind of divii at'.on
performed hr imans of the Bible ; otherwise called sortisoib-licre, sortes sanctorum. It consist! d in taking passages of Scrip-ture at hazard, and drawing indications thence concerning thingsfuture.
BIBLIOMANfA, an extravagant passion for books, to a de-gree of madness; or a desire of accumulating them beyond allreason and necessity.
BIBLIOTHECA , [from jSiffxo.-, a book, and repository,]properly signifies a library, or repository of books ;• in literature,it denotes a treatise giving an account of all the writers on a cer-tain subject.
Bjbliotheca, in sacred literature, is applied to tire hooks otthe Old and New Testament, in respect ot their excellency, andsufficiency for the uses of the Chri-tiah life.
Bibliotheca Patrum, or of the fathers, is a collection of thewritings of the minor fathers, printed in one or more volumes.The first of this kind was published at Paris by Marg. de la Bignein 1576.
BIBLIOTI1ECARIAN, or BTBLIOTIIECARY, a libra-rian, or keeper of a library. The word is also used for the authorof a Bibliotheca , or a catalogue of books.
BIBLIOTllEQl E- See Bibliotheca .
BIBL1ST.E, or BIBLISTS, an appellation given by Romishwriters to those who profess to adhere to Scripture alone as thesole rule,of faith, exclusive of all tradition, and the supposed au-thority of the church. In this sense, all protestants are, or oughtto be, bihlists.
BIBLUS, [A?ao;,] in botany, an aquatic plant in Egypt , calledalso papyrus; of the skin whereof the ancient Egyptians madetheir paper. Hence also the Greeks gave the denomination £i?xo;,to books made thereof.
BICAN ER, a city of Asia, on the Ganges .
BICE, the name of a colour used in painting. It is eithergreen or blue, and is prepared from the lapis armenus. It hearstile best body of all bright blues used in common work, as house-painting, &c. but it is tiie palest in colour. It works indifferently■well, but inclines a little to sandy, and therefore requires goodgrinding.
BICEPS, the name of several muscles: as the biceps humeri,or cubiti; biceps tibix, See. See Anatomy.
BICESTER , BISSKTER, or BCRCESTER, a town ofOxfordshire, 56 miles from London .
BICIIET, a quantity or measure of corn ; also a certain quan-tity of land, as much as may be sown by a bicliet of corn.
BICORNES, an order of plants in the fragmenta methodinaturalis of Linnauts, so termed from the anthers: having in ap-pearance two horns.
BICORNIS, in anatomy, an extensor muscle of the arm, other-wise denominated radia-usexternus, and extensor carpi radialis.
Ricornis Pollicis Manus, the proper extensor muscle ofthe thumb; also called tricornis ; and abductor pollicis longus.
BIDACIIE, a town of France, in the department of the LowerPyrenees , 12 miles E. of Bayonne.
’BIDALDI, or BIDARll, an ancient kind of foot-soldiersmentioned by the French historians, armed with two darts.
BIDASOA , BIDDASSOA, or VIDASSO, a considerableriver of Spain, which rises in the Pyrenees , and falls into the bayof Biscay, between Andaye and Fontarabia .
BIDDIFORD, or BED1FORD, a town of Devonshire , 30miles from Exeter.
BIDENS, in botany, water hemp-agrimony: a genus of thepolygamia acquaint order, and syngenesia class; natural order,Composite oppositifolix, Receptacle paleaceous; pappus erect
scabrous awns, with calyx imbricated. It has fourteen species,chiefly herbaceous annual plants. A decoction of the B. tripar-tita with alum, dyes a yellow colour. The yarn must be firststeeped in alum-water, then dried and steeped in a decoction ofthe plant, and afterwards boiled in the decoction. The seeds havebeen known sometimes to destroy the cyprinus auralus, or goldfish, by adhering to their gills ami jaws.
BI liKNTAL, in Roman antiquity, a place blasted with light-ning; which was immediately consecrated by a haruspex, with thesacrtltce of a bidens. r I bis place was atterwards accounted sacred,and it was unlawful to enter it, or to tread upon it; for which rea-son it was commonly surrounded with a ditch, wall, hedge, ropes,&c\
BIDEN'TALES, in Roman antiquity, priests instituted to per-tonn certain ceremonies when thunder fell on any place. Theirprincipal office was the sacrificing a sheep of two years old, whichm Latin is called bidens; from whence the place struck withthunder got the name of bidental.
E1DENTES, in the middle age, sheep of Iho 2d year.
Ill DON, a liquid measure, containing about five quarts Eng-lish wine-measure.
B! DOUSE, a river of France, in the department of the LowerPyrenees .
BIDREAP, an old feudal service, by which a tenant wasobliged to reap bis landlord’s coni.
Ill FEZ, a town of Boland, in Hie Palatinate of Cracovia, re-markable for its mines of vitriol. Lon. 21.5. E. Lat. 49. 50. N.
BIELA, a town and province o! Russia .
Biei.a, a town of Piedmont in Italy . Lon. 8. 3. E. Lat. 45.22. N.
BIELOGOROD, a city and province of Russia .
B1ELSCZ, HI ELSE, or B1ELSKI, a large town of LittlePoland, in Polachia, lot) miles E. N. E. of Warsaw .
B1ELSKOI, a town of Russia, in the province of Smolensko .Lon. 35. 15. E. Lat. 56. 40. N.
B1ENNA, BIENNE, or BIEL, a town of Switzerland , 7miles N. \V. of Bern.
BIENNIAL Plants, plants that are only of two years dura-tion.
BIFARIA Folia, bifarious leaves, in botany, are such as pointtwo ways.
B1FER/E, plants that flower twice a year, in spring and au-tumn, as is common between the tropics.
BIFFA, in middle-age writers, a machine for casting stonesand darts, having a moveable counterpoise, which turned roundits yard.
BIFID Leaf, in botany, a leaf cloven into two parts.
BIFRON'S, in ancient mythology, an appellation of Janus, whowas represented with two faces, as being supposed to look bothbackwards and forwards, to time past and tuture.
BIGA, in antiquity, a chariot drawn by two horses abreast.Clwiot-races, with two horses, were introduced into the Olympicgames in the 93d Olympiad: but the invention was much moreancient, as we find that the heroes in the Iliad tight from chariotsof that kind. The moon, the night, and the morning, are by my-th.ologi-.ts supposed to lie carried in bi&tr, the sun in a quad-riga'.
BIGAMY, [ bigumia, low Latin, ] properly signifies beingtwice married ; but with us is used as synonymous to polygamy,or having a plurality of wives at once. Such second marriage,the former husband or wife being alive, is simply void, and a merenullity, by the ecclesiastical law of England; and yet the legisla-ture lias thought it just to make it felony, by reason of its beingso great a violation of the public economy and decency of a well-ordered state. For polygamy can never be endured under anyrational civil establishment, whatever specious reasons may heurged for it by the eastern nations, the fallaciousness of which hasbeen fully proved by many sensible writers: but in northerncountries the very nature ot the climate seems to declaim againstit; it never having obtained in this part of the world, even fromthe time of our German ancestors, w ho, as Tacitus informs us,“ prope soli barbarorum singulis uxorilnis contend sunt.” It istherefore punished by the laws both ot ancient and modern Swe-den with death. And in Britain it is enacted by statute 1 Juc. 1.c. 11, that if any person being married, do afterwards marryagain, the former husband or wife being alive, it is felony, not
within