558 



PIERRE PIGEON. 



In 1784 appeared his Etudes de la Nature. Louis 

 XVI. now appointed him superintendent of the 

 botanical garden and of the museum of natural his- 

 tory. His Paul et P'irginie (1788) passed through 

 fifty impressions in one year, and has been translated 

 into almost all the languages of Europe (English by 

 Helen Mariii \Villiams). Napoleon conferred on him, 

 the order of the legion of honour, and Joseph Bona- 

 parte granted him a pension of 6000 francs. St 

 Pierre was also the author of La Chaumiere Indienne, 

 Harmonies de la Nature, and several other works. 

 His (Euvres appeared at Brussels, in 8 vols. He 

 died January 21, 1814, at his estate near Paris. 

 Aime Martin has written an Essay on the Life and 

 Writings of Bernardin de St Pierre (Paris, 1820), 

 and edited his works, in 12 vols., 8vo. 



PIERRE, ST ; a small island belonging to France, 

 near the southern coast of Newfoundland ; lat. 46 

 46' N. ; Ion. 56 3 9' 27" W. The inhabitants, in 1831, 

 1025 in number, were engaged in the cod fishery. 

 The colony of St Pierre and Miquelon is under an 

 officer residing in St Pierre, called the commandant 

 and administrator. These islands are also fishing 

 stations for the French vessels engaged in the fishery 

 in this region, the number of which, in 1825, was 

 nineteen. They are important to France, as being 

 the only possessions which she retains in these lati- 

 tudes. 



PIERROT ; a comic mask on the French theatre, 

 a mixture of the harlequin and the pulchinello. He 

 is dressed like the latter, and is facetious like the 

 former. With the Italians, he is a simpleton and 

 servant. See Masks. 



PIETE, MONT DE. See Lombard- House. 



PIETISM, in German theology. The name of 

 oictists was originally applied, in derision, to some 

 young teachers of theology at Leipsic, who began, 

 in 1689, to deliver ascetic lectures on the New Testa- 

 ment (collegia philobiblica, or collegia pietatis) to the 

 students and citizens. The idea of imparting theolo- 

 gical instruction in a popular way, came from their 

 friend and teacher Spener (the German Fenelon), 

 who had held religious meetings in Frankfort from 

 the year 1670, at which the laity prayed, and were 

 allowed to ask questions, &c. The theology of the 

 Lutherans, at that time, had become stiff and dog- 

 matical, attacking unsparingly all other systems, and 

 making the essence of theology to consist in doc- 

 trines. Spener and his friends were desirous of re- 

 establishing a Christianity of love and charity, which 

 should manifest itself in the life of the individual. 

 The governments, however, in several places, soon 

 prohibited such assemblies, and, in some cases, they 

 may, in fact, have given rise to disorders. Pietism, 

 however, did not expire ; on the contrary, the prac- 

 tical principle that a pious life was better than erudi- 

 tion, gave it much success. An austere, often 

 sombre, morality, a belief in a sudden regeneration 

 by the operation of divine grace, private meetings for 

 religious exercises, &c., distinguished the pietists, 

 though they never formed a separate sect. But, 

 like the systems of so many sects, originating from a 

 sincere desire for some better means of quenching a 

 religious thirst than the dogmas of the established 

 church afforded, pietism, in many cases, degenerated 

 by degrees into an ill-regulated religious excitement. 

 The Jansenism and quietism of France, and the 

 Methodism of England, sprang from sources simi- 

 lar to those of the German pietism, and in the pre- 

 sent struggle in Germany, between the rationa- 

 lists and supernaturalists, the feelings and views of 

 the contending parties, though their relative standing 

 is different, are much connected with those of the 

 pietists and the adherents to the established doc- 

 trines. See Spener. 



PIETOLA ; a village on the Mincio (q. v.), about 

 two miles from Mantua, according to the traditions 

 of the neighbourhood the birth-place of Virgil, which 

 Silius ItiJicus calls Andes. A grotto in the vicinity 

 is called Hrgil's grotto. The French laid out a 

 public garden here, in which they intended to erect 

 a statue of the poet ; but it was destroyed during the 

 second siege of Mantua. The claims of Pietola to 

 this honour are, however, rendered doubtful by the 

 latest investigations. See Virgil. 



PIETRO pi CORTONA. See Corfona. 



PIGAFETTA, ANTONIO, the companion of Ma- 

 gellan, and the historian of his discoveries, was born 

 at Vicenza, towards the end of the fifteenth century. 

 Inflamed, by reading the accounts of the Spanish 

 and Portuguese discoveries, with a desire of visiting 

 distant parts, he studied the mathematical sciences 

 and navigation ; and when Magellan was sent out, 

 by Charles V., to search for a western passage to 

 the Moluccas, in consequence of the dispute between 

 Spain and Portugal concerning the line of demarca 

 tion between their respective possessions (see Alex- 

 ander FI.}, Pigafetta obtained leave to accompany 

 him. He sailed from Seville September 20, 1519, 

 and returned to that port September 8, 1522, having 

 been the first to circumnavigate the world. He kept a 

 journal of the voyage, of which Ramusio gives an ab- 

 stract in the first volume of his collection, and of which 

 a complete edition was first published by Amoretti, 

 who discovered a copy in the Ambrosian library. 



PIGALLE, JEAN BAPTISTE, a sculptor, born at 

 Paris in 1714, son of a carpenter, was the pupil of 

 Lemoine and Lemayne, and, by the assistance of 

 some friends, was enabled to visit Italy. After 

 spending three years in Italy, he returned to France, 

 and executed a Mercury and a Venus, which were 

 presented io the king of Prussia (1748), by Louis 

 XV. In 1744, Pigalle had been received into the 

 academy of painting and sculpture, and, in 1756, he 

 was employed to complete the monument to marshal 

 Saxe. His reputation was now established, and 

 Bouchardon (q. y.) instrusted to him the completion 

 of his celebrated equestrian statue in the Place Louis 

 XV. His last work was a girl pulling a thorn from 

 her feet ; this statue, and another representing a boy 

 holding a cage, from which the bird had escaped, 

 were much admired for their beauty and tenderness. 

 Pigalle, who had been appointed sculptor to the 

 king, and honoured with the order of St Michael, 

 died in 1785. 



PIGEON (columba). The domestic pigeon is sup- 

 posed to be derived from the canas, or stock-dove ; 

 it has been the companion of man from a very early 

 period ; the varieties, however, known to the Greeks, 

 were very few, but were greatly increased among 

 the Romans, with whom the breeding of these birds 

 was quite a science. The same attention to them 

 has continued in some modern nations, and the 

 adepts in the art pretend that the almost innumerable 

 varieties may be bred to a feather. The names be- 

 stowed on these varieties are indicative of their 

 peculiarities, as, tumblers, croppers, carriers, runts, 

 &c. In their wild state, the pigeon tribe live on 

 high trees, generally in flocks. They feed on se-d, 

 though sometimes on fruit, retaining their food in 

 the, crop for some time. The greater proportion of 

 the species build on elevated situations, forming a 

 loose nest of small twigs, and wide enough to contain 

 both sexes ; the female lays two eggs, several times 

 a year. They feed their young by regurgitating the 

 food contained in the crop. They pair for life, though 

 they assemble in flocks. They have no song, their 

 note being a simple cooing. The external charac- 

 ters of the genus are a weak, slender and straight 

 bill ; short legs, with no distinct membrane between 



