PILATE, PONTIUS. 



PILPAY. 



830 



Doctor of Medicine. After practising for some time at Florence, he 

 was made professor of natural philosophy at Pisa, where he spent the 

 greater part of his life, and died in 1812. His principal work is the 

 history of Tuscany : ' Storia della Toscana sino al Prinoipato, con 

 diversi Saggi sulle Scienze, Lettere, ed Arti,' 9 vols. 8vo, which was 

 published after his death. He begins his history with the ancient 

 Etruscans, and continues it through the long period of Roman 

 dominion. He describes the vicissitudes of the Tuscan cities after 

 the fall of the Western Empire, the glorious period of the inde- 

 pendence of Florence, Pisa, and Siena, and concludes his work with 

 the fall of the Florentine republic and the assumption of supreme 

 power by the second house of Medici. Qalluzzi has written the latter 

 part of the history of Tuscany : ' Istoria del Qran Ducato di Toscana 

 sotto il governo della Casa Medici,' 5 vols. 4to, Florence, 1787. 

 Pignotti came late for his historical subject, after numerous and able 

 writers who had treated the same matter either wholly or in part, and 

 the historical portion of his work may be considered rather a compi- 

 lation than an original composition, yet he contributed to it somethiug 

 new by means of his own researches into the archives and libraries. 

 But the essays which he has added in distinct chapters appended to 

 the political narrative, on the Italian language, on the art of war in 

 the middle ages, on the revival of sciences, letters, and the arts, and 

 on the commerce of the Tuscans, are entirely his own. His senti- 

 ments are liberal in the genuine sense of the word; he is no party 

 man ; he always avoided controversial politics, and maintained his 

 own independence of opinion. Pignotti wrote also a series of fables or 

 apologues in Italian verse, which have been often reprinted. Pignotti is 

 ackowledged to be one of the best Italian fabulists. He aleo wrote 

 some odea and other poetical compositions : ' Poesie di Lorenzo 

 Pignotti,' Florence, 1820. Pignotti was buried in the Campo Santo of 

 Pisa, where a monument has been raised to his memory. 



(Elogio di Lorenzo Pignotti, by Antonio Benci, in the Florence 

 ' Antologia,' 1821.) 



PILATE, PONTIUS, is chiefly known by the part which he occupies 

 in the New Testament history. Nothing is recorded of his extraction. 

 Some of the early Christian writers have dwelt upon the etymology 

 of hi.s names, and have supposed them descriptive of his character; 

 but, as Bishop Pearson Bays, "in vain." They are simply the nomen 

 anri cognomen of the Romans, as Pontius Aquila, Pontius Hereuuius, 

 Ac. Pilate was a man of the equestrian order, and he was appointed 

 governor of Judaea by Tiberius, A.D. 26. By tho variety of terms used 

 to designate Pilate in this office, it seems difficult to understand 

 precisely the nature of his governorship. Tacitus calls him procurator ; 

 Plulo Judceus and the Greek fathers Mrpoiros. In the Greek Testa- 

 ment he is called fjytfjiwv, and in Josephus both lirirpoiros and rfttpuv. 

 In King James's translation he is called governor, and so also iu the 

 Rhemish translation. Dr. Campbell calls him procurator, and this is 

 no doubt the best word to point out the office of Pilate, though it is 

 evident that the power of life and death, which he had over the Jews, 

 exceeded that which procurators usually possessed. 



The character of Pontius Pilate is sufficiently developed in the New 

 Testament. Philo Judacus and Josephus represent him in a similar 

 light, as a self-willed, avaricious, and hard-hearted man. Josepbus 

 states moreover that the Samaritans, having been treated by Pilate 

 with great barbarity, made a complaint to Vitellius, governor of Syria, 

 who ordered him to Rome to give an account of his conduct to the 

 emperor. This was after he had been procurator of Judiea ten years. 

 Before he arrived at Home, Tiberius was dead ; but Eusebiifs and 

 others relate that Pilate was banished to Vienne in Gaul, and that, 

 unable to endure his disgrace, he killed himself with his own hand 

 about the year 38. 



PILES, ROGER DE, who belonged to one of the best families in 

 that part of France of which he was a native, was born in 1635, at 

 Clamecy, in the province of Le Nivernois (now the department of 

 l.i Niovre). His parents gave him a solid education, but as he evinced 

 a decided inclination for the art of painting, he was allowed to follow 

 the bent of his genius. Circumstances however prevented him from 

 devoting himself exclusively to his art. Having been engaged by 

 President Amelot in 1662 as tutor to his children, he accompanied 

 young Amelot to Italy, and on hU return published some essays on 

 painting. He was an intimate friend of Alphonse Dufresnoy, whose 

 Latin poem on painting he translated into French, with explanatory 

 notes. Amelot de la Houseaye, his pupil, having been appointed 

 ambassador to Venice, De Piles was employed as his secretary of lega- 

 tion. He also accompanied him on some other missions: thus he went 

 to Lisbon in 1685, and to Switzerland in 1689, and was the bearer to 

 Louii XIV. of the treaty of Neutrality, which bis ambassador bad just 

 concluded with the thirteen cantons. The reputation which he had 

 acquired both in the aits and public affairs, induced Louis to send 

 him to the Hague, under the pretext of following his profession as a 

 painter, but in fact to cuter into secret negociations with a party in 

 Holland which was desirous of pi-ace. Being discovered, he was 

 arrested by order of the Dutch government, and during his confinement 

 he wrote hi ' Lives of the Painters.' When he returned to France, a 

 pension was granted him. Amelot being appointed ambassador to 

 Madrid, De Piles accompanied him, but hU health being very indifferent, 

 the climate of Spain did not agree with him, and he was obliged to 

 return to Paris, where he died on the 5th of May 1709. 



Though his diplomatic occupations prevented him from devoting 

 himself to the practice of his art, he was well versed in its theory ; 

 and there exist several of his portraits which are much esteemed, 

 especially those of Boileau and Madame Dacier. His printed works 

 are distinguished by a clear and unaffected style and refined taste ; 

 but his predilection for the Flemish school has sometimes rendered 

 him partial in his judgments. Besides his ' Lives of the Painters,' 

 which have beeu translated into English, he wrote several other works 

 on painting. A collection of the whole was published at Paris in 

 1767, in 5 vols. 12mo. He likewise composed ' Abre'ge' de 1'Anatomie 

 accommode" aux Arts de la Peinture et de Sculpture,' folio, Paris, 1667, 

 with plates, all after Titian. 



PILON, FREDERICK, a minor dramatist, was a native of Cork. 

 He studied medicine, but at an early age went on the stage, and played 

 for some years with little success at Edinburgh and other places in the 

 north. Abandoning the stage, he sought his fortune in London, where 

 he was for some time employed on the ' Morning Post ' newspaper, iu 

 writing occasional tracts, and iu the composition of theatrical pieces, 

 chiefly for Mr. Column. He was a man of jovial temperament, and 

 was at one time obliged to take refuge in France from his creditors. 

 He died in 1788, and was buried at Lambeth. His printed plays, in 

 number twelve or thirteen, are hasty and imperfect productions. A 

 place is usually found iu dramatic collections for the two best of them, 

 the farce of ' The Deaf Lover,' and the comedy ' He would be a 

 Soldier.' 



PILON, GERMAIN, a celebrated French sculptor of the 16th 

 century, or of the ' Renaissance,' who died at Paris in or about 1590, 

 though some French writers place his death as late as 1605 : the year 

 and the place of his birth are doubtful. Pilon was tho favourite 

 sculptor of Henri II. and Catherine de' Medici, and there are still 

 many works by him in Paris, executed in that reign. Among his most 

 remarkable works are the statues of the tomb of Henri II. in St. Denis, 

 Le Tombeau des Valois ; but the group of three graces clothed, on a 

 triangular pedestal, supporting on their heads a gilded bronze urn, 

 which contains the hearts of Henri and Catherine, formerly in the 

 convent church of the Celestins, but now, owing to the praiseworthy 

 exertions of Alexander Lenoir, preserved in the Louvre in the ' Muse'e 

 des Sculptures de la Renaissance," is considered his master-piece. 

 Other works by Pilon, and many interesting sculptures of the period, 

 are in the same collection. Pilon was very successful in the working 

 of draperies. There are works extant by him in clay, stone, alabaster, 

 marble, and bronze. Alabaster was very much used by the French 

 artists of the 1 6th century ; it was easily procured from the alabaster- 

 quarries of Lagni near Paris. 



PILPAY, as it is commonly written, but more correctly BIDPAI. 

 With the exception of the Bible, there is probably no work that has 

 beeu translated into so many languages, and at so early an epoch, as 

 the collection of tales which passes- by the title of the ' Fables of 

 Bidpai,' or Pilpay. A tradition very generally received attributes to 

 the Hindoos the first composition of this work, and recent discoveries 

 in Oriental literature have fully confirmed the truth of this report. 



Fables and tales in which animals are introduced as actors, and in 

 which moral principles and maxims of prudence are inculcated by 

 example and precept, seem from an early 330 to have been current 

 among the Hindoos. Several collections of such stories, written in 

 Sanskrit, are still in existence. The oldest of them, and evidently the 

 parent-stock of the 'Fables of Bidpai,' is the work known in India 

 under the name of the ' Pancha Tantra,' or the ' Five Sections," so 

 called from its being divided into five books. This work has been 

 translated from the Sanskrit into the Tamul language, and again from 

 the Tamul into French, by the Abbe" Dubois. An analytical account 

 of it, drawn from the Sanskrit original by Mr. H. H. Wilson, is printed 

 in tho ' Transactions of the Royal Asiatic Society,' vol. i., pp. 155-200. 

 An abridgment of the ' Pancha Tantra,' called the ' Hitdpadosa," or 

 ' Salutary Instruction/ has become more generally known in Europe 

 than the great original work. It has been translated into English by 

 Sir Charles Wilkins (8vo, Bath, 1787), and by Sir William Jones 

 (' Works,' vol. vi., 4to edition) : several editions of the Sanskrit text 

 have been published. Both the ' Pancha Tantra ' and the ' Hitopadfisa ' 

 consist of prose intermixed with poetry : the stories are told in prose, 

 but the narrative is constantly interrupted by sentences in verse, 

 borrowed from the works of nearly all the celebrated poets that pre- 

 ceded the epoch of their compositiou. The names of the compilers 

 of the ' Pancha Tantra,' as well as of the ' Hitopadesa,' are unknown. 

 Vishnusarman, who is sometimes called the author of the ' Hit6pad6sa," 

 is only one of the principal interlocutors in both works, and is the 

 narrator of the greater number of fables contained in them. Tho age 

 at which the ' Pancha Tantra ' must have been composed can however, 

 at lea-t approximately, be determined. In the first book a passage 

 of an astronomical work by Varahamihira is cited, which occurs, 

 without variation, in the two best manuscripts of the original that 

 Mr. Wilson had an opportunity of consulting ; and as it is pretty well 

 ascertained that Varahamihira wrote during the latter half of the 

 5th century (' Asiatic Researches,' vol. ix., p. 363 ; Bolilen, 'Das alto 

 Indien,' ii. 280), it follows that the ' Pancha Tantra ' must have been 

 composed subsequently to that epoch. 



According to an ancient tradition (recorded in the introduction to 

 the extant Arabic and Persian editions of the ' Fables of Bidpai,' in 



