P I R 
Eutycflians to the Catholic faith. From Armenia he 
paffed into Georgia and Perlia. Upon his return into 
Italy by fea, he had the misfortune to fall into the hands 
of a Barbary corfair, who carried him captive to Tunis. 
Being ranfomed, he went to Rome, where he gave an 
account of his million, and received marks of favour from 
pope Urban VIII. By that pontiff he was fent into Po¬ 
land, with the charadter of papal nuncio; and he is faid 
to have been fuccefsful in reftoring union and harmony 
among the jarring fedts of Armenians, who were very 
numerous in that country. The fame pope employed 
him in reviling the Armenian verlion of the Bible; and 
afterwards fent him a fecond time into the Eaft, where 
he was promoted, in 1655, to the bilhopric of Nackfivan 
in Armenia. Over this lee he prefided nine years, and 
then returned to Italy, where he was nominated bilhop of 
Bilignano in Calabria. He died at this place in the year 
1667; and is highly commended for his piety, zeal in the 
caufe of religion, charity, and other virtues, as well as for 
his erudition. He was the author of A Latin and Per- 
lian Dictionary; An Armenian and Latin Dictionary; 
A Grammar of the Armenian Tongue ; A Rubrick, ef- 
teemed ufeful for the correction of Armenian books; and 
fome treatifes in controverlial divinity. 
PI'RON (Alexis), a poet and man of wit, the fon of 
an apothecary at Dijon, was born in 1689. He paffed the 
firll twenty-five years of his life in an obfcure circle, re¬ 
mote from good company, and devoted to vulgar plea- 
fures. A licentious ode of which he was the author, 
obliged him to quit his native place; and he went to 
Paris, where for fome years he fupported himfelf by the 
mechanical labours of his pen as a copying clerk. His 
firft literary efforts were as a writer for the comic opera, 
in which inferior ftation he difplayed talents which in¬ 
duced his townfman Crebillon to recommend to him an 
attempt for the Theatre Fran$ois. He began in 1728 
with the comedy of “ Les Fils ingrats,” the title of which 
was afterwards changed into “L’Ecole des Peres.” Its 
fuccefs was but moderate, for there was a mixture of low 
comedy with the interefting and pathetic, which did not 
then pleafe the public tafte, though it has fince become 
frequent upon the French ftage, as it has upon the Eng- 
lilh. He next tried his powers in tragedy, and produced 
his “ Callilthenes” and his “ Cortes,” neither of which 
have kept a place on the ftage, though containing parts 
ftrongly written. His “ Guftave” was more fuccefsful 
on account of its interefting fituations, though the cri¬ 
tics thought it too much overcharged with bufinefs for 
the regularity of the French theatre. At length, in 1738, 
he prefented to the public his comedy of “ La Metroma- 
nie,” which raifed him to the height of reputation. Its 
novelty, art, and vivacity, excited univerfal admiration ; 
and it was efteemed the belt comedy that had appeared 
fince the time of Regnard. He alfo wrote “ Les Courfes 
deTempe,” an ingenious pattoral; feveral Odes, Poems, 
Tales, and Epigrams. In this laft kind of compofition 
he was particularly happy, as might be expedted from a 
man who was more famous for repartees and bons mots 
than almoft any of the Parifian wits of his time. Some of 
tbefe are recorded in the General Biography. He fre¬ 
quently made cauftic remarks upon the French Academy, 
the members of which he ufed to call “the invalids of 
wit.” He made, however, an attempt to gain admiflion 
into this fociety, but the abbe d’Olivet procured his ex¬ 
clusion by reviving the memory of his juvenile ode, for 
which officioufnefs he was recompenfed by a fevere epi¬ 
gram. Pirondid not forgive the Academy for their re- 
jedlion, and compofed the following epitaph for himfelf : 
Ci git Piron, qui ne fut rien, 
Pas meme Academicien. 
He is faid to have been eftimable in his moral charadter, 
and .he enjoyed a long life, which was brought to a clofe 
by a fall in 1773, at the age of 83. His works were pub- 
Vol. XX. No. 1387. 
PIS 513 
lifiied colledtively in feven volumes, of which at lead half 
might have been fpared. 
PI'ROS, a jurifdidlion of Peru, on the fides of the Ma- 
ragnon : 160 miles north-north-eaft of Lima. 
PI'ROT, a town of European Turkey, in Bulgaria : 
forty miles north-weft of Sophia. 
PIRO'TE, a town of Hindooftan, in Malwa: twenty- 
one miles north-weft of Chanderee. 
PIROUET'TE, f. in the manege, the circumvolution 
which a horfe makes without changing his ground. 
PIR'RAWARTH, a town of Auftria: feven miles 
Couth-weft of Zifterfdorf, and fourteen north-north-eaft 
of Vienna. 
PIR'RY, f. The Scotch have pin-, for a gentle breeze, 
which Dr. Jamiefon refers to the Icel. byr, Mr, a favour¬ 
able wind. With us, pirry feems to have fignified a 
rough gale, or ftorm.—Not to be afraid of pirries, or great 
ftorms. Sir T. Elyot's Gov, —A pirric came, and fet my 
fhip on fands. Mir. for Mag. 
PI'RUS., See Pyrus. 
PIRUZABAD', a town of Perfia, in Mecran : thirty 
miles fouth-fouth-eaft of Kieh, and 160 weft-north-weft 
of Kidge. 
PI'SA, in ancient geography, a town of Elis, on the 
Alpheus, at the weft of the Peloponnefus, founded by 
Pilus, the fon of Perietes, and grandfon of Aiolus. Its 
inhabitants accompanied Neftor to the Trojan war, and 
they enjoyed long the privilege of prefiding at the Olym¬ 
pic games which were celebrated near their city. This 
honourable appointment was envied by the people of Elis, 
who made war againft the Pifeans, and, after many bloody 
battles, took their city, and totally demolilhed it. It 
was at Pifa that CEnomaus murdered the fuitors of his 
daughter, and that he himfelf was conquered by Pelops. 
The inhabitants were called Pifcsi. Some have doubted 
the exiftence of fuch a place as Pifa, but this doubt ori¬ 
ginates from Pifa’s having been deftroyed in fo remote an 
age. The horfes of Pifa were famous. The year on 
which the Olympic games were celebrated, was often 
called PiJ'esvs annus, and the vidlory which was obtained 
there was called Piface ramus olives. 
PI'SA, in modern geography, a large town of Tufcany 
in Italy, fituated on the Arno, 52 miles from Florence, 
and about 13§ from Leghorn. It Hands in a fertile plain, 
bounded by the neighbouring Appennines on the norfli, 
and on the fouth open to the fea. It is one of the oldeft 
cities in Europe. If we may rely on the authority of 
Strabo, we may trace its origin to the period that fol¬ 
lowed the Trojan war, and thus conned! its hiftory with 
the fate of the Grecian chiefs, and particularly with the 
wanderings of the venerable Neftor. At all events the 
Alpheae ab origine Pifie 
Urbs Etrufca lolo, 
enjoys the double glory of being one of the moft ancient 
cities of Etruria, and of deriving its name and its origin 
from the Olympic Pifa, on the banks of the Alpheus. 
Although this city was always conliderable, as forming 
one of the Etrufcan tribes, or afterwards honoured with 
a Roman colony, A.U.C. 474; yet it did not arrive at 
the zenith of its fame till the records of ancient times 
were clofed, and the genius of Rome and liberty feemed 
for ever buried under the ruins and barbarifm of the mid¬ 
dle ages. At that period, apparently fo unpropitious, 
the flame burft forth, and again kindled the ftumbering 
fpirit of Italian freedom. Pifa was not the laft that 
roufed itfelf to adtivity ; it afferted its independence at an 
early period, and in the 10th century blazed forth in all 
the glory of a mighty and vidlorious republic. Its nu¬ 
merous fleets rode triumphant on the Mediterranean; and 
Corfica and Sardinia, the Saracens on the coaft of Africa, 
and the infidel lovereign of Carthage, bowed beneath its 
power. Captive kings appeared before its fenate; the 
Franks in Paleftine and in Egypt owed their fafety to 
6 P its 
