394 



TAL^EMON PALAIS ROYAL. 



beautiful Lancelot of tlie lake. After him Amadis of 

 Caul In-Ill :i high place nmong the knights errant; 

 iiiul, still Inter, the paladins of Charlemagne, the 

 most distinguished of whom was his (so called) ne- 

 phew, the brave Roland, or Orlando. The history of 

 knight-errantry is as much mingled with fabulous 

 stories as the accounts of the Grecian heroes. The 

 name of paladin is derived either from palatinus, or 

 from palus, a pointed piect- of wood, a wooden spear 

 or lance, which these knights commonly carried as 

 their weapon, together with the sword. 



PAL^EMON. See Melicerta. 



PALAEOGRAPHY, the science of deciphering 

 ancient written monuments, not only teaches how to 

 read old writings, but to separate their constituent 

 parts'; to ascend, as far as possible, to their sources, 

 ;nil to follow all the changes which one and the same 

 writing may have gone through by the lapse of years, 

 showing likewise the alterations which several kind- 

 red dialects have undergone after their separation 

 from the common stock. This is the definition 

 given by Kopp, whom Germany now esteems the 

 first among her palaeographers. The province of 

 palaeography extends, therefore, to every thing writ- 

 ten, and is consequently increasing every day Dy the 

 new discoveries of written monuments in countries 

 formerly inaccessible. It is distinguished from diplo- 

 matics, however, by the circumstance that the latter 

 has to deal with public and official documents illus- 

 trative of history since the fifth century. Palaeogra- 

 phy first received a scientific form from Bernard de 

 Montfaucon's Palccographia Graca. Barthelemy, 

 the author of the Travels of the Young Anacharsis, 

 by his Essai (Tune Paleographie Numismatique (Mem. 

 de F Academic des Inscriptions, tome xxiv. 30), put 

 the palaeography of the Semitic languages on a foot- 

 ing corresponding to that of the classic. Hegel, in 

 his palaeographic fragments (On the Writing of the 

 Hebrews and Greeks, Berlin, 1816), and Hartmann 

 of Rostock in his Investigations concerning Asiatic 

 Monuments, have greatly enriched the science. The 

 greatest difficulty has been found in those abbrevia- 

 tions which in Latin documents have been known by 

 the name oinotae tironian<e, and were in use until the 

 tenth century. After many unsuccessful attempts, 

 they have been wonderfully explained by the sagacity 

 of Kopp. This study has been a favourite one in 

 France since the time of the benedictine St Maur. 

 The Corpus Jnscriptiomim of Bockh, which is ap- 

 pearing at Berlin, is expected to throw much light on 

 the inscriptions of ancient Greece. 



PAL^EPHATUS; an ante-Homeric poet of 

 Athens. Another Palaephatus, probably of the fourth 

 century (according to some, of Athens ; according to 

 others, from Paros or from Priene), left five books 

 On Incredible Things, in which mythuses are explain- 

 ed allegorically. It is generally printed together 

 with Esop. The best edition of the separate work is 

 by Fischer (Leipsic, 1789). 



PALAESTRA. See Gymnasium 



PALAFOX. See Saragassa. 



PALAIS ROYAL, in Paris. This palace, with its 

 gardens, its courts, its galleries and arcades, is the cen- 

 tral point of pleasure in Paris. It was built in 1663, by 

 cardinal Richelieu, who gave it the name ofpalais car- 

 dinal. He bequeathed it to Louis XIII., after whose 

 death Anne of Austria entered it, in 1642, with her in- 

 fant son, Louis XIV., quitting the Louvre, where she 

 had previously resided. From that time it has borne 

 the name ofpalais royal. Louis XIV. resigned the oc- 

 cupation of it to his brother, and at last gave it to his 

 grandson, the duke of Chartres. Since then, it has 

 remained in the family of Orleans, which made it 

 their abode until 1791, and returned thither in 1816. 

 Frenchmen who remember it as it was in the last 



century, speak with rapture of the great avenue of 

 chestnut trees, which formerly extended the whole 

 length of the garden. From eleven o'clock in the 

 morning it was crowded with people ; there were 

 seats on each side, which were always filled with 

 men of all ranks and all countries. In the centre 

 was a tree the famous arbre de Cracovie ; under its 

 shade the politicians decided the fate of the world : 

 this was ever the most liberal spot in Paris. The 

 trees were afterwards superseded by rows of book- 

 sellers' and jewellers' shops, gambling and cofl'ee 

 houses, theatres, and other establishments of the 

 kind. This assemblage brought a rich revenue to 

 the duke. The walkers avenged themselves with 

 jokes, for the loss of their trees : they called the duke 

 the egorgeur des. ombres. In three years, two of the 

 great wings were finished, the arcades of which were 

 immediately crowded with splendid shops. New 

 rows of trees were planted, but they did not flourish, 

 probably on account of the dust raised by the crowd, 

 which perpetually throngs the gardens. The theatre 

 Francais was also placed in the palais royal, and yet 

 remains there. During the revolution, the duke 

 called this palace the palais egalite. In 1802, it 

 had, for a short time, the name of palais du tribttnnt. 

 The principal entrance to the palais royal is upon 

 the rue St Honore. The front is seen from the 

 chateau d'Eau a building containing the reservoirs 

 of water for the Tuileries and palais royal. The 

 two front wings, with Ionic and Doric pillars (each 

 of which is adorned with a pediment and statues by 

 Pajou), are joined together by a Doric portico. 

 Three gates afford entrance to the palace. Upon 

 entering the first court, the two wings of the build- 

 ings here appear adorned with Ionic and Doric pil- 

 lars. Between them is the outer court, which leads 

 from the first court into the second (la cour royale). 

 Massive Doric pillars arise on each side, but their 

 efiect is destroyed by the number of the booths and 

 shops, which are crowded together about them. 

 The second court is separated from the garden by 

 wooden galleries, and there the booksellers and 

 pamphlet sellers, the milliners and riband venders, 

 exhibit the articles in which they deal. Through 

 this galerie de bois one enters the fairy land of the 

 garden, surrounded by .its splendid arcades. This 

 garden has no shade ; it is stiff and dry ; the ground 

 is hard-pounded gravel; the trees are small and 

 quickly withered, being struck by the reflected rays 

 of the sun. But the effect of the arcades and pavil- 

 ions, especially in the evening, when they are bril- 

 liantly illuminated, is truly splendid. The two side 

 wings have a length of 700 feet, and the opposite 

 ones a length of 300. They are all of similar form. 

 Fluted pilasters, of the Composite order, surround 

 the building, and support a balustrade, upon which 

 are. vases, which cover its whole length. On the 

 level ground, a vaulted gallery surrounds the build- 

 ing, with 180 arcades, between every two of which 

 is suspended a large lamp. They terminate, on both 

 sides, in two vestibules, adorned with magnificent 

 columns. The intervals are ornamented with frs- 

 toons and bass-reliefs. Over the arcades is the first 

 story, with high windows, proportionate to the build- 

 ing ; above this, the second story, with lower win- 

 dows ; and above this, the windows in the roof, Be- 

 fore which runs the terrace. Here gratifications are 

 held out to every appetite and desire. The book 

 shops afford the oldest and the newest, the most 

 scientific, and the most frivolous books. Celebrated 

 and unknown writers here meet, and the place 

 swarms with critics and "amateurs. A splendid 

 jeweller's shop, which fills three arcades, is, in the 

 evening, lighted up by more than fifty wax lights, 

 and large mirrors increase the light and the play of 



