PASSER!, GIOVANNI BATTISTA. 



PATERCULUS, VELLEIUS. 



fi86 



language, with explanations of many peculiar words and idioms. The 

 ninth book is on the universities and other scientific institutions of 

 France, the introduction of the Roman law, and its prevalence over 

 the ' droit coutumier,' or old prescriptive usages of the country, of 

 which Pasquier shows himself a warm defender, alleging that they 

 were more favourable to the liberties of the nation than the Roman 

 law, which, having emanated from the absolute power of the emperors, 

 was not in accordance with the spirit of the limited monarchy of 

 France; and he presses his views upon several of his brother coun- 

 cillors in ome of his letters, and especially in one to Brisson. Pas- 

 quier's letters are arranged in 22 books, and relate to multifarious 

 subjects of law, literature, contemporary history, and private life. 



Pasquicr is an authority of considerable weight in matters relative 

 to the civil history of the old French monarchy before it was con- 

 verted into a despotism, and the information which he collected has 

 been very useful to subsequent writers. He wrote also poetry, both 

 French and Latin, which has long since been forgotten. 



PA'SSEBI, GIOVA'NNI BATTISTA, a distinguished painter, and 

 author of one of the best collections of biographies of Italian artists, 

 was born at Rome about 1610. Passeri received a good education, 

 and, according to his own account, did not take up painting until 

 comparatively late ; he was first engaged in the capacity of a painter 

 in 1635 by Canini in the Villa Aldobrandini at Frascati, where he 

 contracted an intimate friendship with Domenichino, then returned 

 from Naples. When Douiemchiiio died in Naples in 1641, Passeri 

 was president of the Academy of St. Luke, and he read a funeral 

 oration on him, and painted a portrait of him, which was placed in the 

 academy with other portraits of painters, which are at present in the 

 gallery Degli Uffizj at Florence; the portraits now in the academy at 

 Koine are copies. (Plainer, ' Beschreibung der Stadt Horn.') At the 

 close of his life Passeri entered into holy orders ; and obtained in 

 1675 a benefice in the college of Santa Maria in Via Lata. He died 

 in 1679. 



Passeri is one of the best of the Italian historians of art ; his theo- 

 retical knowledge was good and his facts are believed to be very 

 correct. The circumstance of his book lying for nearly a century 

 unnoticed, or rather unpublished, was owing to its unfinished state 

 and the severity of many of his remarks, especially on Bernini. It 

 was first published in Home by an anonymous editor (supposed to 

 be Bottari, editor of the ' Lettere Pittoriche ') in 1772, with some omis- 

 sions, under the title ' Vite de' Pittori, Scultori, ed Architetti che 

 anno lavorato in Koma, morti dal 1641 fino al 1673, di Giambattista 

 Pameri, Pittore e Poeta," 4to. pp. 492 (Lives of the Painters, Sculptors, 

 and Architects who had practised in Rome, and died between the 

 years 1641 and 1673 inclusive); thus constituting a continuation to 

 the work of Baglione. It contains thirty-six lives, from Dorneuichino 

 to Salvator Rosa inclusive. 



There is only one public picture by Passeri in Rome, a crucifixion 

 between two saints, in the church of San Giovanni della Malva, They 

 arc not so rare in galleries. He painted sometimes still-life. His 

 nephew GIUSEPPE PASSERI was likewise a painter of some eminence. 

 He died in 1714, aged sixty. 



PASSERO'NI, GIAN CARLO, was born in 1713 at Condamine, in 

 the county of Nizza ; studied at Milan in the Jesuits' College; and 

 afterwards took orders as a priest. He went to Home with the papal 

 nuncio, and afterwards returned to Milan, where he spent the rout of 

 his life in a state of poverty often bordering upon destitution ; but he 

 was so used to be content with little that he felt no inconvenience 

 from his condition, and constantly refused the offers of his numerous 

 Milanese friends to relieve his wants. Passeroni was fond of study, 

 and especially of poetry, and he had a great share in reforming the 

 taste of tiie Italian writers of his age. Parini, who in his youth was 

 intimate with Passeroni, afterwards admitted that to his precepts and 

 example he owed the formation of his own style. The principal work 

 of Paweroni is a half burlesque, bait' moral poem, styled ' II Ciceroue,' 

 in 101 cantos. It is full of digressions, something similar in manner 

 to St-riie' ' Tristram Shandy ;' but Paseeroni's digressions are clearly 

 intelligible, and have all a moral scope. A kind of parody of Cicero's 

 life is used by the author as a thread whereon to hang hU disqui-itious. 

 1'asseroni ridicules or reprove* the numerous follies and vices of society 

 in a good-humoured and often highly-amusing strain, and his verse.-!, 

 like those of Ovid, seem to flow naturally and without effort from his 

 pen. This facility, and the unaffected simplicity of the style, con 

 ttitute the principal charm of the poem. Passeroni wrote also seven 

 volumes of fables in verse, chiefly imitations of those of /Ksop, Plucdras, 

 and Avienua. He died at Milan in 1803. 



PASSIdNA'NO, DOME'NICO DA, or DOMENICO CRESTI, 

 Cavaliere, was born at Florence about the middle of the 16th century. 

 Some accounts give 1560, but this is probably too late ; Baglione says 

 he was eighty years old wuen he died in 1638, which would place his 

 birth in 1657 or 1558. Ho was the pupil of Federigo Zucchero, and 

 lived some time in Venice, where be acquired a decided preference for 

 the Venetian school of painting, and especially the works of Paolo 

 Veronese. He acquired a great reputation at Rome, where he was 

 employed by tho popes Paul V. and Urban VIII. : he painted the 

 'Crucifixion of St. Peter" for tho Capella Clementina in the great 

 church of St. Peter on tho Vatican, for which he was created Cavaliere 

 dell' Abito di C'riito. He spent the latter part of his life at Florence, 



and he was one of the most influential of those painters who contri- 

 buted towards the reform of the Florentine school by improving the 

 ;aste for colour and rendering the mannered anatomical school less 

 popular. Passignano was the friend and associate of Cigoli, and is 

 said to have been the master of Lodovico Caracci while hi Florence. 

 He had many scholars, of whom Pietro Sorri of Siena was the most 

 distinguished. 



PASSIONE'I, DOME'NICO, was born in 1682, at Fossombrone in 

 ;he duchy of Urbino. He studied at Rome, after which he received 

 loly orders, and was employed in several offices uuder the papal court, 

 tie also distinguished himself in classical learning and the study of 

 antiquities, and collected a valuable library of scarce works and manu- 

 scripts. He was a correspondent of Montfaucon and other learned 

 men of his age. In 1706 he was sent by the pope to France, and 

 thence he proceeded to Holland, where he resided some time. He was 

 appointed papal nuncio to the Congress of Utrecht in 1712, and after- 

 wards to the Congress of Baden in 1714. On his return to Rome from 

 these missions, he resumed his favourite studies, but in 1721 was sent 

 by Innocent XIII. as nuucio to the Helvetic Confederation : he resided 

 in that capacity at Luzern till 1729, when he proceeded as nuncio to 

 Vienna. Passionei wrote a journal of his Swiss mission, entitled 

 'Acta Apostolicie Legationis in Helvetia,' 4to, Zurich, 1729. He 

 returned from Vienna in 1738, and was made 'secretary for the briefs ' 

 and a cardinal, with the title of Archbishop of Ephesus. He was also 

 appointed a member of the Congregation de Propaganda Fidei. Not- 

 withstanding all these duties, he found time to pursue his favourite 

 studies and to keep up an extensive correspondence with Maupertuis, 

 Eckardt, Ruinart, Gronovius, Bianchini, and other learned contempo- 

 raries. He had a country-house at Frascati, where he formed a 

 museum. His nephew, Benedetto Passionei, published the inscrip- 

 tions in this collection, ' Iscrizioni Autiche con. Annotazioni,' folio, 

 Lucca, 1765. In 1755 Cardinal Passionei was made librarian of the 

 Vatican. He died at Frascati in 1761. Passionei was a member of 

 most Italian academies and also of that of ' the Inscriptions' at Paris. 

 He was a great favourite with Pope Benedict XIV., with whom how- 

 ever he had frequent altercations, being very tenacious of his opinions 

 and not at all courtly disposed. He was particularly hostile to tho 

 Jesuits, and was very careful not to admit any of their works into his 

 library. His books were purchased after his death by the Augustine 

 monastery, and added to their fine library, which is styled the 'Ange- 

 lica,' and is one of the principal public libraries at Rome. Passiouei 

 revised, together with Foutanini, the ' Liber Diuruus Pontificum,' 

 edited several other works, and wrote ia Italian a funeral panegyric 

 on Prince Eugene. He was a great .promoter of learning, and one of 

 the most distinguished prelates of the church of Rome in the last 

 century. (Galletti, Memorie per serviiv alia Storia della Vita del 

 Cardinal Passionei, Rome, 1762.) 



PATEL, PIERKE, was born in, 1654, but though a native of France 

 neither the place of his birth nor the master under whom he studied 

 is known, which is not a little surprising, considering the high and 

 deserved admiration in which his works are held. He appears to have 

 taken Claude Lorraine for his model, and in his own country he is 

 called the French Claude. It cannot indeed be said that he equalled 

 that great artist, yet it is no mean honour to have imitated him suc- 

 cessfully. His works show that he diligently studied nature. His 

 subjects were always well chosen; his foregrounds are judiciously 

 broken, his distances admirable ; the scenery, rocks, and the forms of 

 his trees remarkably elegant and airy. The antique buildings, ruins of 

 aqueducts, vases, and other ornaments give great variety and richness 

 to his pictures. His touch is light and firm ; his colouring clear and 

 natural; and his figures are generally elegant and correctly drawn. 

 He was killed in a duel in 1703. He had a son, also named Pierre 

 Patel, who likewise practised as a landscape-painter, but was much 

 inferior to his father. 



PATE'RCULUS, VELLE'IUS, was born about B.C. 19. He served 

 in the army under Augustus, was made military tribune, and accom- 

 panied Tiberius in his German and Illyrian campaigns. On his return 

 to Rome he was appointed successively quojstor, tribune of tho people, 

 and lastly praetor, which office he filled in the year of the death of 

 Augustus. He wrota his abridgment of Roman history, which he 

 addresses to the consul Vinicius or Vinutius Quartiuus, in A.D. 30, the 

 year before tho proscription of Sejanus. Paterculus is supposed to 

 uave lost his life at the time when Sejanus suffered, as he was a friend 

 of that favourite, whom he praises in a rather fulsome strain near the 

 end of his work. The 'Historic Romance' of Paterculus consists of 

 two books. The first begins with a brief notice of the early history of 

 Greece after the Trojan war, and of the Greek colonies in Italy ; it 

 then mentions the foundation of Rome and the establishment of a 

 senate by Romulus, after which there is an hiatus of 600 years, occa- 

 sioned by the loss of that part of the manuscript. The work, as we 

 have it, is resumed at the time of the war against Perseus, and briefly 

 relates its result, as well as the destruction of both Corinth aud 

 Carthage. The second book ia complete, and written more at length. 

 It treats of the disturbances of the times of the Gracchi, of the civil 

 wars of Marim and Sulla, of those between Ciesar and Pompey, of the 

 second triumvirate, and lastly of the reign of Augustus, concluding 

 with a panegyric on Tiberius and Sejauus. It serves in some measure 

 as a substitute for the lost books of Livy. The writer expresses him- 



