365 



ture, 43, 44, 48. 49, 52-56, 101, 102 ; its 

 characteristics, 54 ; the lour paradises 

 celebrated by the Persian poets, 54 ; 

 parks of the Persian kings, 101. 



Petrarch, his sonnet "on the death of 

 Laura," 63, 64 ; revival of the study of 

 classical literature, 248. 



Phoenicians, their position among the 

 non-Hellenic civilized nations, on the 

 shores of the Mediterranean, their col- 

 onies, commerce, and navigation, 119- 

 139 ; use of weights and measures, and 

 metallic coinage, 128 ; of alphabetical 

 writing, 128, 129; extent of their navi- 

 gation and caravan trade, 129-131, 136 ; 

 amber trade, ,a l, 132. 



Pharmacy, chemical, lirst created by the 

 Arabs, 311. 



Philostratus, his mention of ancient paint- 

 ings, 84. 



Pigafetta, Antonio, nautical works of, 256- 

 258, 286, 289, 292. 



Pindar, his descriptions of nature, 24. 



Pinturicchio, landscapes of, 87, 88 



Pinzon, Martin Alonzo, his disputes with 

 Columbus, 257, 262, 263. 



Plato, character of his descriptions of na- 

 ture, 29-31 ; on landscape painting, 84 ; 

 limits of the Mediterranean, 119 ; value 

 of his doctrines in the Dark Ages, 176; 

 misconceived dogmas, 241, 242 ; his 

 ideas on attraction, 309, 310; on the 

 structure of the universe, 314. 



Playt'air, 75. 



Pliny the elder, hi3 great work on Nature, 

 36; its arrangement and style, 195-197; 

 on the locality of the amber islands, 131 ; 

 his description of the ariena (banana) of 

 India, 159 ; on the benefits of civiliza- 

 tion, 185. 



Pliny the younger, descriptions of nature 

 in his letters, 32, 37, 38 : on the " Histo- 

 ry of Nature," by his uncle, 195, 196. 



Plutarch, notice of two Atlantic islands 

 in his works, supposed to be Porto San- 

 to and Madeira, 134 ; on the marks on 

 the moon's disk. 193 ; work on " The 

 Opinions of Philosophers," 311. 



Poetry, modern, descriptive, and land- 

 scape, its defects. 80-82. 



Polarization of light, discovery of, 332. 



Polybius on the number of peninsulas in 

 tie Mediterranean, 120; on African and 

 Indian elephants, 174. 



Polygnotus, paintings of, 83. 



Porsena, Lars, tradition on his tomb, 

 139. 



Porto Santo, 134, 135. See Plutarch. 



Portuguese heroic ages, impulses of, 65 ; 

 faithful individuality of nature in their 

 great epic poet, Camoens, 68, 71. 



Posidonius, his comparison of the tides 

 with the moon's supposed influence, 

 152. 153. 



Post, Franz, his paintings of South Amer- 

 ican landscapes, Sit, 91. 



Poussin, Gaspard and Nicholas, their land- 

 scapes, 89, 95. 



Printing, invention of, 249. 



Prometheus, myth of, 144. 



Psalms, the, their sublime poetic feeling 

 for nature, 57, 58. 59. 



Ptolemasus, Claudius, on the locality of 

 Sapphara, 136, 137 ; influence oi hia 

 Universal Geography, its morits and 

 defects, 190-192; researches on optical 

 refraction, 183, 193, 194 ; geographical 

 and mathematical knowledge, 183, 187, 

 188; on the configuration of the Caspi- 

 an, 192. 



Ptolemies, the, important result of theii 

 rule in Egypt, 170-179 j their inter- 

 course with distant countries, 171-174 ; 

 scientific expeditions, 174 ; peculiar 

 character of the Ptolemaic period, 174 ; 

 accessions to general knowledge, 17f^ 

 to astronomical knowledge, 177-179; 

 mathematical investigations, 179. 



Ptolemy Philadelphus, his restoration of 

 the canal of Darius Hystaspes, 173 ; sci- 

 entific researches, 173-175. 



Punic, see Carthage, Phoenicians ; Punic 

 work on agriculture, 185. 



Pythagoreans, their views on the struc- 

 ture of the universe, 109 ; on the mo- 

 tion of the planets, 314-316. 



Quatremdre, Etienne, on the circumnav- 

 igation of Libya, 127; on the locality 

 of Ophir, 137. 



Quinsay, Chinese city, as described by 

 Rubruquis, 249, 250 ; erroneous views 

 of Columbus on its geographical local- 

 ity, 268, 269. 



Rachias, his embassy from Ceylon to 

 Rome, 187. 



Rafn, Christian, American antiquities of, 

 231, 233, 234. 



Ramayaua, Indian heroic poem, 50, 52, 53. 



Rameses Miamoun, king of Egypt, his ex- 

 peditions, victories, and achievements, 

 124-126, 173. 



Razes. Arabian chemist, 218. 



Realists, school of, in the Middle Ages, 243. 



Red Sea, canal of, early attempts at its 

 construction, 173. 



Regiomontanus (Johann Holler), 235, 267, 

 305; on the anatomical dissections of 

 Aristotle, 163 ; on the drawings of pet- 

 rifactions by Scilla, 348 ; meteoroscope 

 of, 255; astronomical ephemerides, 292. 



Reisch, Gregory, Margarita Philosophica, 

 246, 297. 



Remusat, Abel, researches on the Indo- 

 Germanic races, 186. 



Renaud, his researches on the intercourse 

 of the Arabs and Persians with India, 

 213. 



Rey, Jean, one of the founders of pneu- 

 matic chemistry, 343 ; experiments by, 

 345. 



Rhakotis, library of, 175. 



Ritter, Carl, his monograph on incense, 

 204. 



Romans, the, rarity of their poetic de- 

 scriptions of nature, 29 , their land- 

 scape paintings, 84-436 ; influence of 

 their universal dominion. 180-199; ex- 

 tent of their empire and its diversirv 



