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P L A 
PLACE (Claude de la), a French pried in the 17th 
century, concerning the time of whofe birth or death we 
have no information. He became profefl'or of rhetoric in 
the college of Beauvais, and in the year 1652 was no¬ 
minated redlor of the univerfity. He publilhed a work 
in 1650, “ De Clericorum Sanclimonia,” 8vo. of which a 
fecond edition appeared in 1670, with conliderable ad¬ 
ditions, confiding chiefly of corroborative {’elections 
from the writings of other perfons on the fame fubjeft. 
But the productions which reflefl the greateit honour on 
his memory, are his “ Treatife againft a Plurality of 
Benefices 5” and another “ Concerning the Neceffity of 
the Refidence of Paftors with their Flocks,” intended to 
explain the decree of the univerfity of Paris on that 
fubjedt, which was palled in 1652. The piece laft men¬ 
tioned is an odtavo volume, and was printed in 1655. 
Claude de la Place was alfo a votary of the mules, and 
publilhed feveral Latin poems, which were much ap¬ 
plauded in his time, and are faid to merit the commend¬ 
ation of pofterity. Moreri. 
PLACE (Jolhua de la), a celebrated French Proteftant 
divine and profefl'or, was defcended from a noble family, 
and born about the year 1596, but in what place we are 
not told. Having had the misfortune to lofe his father 
when he was fcarcely twelve months old, the care of his 
education was undertaken by four of his paternal uncles, 
who were all miniflers, and fpared no pains in the in- 
ftrudlicns which they beltowed upon him. He appears 
to have profecuted his academical Itudies in the Pro¬ 
teftant feminary at Saumur, where he acquired fo much 
reputation by his proficiency, that when very young 
he was appointed to fill the chair of profefl'or of philo¬ 
sophy. In 1622 he married a lady of the noble family 
of Briffac; and three years afterwards he accepted an 
invitation to become paftor to the church of Nantes. 
Here he exercifed his ufeful and acceptable minifterial 
talents till the year 1633, when he was chofen pro- 
fefi’or of divinity at Saumur, where he had for colleagues 
the celebrated Mofes Amyraut and Louis Cappel. Pro- 
fieffor de la Place died in 1665, when he was about 59 
years of age. He was the. author of, x. An Expofition of 
the Song of Songs. t. A Treatife on Types. 3. A 
Treatife concerning the imputation of Adam’s firft Sin. 
4. On the Order of the Divine Decrees. 5. On Free- 
Will. 6. A Compendium of Divinity. 7. Dialogues 
between a Father and his Son relative to a change of 
Religion. 8. A Treatife concerning the Invocation of 
Saints. 9. An Examination of the Reafons for and 
againfl the Sacrifice of the Mafs,Scc.' A colleflion of the 
whole was publifhed at Franeker in 1619 and 1703, in 
2 vols.4to. Majh. HiJ't. Eccl. fsec. xvii. 
PLA'CEMAN, f. One who exercifes a public employ¬ 
ment, or fills a public ftation. 
PLACEN'TA,/. [Lat. a cake.] A vafcular fpongy 
body, containing the ramifications of veffels from the 
uterus, and of others from the foetus, and forming the 
medium by which the mother and child are connefted.— 
The human placenta, as well as that of quadrupeds, is a 
compofition of two parts intimately blended, viz. an um¬ 
bilical or infantile, and an uterine, portion. Dr. Hunter 
on the Gravid Uterus. 
Placenta, among the ancients, a kind of cheefe-cake, 
the tnoft Ample kind of which was made of flour mixed 
with oil and cheefe, to which honey was added: but the 
more luxurious fort of people added likewife a great 
variety of herbs and fruits, as alfo fugar, eggs, butter, 
&c. 
PLACEN'TIA, or Piacenza, a city of Italy, and 
capital of a duchy annexed to Parma, on the fouth fide of 
the Po. This city was built and colonized by the 
Romans about 218 years B.C. and not long after ferved 
as an afylum to the Roman army, when defeated by 
Hannibal at the Trebia. It was afterwards afl’aulted by 
that Carthaginian general, without fuccefs. This city 
became very flourifhing and municipal, but it luffered 
P L A 
much in the troubles that attended the elevation of Otho 
to the empire; and, when attacked by a party of the 
Vitellians, it effectually refilled, and in the bloody con- 
tefl had only to lament the lofs of its amphitheatre, re¬ 
markable for its capacioufnefs and architecture, which 
was fet on fire and reduced to afnes. Placentia, after 
having frequently changed mailers, was annexed to 
Parma, and thus remained till the expuliion of the late 
duke, when, with the whole of its territory, it was occupied 
by the French. It is a large well-built city. Its cathedral is 
Saxon ; the town-houfe, with fome other public buildings, 
in the great fquare, Gothic. Several churches, particularly 
that of St. Agoftino, are of fine Roman architecture, and 
fome of them adorned with paintings of great celebrity. 
The great fquare is ornamented with two brafs equeftrian 
llatues, one of Alexander Farnefe, and the other of his 
brother Renuccio, which are much admired, particularly 
the former, forattitude, animation, and drapery. The 
ftreets of Placentia are handfome, broad, and ltraight: 
one in particular, called the Stradone, is reckoned the 
longell and moll beautiful in Italy, being 3000 feet in 
length. Placentia is a bifhop’s fee, and contains, befides 
the cathedral, 1 collegiate, 12 parochial, and 38 other, 
churches, 8 abbeys, 16 convents, and an univerfity. The 
number of inhabitants is about 20,000, including 2000 
ecclefiallics. The duchy is about thirty miles long from 
north to fouth, and from eight to fifteen broad from eaft 
to well; the foil is fertile, and furniflies mines of iron, 
copper, and vitriol. This duchy, with Parma and 
Guallalla, belong, in full fovereignty, by the Treaty of 
Vienna, June 1815, to the emprefs Maria-Louifa, Na¬ 
poleon’s widow. The city is 52 miles fouth-eaft of 
Milan. Lat. 45. 3. N. Ion. o. 43. E. 
PLACEN'TIA, in Spain. See Plasencia. 
PLACENTIA BA'Y, a fpacious bay on the fouth 
coalt of Newfoundland, which forms a good harbour for 
veffels, and is greatly frequented by fhips emplojed in 
the cod-fifhery. The entrance of it is a narrow channel, 
through which but one (hip can pafs at a time ; but the 
water is deep enough for the largell, and the hafibour 
futficiently capacious to hold 150 fail of fhips, which are 
there fecure againfl all winds, and can fifli as quietly as in 
a river. Before the narrow channel is a road of five miles 
in extent; but expofed to the weiterly winds, which 
often blow with great violence. What renders the 
channel fo narrow, is a ridge of dangerous rocks, which 
mull be left on the (larboard fide in going into the bay; 
and on this ridge the French had formerly a fort, called 
St. Louis. Tiie currents are very ftrong, fo that fhips 
mult be rowed through the channel. The Great Strand, 
or drying-place forfilh, which is about a league in extent, 
lies between two ftee.p hills, one of which on the foutli- 
fbuth-wefl, is feparated from the ftrand by a filial! rivulet, 
which runs out of the channel, and forms a kind of lake, 
called the Little Bay, in which plenty of falmon is caught. 
The Great Strand is large enough to dry fifh fufficienc to 
load threefcore fhips. Befides this, there is another 
called the Little Strand, ufed by the inhabitants in 
drying their fifh, which they catch all along the coafl. 
On both thefe places fifli may be laid to dry without any 
danger. Along the above-mentioned'rivulets, the French 
built little huts, with branches of pine-trees, for drying 
their fifli in rainy weather. Near this are the houfes ot 
the inhabitants, which form a town, called Placentia. 
Lat. 47. 1047. 50. N. Ion. 54. to 55. 10. W. 
PLACENTIA I'SLAND, an lfland near the coall of 
Maine. Lat. 44. 10. N. Ion. 68. 10. VV. 
PLACENTIA LAGOO'N, a bay on the coafl of 
Yucatan. Lat. 18. 38. N, Ion. 89. 40. VV. 
PLA'CER,Ji One who places : 
Ah, my fovereign, lord of creatures all, 
Thou placer or plants, both humble and tall. Spcnj'er. 
PLACE'R DE ABRAX'AS, a rocky iflet near the 
fouth coall of Cuba. Lat. 21. 18. N. Ion. 80. 52. W. 
PLACET'TE 
