PICART, ETIENNE. 



PICHLER, CAR01.1M-. 



generally considered hia best ; while the ' Central d'Union,' ' L I'ctite 

 Villc,' and ' Le* Marionette*' an regarded as his master-pieces among 

 thoaa in proee. Beside* their literary merit* and the strong comic 

 talent they evince, it is not the least recommendation of Picard'a 

 dramas that they hare for the most part a useful or moral aim. 

 Numerous as .ire his productions of this class, they by no means con- 

 stitute the whole of his literary compositions, for he likewise wrote 

 the ' Gil lilas de la Kdvolulion,' and several other novels which obtained 

 considerable vogue. Among these, 'L'Honnote Homme,' has been 

 translated into F.nglish under the title of ' The Novice, or Man of 

 Integrity.' In addition to these various labours with his pen, Picard 

 was at one time a performer at the ThcVUre Louvois, and from 1801 

 director of that theatre. He was afterwards successively manager of 

 the Open and the Odeon theatre. He died December 31st, 1828. 



PIl'.U/T, ETIENNE, called ' Le Rornain,' a celebrated Fi.nch 

 engraver, was born at Paris in 1031. Ilia prints, chiefly portraits and 

 history, are very numerous: they are firmly executed, but want 

 harmony. He worked with the graver aud tlie etching-needle, much 

 in the style of Poilly. He is supposed to have been called Le Rouiain 

 from his long sojourn in Rome, or he assumed the name that ho might 

 not be confounded with another engravtr of the name of 1'icart He 

 was engraver to the king, and a member of the French Academy of 

 Painting, ic. He died at Amsterdam in 17-1. 



BERNARD PICART, the son of Etienne 1'ioait, born at Paris in 1683, 

 was a designer, and as an engravtr superior to his father. He was the 

 pupil of Le Clerc. His btst works are those executed in France. In 

 Amsterdam, to which place he accompanied his father in 1710, he 

 worked exclusively for the booksellers, and became mannered, metallic, 

 and merely ornamental. A great many of his prints are from his own 

 designs, in which he imitated the style of composition of Antoine 

 CoyiL He bad a facility in imitating the styles of other earlier 

 engravers, and he published many prints of this class which are said 

 to have deceived collectors; Picart used to call them 'Impostures 

 innocentes,' and they wire published under this title, to the number 

 of 78, with a list of hia works, at Amsterdam, in 1738, after his death. 

 Hi* prints altogether amount to about 1300, and one of the best of 

 them ix a ' Slaughter of the Innocents,' after a design of his own : 

 there are various impressions of it ' Darius opening the Tomb of 

 Nitocris,' after Le Sueur, is also one of his best prints; it is much 

 'in the style of Girard Andran. He died at Amsterdam iu 1733. 



PICCl'NI, N1COLO, was born at Bari in the Neapolitan dominions, 

 in 1728. His father, a musician, intended him for the Church; but 

 the predilection of the son for his parent's profession was too strong 

 to be overcome, and at the age of fourteen he was entered at the 

 CooMrvatorio Santo Onofrio, where he completed his studies under 

 Leo and Durante. The first marked proof of his genius for compo- 

 sition was evinced in his serious opera ' Zenobia,' produced at the 

 theatre 'San Carlo ' in 1750. This led to his being invited to Rome, 

 where he brought out ' AUsaandro nell' Indie,' which was eminently 

 successful Four yean after appeared, in the same city, his comic 

 opera, ' La buona Figliuola,' the drama by Goldoni, founded on 

 Richardson's 'Pamela,' which has always been considered as Piccini's 

 masterpiece, and is especially admirable for the originality, beauty, 

 and appropriateness of it* airs, as well as for the judicious manner in 

 which the accompaniments are written, simple as they are, compared 

 with those of a later age. It saved the manager of the Teatro delle 

 Dame at Rome from ruin, aud excited a degree of enthusiasm 

 amounting to extravagance : dresses, wines, and even buildings took 

 the name of the principal character in tho piece, La Cecchinu. The 

 opera was given in London in 17C6, with an effect but little less than 

 it bad produced at Rome. Next year saw his ' Oliuipiade,' in which is 

 the aria ' So circa, so dice,' a chef-d'oeuvre. He now was applied to 

 from all quarten in Italy to furnish the various theatres with operas, 

 and he composed many, most of which were very successful, though 

 now forgotten a circumstance which ought to excite no surprise, as 

 we are informed by M. Uiuguem', that in a very few years he had pro- 

 duced 134 operas, beside* a vast number of masses, cantatas, and 

 : t .. i...-.i ] ;. . -. 



Piccini having received a pressing invitation to Paris arrived there 

 iu 1 770, and prepared himself to compose for the Acaddmie Rojale 

 de Xusique. Hi* first difficulty was an utter ignorance of the French 

 language ; but Marmontel, by becoming his instructor, soon removed 

 this impediment. He next had to contend against national prejudic. .-, 

 and also very formidable rival*, namely, Cluck, and afterwards Sac- 

 chini. For *ome account of the musical feuds in Paris to which his 

 vuit gave rise, we must refer to our notice of GLUCK. His ' Roland ' 

 (a drama by Quinault), by which he introduced himself to a 1'ari-iau 

 audience, met with every pouible success, and though it led to a 

 furious war among the oonuoiseun * well as amateun of all degrees, 

 the composer was, by it* mean* firmly ootublished in the French 

 capital, aud chosen as director of L'Kcole de Chant, having previously 

 btcn appointed siugiug maiter to the qu> en. 



The revolution drove Piccini back to Naple*, after losing nearly all 

 hi* property. He was at fiist received with smiles by his own 

 overeign ; but having carried with him to bis native country politi- 

 cal opinions not likely to be pleasing to the ears of on absolute 

 monarch, and which he had the imprudence to pour into them, be 

 w dagraced, proscribed, and placed under the surveillance of the 



police. In 179S he contrived to return to Paris, where his friends 

 obtained for him a pension of 6000 francs, besides a gratuity .. 

 more from the society Dee Enoouragemens Littrraires, with the 

 addition of apartments in the Hotel d An^ivillier. His various 

 anxieties however brought on a paralytic affection, from which he 

 recovered, and was received with kindness by the first consul, who 

 appointed him inspector of the Conservatoire de Musiijue. But 

 shortly after, oppressed by domestic afflictions, he experienced a 

 return of his former attack, under which he finally sunk in 1 800, and 

 was interred at Pussy, where a handsome tomb is erected to hi* 

 memory. 



PICCOLO'MINI, ALEXANDER, titular archbishop of Patras, and 

 coadjutor of the archbishop of his native place, was born at S. 

 1508. No events of his life arc particularly worth recording, but the 

 wide extent of his writings, and the esteem in which they were held 

 by his contemporaries and immediate followers, make his name 

 remarkable. He was moreover of on original turn, and his wi 

 are almost all in Italian, so that he is among tho earliest of those who 

 endeavoured to raise the character of vernacular literature by tn -at ing 

 all branches of knowledge in modern tongues. His commentaries on 

 Aristotle were prized for their good sense and for their abandonment 

 of u.ost of the scholasticisms by which that philosophy was disfigured 

 by commentators. He advocated in 1578 the reformation of the 

 calendar, which was afterwards adapted. In his book on the fixed 

 stars and the sphere he adopt* the mode of designating the stars by 

 letters a small matter, but one which makes the greater part of the 

 immortality of Bayer, aud to which the diagrams of Piccoluuiiui 

 establish his prior claim. His works are of a most miscellaneous 

 character astronomy, physics, comedies, sonnets, morals, divinity, 

 and commentaries on Aristotle. De Thou speaks in strong terms of 

 the rare union of diversity aud depth which his acquirements pre- 

 sented. He died in 1578. 



PICHEQKU, CHARLES, a general of the French republic, was 

 born of humble parts, in 1701, at ArboU in Frenche-Comte. lie 

 studied at the college of Brienne, enlisted as a common soldier, aud 

 accompanied hia regiment to America. On his return he was promoted 

 to be serjeant-major. He embraced the principles of the revolution, 

 and in 1793 commanded the army of the Rhine. In the following 

 year (1794) he succeeded General Hochc in the command of the army 

 of the North, which was iu a state of great disorder. He succeeded 

 in restoring order aud discipline in the aimy, and when the French 

 went into winter-quarters, they were masters of the whole country to 

 the line of the river \Vahl, excepting Nimeguen, the isle of Bommel, and 

 Breda. The winter proved exceedingly severe, and as soon as the ice 

 was sufficiently strong to bear artillery, Pichegru made a simultaneous 

 and completely successful attack on the above places, and crossed the 

 \Vahl in January 1795. The English were obliged to embark, the prince 

 of Orange abandoned his army, aud recommending the states to make no 

 more resistance, fled to England, and nothing remained for the French 

 but to take possession of the entire country. The plan of the early part 

 of the campaign is said to have been traced out by Carnot, but Pichegru 

 deserves the reputation that he gained by the energy and foresight he 

 displayed iu this wiuter campaign. On hi* return to Paris, he was 

 appointed general of the army of Paris during the insurrection of tho 

 fauxbourgs in April 1795, and, by the confidence with which his 

 presence inspired the troops, he mainly contributed to restore tran- 

 quillity. He then joined the army of the Rhine, where he entered into 

 correspondence with tho prince of Comic, with a view of restoring the 

 Bourbons to the throne. His treason being suspected, he was super- 

 seded in the command of the army of the Rhine by Morcau, in 1790. 

 The embassy to Sweden was offered to him aud di-rluird, am) he retired 

 to Jura, for which department he was elected in 1797. Thien says 

 "he had too much tact aud was too prudent to conceive any project 

 of counter-revolution at this time; but he received tho royalists' 

 money, and gave in return plenty of promise*." He next became 

 president of tho Council of Five Hundred, aud being detected in a 

 conspiracy to overthrow tho republican party, he was arrc-tcd Sep- 

 tember 4, 1797, sent to the Temple, and with llarthelcrny, Willot, 

 and several more, immediately transported to Cayenne. After eight 

 months he made his escape to England, where he was well received as 

 a partisan of the Bourbons. In 1804, Pichegru and George* Cadoudal 

 were employed with several of the Yendeau leaden to organise a plot 

 to overthrow tho government of the First Consul. Being detected by 

 the police, Pichegru was arrested at Paris on the 17th February, and 

 sent to the Temple. While a process was being commenced against 

 him, he was found on the morning of the Oth of April 1804, strangled, 

 but whether he died by his own band or not is uncertain. An 

 was made to affix tho stigma of his murder on Bonaparte, 

 but there do not seem to be grounds sufficient to establish this charge. 



PICHLF.R, CAROLINE, one of tho most prolific and popular 

 novelists of Germany, was born at Vienna on September 7, 1709, the 

 daughter of the Counsellor von Gioiuer and his wife Caroline, who 

 had been reader to the Empress Maria Theresa. She was carefully 

 educated at home, was taught Latin with her younger broth, r, and 

 enjoyed the society of the most distinguished and intelligent men 

 in that capital. Among them was Andreas Pichlcr, whom she married 

 in 1794, and as her mother had not neglected to instruct her as well 

 iu household duties as in accomplishments, the uuion was a happy 



