BORDA, a French mathematician and physicist, born at Dax, in the dep. of Landes, served in both army and navy; one of those employed in measuring an arc of the meridian to establish the metric system in France (1733-1799).

BORDEAUX (256), a great industrial and commercial city, and chief seat of the wine trade in France and the third seaport on the Garonne; cap. of the dep. of Gironde; the birthplace of Rosa Bonheur and Richard II., his father, the Black Prince, having had his seat here as governor of Aquitaine.  There are sugar-refineries, potteries, foundries, glass and chemical works.  The cod-fishing industry has its base here.  A cathedral dates from the 11th century.  There are schools of science, art, theology, medicine, and navigation, a library, museum, and rich picture-gallery.

BORDER MINSTREL, Sir Walter Scott.

BORDERS, THE, the shifting boundary between Scotland and England before the Union, a centre of endless fighting and marauding on the opposite sides for centuries.

BORDONE, an Italian painter, born at Treviso, a pupil of Titian and Giorgione; his most celebrated picture, “The Gondolier presenting the Ring of St. Mark to the Doge” (1500-1570).

BORE, a watery ridge rushing violently up an estuary, due to a strong tidal wave travelling up a gradually narrowing channel.  Bores are common in the estuary of the Ganges and other Asiatic rivers, in those of Brazil, and at the mouth of the Severn, in England.

BOREAS, the god of the north wind, and son of the Titan Astraeus and of Aurora.

BORGHESE, name of a family of high position and great wealth in Rome:  Camillo, having become Pope in 1605 under the title of Paul V.; and Prince Borghese having married Pauline Bonaparte, sister of Napoleon, who separated himself from her on the fall of her brother (1775-1832); the palace of the family one of the finest in Rome, and has a rich collection of paintings.

BORGHESI, COUNT, an Italian savant skilled in numismatics (1781-1860).

BORGIA, CAESAR, fourth son of Pope Alexander VI.; was made cardinal at the age of 17, an honour he relinquished to become a soldier, in which capacity it is alleged he gave himself up to deeds of inhumanity, which have made his name a synonym for every action that is most crafty, revolting, and cruel; a portrait of him by Raphael, in the Borghese gallery, is a masterpiece.  Notwithstanding the execration in which his memory is held, he is reputed to have been just as a ruler in his own domain, and a patron of art and literature; d. 1507.

BORGIA, FRANCESO, third general of the Order of the Jesuits, a post he filled with great zeal as well as prudent management; was beatified by Urban VIII., and canonised by Clement IX., 1671 (1510-1572).

BORGIA, LUCRETIA, sister of Caesar Borgia, born at Rome; her father annulled her first marriage, and gave her to a nephew of the king of Naples, who was murdered by her brother’s assassins, when she married the Duke of Ferrara; was celebrated for her beauty and her patronage of letters, though she has been accused of enormities as well as her brother (1480-1523).