488 
P I O 
other fir that was fubmitted to experiment; although the 
fecond fpecimen of Riga was feledted from a tree fuppofed 
to be of fuperior quality, on purpofe to form the compa- 
rifon. The foreft of Mar, from which thefe timbers were 
brought, the property of the earl of Fife, is twenty miles 
in length, and in fome places twenty miles in breadth, 
and contains upwards of 60,000 trees of the above de- 
fcription, befides an immenfe number of lefs dimcnfions, 
fit for building and various other purpofes. The ma¬ 
nagement of this extenfive foreft appears to have been 
formerly much negledted; but great care is now taken to 
promote the growth of many thoufands of young timbers, 
which will follow in fucceflion thofe already fit for the 
axe.” It mult be worfe than madnefs to expend our pro¬ 
perty on the purchafe of foreign fir, when we have fuch 
refources of our own at command. 
The proper methods of raifing and planting out all the 
different forts, in the view of affording timber or (helter in 
large plantations, may be feen in the new edition of 
Miller’s Dictionary. 
PI'NUS IN'DICA. See Croton. 
PI'O (Alberto), prince of Carpi, remarkable for the 
cultivation of learning in the midft of public affairs, was 
the fon of Leonello lord of Carpi, by a filter of the cele¬ 
brated Pico of Mirandola. He was born about the year 
1475, and firft ftudied in the univerfity of Ferrara under 
Pomponazzo. He purfued his ftudies with ardour in his 
palace at Carpi, whither he had invited feveral learned 
men, among whom he diftinguifhed Aldo Manuzio as his 
particular inftrudtor. He collected a copious library, 
encouraged literary and fcientific purfuits of all kinds, 
and emulated the character of his uncle as a patron of 
letters, and a proficient in them. After his father’s 
death, Alberto, with his brother Leonello, had a common 
dominion in the territories of Carpi, with Giberto and 
other fons of Marco, another branch of the fame family. 
This divided authority naturally produced diffenfions, 
which, from 1494 to 1500, occafioned a civil war. The 
emperor Maximilian favoured alternately both parties; 
and the duke of Ferrara interpofed more than once to 
effeCt an accommodation. In 1500, Giberto, to revenge 
himfelf of Alberto, ceded all his rights over the princi¬ 
pality of Carpi to the duke of Ferrara, receiving certain 
cattles in compenfation. This meafure obliged Alberto, 
by way of fupport againft fo powerful a partner, to have 
recourfe to Maximilian, who cancelled the ceflion of 
Giberto, and conferred on Alberto the foie fovereignty. 
Wars between him and the duke of Ferrara followed, and 
Alberto thought proper to conneCt himfelf with the 
French party. In 1510 he vifited the court of Louis XII. 
and was haftily difpatched by him to pope Julius II. for 
the purpofe of diffuading him from making a treaty with 
the Venetians ; but he was too late in his application. He 
now found it his intereft to quit the French for the 
Imperial party; for which change he honeftly gives as a 
reafon, the declenfion of the French authority in Italy. 
In faCt, he feems throughout to have praftifed the tempo- 
rifing policy fo univerfal with the petty potentates of 
Italy, and, perhaps, juftifiable from the confideration of 
the total difiregard of their rights and independence by 
the more powerful ftates. He refided a long time at 
Rome as the emperor’s ambaffador at the papal court, 
and was fingularly efteeined by Leo X. who conferred 
upon him feveral caftles in Romagna. In the fubfequent 
wars, Carpi was frequently taken by the different parties, 
and Alberto was poffeffed and difpoffeffed of the fove¬ 
reignty. He again adopted the French intereft, which 
ltep occafioned the final lofs of his principality ; which, 
in 1527, was transferred by Charles V. to Alfonfo duke 
of Ferrara. He was at Rome during its fack in that year, 
and took refuge with Clement VII. in the caftle of St. 
Angelo. Being afterwards delegated by that pontiff’ to 
Francis king of France, he was very kindly received by 
that monarch, and died at his court in 1531, in the 56th 
year of his age. 
P I o 
1 <r 
Pio, notwithftanding the viciflitudes of his life, and his 
various political occupations, had never ceafed the culti- 
vation of letters. He was a zealous adherent to the fee 
of Rome, and gave all the oppofition in his power to the 
dodtrines of the reformers. At this time Erafmus made 
a confiderable figure in the world, and Alberto fpoke 
pretty freely of the tendency of his various publications, 
and what he faid was reported with much aggravation to 
that celebrated man. In confequence he wrote, in Odto- 
ber 1525, a letter to Alberto, acquainting him in a friendly 
manner with what he had heard, and fubjoining a ftiort 
defence of himfelf. To this Alberto replied in a long 
epiftle, which, with Erafrnus’s letter, was afterwards pub- 
lifhed at Paris. This led to farther difcuflion on both 
fides; and in one of his letters Alberto launched out into 
an examination of all the works and opinions of Erafmus, 
and of thofe of Luther, and the other innovators of the 
time. He died, while the work was printing, at Paris, 
but it appeared in the fame year under the title of “ A 1 -’ 
berti Pii, &c. tres et viginti libri in locos lucubrationum 
variorum D. Erafmi Rotterd.” This work, is highly com¬ 
mended by Tirabofchi, who fays, “ it has none of the 
fcholaftic barbarifm, but is written with erudition, force, 
and not without elegance.” It fliould be obferved, that 
he was fuppofed to have been aflifted by Sepulveda, and 
other learned men whom he kept in his houfe. His works 
have been collected and publilhed in folio at Paris, and 
alfo at Venice. 
PIOBBI'CO, a town of the popedom, in the duchy of 
Urbino : eleven miles fouth of Urbino. 
PIO'LEN, a town of France, in the department of the 
Drome; twenty-one miles fouth of Montelimart, and 
three north-weft of Orange. 
PIOM'BA, a river of Naples, which runs into the 
Adriatic in lat. 42. 56. N. Ion. 13. 9. E. 
PIOMBI'NO, a principality in the central part of Italy, 
confifting of a fmall portion of the Italian ftiore, and the 
oppofite ifle of Elba, fubjedf, in the 13th century, to the 
Pifans, and after feveral revolutions transferred to the 
family of Appiano, as a detached principality, in 1399, 
In 1501 it was feized by Ctefar Borgia, but after the 
death of pope Alexander VI. returned to the houfe of 
Appiano. In the 16th century the ifle of Elba was re¬ 
peatedly ravaged by the Turks. The principality re¬ 
cently paffed to the houfe Buoncompagni, that is, the 
dukes of Sora, a Neapolitan family, which owes its for¬ 
tune to the pontiff Gregory XII. and in 1801 annexed to 
the Ihort-lived kingdom of Etruria; but, by the General 
Treaty of Vienna, June 1, 1815, given t6 the archduke 
Ferdinand of Auftria, as grand-duke of Tufcany. 
PIOMBI'NO, afea-port town and capital of the above 
principality; is fituated in a bay of the Mediterranean, 
called the Gulf of Piombino. It was built on the ruins of 
Populonium, an ancient Etrufcan town, of which no 
traces are left. It is fituated on a peninfula, and defended 
by a citadel : thirty-three miles fouth-weft of Sienna, and 
forty-feven fouth-fouth-weft of Florence. Lat. 42. 57. N. 
Ion. 10. 34. E. 
PIOM'BO (Sebaftian del), an eminent painter, called 
alfo Venetiauo, from Venice, the place of his birth, which 
occurred in 1485. He was renowned in early life as a 
mufician, and particularly for his fltill in playing upon 
the lute. While he was yet in his youth, he abandoned, 
that fcience, and was taught the rudiments of the art of 
painting by Giovanni Bellini; but as~Giorgione da Caftel 
Franco had juft then exhibited his improved mode of 
colouring and effedf, Sebaftian placed himfelf under his 
tuition; and in the end acquired a well-merited and 
great renown, both in painting portraits and hiftorical 
lubjedts. His firft effays were in the former clafs; and 
they were greatly admired for the ftrength of refemblance, 
and the fweetnefs and fulnefs of ftyle with which they 
were executed; and were frequently miftaken for the 
work of Giorgione. His portrait of Giulio Gonzaga, the 
favourite of cardinal Hippolito di Medici, is by many 
writers 
