Bellonius (Pierre Belon, 1517–1564)
:
French physician and naturalist
Bembus (Pietro Cardinal Bembo, 1470–1547)
:
Italian historian, poet, scholar
Benedict III
:
Pope (855–858)
Benjamin
:
Jacob’s youngest and favourite son (see Genesis 35.18); also the tribe
Berosus (3rd cent.
B
.
C
.)
:
Babylonian historian
Besler, Basil (1561–1629)
:
German naturalist
Bethlem Gábor
:
prince of Transylvania (1613–1629) and king of Hungary (1620–1629)
Bevis
:
hero of the medieval romance
Sir Bevis of Hampton
Bias
:
one of the seven wise men of ancient Greece (‘I carry everything with me’ – i.e. in the head)
Biringuccio, Vanucci (1480–1539)
:
Italian mathematician and military scientist
Blancanus, Josephus
:
Italian author of
Aristotelis loca mathematica
(1615)
Blount, Sir Henry (1602–1682)
:
English traveller and author
Blount, Thomas (1618–1679)
:
English scholar: see below,
p. 537
Boadicea (d. 62)
:
British queen, revolted against Romans
Bochart, Samuel (1599–1667)
:
French theologian and scholar
Boethius (
c
. 480 –
c
. 524)
:
Roman philosopher and statesman
Boorde, Andrew (1490?–1549)
:
English physician and writer
Bosio, Antonio (d. 1629)
:
Italian archaeologist
Bosio, Giacomo (fl. late 16th cent.)
:
Italian historian and scholar
Bovillus (Charles Bouelles, 1470?–1553?)
:
French mathematician and philosopher
Boyle, Robert (1627–1691)
:
English physicist and chemist
Brennus
:
Brennius, British king, brother of Belinus (q.v.)
Britannicus (41–55)
:
son of Claudius I (q.v.), set aside in favour of Nero
Browne, Edward (1644–1708)
:
Sir Thomas’s eldest son: physician and author; see above, pp. 499 ff.
Bullokar, John (fl. 1622)
:
English lexicographer: see below,
p. 537
Burton, Robert (1577–1640)
:
English scholar, author of
Anatomy of Melancholy
(pseudonym: Democritus Junior)
Burton, William (1575–1645)
:
English antiquary
Cabeus (Niccolo Cabeo, 1585–1650)
:
Italian mathematician and philosopher
Cadamustus (Alvise Cadamosto, 1432–1477)
:
Venetian explorer and writer
Cadmus
:
legendary founder of Thebes, said to have introduced the art of writing from Phoenicia
Caesar, G. Julius
:
Roman dictator (49–44
B
.
C
.) and author
Cain
:
eldest son of Adam and Eve
Cajetan, Tomasso de Vio Cardinal (1470–1534)
:
Italian-Spanish theologian
Caligula
:
Roman emperor (37–41)
Calvin, John (1509–1564)
:
French Reformer and theologian
Cambyses II
:
last Median king of Persia (d. 522
B
.
C
.)
Camden, William (1551–1623)
:
English antiquary and historian
Canute II the Great
:
king of England (1016–1035) and Denmark (1018-1035)
Caracalla
:
Roman emperor (211–217)
Cardan (Girolamo Cardano, 1501–1576)
:
Italian physician and mathematician
Carew, Richard (1555–1620)
:
English antiquary and translator
Casalius, Joannes Baptista (fl. mid 17th cent.)
:
Italian antiquary and writer
Casaubon, Meric (1599–1671)
:
English classical scholar
Cassiodorus (
c
. 485–
c
. 580)
:
Roman author and monk
Cassius Longinus (d. 42)
:
Roman tribune, one of Caesar’s assassins
Castellus (Pietro Castelli, d. 1657)
:
Italian physician and botanist
Castor
:
one of the Dioscuri (‘sons of Zeus’)
Cato the Elder (234–149
B
.
C
.)
:
Roman consul
Cato the Younger (Cato of Utica, 95–46
B
.
C
.)
:
Roman statesman and philosopher
Cestius, Gaius (1st cent.
B
.
C
.)
:
Roman praetor and tribune
Charlemagne
:
Charles I the Great, king of the Franks (768–814) and emperor of the West (800–814)
Charles II
:
king of Great Britain (1660–1685)
Charles V
:
Holy Roman Emperor (1519–1556)
Charles Wayne, the stars of
:
‘Certaine Starres winding about the North pole of the world, in fashion like foure wheeles and horses drawing it’ (Bullokar)
Charybdis
:
the mythical whirlpool off the coast of Sicily (see
Odyssey
, XII)
Cheops
:
king of Egypt (
c
. 2900–2877
B
.
C
.)
Chifflet, Jean Jacques (1588–1660)
:
French medical and political writer
Childeric I
:
king of the Salian Franks (458?–481)
Chimaera
:
in Greek mythology, a fire-breathing female monster
Chiron
:
the wisest of the Centaurs, teacher of Achilles and Hercules
Christian IV
:
king of Denmark and Norway (1588–1648)
Christopher, St (3rd cent.)
:
the patron of wayfarers
Chrysippus of Soli (
c
. 280–207
B
.
C
.)
:
Stoic philosopher
Cicero (106–43
B
.
C
.)
:
Roman orator, philosopher and statesman
Cimon (507–449
B
.
C
.)
:
Athenian statesman and general
Claudian (d.
c
. 395)
:
Latin poet
Claudius I
:
Roman emperor (9
B
.
C
.-
A
.
D
. 54)
Clemens
:
see next entry
Clement of Alexandria, St (
c
. 150-
c
. 215)
:
theologian
Cleobulus (fl. 560
B
.
C
.)
:
Greek lyric poet, one of the Seven Sages
Cleopatra
:
queen of Egypt (51–49 and 48–30
B
.
C
.)
Clusius, Carolus (1526–1609)
:
Dutch physician and botanist
Cockeram, Henry (fl. 1650)
:
English lexicographer: see below,
p. 537
Codrus
:
last king of Athens, said to have reigned
c
. 1068
B
.
C
.
Colonna, Fabio (1567?–1650)
:
Italian naturalist
Columbus, Christopher (1446?–1506)
:
Italian explorer
Columbus, Realdus (d. 1577?)
:
Italian anatomist
Commodus
:
Roman emperor (180–192)
Constans I
:
Roman emperor (337–350)
Constantine the Great
:
Roman emperor (306–337)
Copernicus, Nicolas (1473–1543)
:
Polish astronomer, his heliocentric theory not confirmed much before the end of the 17th century; see
p. 160, note 139
Costa, Christophorus a
:
see
Acosta
Covarrubias y Orozco, Sebastián de (fl. early 17th cent.)
:
Spanish scholar
Crassus, Lucius Licinius (140–91
B
.
C
.)
:
Roman orator and statesman
Croesus (6th cent.
B
.
C
.)
:
king of Lydia, celebrated for his wealth
Crucius (Alsario della Croce, fl. early 17th cent.)
:
Italian physician and writer
Cupid (Eros)
:
the god of love, son of Venus
Curtius, Benedictus (Benoît Court, fl. 1533–1560)
:
French jurist and writer on agriculture (
Horti
, 1560)
Curtius, Marcus (d. 362
B
.
C
.)
:
Roman knight, self-sacrificed for Rome (Livy, VII, 6)
Cush (Kush)
:
the eldest son of Ham (see Genesis 10.6)
Cuthbert (d. 758)
:
Archbishop of Canterbury
Cuthred
:
king of the West Saxons (740–754)
Cypraeus, Joannes Adolphus (16th cent.)
:
German ecclesiastical historian
Cyprian, St (d. 258)
:
Bishop of Carthage, pastoral theologian
Cyril, St (376–444)
:
Bishop of Alexandria, Father of the Church
Cyrus the Elder
:
see next entry
Cyrus the Great
:
king of Persia (500–529
B
.
C
.), founder of the Persian Empire
Cyrus the Younger (424?–401
B
.
C
.)
:
Persian prince and satrap, conspired against his brother Artaxerxes II (q.v.) with help of mercenaries under Xenophon (q.v.)
Damocles
:
courtier under Dionysius the Elder (q.v.) who sat him under a suspended sword to demonstrate the perils of a ruler’s life
Damon and Pythias
:
‘loved each other so well, as that one offered to suffer death for the other’ (Cockeram)
Dan
:
the son of Jacob by Bilhah, Rachel’s maid (see Genesis 30.6); also the tribe – ‘an adder’ (Gen. 49.17) which, omitted from the list of tribes (Rev. 7.4–8), was expected to yield the Antichrist from its ranks
Daniel
:
‘prophet’, protagonist of the homonymous Biblical book
Dante (1265–1321)
:
Italian poet
Darius III Codomannus
:
king of Persia (336–330
B
.
C
.)
David
:
the second king of Israel, accepted as author of Psalms
Dee, John (1527–1608)
:
English mathematician and astrologer
Deiphobus
:
Trojan prince, Helen’s husband after Paris’s death (see
Aeneid
, VI, 495 ff.)