Josse, sometimes called Badius Ascensius, from the village of Asche, where he was born in 1462, an eminent French printer, whose printing establishment was celebrated under the name of Prelum Ascensionarium. He illustrated with notes several of the works which he printed, and was himself the author of several pieces, particularly a life of Thomas a Kempis, and a satire on the follies of women, entitled Navigula Stultorum Mullerium. He died in 1535.

BÆTICA, a province of ancient Spain, so called from the famed river Baetis, afterwards Tartessus, now Guadalquivir or the great river. It was bounded on the west by Lusitania, on the south by the Mediterranean and Sinus Gadanus, and on the north by the Cantabric Sea, now the Bay of Biscay. On the east and north-east its limits cannot be so well ascertained, since they are thought to have been in a continual state of fluctuation, as each petty monarch had an opportunity of encroaching upon his neighbour.

BÆTYLIA, anointed stones, worshipped by the Phœnicians, by the Greeks before the time of Cecrops, and by other barbarous nations. They were commonly of a black colour, and consecrated to some god, as Saturn, Jupiter, the Sun. Some are of opinion that the true original of these idols is to be derived from the pillar of stone which Jacob erected at Bethel, and which was afterwards worshipped by the Jews. These betylia were the objects of much veneration among the ancient heathens. Many of their idols were in fact no other; and no sort was more common in eastern countries than that of erect oblong stones, hence termed by the Greeks στήλαι, pillars. In some parts of Egypt they were planted on both sides of the highways. In the temple of Heliogabalus in Syria, there was one said to have fallen from heaven; and in Phrygia there was a black stone, also considered an aerolithe, which the Romans sent for, and received with much ceremony, Scipio Nasica having been at the head of the embassy.

BÆZA, a city of Andalusia in Spain, seated on a high hill three miles from the Guadalquivir. It is the see of a bishop, and has a kind of university founded by John d'Avila. It was taken from the Moors about the end of the fifteenth century. Long. 3° 15'. E. Lat. 37° 45'. N.