**BROKOV (Brokoff)**, - Bohemian sculptors. **Ferdinand Maximilian** was born in 1688 at Červený Hrádek and died in 1731 at Prague.
His principal works of a religious nature, which together express the widespread landscape-ornamental taste characteristic of his time, are the numerous and rich statuary groups carved between 1707 and 1714 for the Charles Bridge in Prague, and the statue of St. Philip (1715) on the new stairs of Prague Castle. In the Czech capital, other sculptures of his are found in churches and squares, such as, for example, the tomb of Count G. Václav of Mitrovice (1715–16), a *Holy Family* (1718), a *Way of the Cross* (1720), the models for the silver statues of St. Ludmila, and a *St. John Nepomucene* (1727). Outside Prague, notable works include a *St. Wenceslaus* (1717) at Rozedalovice, *Moses and Aaron* (1722) at Breslau, and another *St. John Nepomucene* (1725) at Horin.
**Jan (Giovanni), father** of the preceding, was born in 1652 at Šipkovská Sobota and died on 28 December 1718 at Prague.
With his works, which abound in the churches of Prague, Ronšperk, Borek, Broumov, Skalná, Police, and Děčín, he effectively represents, together with his son, Matyáš Braun, Jan Bednář, and Petr Brandl (q.v.), the finest trend of the Baroque in the Czech lands.
**
---
**BROLLO, Basilio**, of *Gemona*. - One of the most illustrious Franciscan missionaries and the first Apostolic Vicar of Shensi. Born at Gemona in Friuli on 25 March 1648, he entered the Order in 1666 and, after ordination, became a preacher and professor of philosophy and theology. In 1680 he departed for China with Msgr. Bernardino della Chiesa, who appointed him his secretary and vicar general and had him as an intelligent collaborator in the visitation of the missions in Zhejiang, Huguang, and Guizhou. In 1696 he was elected Apostolic Vicar of Shensi; however, the papal bulls reached him only in 1700. He resumed with zeal and success the apostolate of the Jesuits, his predecessors in the province, reviving many Christian communities that had declined after the death of Fr. Étienne Lefèvre and the persecution of 1665, laboring not only among the common people but also in learned circles, thanks to his profound knowledge of the language. He died at a still advanced age on 16 July 1704. Announcing his death, Cardinal Sacripanti, Prefect of the Propaganda, called him “the greatest missionary of his time.”
To him is owed the first Chinese–Latin dictionary compiled by a European (*Dictionarium sinico-latinum*), which, however, remained in manuscript form and, after being revised, was later published in French by J. De Guignes: *Dictionnaire Chinois-français et latin* (Paris 1812) without so much as mentioning its true author, a fact that provoked protests from Sinologists. A second edition was produced by the Franciscans (Hong Kong 1833) and a third by the Jesuits (Hokienfu 1877). Other linguistic works by B. remain in manuscript, alongside minor writings of a catechetical and apologetic nature, always in Chinese.
**