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, a Flemish Jesuit, and a native of Antwerp, entered into the society of the Jesuits at Louvain, in 1544, and was principal for many years before they had a college. In 1551, he made solemn profession of the four vows. After the death of St. Ignatius, he was called to Rome to assist in a general congregation for the election of a second general of the society. But, finding himself here involved in disputes and intrigues not suited to his disposition, he retired to Flanders, where he appears to have led a studious and useful life. He died at Louvain, October 18, 1580, after having published, in German, several works of the ascetic kind, one of which, “De Divinis Inspirationibus et de Confessione,” was translated into Latin by Gerard Brunelius, and printed at Cologn, 1601, 12mo.

, a celebrated printer of the sixteenth century, was a native of Antwerp, but settled at Venice, where he commenced business by printing a Hebrew Bible, which was published in 2 vols. fol. 1518, and reprinted by him in 4to and 8vo. He learned Hebrew from Felix Pratenois, an Italian, who engaged him to print a Rabbinical Bible, which appeared in 1517, fol. dedicated by Bomberg to Leo X. The Jews, however, not approving of this edition, the rabbi Jacob Haum suggested another, which Bomberg published in 4 vols. fol. in 1525. He also, in 1520, began an edition of the Talmud, which he finished, after some years, in 11 vols. fol. This he reprinted twice, and each edition is said to have cost him an hundred thousand crowns. These two last editions are more complete and beautifully printed than the first, and are in more estimation than the subsequent editions of Bragadin and Burtorf. Bomberg appears to have been a man highly zealous for the honour of his art, spared no cost in embellishments, and is said to have retained about an hundred Jews as correctors, the most learned he could find. In printing only, in the course of his life, he is thought to have expended four millions in gold (Scaliger says, three millions of crowns), and Vossius seems to hint that he injured his fortune by his liberality. He died at Venice in 1549.

, a native of Antwerp, and secretary to the duke of Florence, was born at Antwerp in 1584, of protestant parents, said to be of the same family with Peter the Hermit, so celebrated in the history of the crusades. In his youth Scaliger had a great esteem for him, and recommended him in the strongest terms to Casaubon; who procured him employment, and endeavoured to get him into Mr. de Montaterre’s family, in quality of preceptor, and was likely to have succeeded, when Eremita found means to ingratiate himself with Mr. de Vic, who was going ambassador into Switzerland. In the course of their intimacy De Vic, a man of great bigotry, and fired with a zeal for making converts, soon won over Eremita, by means of a conference with a Portuguese monk; and fre became a Roman catholic, which gave Casaubon great uneasiness. Eremita, however, still retained a veneration for Scaliger, and, after his death, defended him against Scioppius, who in his answer, speaks with very little respect of Eremita, and informs us that after being at Rome in 1606, he disappeared for some time after, as it was supposed at first from poverty, but it afterwards was discovered that he had retired to Sienna, where he made his court to archbishop Ascanio Piccolomini, who recommended him to Silvio Piccolomini, great chamberlain to the great duke of Florence. By this means he obtained a pension from that prince, as a reward for a panegyric written on the nuptials of the great duke with Magdalen of Austria, and published in 1608, and at his earnest request he was sent into Germany with the deputy, to acquaint the several princes of the empire with the death of the great duke’s father. At his return to Florence, he affected to be profoundly skilled in allairs of government; and promised a commentary which should exceed whatever had been written upon Tacitus. As he looked upon the history of our Saviour as fabulous, so he took a delight in exclaiming against the inquisitors and the clergy; and had many tales ready upon these occasions, all which he could set off to advantage.

, an eminent antiquary, was a native of Antwerp, and born in the end of the sixteenth century. He studied at Louvain, where he took his master’s degree in 1596, and became professor of rhetoric and law in that university. He was afterwards historiographer to the Low Countries, and for three years employed himself in examining their records. He them travelled through the greater part of Germany and Italy, but, while proceeding from the latter country to Spain, he was unfortunately made captive by an Algerine corsair, and carried to Africa. How he obtained his release does not appear, but upon his return to his native land he was preferred by the archduke Albert to be dean of the collegiate church of Leusa, in Heinault, and afterwards by the same patronage was made president of the college at Louvain. Some years after he travelled into Moravia and Silesia, and

, a native of Antwerp, was born in 1628, and was educated as a Jesuit. He has already been mentioned in our account of Holland us, as the coadjutor of that writer in the compilation of the “Acta Sanctorum.” He died in 1714, in the seventy-eighth year of his age. He was, according to Dupin, less credulous than Bollandus, and became involved in a controversy with the Carmelites respecting the origin of their order. There is little else interesting in his history; but in addition to the account given in our article Bollandus, of the “Acta Sanctorum,” we may now mention that the work has been continued to the fifty-third volume, folio, which appeared in 1794, but is yet imperfect, as it comes only to October 14th. Brunet informs us that there are very few perfect copies to be found in France, some of the latter volumes being destroyed during the revolutionary period. The reprint at Venice, 1734, 42 vols. is of less estimation.

Mr. Rysbrach, who had by no means raised a fortune equal to his deserts, before his death made a public sale of his remaining works and models, to which he added a Jarge collection of his own historic drawings, conceived and executed in the true taste of the great Italian masters. Another sale followed his death, which happened Jan. 8, 1770. He had two brothers, Peter Andreas, and G. Rysl>rach, who painted fish, dead fowls, and landscape, with Considerable merit, particularly the elder, who was born it Paris in 1690, and died in England of a consumption in 1743. He must be distinguished from another landscape painter of the seventeenth century of the same name, who was a native of Antwerp.

, a Frenchman, famous for his travels, was born at Paris in 1605. His father, who was a native of Antwerp, settled at Paris, and traded very largely in geographical maps, so that the natural inclination which Tavernier had for travelling was greatly increased, by the conversations which daily passed in his father’s house, concerning foreign countries. He began to gratify his passion so early, that, at the age of two and twenty years, he had seen the finest countries of Europe, France, England, the Low Countries, Germany, Switzerland, Poland, Hungary, and Italy. During the space of forty years he travelled six times into Turkey, Persia, and the East Indies, and by all the different routes he could take. In the course of these peregrinations, he gained a great estate by trading in jewels; and, being ennobled by Louis XIV. purchased the barony of Aubonne, near the lake of Geneva, in 1668. He had collected a great number of observations, but he had not learned either to speak or write well in French; for which reason he was forced to employ others in drawing up his relations. M. Chappuseau, with whom he lodged at Geneva, lent him his pen for the two first volumes of his travels; and M. Chapelle for the third. They have frequently been printed, and contain several curious particulars; yet not without some fables, which were told him purely to impose upon his simplicity. He is charged also with stealing from others to fill up his own accounts: thus Dr. Hyde, having cited a very long passage from Tavernier, tells us that “he had taken it like a downright plagiary from a book printed at Lyons, 1671, in 8vo, and written by father Gabriel de Chinon, who had lived in Persia thirty years.”