PERUGINO 



4G04 



PESTALOZZI 



In 1910 the population was 10,910; in 1916 it 

 was 12,410 (Federal estimate). The area of 

 the city is over two and one-half square miles. 



PERUGINO, pa roo jc' no (1446-1524), a cele- 

 . Italian painter and representative mas- 

 ter of the Umbrian school. He was one of the 

 first of the early Italians to adopt with suc- 

 Flemish method of oil painting, and 

 none of his pupils, with the exception of Ra- 

 phael, attained the deep purity of coloring which 

 is characteristic of his art. His real name was 

 PIETRO YvNNnvi. He was born at Citta della 

 Pieve in Umbria, and accomplished most of his 

 work in the neighboring city of Perugia, being 

 thereafter called II Perugino. In 1483 Pope 

 Sixtus IV called him to Rome, where he was 

 employed with other famous artists in decorat- 

 ing the Sistine Chapel with frescoes. His fresco 

 Christ Giving the Keys to Peter is the best of 

 those still visible, three of the others having 

 been destroyed to give space to Michelangelo's 

 Last Judgment. Other specimens of his work 

 are preserved in Perugia, Rome, Bologna and 

 Florence. His altarpiece in the National Gal- 

 lery. London, was originally painted for the 

 Certosa Convent at Paviu. Many other Euro- 

 pean galleries treasure specimens of his art. 



PERU'VIAN BARK, the bark from several 

 trees of the cinchona family, valued for the 

 quinine it contains. For a description of the 

 trees and the drug, see the article CINCHONA. 



PESETA, pasay'tah, the monetary unit of 

 Spain. It is worth 19.3 cents of United States 

 money, having the same value as the French 

 jranc or the Italian lira. One peseta is worth 

 100 centesimos. Gold coins are made having 

 the value of five, ten, twenty and twenty-five 

 pesetas, and silver coins having the value of 

 one and of five pesetas. The silver one-peseta 

 piece has on one side the head of the king and 

 on the other the coat-of-arms of Spain. The 

 word is the diminutive of peso, the name of a 

 large gold or silver coin once used in Spain and 

 its colonies; peso comes from pensum, the 

 Latin for weight. Consult the article DENOMI- 

 NATE NUMBERS for comparative Table of 

 Equivalent Values. 



PESO, pa' so, originally, the name of the old 

 Spanish dollar, called peso de oro or peso de 

 plata, according as it was coined of gold or of 

 silver. In Spain the peso is no longer the 

 standard of value, but it retains its importance 

 as a monetary unit in the Spanish-American 

 countries. Thus, in most of the states of South 

 and Central America, as well as in Mexico, the 

 silver peso, or dollar, is still the standard, 



though varying considerably in value. The 

 peso of the (Vntral American states, for in- 

 stance, is worth only about $0.39 in United States 

 money, and that of Mexico $0.498, while that of 

 Uruguay is valued at $1.034 in United States 

 money. In the Philippine Islands before they 

 \vi re acquired by the United States, the mone- 

 tary unit was the peso, worth S0.50. 



PESSIMISM, pet'i ntizm. from a Latin word 

 pcssimus, meaning worst, is the philosophy 

 which holds that there is more bad than good 

 in the world and more pain than comfort. It 

 is the opposite of optimism, or the belief that 

 this is the best possible world. Strictly speak- 

 ing, pessimism is more a state of mind than a 

 philosophy. There are many grades and varia- 

 tions of pessimists, including the person who 

 feels that the hereafter is very uncertain and 

 determines to enjoy all of the present; and 

 those who think that the world is steadily de- 

 caying. There are others who feel that man 

 himself is as bad as possible and beyond re- 

 demption; and still others who hold that bad 

 as man is, he may become immaculate in the 

 hereafter. Arthur Schopenhauer, a German 

 philosopher, is the most famous modern pes- 

 simist. See OPTIMISM. 



Consult Sully's Pessimism: A History and Criti- 

 cism; Schopenhauer's (translated by Saunders) 

 Studies in Pessimism. 



PESTALOZZI, pestalot'se, JOHANN HEIN- 

 RICH (1746-1827), one of the world's greatest 

 educational reformers, was born at Zurich, 

 Switzerland. His father died when Johann was 

 five years of age and he was brought up by his 

 mother and a 

 devoted servant, 

 who shielded him 

 from contact with 

 other boys and 

 society in general. 

 He was a shy, 

 delicate and awk- 

 ward boy, and his 

 early training 

 tended to empha- 

 size these charac- 

 teristics. Later 

 he passed through 

 the Latin school at Zurich and the public col- 

 lege. Pestalozzi possessed an ardent love for 

 his country and the people, and when a youth 

 he resolved to do all he could to relieve the 

 poor. It was in his attempts to carry out this 

 resolution that his work as an educational re- 

 former began. 



PESTALOZZI 



