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corner of the Mediterranean, about the size of Wales, being 140 m. from N. to S., and an average of 70 m. from E. to W., is bounded on the N. by Lebanon, on the E. by the Jordan Valley, on the S. by the Sinaitic Desert, and on the W. by the sea; there is great diversity of climate throughout its extent owing to the great diversity of level, and its flora and fauna are of corresponding range; it suffered much during the wars between the Eastern monarchies and Egypt, and in the wars between the Crescent and the Cross, and is now by a strange fate in the hands of the Turk; it has in recent times been the theatre of extensive exploring operations in the interest of its early history.
PALESTRINA, an Italian town, 22 m. SE. of Rome, on a slope of the Apennines, 2546 ft. above sea-level, on the site of the ancient Praeneste, with the remains of Cyclopean walls, with a palace of the BARBERINI (q. v.).
PALESTRINA, GIOVANNI PIERLUIGI DE, celebrated composer of sacred music, surnamed the Prince of Music, born at Palestrina; resided chiefly at Rome, where he wrought a revolution in church music, produced a number of ma.s.ses which at once raised him to the foremost rank among composers; was the author of a well-known _Stabat Mater_ (1524-1594).
PALEY, FREDERICK ALTHORP, cla.s.sical scholar, grandson of the succeeding, born near York; became a Roman Catholic, contributed to cla.s.sical literature by his editions of the cla.s.sics of both Greece and Rome, remarkable alike for their scholars.h.i.+p and the critical ac.u.men they show (1816-1886).
PALEY, WILLIAM, ”one of the most masculine and truly English of thinkers and writers,” born at Peterborough; studied at Christ's College, Cambridge, where he was Senior Wrangler, and obtained a Fellows.h.i.+p, held afterwards various Church preferments, and died archdeacon of Carlisle; was a clear writer and cogent reasoner on common-sense lines, and was long famous, if less so now, as the author of ”Horae Paulinae,” ”Evidences of Christianity,” and ”Natural Theology,” as well as ”Moral and Political Philosophy”; they are genuine products of the time they were written in, but are out of date now (1743-1806).
PALGRAVE, SIR FRANCIS, historian, born in London, of Jewish parents of the name of Cohen; was called to the bar in 1827, and became Deputy-Keeper of Her Majesty's Records in 1838; was the author of a history of the ”Rise and Progress of the English Commonwealth” and of a ”History of England,” tracing it back chiefly to the Anglo-Norman period, among other works (1788-1861).
PALGRAVE, FRANCIS TURNER, poet, son of preceding, born in London, professor of Poetry at Oxford, editor of ”Golden Treasury of Songs and Lyrics,” as well as author of lyrics, rhymes, &c.; _b_. 1824.
PALGRAVE, WILLIAM GIFFORD, Arabic scholar, born at Westminster, brother of preceding; after a brief term of service in the army joined the Society of Jesus, and served as a member of the order in India, Rome, and in Syria, where he acquired an intimate knowledge of Arabic, by means of which he contributed to our knowledge of both the Arabic language and the Arab race; wrote a narrative of a year's journey through Arabia (1826-1888).
PaLI, the sacred language of the Buddhists, once a living language, but, like Sanskrit, no longer spoken.
PALIMPSEST, the name given to a parchment ma.n.u.script written on the top of another that has been erased, yet often not so thoroughly that it cannot be in a measure restored.
PALINGENESIA, name equivalent to ”new birth,” and applied both to regeneration and restoration, of which baptism in the former case is the symbol; in the Stoic philosophy it is preceded by dissolution, as in the rejuvenescence process of MEDEA (q. v.).
PALINURUS, the pilot of one of the s.h.i.+ps of aeneas, who, sleeping at his post, fell into the sea, and was drowned.
PALISSY, BERNARD, the great French potter and inventor of a new process in the potter's art, born in Perigord, of humble parentage; celebrated for his fine earthenware vases ornamented with figures artistically modelled, but above all for his untiring zeal and patience in the study of his art and mastery in it, making fuel of his very furniture and the beams of his house in the conduct of his experiments; he was a Huguenot, but was specially exempted, by order of Catherine de'
Medici, from the ma.s.sacre of St. Bartholomew in 1672, although he was in 1585, as a Huguenot, imprisoned in the Bastille, where he died (1510-1590).
PALK'S STRAIT, the channel which separates Ceylon from the mainland of India, 100 m. long and 40 m. wide, generally shallow. See ADAM'S BRIDGE.
PALLADIO, ANDREA, an Italian architect, born at Vicenza, of poor parents; was precursor of the modern Italian style of architecture, and author of a treatise on architecture that has borne fruit; his works, which are masterpieces of the Renaissance, consist princ.i.p.ally of palaces and churches, and the finest specimens are to be met with in Venice and in his native place (1518-1580).
PALLADIUM, a statue of Pallas in Troy, on the preservation of which depended the safety of the city, and from the date of the abstraction of which by Ulysses and Diomedes the fate of it was doomed; it was fabled to have fallen from heaven upon the plain of Troy, and to have after its abstraction been transferred to Athens and Argos; it is now applied to any safeguard of the liberty of a State.
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