PIA MATER 



Piacenza, Italy. The 12th century 



church o! S. Antonino, formerly the 



cathedral 



church of Santa Maria is decorated 

 with mural paintings, while that of 

 San Sisto (1499) formerly held 

 Raphael's Sistine Madonna, now 

 in the Dresden Gallery. The city 

 is walled, and in the Piazza dei 

 Cavalli, the principal square, are 

 two equestrian statues of dukes 

 Alessandro and Ranuccio Farnese. 

 Manufactures include iron, brass, 

 silk and cotton goods, hats, and 

 pottery ; printing and flour-milling 

 are also carried on. 

 Colonised by Rome in 218 B.C., 

 Placentia was captured by the 

 Gauls in 200 B.C., and by Totila in 

 A.D. 546. In the 12th century it 

 became a leader in the Lombard 

 League. It has several times fallen 

 to the French, and in the vicinity, 

 in 1746, the Austrians gained a 

 decisive victory over the Frenchand 

 Spaniards. The modern history of 

 Piacenza has been closely con- 

 nected with that of Parma, being 

 merged into the kingdom of Italy 

 in 1860. Pop. 40,400. See Parma. 



Pia Mater. Middle membrane of 

 the three which surround the brain. 

 It is prolonged downwards to 

 cover the spinal cord. See Brain. 



Piana dei Greci. Town of Sicily, 

 in the prov. of Palermo. Situated at 

 the foot of a hill, 11 m. S.W. of 

 Palermo, it was founded in 1488 by 

 a party of Albanian emigrants who 

 fled from the Turks, and whose 

 language and customs survive. 

 Silk and woollen goods are manu- 

 factured. Pop. 8,500. 



Piankhi. Name of several 

 Ethiopian kings of Napata (q.v.). 

 Piankhi I, c. 743-714 B.C., is best 

 known by his inscribed granite 

 stela, 5 ft. 9 ins. high, erected at 

 Gebel Barkal, near Napata, and 

 now in Cairo. It contains a pic- 

 turesque account, in 159 lines, of 

 his victorious expedition in a great 

 flotilla down the Nile, which 

 resulted in his conquest of Egypt. 



6 135 



Piano. Italian term used in 

 music to indicate that the per- 

 formance is to be soft. The term 

 pianissimo is used for very soft. 

 The abbreviations p, pp, and ppp 

 are more commonly used than the 

 full words. Old music has pia. for 

 piano. Pron. pe-ahno. 



Pianoforte (It., soft-loud). Musi- 

 cal instrument. The pianoforte is 

 a percussion instrument descended 

 from the dulcimer family. The 

 tone is produced by the impact of 

 felt hammers upon wires or 

 strings of varying gauge, length, 

 and tension. In the lowest part of 

 the compass, for about two octaves, 

 the required gravity is obtained by 

 covered, or wound-round strings, 

 one or two to each note as the case 

 may be ; above this there are three 

 uncovered strings to each note. 



The instrument is played from 

 a keyboard composed of a recurring 

 series of long (white) and short 

 (black) levers or keys, seven of the 

 former and five of the latter in each 

 octave, the black notes being in 

 alternate groups of twos and threes, 

 separated by white ones. These, 

 on being depressed by the fingers, 

 set in motion a complicated 

 mechanism (action) designed, not 

 only to propel the hammers against 

 the strings, but further to respond 

 to the player's will, by means of his 

 touch, in the way of graduated 

 tone, and perfect repetition. The 

 action is further complicated by 

 the necessity for dampers to check 

 undesired vibrations when the 



PIANOFORTE 



finger releases the key. The illus- 

 tration shows the mechanism of 

 the action for treble notes. When 

 the key A is depressed the whole 

 carriage is moved on its centre at 

 L. This movement is transmitted 

 through the jack B which comes in 

 contact with the hammer butt D 

 at the notch C. The set and shape 

 of this notch is the most vital part 



Pianoforte. Interior of a barless frame instrument. Top, right, diagram illus- 

 trating action. A. Key. B. Jack. C. Notch. D. Hammer butt. E. Ham- 

 mer head. F. Check. 0. Damper. H. Set-off button. J. Jack or hopper 

 spring. K. Spoon. L. Carriage centre. M. Check tail. N. Tape. 0. Ham- 

 mer butt centre. P. Damper lever centre. Q. Jack centre. See text 



By courlciy of John Broadwood * Rant, Ltd. 



