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 Library  Home > Catholic Encyclopedia > B > Burgundy   (Latin
Burgundia, German Burgund, French Bourgogne).  In medieval times
respectively a kingdom and a duchy, later a province of France
(to 1789), and now represented mostly by the departments of Ain,
Saône-et-Loire, Côte-d'Or, and Yonne. It has nearly 2,000,000
inhabitants, and is famous for its diversified scenery, its rich
wines, its rivers and canals, varied industries, mineral wealth,
and many prosperous cities. In the fifth century a Germanic
tribe, the Burgundi or Burgundiones, conquered from the Romans
the fertile basins of the Rhone, the Saône, and the Loire, but
were unable to maintain their sovereignty (Lyons, Geneva,
Vienne) which in the next century they lost (534) to the
Frankish successors of Clovis [Binding, "Das burgundisch-
romanische Königreich von 443-532", Leipzig, 1868; Drapeyron,
"Du rôle de la Bourgogne sous les Mérovingiens" in "Mém. lus à
la Sorbonne", 1866, 29-42; B. Haur