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 PIATTO

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PIAZZI

in a remote sense, but the ambassadors brought with them invaluable information regarding the countries and peoples of the Far East. Carpine's written ac- count, the first of its kind and remarkable for its accuracy, was exhaustively drawn upon by such writers as Cantu and Hue ("Travels in Tatary, Thibet and China", 2 vols., 1852). It has been pub- hshed by d'Azevac: "Jean de Plan de Carpin, Rela- tion des Mongols ou Tartares" in "Recueil de voy- ages", IV (Paris, 1839), and later by Kulb: "Ge- schichte der Missionsreisen nach der Mongolei", I (Ratisbon, 1860), 1-129. Salimbene, who met Car- pine in France, found him "a pleasant man, of lively wit, eloquent, well-instructed, and skilful in many things". Innocent IV bestowed upon him every mark of esteem and affection. Having been sent as papal legate to St. Louis, King of France, Carpine was shortly afterwards named Archbishop of Antivari in Dalmatia.

Chronica Fr. Jordani di Jano in Analecla Franciscana (Qua- racchi, 1885—), I, 8-18; II, 71; III, 266; Wadding, Scriptores (Rome, 1906), s. v.; Sbaralea, Supplementum (Rome, 1806), s V • DA CivEZZA, Storia universale (telle missione francescane, I (Rome, 1857), 324 sqq.; IV (Rome. 1860), 186; Eubel. Gesch. der oberdmtschen Minorilenprovim (Wurzburg, 1886). 4, 6, 9. 20, 206; Idem, Die Bischd/e aus dem Minoritenarden in R6m. Quartal- schrift, IV, 207. n. 9; Voiqt in Abhandlungen der philalog.-histor. Klasse der konigl. sSchs. Geselhch. d. Wissensch., V (Leipzig, 1870), 465 sqq.; Hue, Christianity in China, Tatary and Thibet, I, (tr., New York, 1897), v; da Maugnano. The Life of St. Francis of Assisi and a Sketch of the Franciscan Order (tr., New York, 1887). 444 sqq.; Viator in Etudes franciscaines, V (1901), 505 sqq., 600 sqq ■ GoLUBOviCH, Biblioteca bio-bib. della Terra Santa, I (Quaracchi. 1906), 190 sqq. Schlager, Mongolen/ahrten der Framiskaner ia Aus alien Zonen (Bilder aus den Missionen der Franziskaner in Verg. u. Gegenw.),U, 1-43.

Thomas Plassmann.

Piatto cardinalizio, an allowance granted by the pope to carilinals n-siding in curia or otherwise em- ployed in thesoiviceof the Church, to enable them to maintain their dignity with decorum. It was not given to cardinals supported in Rome by their sover- eign, nor is it accepted by cardinals of noble famdy. The entire allowance was not always granted. If the cardinal had other revenues, he received enough to make up the amount of the allowance. This designa- tion piatto was first used in the conclave of 14.58. Paul II fixed the sum at 100 gold florins a month for cardi- nals whose revenues were not more than 4000 florins. This sum was called " the poor cardinal's plate ' ' . Leo XI intended to provide otherwise for the needful revenues. Paul V raised the piatto to 1500 scudi a year, for cardinals whose ecclesiastical revenues were less than 6000 scudi. Then the custom was introduced of giving 6000 scudi annually to cardinals without ec- clesiastical revenues. This sum was reduced in 1726 to 4000 scudi, as determined in 1464 and 1484, the amount allowed to-day, the cardinals renouncing their ecclesiastical benefices. For some distmguished cardinals the amount was larger. The piatto cardinali- zio is reckoned to-day at 4000 Roman scudi (about $4000) . It is reduced according to the other revenues of the cardinal.

Moroni. Dizionario, LII, 274 sqq.

U. Benigni.

Piauhy (de Piauht), Diocese op (Piahunensis), suffragan of the Archdiocese of Belem do Para, in the State of Piauhy, north-eastern Brazil. The state is bounded on the north by the Atlantic, west by Maranhao, south by Bahia, east by Pernambuco and Ceara. It takes its name from the river Piauhy. Its area is 116,218 sq. miles, and it has a coast line of ten miles. Piauhy is one of the poorest of the Brazil- ian states. It has a small trade in cotton and cattle Frequent periods of drought, followed by famme an( typhus, add to the disadvantages of its unhealthful climate. Except in mount:iinUs districts, vegetation is scanty, even the agricultund product.^ — sugar- cane, coffee, tobacco— barely support the population.

Therezina is the capital and Parnahyba the chief port. Emigration is making heavy drains on the population, and attempts to colonize by immigration have proved unsuccessful. The Diocese of Piauhy, formerly in- cluded in the Diocese of Sao Luiz do Maranhao, was, on 11 August, 1902, erected by Leo XIII into a separate diocese. Its jurisdiction comprises the Piauhy State, and its population (1911) is 425,000, with 32 parishes. Its first bishop, Mgr de Aranjo Pereira (b. at Limohra, 4 Nov., 1853), was consecrated on 9 Nov., 1903, and the present bishop Mgr Joachim Antonio de Almeida (b. 7 Aug., 1868) on 14 December, 1905.

J. Moreno-Lacalle.

Piazza Armerina, Diocese of (Platiensis), in the province of Caltanissetta, Sicily. The city of Piazza Armerina is situated on a high hill in a very fertile district. Its origin is obscure. Gulielmo'il Malo destroyed it in 1166 on account of a rebellion, and Gulielmo il Buono rebuilt it, to- gether with the church of I'Asunta, now the cathedral, and in which there is an admirable picture of the As- sumption by Paladino. The church of the priory of S. Andrea also has fine paintings and frescoes. The diocese, taken from that of Catania was created in 1817, its first prelate was Girolamo Aprile e Benzi; it is a suffragan of Syracuse, has 23 parishes, with 184,- 500 inhabitants, 7 religious houses of men and 19 of women, 1 school for boys and 7 for gu-ls, and 1 Cath- olic weekly.

Cappelle'to, Le Chiese d'llalia, XXI.

U. Benigni.

Piazzi, Giuseppe, astronomer, b. at Ponte in VaUellina, 16 July, 1746; d. at Naples, 22 July, 1826. He took the habit of the Theatines at Milan and fin- ished his novitiate at the convent of San Antonio. Studying at colleges of the order at Milan, Turin, Rome, and Genoa, under such preceptors as Tirabos- chi, Beccaria, Le Seur, and Jacquier, he acquired a taste for mathematics and astronomy. He taught philosophy for a time at Genoa and mathematics at the new University of Malta while it lasted. In 1779, as professor of dogmatic theology in Rome, his col- league was Chiaramonti, later Pius VII. In 1780 he was called to the chair of higher mathematics at the academy of Palermo. There he soon obtained a grant from Prince Caramanico, Viceroy of Sicily, for an ob- servatory. As its director he was charged to get the necessary instruments. He went to Paris in 1787 to study with Lalande, to England in 1788 to work with Maskelyne and the famous instrument -maker Rams- den. A large vertical circle with reading microscopes, a transit, and other apparatus were sent to Palermo in 1789, where they were placed on top of a tower of the royal palace. Observations were started in May,

1791, and the first reports were pubUshed as early as

1792. Soon he was able to correct errors in the esti- mation of the obliquity of the ecliptic, of the aberra- tion of light, of the length of the tropical year, and of the parallax of the fixed st.irs. He saw the necessity for a revision of the existing catalogues of stars and for the exact determination of their positions. In 1803 he published a list of 6784 stars and in 1814 a second catalogue containing 7646 stars. Both lists were awarded prizes by the Institute of France.

While looking for a small star mentioned in one of the earlier lists he made his great discovery of the first kno^vTi planetoid, 1 Jan., 1801. Locating a strarige heavenly body of the eighth magnitude and repeating the observation several nights in succession, he found that this star had shifted slightly. Believing it_to be a comet, he announced its discovery. These tew but exact measurements enabled Gauss to calculate the orbit and to find that this was a new planet, be- tween Mars and Jupiter. Kepler and Bode had