PARMA 



PARNELL 



779 



t7SS(EAin. 1887), and the almanacs: besides the articles 

 in this work on 



E.lward I. 



England ' Hist. of). 



Government. 



Hansard. 



Impeachment. 



Montfort. 



Nobility. 



Petitions. 



Ballot. 



Bribery. 



Cabinet. 



Chartism. 



Commissions. 



Congress. 



CronuvelL 



Reform. 



Reporting. 



Representation. 



Sovereign. 



Taxation. 



Treasury. 



Westminster. 



Witenagemote. 



turyB.c Nothing is known with certainty regard- 

 Plato tells us he visited Athena in 



Parma, a town of Italy, formerly the capital 

 ?r- .,. iy of Parllia . is situated on the ancient 

 tmilia, and on the river Parma, 12 miles S 

 from the Po, and by rail 56 miles N\V. of Bologna 

 ami 79 SE. of Milan. The town is surrounded by 

 wall* and has a citadel (1591); the streets are 

 traight and wide. Of the sixty or more chinches 

 the chief is the cathedral (1059-74), built mostly in 

 e Lombardo-Romanesque style, with frescoes by 

 Correggio. Other notable edifices are the baptis- 

 tery, one of the most splendid in Italy, he<mu in 

 196 and completed in 1281 ; the church of Madonna 

 delta Steccata ( 1521-39), containing Moses break- 

 ing the Tables of the Law ' and other paintings by 

 Parnngiano, and the tombs of the Farnese dukes 

 the church of St John the Evangelist (1510), with 

 frescoes by Correggio ; the ducal palace, containing 

 art-galleries ( Correggio's works), a library (214,000 

 vols. and 4500 MSS., including many incunabula 

 and rare works), the archives, &c. ; and numerous 

 other palaces, public and private. There are also 

 a university (1599), with nearly lifty teachers 

 ami more than two hundred students, a music 

 school, a museum of antiquities, &c. The principal 

 industrial products are pianofortes, silks, cast-iron 

 wares, woollens, earthenware, paper, soap, <.Vc. 

 There are cattle, corn, and silk markets Pop 

 (1897)52,700. Founded by the Etruscans, Parma 

 became a Roman colony in 183 B.C. After the fall 

 "r. 41 . 1 ? -estern empire it was known as Chrysopolis 

 (Gold Town). A stout opponent of the emperors 

 it was besieged and taken by Frederick II. in 1245, 

 and again invested, but without success, in 1248. 

 t then belonged successively to the houses of 

 Correggio, Este, Visconti, and in 1511 to the pope. 

 The province baa an area of 1278 an. m. and 

 (1897) a pop. of 274,210. 



Formerly Parma was the name of a sovereign 

 duchy of Italy, lying l>etween the Apennines and the 

 Po, touching Sardinia ( Piedmont! on the west and 

 Modena on the east. It comprised the two duchies 

 of Parma and Piacenza, and had an area of 2377 

 so. in. ( see geography under ITALY ). The territories 

 of the cities of Parma and Piacenza fell into the 

 hands of the pope in 1511. Pope Paul III. of the 

 house of Farnese (q.v.) incorporated them (1545) as 

 a duchy for his natural son Pier-Luigi, the grand- 

 father of the celebrated Alessandro Farnese, regent 

 of the Low Countries. On the extinction of the 

 male line of Farnese in 1731 the duchy passed to 

 Don Carlos of Spain, but was transferred to Austria 

 four years later. In 1748 it was restored, alon" 

 with ( iuastalla, to the Spanish Bourbons. In 1796 it 

 was seized by the French, in 1802 incorporated with 

 France, and in 1814 was granted to the ex-empress 

 Maria Louisa. On her death in 1847 it passed to the 

 Bourbon Duke of Lucca. From this time until the 

 incorporation with the kingdom of Italy in 1800 

 the duchy was in a most unsettled condition : the 

 people were strongly revolutionary in feeling, and 

 desired a union with Sardinia ; but the rulers were 

 reactionary and, supported by Austria, successfully 

 beat down all attempts at revolution until after the 

 battle of Magenta, when the Austrian troops with- 

 drew and the regent for the youthful duke tied. 



Parmeilidt'S. a Greek philosopher of Elea 

 (Velia), in Lucania, and in the opinion of the 

 ancients the greatest member of the Eleatic School 

 (q.v.), flourished about the middle of the 5th cen- 



." ^ iic, out M. ..n., 1/1,1 1, -3 no nc VIM. ten j-ii.iiens 11 

 his old age together with his pupil Zerio, and con- 

 versed with Socrates, then quite a youth an ana- 

 chronism most probably intended to account for the 

 influence which the philosophy of Parmenides un- 

 doubtedly exercised on that of Socrates and Plato 

 themselves. Parmenides, like his master Xeno- 

 piianesot Colophon, sometimes regarded as the first 

 of the hleatics, expounded his philosophy in verse 

 -his only work being a didactic poem On Nature. 

 '. extant remains have been rendered into Eii"- 

 Iish hexameters by Thomas Davidson (Journal of 

 kpecidative. Philosophy, St Louis, 1870), and para- 

 phrased in English prose by W. L. Courtney 

 ( Studies in Philosophy, 1882). The leading decfen 

 of this poem is to demonstrate the reality "of 

 Absolute Being, the non existence of which Par- 

 menides declares to be inconceivable, but the 

 nature of which, on the other hand, he admits to 

 be equally inconceivable, inasmuch as it is dis- 

 sociated from every limitation under which man 

 The permanent unity of the universe is 

 thus the ultimate object of knowledge. Par- 

 menides is not a theologist in speculation, seekin 

 rather to identify his Absolute Being with ThouqlTt 

 than with Deity. 



The best edition of his fragments is in S. Karsten's 

 f/ulofo/i/wrum Gmcorum lleliquia; (Amst 183. - )). See 

 also the h ls tories of philosophy of Brandis, Erdmann 

 bchwogler. Ueberweg, and Zelier. 



Parmigiaiio, or PARMIGIANINO, the nickname 

 of GIROLAMO FRANCESCO MARIA MAZZOLA, painter 

 of the Lombard school, and the most distinguished 

 of those who followed the style of Correggio, was 

 born at Parma, llth January 1504. He began to 

 paint when little more than fourteen years of a'e 

 In 1523 he went to Rome, and was favourably 

 noticed and employed by Clement VII. When 

 that city was stormed by the imperialists under 

 Constable Bourbon in 1527 Parmigiano sat calmly 

 at work on his picture of 'The Vision of St Jerome' 

 (now m the National Gallery, London), and was 

 protected from the soldiers who burst in upon him 

 by their leader. After this event he left Rome for 

 Bologna, where he painted various works, includ- 

 !?,?, c ratetl a ' tai 'l'i''ce, the 'Madonna and 

 Uuld, and returned to Parma in 1531. Havin< 

 engaged to execute a series of frescoes in the 

 church of S. Maria Steccata, and having got pay- 

 ment in advance, he delayed so long with the work 

 that he was thrown into prison for breach of con- 

 tract, arid on being released fled to Casal Mag"iore, 

 in the territory of Cremona, where he died on 24th 

 August 1540. His best-known picture is 'Cupid 

 shaping a Bow;' he painted portraits too, as of 

 harles V., Amerigo Vespucci, and himself. 

 Parnaliyba, a river of Brazil, rises in the 

 Serra Mangabeiras, about 9 S. lat., and tbrouoh- 

 out its course (650 miles) forms the boundary 

 between the states of Maranhao and Piauhy. It 

 enters the Atlantic by six mouths. The stream is 

 swift, but navigable by boats for nearly 350 miles 

 On the east bank, 14 miles from its mouth, is the 

 unhealthy town of Parnaliyba, with a considerable 

 trade. Pop. 8000. See also PARANA. 



Parnassus, a mountain in Phocis, regarded 

 by the ancient Greeks as the central point of the 

 earth. On its southern slope lay Delphi (q.v.), 

 the seat of the famous oracle, and the fountain of 

 Castalia (q.v.). The highest peak (8036 feet) was 

 the scene of the orgies of the worship of Dionysus 

 (Bacchus); all the rest of the mountain was sacred 

 to Apollo and the Muses, whence poets were said 

 to ' climb Parnassus,' a phrase still thus employed. 

 Parnell, CHARLES STEWART, Irish politician 

 was born at Avondale, in County Wicklow, June 



