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 must be as old as the 3rd or even the 2nd century The counts of Périgueux used it for their chateau, and lived in it from the 12th to the end of the 14th century. In 1644 it was given over by the town to the Order of the Visitation, and the sisters took from it the stones required for the construction of their nunnery. The most remarkable, however, of the ruins of the cité is the Chateau Barriere, an example of the fortified houses formerly common there. Two of its towers date from the 3rd or 4th century, and formed part of the fortified enceinte; the highest tower is of the 10th century; and the part now inhabited is of the 11th or 12th century, and was formerly used as a burial chapel. The bulk of the château is of the 12th, and some of the windows of the 16th century.

The chief medieval building in the cité is the church of St Etienne, once the cathedral. It dates from the 11th and 12th centuries, but suffered much injury at the hands of the Protestants in the religious wars when the tower and two of the three cupolas were destroyed. The choir and its cupola were skilfully restored in the 17th century. A fine carved wooden reredos of the 17th century and a tomb of a bishop of the 12th century are to be seen in the interior. In the medieval town, known as Le Puy-St-Front, the most remarkable building is the cathedral of St Front, which, till its restoration, or rather rebuilding, in the latter half of the 19th century when the old features were to a great extent lost, was of unique architectural value. It bears a striking resemblance to the Byzantine churches and to St Mark’s at Venice, and according to one theory was built from 984 to 1047, contemporaneously with the latter (977–1085). It consists of five great cupolas, arranged in the form of a Greek cross, and conspicuous from the outside. The arms of the cross are 69 ft. in width, and the whole is 184 ft. long. These cupolas, 89 ft. high from the keystone to the ground, are supported on a vaulted roof with pointed arches after the manner characteristic of Byzantine architecture. The pointed arches imitated from it prepared the way for the introduction of the Gothic style. Adjoining St Front on the west are the remains of an old basilica of the 6th century, above which rises the belfry, the only one in the Byzantine style now extant. It dates from the 11th century, and is composed of two massive cubes, placed the one above the other in retreat, with a circular colonnade surmounted by a dome. To the south-west of St Front, the buildings of an old abbey (11th to 16th century) surround a cloister dating chiefly from the 13th century. Of the fortifications of Puy St Front, the chief relic is the Tour Mataguerre (14th century).

Périgueux is seat of a bishop, prefect and court of assizes, and has tribunals of first instance and of commerce, a chamber of commerce and a branch of the Bank of France. Its educational establishments include a lycée for boys, training colleges for both sexes and a school of drawing. The trade of the town is in pigs, truffles, flour, brandy, poultry and pies known as pâtés de Périgord.

Vesunna was the capital of the Petrocorii, allies of Vercingetorix when Caesar invaded Gaul. The country was afterwards occupied by the Romans, who built a second city of Vesunna on the right bank of the Isle opposite the site of the Gallic town. The barbarian invasion brought this prosperity to a close. St Front preached Christianity here in the 4th century and over his tomb there was raised a monastery, which became the centre of the new town called Le Puy St Front. The cité was pillaged by the Saracens about 731, and in 844 the Normans devastated both quarters. The new town soon began to rival the old city in importance, and it was not until 1240 that the attempts of the counts of Périgord and the bishops to infringe on their municipal privileges brought about a treaty of union. During the Hundred Years' War, Périgueux was twice attacked by the English, who took the cité in 1356; and the whole town was ceded to them by the Treaty of Brétigny, but returned to the French Crown in the reign of Charles V. The county passed by marriage into the hands of Anthony of Bourbon, father of Henry IV., and was converted by the latter into royal domain. During the Huguenot wars Périgueux was frequently a stronghold of the Calvinists, who in 1575 did great destruction there, and it also suffered during the troubles of the Fronde.

PERIHELION (Gr. , near,  , sun), in astronomy, the point of nearest approach of a body to the sun. (See .)

PERIM, a British island in the strait of Bab-el-Mandeb, at the entrance to the Red Sea, and 96 m. W. by S. of Aden. Perim is 2 m. from the Arabian shore, is about 3 m. long with an average breadth of over a mile and covers some 7 sq. m. There is a good harbour with easy entrance on the south side with a depth of water from 25 to 30 ft. It is largely used by mercantile vessels as a coaling-station and for taking in stores, including fresh water and ice. Perim, the Diodoros island of the Periplus, was, in consequence of the French occupation of Egypt, garrisoned from 1799 to 1801 by a British force. In view of the construction of the Suez Canal and the increasing importance of the Red Sea route to India the island was annexed to Great Britain in 1857, fortified and placed under the charge of the Aden residency. In 1861 a lighthouse was built at its eastern end. Submarine cables connect the island with Aden, Egypt and Zanzibar. Population, including a garrison of 50 sepoys, about 200.

PERINO DEL VAGA (1500–1547), a painter of the Roman school, whose true name was (or ). He was born near Florence on the 28th of June 1500. His father ruined himself by gambling, and became a soldier in the invading army of Charles VIII. His mother dying when he was but two months old, he was suckled by a she-goat; but shortly afterwards he was taken up by his father’s second wife. Perino was first apprenticed to a druggist, but soon passed into the hands of a mediocre painter, Andrea da Ceri, and, when eleven years of age, of Ridolfo Ghirlandajo. Perino rapidly surpassed his fellow-pupils, applying himself especially to the study of Michelangelo’s great cartoon. Another mediocre painter, Vaga from Toscanella, undertook to settle the boy in Rome, but first set him to work in Toscanella. Perino, when he at last reached Rome, was utterly poor, and with no clear prospect beyond journey-work for trading decorators. He, however, studied with great severity and spirit from Michelangelo and the antique, and was eventually entrusted with some of the subordinate work undertaken by Raphael in the Vatican. He assisted Giovanni da Udine in the stucco and arabesque decorations of the loggie of the Vatican, and executed some of those small but finely composed scriptural subjects which go by the name of “Raphael’s Bible”—Raphael himself furnishing the designs. Perino’s examples are' “Abraham about to sacrifice Isaac,” “Jacob wrestling with the Angel,” “Joseph and his Brethren,” the “Hebrews crossing the Jordan,” the “Fall and Capture of Jericho,” “Joshua commanding the Sun to stand still,” the “Birth of Christ,” “His Baptism” and the “Last Supper.” Some of these are in bronze-tint, while others are in full colour. He also painted, after Raphael’s drawings, the figures of the planets in the great hall of the Appartamenti Borgia. Perino exhibited very uncommon faculty in these works and was soon regarded as second only to Giulio Romano among the great painter's assistants. To Raphael himself he was always exceedingly respectful and attentive, and the master loved him almost as a son. He executed many other works about Rome, always displaying a certain mixture of the Florentine with the Roman style.

After Raphael’s death in 1520 a troublous period ensued for Perino, with a plague which ravaged Rome in 1523, and again with the sack of that city in 1527. Then he accepted an invitation to Genoa, where he was employed in decorating the Doria Palace, and rapidly founded a quasi-Roman school of art in the Ligurian city. He ornamented the palace in a style similar to that of Giulio Romano in the Mantuan Palazzo del Tè, and frescoed historical and mythological subjects in the apartments, fanciful and graceful arabesque work, sculptural and architectural details—in short, whatever came to hand. Among the principal works are: the “War between the Gods and Giants,” “Horatius Cocles defending the Bridge,” and the “Fortitude