Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 11.djvu/856

 PETRUS

784

PEUTINGER

P. £., CLXXIII, 462-80; Baijani, Early Chroniclers of Europe, Italy (London. 1883), 174-80; Mann, Lives oflhe Popes, VII (St. I^uu, 1910), 218.

N. A. Weber.

Petrus de Natalibus, bishop, author of a collec- tion of lives of the saints; date of l)irth unknown; d. between 1400 and UOti. No details of the early life of this hagiographer have been handed down to us. A Venetian, he consecrated himself to the ecclesiasti- cal state, becoming a canon in Equilio (Jesolo). On 5 July, 1370, he was elevated to the episcopal see of that city. Details are also lacking regarding his pas- toral activity. The last mention of him refers to the year 1400, and in 140t), another appears as Bishop of Equilio; the date of his decease, therefore, must be set between these two years (Eubel, "Hierarchia catholica medii a;vi", I, 250). He is chiefly known as the author of ' ' Legends of t he Saints ' ' in twelve books, a very valuable work with a wide circulation. In his arrangement of the various lives he follows the calen- dar of the Church. The collection, first printed in Vicenza, 1493, went through many editions, the last of which (the eighth) appeared in Venice, 1616.

Fabricics, Bihtiotheca mediw et inJimtB atatia, ed. Mansi, V, 93; Potthast. Bibliotheca historica medii cevi, 2nd ed., II, 918.

J. P. KiRSCH.

Petrus de Palude. See Paltjdanus.

Petrus Juliani. See John XXI, Pope.

Petun Nation, one of the three great divisions of the Huron Indians, the other two being the Hurons proper and the Xeutrals. What was common to the three in name, country, population, government, re- ligion, history, etc., previous to their dispersion by the Iroquois, is to be found under the heading of Huron Indi.\ns. In that article the fate of the Neutrals after the disastrous event and the migration of the Hurons proper were treated in full. Seeing that the Petun or Tobacco Nation, as soon as their scattered remnants had gradually drifted together, became known to the English colonists as the Dionondadies or Wyandots, which latter name they bear exclusively at the present day, what concerns their migrations in the West has been collected under the article Wtandot Indians.

Arthur Edward Jones.

Peuerbach (also Pecrbach, Ptjbbach, Purbach- ins), George von, Austrian astronomer, b. at Peuer- bach near Linz, 30 May, 1423; d. in Vienna, 8 April, 1461. His real family name, as well as his early schooling, is unknown. About the year 1440 he re- ceived the degree of master of philosophy and the free arts, cum insigni laude, at the University of Vienna. His teacher in mathematics was probably Johann von Gmiinden. In 1448 he went on a trip to Italy for the sake of study. There Bianchini of Ferrara and Cardi- nal Nicholas of Cusa, then in Rome, became interested in the young man and induced him to lecture on as- tronomy at the University of Ferrara. He refused offers of professorships at Bologna and Padua, and also the appointment as court astronomer to King Ladislaus of Hungary, but went back to Vienna in 1450 to teach. He lectured on philology and classical literature. His scientific teaching was done chiefly in private, his most famous pupil being Johann Mtiller of Konigsberg, later known as Regiomontanus. Peuerbach has been called the father of observational and mathematical astronomy in the West. He began to work up Ptolemy's "Almagest", replacing chords by sines, and calculat- ing tables of sines for every minute of arc for a radius of 600,000 units. This was the first transition from the duodecimal to the decimal system. His observa- tions were made with very simple instruments, an ordi- nary plumb-line being used for measuring the angles of elevation of the stars. Cardinal Bes.sarion invited him to Rome to study Ptolemy in the original Greek

and not from a faulty Latin translation. He ac- cepted on condition that Mtiller go with him. On ac- count of the master's death the pupil went alone to complete the work.

Peuerbach is also noted for his great attempt to reconcile the opjjosing theories of the universe, the so-called homocentric spheres of Eudoxus and Aris- totle, with Ptolemy's epicyelic trains. This work, "Theories;, etc.", had an enormous success and re- mained the basis of academic instruction in astronomy until years after Copernicus had swept away all these hypotheses. Twenty works arc known. Among these the following are the most important: "Theoricae nova> planetarum, id est septem errantium siderum nee non octavi seu firmament! " (1st ed., Nuremberg, 1460, followed by many others in Milan and Ingol- stadt); "Sex primi libri epitomatis Alniagesti", com- pleted by Regiomontanus (Venice, 1496; Ba.sle, 1534; Nuremberg, 1550); "Tabulae eclypsium super meri- dianoViennensi" (2nd ed., Vienna, 1514);"Quadratum geometricum meridiano" (Nuremberg, 1516); "Nova tabula sinus de decem minutis in decem per multaa, etc.", completed by Regiomontanus (Nuremberg, 1541).

Fiedler. Peuerbach und Regiomontanus in Jahresbericht des K, Kathol. Gymn. zu Leobschutz, L (1870); Wolf, Gesch. d. Astr. (Munich. 1877) ; Gunther, Allg. Deutsche Biogr., XXV (Leipzig,

1887), 559. William Fox.

Peutinger, Conrad, antiquarian and humanist, b. at Augsburg, 14 Oct., 1465; d. 28 Dec, 1547. As a young man he studied law and belles-lettres at Padua, Bologna, and Florence. At Rome his enthusiasm for antiquity was awakened. Returning to Germany he entered the service of his native city in 1490, receiving the definite appointment of syndic in 1497. To the end of his life he served the city in various capacities and always with distinction. He enjoyed the friend- ship and special confidence of the Emperor Maxi- milian, who frequently employed him on missions of a diplomatic or literary nature. Through this friend- ship Peutinger obtained for Augsburg valuable priv- ileges, notably in 1506 while he stayed with Maxi- milian in Vienna and Hungary, where he took a lead- ing part in the negotiations between the emperor and his rebellious Hungarian subjects. In 1512 he acted as intermediary between the emperor and the Repub- Uc of Venice. Moreover, through his connexions with influential men in Germany, as well as in Italy and France, Peutinger was able to procure for his imperial friend much valuable information concerning current events. He was frequently occupied with furthering the literary and artistic plans of his patron; thus he had much to do with arranging for the designs and wood-cuts used in the sumptuous editions of Maxi- milian's poems "Weisskunig"and"Teurdank". After the death of Maximihan (1519) Peutinger continued to serve under Charles V. He represented his native city at the Diet of Worms (1521). Towards Luther his attitude was at first entirely sympathetic, but he refused to break with the Church, and maintained a conservative attitude which made him an object of distrust to the adherents of the Reformation. At the Diet of Augsburg (1,530) he presented the protest in the name of the city against the imperial decree, but when, in 1534, it was proposed to carry out the religious innovations without regard to the desires of the Cath- olic clergy, Peutinger advised against it, putting his trust in a plenary council to restore the lost Church unity. His advice was not heeded, and so he retired with a pension and henceforth devoted himself almost exclusively to his studies. In 1538 he was made a patrician, and a few days before his death he was ennobled.

Of his literary work only a part has been published. In Augsburg he had collected a rich store of ancient Roman inscriptions, the historical value of which he had learned to reaUze while a student in Italy. At the