Bonivard

or Bonnivard, Franco is de, cadet of a family holding large po e ions under the House of Savoy, was born about 1496 at Sey el, on the Rhone, and in 1513 became prior of St. Victor at Geneva. Falling under the suspicion of the Duke of Savoy, he was taken prisoner by him in 1519. After 20 months’ imprisonment he was set free, but in 1530 he was again seized, and taken to the castle of Chillon at the E. end of the Lake of Geneva, where he was imprisoned for six years, the last four in that subterranean vault which the genius of Byron has made famous by his poem on the sufferings of “The Prisoner of Chillon.” He died in 1570, leaving the town his books, which were the nucleus of the Geneva library.