Ignaz Josef Pleyel, 

 Austrian composer 



PLEYEL 



tightened, and by Dec. 9 Osman 

 found himself starved into sub- 

 mission, having withstood the 

 enemy's attacks with the utmost 

 gallantry for over four months. 



Pleyel, IGNAZ JOSEF (1757- 

 1831). Austrian composer. Born 

 at Ruppersthal, Austria, June 1, 

 1757, he be- 

 came a pi! | ill 

 of Haydn. 

 After having 

 served as 

 choirmaster at 

 Strasbourg 

 Cathedra], he 

 conducted 

 concerts iri 

 London and 

 then settled in 

 Paris, where he founded a piano 

 business, which still flourishes, and 

 where he died, Nov. 14, 1831. 

 Pleyel composed much sym- 

 phonies, quartets, and an opera 

 but most of his work is now 

 forgotten. His son Camille (1788- 

 1855), also a composer, married 

 the famous pianist Marie Moke 

 (1811-75). 



Plimer, ANDREW (1763-1837). 

 British miniature painter. Born at 

 Bridgwater, Somerset, he settled 

 in London, 

 and exhibited 

 constantly at 

 the Academy 

 from 1786. 

 His most not- 

 able minia- 

 tures were 

 those of the 



R u s h o u t Andrew Plimer> 

 family, especi- British miniature 

 ally the group painter 



of the Three Graces, representing 

 the daughters of Lady Northwick. 

 He died Jan. 29, 1837. His elder 

 brother, Nathaniel (1751-1822), 

 also made some reputation as a 

 miniaturist. 



Plimsoll, SAMUEL (1824 98). 

 British politician. Born in Bristol, 

 Feb. 10, 1824, and educated at 

 Pen rit h and 

 Sheffield, h e 

 became a clerk 

 i n Sheffield, 

 and in 1851 

 was honorary 

 secretary for 

 the Great 

 Exhibition. In 

 1853 he settled 

 in London as 

 a coal in i- 1 

 chant and made attempts to enter 

 Parliament. He had already given 

 much attention to the loss of life 

 at sea caused by unseaworthy 

 ships being sent out, and his entry 

 into the House of Commons as 

 Radical M.P. for Derby, in 1868, 

 gave him opportunity to draw at- 



PLINY 



Samuel Plimsoll, 

 British politician 



Plevna. Surrender of the Turkish commander to the Russians, 

 painting by V. Verestchagin 



From the 



tention to the subject. He intro- 

 duced bills and wrote Our Sea- 

 men, 1872, the first result being the 

 appointment of a royal commission, 

 and the second the important 

 Merchant Shipping Act of 1876. 

 He resigned his seat in 1880, and 

 spent the rest of his life in attempts 

 to improve the condition of sea- 

 men, both in Great Britain and 

 abroad, writing and travelling in 

 their interests. He died at Folke- 

 stone, June 3, 1898. 



Plimsoll Mark. Circle with 

 a horizontal line drawn through it 

 carried on both sides of all British - 

 owned merchant vessels. It indi- 

 cates the maximum depth to which 

 they may be loaded, and takes its 

 name from Samuel Plimsoll. See 

 Load Line. 



Plinth (Gr. plinthoa, brick or 

 tile). In architecture, the plain 

 surface under the base moulding 

 of a column or any other member. 

 In classic building it was a low, 

 square block, and square or octa- 

 gonal plinths 

 were retained 

 long after cir- 

 cular capitals 

 i had become 

 I universal. In 

 joinery, the 

 plinth is the 

 broad, flat part 

 See Architecture ; 



Pliny the Elder, 

 Roman writer 



Plinth beneath 

 base of a column 



of a base board. 

 Column ; Masonry. 



Pliny (A.D. 23-79). Roman 

 soldier and writer, whose full 

 name was Gaius Plinius Secundus. 

 He was called Pliny the Elder to dis- 

 tinguish him from his nephew. Born 

 at Novum Comum (Como), he went 

 to Rome at an early age, and, 

 having entered the army, held a 

 cavalry command in Germany. He 

 returned to Rome in 52, and, after 

 some years spent in his native place, 



was in 67 appointed procurator in 

 Spain. His last official post was 

 that of commander of the fleet at 

 Misenum, when he met his death at 

 the eruption of Vesuvius, which he 

 had gone on 

 shore to ex- 

 amine. His 

 nephew in his 

 Letters has 

 left a detailed 

 account of his 

 end. A man 

 of unwearied 

 industry, he 

 was a prolific 

 writer. 



In addition to a handbook on 

 using the lance, histories of the 

 wars with German}' and of his own 

 times, a manual of rhetoric, and 

 a grammatical and stylistic treatise, 

 he was the author of an ency- 

 clopedic work entitled Natural 

 History (in the widest sense) in 37 

 books, dedicated to the emperor 

 Titus in 77, in the compilation of 

 which he read more than 2,000 

 volumes. After a general introduc- 

 tion, a sketch of the phenomena 

 of the universe, and a gazetteer, 

 the work deals with anthropology, 

 zoology, botany, materia medica, 

 mineralogy, painting, and sculp- 

 ture. The whole is an ill-arranged 

 collection of notes, but in the 

 Middle Ages it was much read and 

 imitated. See Natural History, 

 Eng. trans, with notes, J. Bostock 

 and H. T. Riley, 1855-57 ; Pliny's 

 Chapters on History of Art, Eng. 

 trans. W. Jex-Blake, 1896. 



Pliny (A.D. 61-c. 113). Roman 

 writer, whose full name was Gaius 

 Plinius Caecilius Secundus. He 

 was called the Younger to distin- 

 guish him from his uncle. Born at 

 Novum Comum (Como), he was 

 adopted by his uncle, from whom 



