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 PIANCIANI

71

PIAKd

for having excommunicated the duke, Odoardo; Alessandro Pisani's election (1766) was one of the causes of dissension with the Holy See; Stefano Fallot de Beaumont (1807) was present at the national council of Paris (1810). Bl. Corrado (d. at Noto in 1351) was from Piacenza. The councils of Piacenza were those of 1076 (concerning the schismatics against Gregory VII), 1090 (Urban II against the concubi- nage of the clergy, and in favour of the crusade), 11.32 (Innocent II against Anacletus II). There were ten synods under Bishop Marliani (1476-1508).

In 1582 the diocese was made a suffragan of Bo- logna; it is now immediately dependent upon the Holy See. It has 350 parishes, with 310,000 inhabi- tants, 1 1 religious houses for men, and 29 for women, 5 educational establishments for male students, and 18 for girls, 1 daily paper, and 1 monthly periodical. The diocese has a house of missionaries for emigrants es- tablished by the late bishop, Mgr Scalabrini.

Cappelletti, Le Chiese d' Italia, XV: Campi, Historia ecdesias- iica di Piacenza: Poogiali, Memorie storicke di Piacenza (12 vols., 1757-66); Giarelli, Sloria di Piacenza (2 vols., 1889); Mura- TORI, Rerum italicarum Scr.. XX; Malchiodi (and others). La regia basilica di S. Sasino in Piacenza (Piacenza, 1903). See also Parma. -^ x^

U. Benigni.

University of Pi.^cenza. — Piacenza was the first Italian city to apply for a Bull erecting its town- schools into a sludium generale, which Bull was granted by Innocent IV in 1248, and conferred all the usual privileges of other studia generalia; by it the power of giving degrees was vested in the Bishop of Piacenza. But no practical work was done here until 1398, when Gian Galeazzo Visconti, Duke of Milan and Pavia, refounded the university in his capacity of Vicar of the Empire. The University of Pavia was suppressed, as he did not wish to have a university in either of his capitals. Gian Galeazzo liberally en- dowed Piacenza, organizing a university of jurists as well as a university of arts and medicine, each with an independent rector. Between 1398 and 1402 seventy- two salaried professors are recorded as having lectured, including not only the usual professors of theology, law, medicine, philosophy, and grammar, but also the new chairs of astrology, rhetoric, Dante, and Seneca. But this endeavour to establish a large university in a small town which had no natural influx of students was doomed to failure, and little or no work was done after Gian Galeazzo's death in 1402. In 1412 Pavia had its university restored, and the subjects of the duchy were forbidden to study elsewhere. Piacenza then obtained an unenviable notoriety at a market for cheap degrees. This traffic was still flourishing in 1471, though no lectures had been given for sixty years. A college of law and a college of arts and medicine, however, maintained a shadowy existence for many years later. Among the famous teachers at Piacenza may be named the jurist Placentinus, founder of the law-school at Montpellier (d. there, 1192); and Baldus (b. 1327), the most famous jurist of his day (Muratori, "Rer. It. SS.", XX, 939).

Campi, Hist. Univers, delle cose eccl. come seculari di Piacenza, II (Piacenza, 1651), 187 sq.; Rashdall, Univ. of Europe in the Mid- dle Ages. II, pt. I (Oxford, 1895), 35.

C. F. Wemtss Brown.

Pianciani, Giambattista, scientist, b. at Spoleto, 27 Oct., 1784; d. at Rome, 23 March, 1862. He en- tered the Society of Jesus on 2 June, 1805; after having received the ordinary Jesuit training he was sent to various cities in the Papal States to teach math- ematics and physics and finally was appointed pro- fessor in the Roman College, where he lectured and wrote on scientific subjects for twenty-four years. He was an active member of the Accademia d' Arcadia, his academical pseudonym being "Polite Megaride", of the Accademia de' Lincci, and of other scientific soci- eties. His scientific labours were abruptly brought to an end by the Revolution of 1S48 ; he succeeded, how-

ever, in making his escape from Rome and having come to America he taught dogmatic theology during the scholastic year 1849-50 at the Jesuit theologate then connected with Georgetown College, Washing- ton, D. C. When peace was restored in Rome he re- turned thither and from 1851 till his death was en- gaged chiefly in administrative duties and in teaching philosophy both in the Roman College and in the Collegio Filosofico of the University of Rome, of which latter college he was president during the last two years of his life. Besides numerous articles on scien- tific subjects, especially on electricity and magnetism, and on philosophico-religious subjects, he published the following works: "Istituzioni fisico-chemiche" (4 vols., Rome, 1833-4); "Elementi di fisico-chi- mica" (2 vols., Naples, 1840-41); "Inhistoriam crea- tionismosaicamcommentarius" (Naples, 1851), which he wrote whilst at Georgetown and of which there is a German translation by Schottl (Ratisbon, 18.53); "Saggi filosofici" (Rome, 1855); "Nuovi saggi filo- sofici" (Rome, 18.56); "Cosmogonia naturale com- parata col Genesi" (Rome, 1S62).

SoMMERVOQEL, Bibl. de la C. de J., VI (Brussels, 1895).

Edward C. Phillips.

Piand Carpine, GiovANm da, b. at Plan di Carpine (now called della Magione), near Perugia, Umbria, 1182; d. probably in 1252. Having entered the Fran- ciscan Order he was a companion of Ca:sar of Spires, the leader of the second mission of the Franciscans to Germany in 1221. He took a leading part in founding various new establishments of the order, and was sev- eral times provincial in Saxony and once in Spain. In 1245 Innocent IV, in compliance with the resolu- tions passed at the first council of Lyons, entrusted Carpine with an embassy to the princes and people of Mongolia or Tatary with a view to checking the inva- sions of these formidable hordes and eventually effect- ing their conversion. Carpine set out early in 1246; among his companions were Brothers Stephen of Bohemia and Benedict of Poland, who were to act aa interpreters. They were hospitably entertained by Duke Vasilico in Russia, where they read the pope's letters to the assembled schismatic bishops, leaving them favourably disposed towards reunion. They reached Kanieff, a town on the Tatar frontier, early in February. The Tatar officials referred them to Corenza, commander of the advance guards, who in his turn directed them to Batu, Khan of Kipchak etc., then encamped on the banks of the Volga. Batu com- missioned two soldiers to escort the papal envoys to Karakorum, the residence of the Great Khan. They reached their destination in the middle of July after a journey of indescribable hardships. The death of the Great Khan Okkodai made it necessary to defer nego- tiations till the end of August when Kuyuk, his suc- cessor, ascended the throne. After much delay Kuyuk finally demanded a written statement of the pope's propositions. His letter in reply is still preserved. Its tone is dignified and not unfriendly, but indepen- dent and arrogant. In it he says in substance: " If you desire peace, come before me ! We see no reason why we should embrace the Christian religion. We have chastised the Christian nations because they disobeyed the commandments of God and Jenghiz Khan. The power of God is manifestly with us." The superscrip- tion reads: "Kuyuk, by the power of God, Khan and Emperor of all men — to the Great Pope!" Carpine procured a translation of the letter in Arabic and Latin. On their homeward journey the envoys halted at the former stations, arriving at Kieff (Russia) in June, 1247. They were enthusiastically received everywhere, espe- cially by the Dukes Visilico and Daniel, his brother. Carpine's proposals for reunion had been accepted in the meantime, and special envoys were fo accompany him to the papal Court. From a political and religious aspect the mission to Tatary proved successful only