PALESTRINA 



4460 



PALISADES 



of iron ore and salt are also fount!. The trade 

 Miefly in fruit, \ live stock, cotton, 



grain and manufactured products. The General 

 offices and big shops of the InU -mat ion al & 

 Great Northern Railway are located In -re. He- 

 gjd c , - ihlishments there arc foundries. 



an ice plant, bottling works, lumber mills and 

 cotton and cottonseed-oil mills. Palestine has 

 two city parks, a S75.000 Federal building, a 

 $200,000 courthouse, a fine high school building. 

 a well-equipped $125,000 hotel, a convent school 

 and a Carnegie Library. J-fi. 



PALESTRINA, pah lays trc'nah, GIOVANNI 

 PIERLUIGI DA (1524-1594), an Italian composer, 

 born at Palest rina. near Rome. When he was 

 oung boy he was heard singing by a 

 r of Rome, who offered him free 

 ns in music. After several years' study in 

 Rome Palestrina returned to his native town to 

 play the cathedral organ and to teach singing. 

 The bishop of this place later became Pope 

 Julius III and almost immediately sent for his 

 friend, the humble Palestrina, to become music 

 director of the Chapel of Saint Peter in the 

 Vatican. Soon the musician was appointed by 

 the Pope to a position as singer in the Papal 

 Chapel, the first married man ever granted 

 this honor. 



When Pope Julius died and Pope Paul IV 

 came to the Vatican, Palestrina went to other 

 Roman churches as organist, and at length be- 

 came director for the Church of Santa Maria 

 Maggiore, the one in front of which he had been 

 heard singing as a boy. In 1563 Pope Pius IV 

 declared that church music must be improved, 

 and Palestrina wrote a model mass so beau- 

 tiful and dignified that practically all masses 

 of the Roman Catholic Church have been pat- 

 terned after it. Pope Pius gave him the title 

 of "Composer to the Pontifical Chapel" and 

 'red him to his former position as director 

 of music in the Chapel of Saint Peter. In 1575 

 a great celebration in his honor was held at 

 Rome, and thousands of Italians came to the 

 city to march in the procession and sing his 

 songs. In the midst of his composing he died 

 at Koine, in 1594. Among his most celebrated 

 works are his HI *.-> *, especially the Messa 

 Brevis, and The Song of Solomon. 



PALIMPSEST, pal' 'imp sest, an ancient 

 manuscript which had been scraped and writ- 

 ten upon again. The word means scratched, 

 or scraped again. With the waxen tablets used 

 in Rome, this was a natural method of pro- 

 cedure, but other materials did not lend them- 

 selves so readily to the treatment. There were 



nil reasons why palimpsests from papyrus 

 not very common (see PAPYRUS). First, 

 the material was very plentiful; second, it 

 almost always u>ed on one side only, so 

 that the other side was available for later writ- 

 and third, it was not strong enough to 

 bear much erasure. Parchment was not so 

 plentiful, and when scribes or the medieval 

 monk" wished material whereon to inscribe 

 their copies of great works, they resorted to 

 the method of re-using manuscripts. Some 

 kinds of ink were washed off with special prepa- 

 rations; some had to be scraped off. In many 

 instances the obliteration, was not complete, 

 and the earlier writings may still be read; even 

 in cases where there is little sign of the original, 

 chemicals may often be applied which bring 

 back the color to the old inks. Naturally 

 where the manuscripts were thoroughly scraped, 

 there is no means of recovering the original-. 



From the seventh to the ninth century de- 

 struction of old writings was very common, 

 and many valuable works were doubtless lost 

 by this means. As often as possible, however, 

 incomplete or damaged manuscripts were used 

 for palimpsests; among all the first readings 

 which have been recovered, there has never 

 been one complete work. But there have been 

 parts found of very important works which 

 were extant in no other form. 



PALISADES, palisayds' , a stretch of pic- 

 turesque bluffs rising abruptly from the Hud- 

 son River to an elevation of from 200 to 500 

 feet and extending along the western bank of 

 the river, not far north of New York City, 

 from Haverstraw, N. Y., south to Weehawken, 

 N. J., a distance of about thirty miles. This 

 line of massive cliffs is the most prominent 

 feature of the scenic beauty of the Hudson 

 River district. About 18,000 acres in the vicin- 

 ity have been set aside as the Palisades Inter- 

 state Park, located partly in New Jersey and 

 partly in New York, and extending north of 

 Bear Mountain. The park, which will ulti- 

 mately cost about $6,000,000, is under the con- 

 trol of the Palisades Park Commission. In- 

 cluded in the area set aside is a tract of 10,000 

 acres in Orange and Rockland counties (New- 

 York), the gift of Mrs. Mary D. Harriman, 

 widow of Edward H. Harriman, who also do- 

 nated $1,000,000 for the project. Generous 

 camping and picnic privileges are permitted 

 by the park commissioners, and the grounds 

 are visited and enjoyed by thousands of peo- 

 ple from neighboring cities and towns. See full- 

 page illustration, article NEW YORK (state). 



