(Jacob), called the Teutonic philosopher, was a noted visionary of the 17th century; born in a village of Germany near Gorlitz, in 1575. He was bred a shoemaker; and marrying, supported a large family by this occupation; until, after amusing himself with chemistry, a visionary turn of mind, heated by sermons and German divinity, got the upper hand of his common sense, and produced raptures and notions of divine illumination. These he first gave vent to in 1612, by a treatise intitled Aurora, or the rising of the Sun; being a mixture of astrology, philosophy, chemistry, and divinity, written in a quaint obscure style. This being censured by the magistrates of Gorlitz, he remained silent for seven years; but improving that interval by pursuing the flights of his imagination, he resumed his pen; and resolving to redeem the time he had lost, he, in the remaining five years of his life, published above 20 books, which greatly needed what he concluded with, A table of his principles, or a key to his writings; though this has not proved sufficient to render them intelligible to common apprehensions. The key above mentioned appeared in 1624, and he did not long survive it. For early in the morning of the 18th of November that year, he called one of his sons, and asked him "if he also heard that excellent sound?" Bœotia, music?" to which being answered in the negative, he ordered the door to be let open, that the music might be the better heard. He asked afterwards what o'clock it was? and being told it had struck two, he said "It is not yet my time; my time is three hours hence." In the interim he was heard to speak these words: "O thou strong God of hosts, deliver me according to thy will! O thou crucified Lord Jesus, have mercy upon me, and receive me into thy kingdom!" When it was near six o'clock, he took his leave of his wife and sons, and blessed them, and said, "Now I go hence into paradise;" then bidding his son turn him, he immediately expired his last breath in a deep sigh.

A great number of persons have been inveigled by the visions of this fanatic, notwithstanding his talents in involving the plainest things in mystery and enigmatical jargon. Among others, the famous Quirinus Kahlman may be reckoned the principal of his followers in Germany; who says, he had learned more being alone in his study, from Boehmen, than he could have learned from all the wise men of that age together; and, that we may not be in the dark as to what sort of knowledge this was, he acquaints us, that amidst an infinite number of visions it happened, that, being snatched out of his study, he saw thousands of thousands of lights rising round about him. Nor has he been without admirers, and those in no small number, in England; among the foremost of whom stands the famous Mr William Law, author of Christian Perfection, &c. who has favoured his countrymen with an English edition of Jacob Boehmen's works in 2 vols. 4to.

Bœotia, the name of two ancient kingdoms, one of which was founded or rather restored by Cadmus, and named by him Bœotia, from the ox which is said to have directed him to the place where he built the capital of his new kingdom, better known afterwards by the name of Thebes. But as the inhabitants were scarce ever distinguished as a nation by the name of Bœotians, but of Thebans, we refer to the article Thebes for their history, &c.

The other Bœotia was in Thessaly, and is said to have been founded by Bœotus the son of Neptune and brother of Æolus, by Arne the daughter of Æolus king of Æolis. This last, having sent his daughter to Metapontium a city of Italy, she was there delivered of those two sons, the eldest of whom she called after her father's name Æolus; and he possessed himself of the islands in the Tyrrhenian, now the Tuscan sea, and built the city of Lipara. Bœotus the younger son went to his grandfather and succeeded him in his kingdom, called it after his own name, and the capital city Arne, from his mother. All that we know of these Bœotians is, that they held this settlement upwards of 200 years; and that the Thessalians expelled them from it; upon which they came and took possession of that country, which till then had been called Cadmeia, and gave it the name of Bœotia. Diodorus and Homer tell us, that these Bœotians signalized themselves at the Trojan war; and the latter adds, that five of Bœotus's grandsons, viz. Peneleus, Leitus, Prothoenor, Arcesilas, and Clonius, were the chiefs who led the Bœotian troops thither.