Rome, where he became a pupil of Raphael. While studying under him he worked along with many others at the decoration of the gallery in the Vatican, though it is not known what portions are his work. On his return to Bologna he quickly took the leading place as an artist, and to him were due the great improvements in the general style of what has been called the Bolognese school. His works were considered to be inferior in point of design to some other productions of the school of Raphael, but they were distinguished by rich colouring and graceful delineation. They were highly esteemed by Guido Reni and the Carracci, who studied them carefully and in some points imitated them. The best specimens of Bagnacavallo's works, the “Dispute of St Augustine,” and a “Madonna and Child,” are at Bologna.
BAGNÈRES-DE-BIGORRE, a town of south-western France, capital of an arrondissement in the department of Hautes-Pyrénées, 13 m. S.S.E. of Tarbes on a branch line of the Southern railway. Pop. (1906) 6661. It is beautifully situated on the left bank of the Adour, at the northern end of the valley of Campan, and the vicinity abounds in picturesque mountain scenery. The town is remarkably neat and clean and many of the houses are built or ornamented with marble. It is one of the principal watering-places in France, and has some fifty mineral springs, characterized chiefly by the presence of sulphate of lime or iron. Their temperature ranges approximately from 59° to 122° Fahr., and they are efficacious in cases of rheumatism, nervous affections, indigestion and other maladies. The season begins in May and terminates about the end of October, during which time the population is more than doubled. The Promenade des Coustous is the centre of the life of Bagnères. Close by stands the church of St Vincent of the 14th and 15th centuries. The old quarter of the town, in which there are several old houses, contains a graceful octagonal tower of the 15th century, the remains of a Jacobin monastery. The Néothermes, occupying part of the casino, and the Thermes (dating from 1824), which has a good library, are the principal bathing-establishments; both are town property. The other chief buildings include the Carmelite church, remains of the old church of St Jean, a museum and the town-hall. Bagnères has tribunals of first instance and of commerce, and a communal college. The manufacture of barège, a light fabric of silk and wool, and the weaving and knitting of woollen goods, wood-turning and the working of marble found in the neighbourhood and imported from elsewhere, are among the industries, and there are also slate quarries. Bagnères was much frequented by the Romans, under whom it was known as Vicus Aquensis, but afterwards lost its renown. It begins to appear again in history in the 12th century when Centulle III., count of Bigorre, granted it a liberal charter. The baths rose into permanent importance in the 16th century, when they were visited by Jeanne d'Albret, mother of Henry IV., and by many other distinguished persons.
BAGNÈRES-DE-LUCHON, a town of south-western France, in the department of Haute-Garonne, 87 m. S.S.W. of Toulouse, on a branch line of the Southern railway from Montréjeau. Pop. (1906) 3448. The town is situated at the foot of the central Pyrenees in a beautiful valley at the confluence of the One and the Pique. It is celebrated for its thermal springs and as a fashionable resort. Of the promenades the finest and most frequented are the Allées d'Etigny, an avenue planted with lime-trees, at the southern extremity of which is the Thermes, or bathing-establishment, one of the most complete in existence. The springs, which number 48, vary in composition, but are chiefly impregnated with sulphate of sodium, and range in temperature from 62° to 150°. A large casino was opened in the town in 1877. The discovery of numerous Roman remains attests the antiquity of the baths, which are identified with the Onesiorum Thermae of Strabo. Their revival in modern times dates from the latter half of the 18th century, and was due to Antoine Mégret d'Etigny, intendant of Auch.
BAGOAS, a Persian name (Bagoi), a shortened form of names like Bagadāta, “given by God,” often used for eunuchs. The best-known of these (“Bagoses” in Josephus) became the confidential minister of Artaxerxes III. He threw in his lot with the Rhodian condottiere Mentor, and with his help succeeded in subjecting Egypt again to the Persian empire (probably 342 B.C.). Mentor became general of the maritime provinces, suppressed the rebels, and sent Greek mercenaries to the king, while Bagoas administered the upper satrapies and gained such power that he was the real master of the kingdom (Diod. xvi. 50; cf. Didymus, Comm. in Demosth. Phil. vi. 5). He became very wealthy by confiscating the sacred writings of the Egyptian temples and giving them back to the priests for large bribes (Diod. xvi. 51). When the high priest of Jerusalem, Jesus, murdered his brother Johannes in the temple, Bagoas (who had supported Johannes) put a new tax on the Jews and entered the temple, saying that he was purer than the murderer who performed the priestly office (Joseph. Ant. xi. 7.1). In 338 Bagoas killed the king and all his sons but the youngest, Arses (q.v.), whom he raised to the throne; two years later he murdered Arses and made Darius III. king. When Darius attempted to become independent of the powerful vizier (χιλίαρχος), Bagoas tried to poison him too; but Darius was warned and forced him to drink the poison himself (Diod. xvii. 5; Johann. Antioch, p. 38, 39 ed. Müller; Arrian ii. 14. 5; Curt. vi. 4. 10). A later story, that Bagoas was an Egyptian and killed Artaxerxes III. because he had killed the sacred Apis (Aelian, Var. Hist. vi. 8), is without historical value. Bagoas' house in Susa, with rich treasures, was presented by Alexander to Parmenio (Plut. Alex. 39); his gardens in Babylon, with the best species of palms, are mentioned by Theophrastus (Hist. Plant, ii. 6; Plin. Nat. Hist. xiii. 41). Another eunuch, Bagoas, was a favourite of Alexander the Great (Dicaearchus in Athen. xiii. 603b; Plut. Al. 67; Aelian, Var. Hist. 3. 23; Curt. vi. 5. 23; x. 1. 25 ff.). (Ed. M.)
BAG-PIPE (Celt. piob-mala, ullan-piob, cuislean, cuislin; Fr. cornemuse, chalemie, musette, sourdeline, chevrette, loure; Ger. Sackpfeife, Dudelsack; M. H. Ger. Suegdbalch[1]; Ital. cornamusa, piva, zampogna, surdelina; Gr. ἄσκαυλος (?); Lat. ascaulus (?), tibia utricularis, utricularium; med. Lat. chorus), a complex reed instrument of great antiquity. The bag-pipe forms the link between the syrinx (q.v.) and the primitive organ, by furnishing the principle of the reservoir for the wind-supply, combined with a simple method of regulating the sound-producing pressure by means of the arm of the performer. The bag-pipes consists of an air-tight leather bag having three to five apertures, each of which contains a fixed stock or short tube. The stocks act as sockets for the reception of the pipes, and as air-chambers for the accommodation and protection of the reeds. The pipes are of three kinds: (1) a simple valved insufflation tube or “blow-pipe,” by means of which the performer fills the bag reservoir; (2) the “chaunter” (chanter) or the melody-pipe, having according to the variety of the bag-pipe a conical or a cylindrical bore, lateral holes, and in some cases keys and a bell; the “chaunter” is invariably made to speak by means of a double-reed; (3) the “drones,” jointed pipes with cylindrical bore, generally terminating in a bell, but having no lateral holes and being capable, therefore, of producing but one fixed note.
The main characteristic of the bag-pipe is the drone ground bass which sounds without intermission. Each drone is fitted with a beating-reed resembling the primitive “squeaker” known to all country lads; it is prepared by making a cut partly across a piece of cane or reed, near the open end, and splitting back from this towards a joint or knot, thus raising a tongue or flap. The beating-reed is then fixed in a socket of the drone, which fits into the stock. The sound is produced by the stream of air forced from the bag into the drone-pipe by the pressure of the performer's arm, causing the tongue of reed to vibrate over the aperture, thus setting the whole column of air in vibration. The drone-pipe, like all cylindrical tubes with reed mouthpieces, has the acoustic properties of the closed pipe and produces the note of a pipe twice its length. The drones are tuned by means of sliding-joints.
- ↑ See E. G. Graff, Deutsche Interlinearversionen der Psalmen (from a 12th-cent. Windberg MS. at Munich), p. 384, Ps. lxxx. 2. “nemet den Sulmen unde gebet den Suegdbalch.”
