Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 18.djvu/500

 478 PEL- languages &quot; was able to begin the study of Hebrew. He had no teacher and no grammar ; but Paulus Scriptoris carried him a huge codex of the prophets on his own shoulders all the way from Mainz. He learned the letters from the transcription of a few verses in the Star of the Messiah of Petrus Niger, and, with a subsequent hint or two from Reuchlin, who also lent him the grammar of Moses Kimhi, made his way through the Bible for himself with the heip of Jerome s Latin. He got on so well that he was not only a useful helper to Reuchlin but anticipated the manuals of the great Hebraist by composing in 1501 the first Hebrew grammar in a European tongue. It was printed in 1503, and afterwards included in Reysch s Margarita Philosophica. Hebrew remained a favourite study to the last. Pellican s autobiography is full of interesting details as to the gradual multiplication of accessible books on the subject, which he hunted up in every journey ; and ultimately he not only studied but translated a vast mass of rabbinical and Talmudic texts. With a cooler judgment than Reuchlin, however, he was not deceived as to the true value of the later Hebrew wisdom, and his interest in Jewish literature was mainly philological. In linguistic knowledge he reached a high standard for that time, certainly higher than that of his better-known pupil, S. Miinster. The chief fruit of these studies is the vast Biblical commentary published at Zurich in his later years (1532-39, 7 vols.), which shows a remarkably sound judgment on questions of the text, and a sense for historical as opposed to typological exegesis, such as soon disappeared from the Protestant Church and was hardly equalled by any in his own day. Pellicanus became priest in 1501 and continued to serve his order at Ruffach, Pforzheim, and Basel till 1526. At Basel he did much laborious work for Froben s editions, and acquired a thorough knowledge of the early fathers, through which his dissatisfaction with current dogma gradually ripened into conviction that the church taught many doctrines of which the early doctors of Christendom knew nothing. He spoke his views frankly, but he disliked polemic, and was happy in his convent or in long journeys in the service of his order, which carried him over all south Germany and through Italy as far as Rome ; he found also more toleration than might have been expected, even after he became active in circulating Luther s books. Thus, sup ported by the civic authorities, he remained guardian of the convent of his order at Basel from 1519 till 1524, and, even when he had to give up this post, remained in the monastery for two years, professing theology in the university and always toiling with indefatigable zeal. At length, when the position was becoming quite untenable, he received through Zwingli a call to Zurich as professor of Hebrew, and, formally throwing off his monk s habit, entered on a new life. Here he remained till his death in 1556, falling into his new surroundings with the ease of a simple affectionate nature, happy in the friendship of Zwingli and Bullinger, hospitably entertaining the many learned strangers who visited Zurich or the poor students who crowded to its school, avoiding religious controversy, and always deep in his books. The step in life which cost him most thought was his marriage, but this also proved so happy an experiment that he lived to be married a second time. In his later years he was afflicted with the stone, the torture of so many of the older scholars, but he continued active till the last. Pellican s scholarship, though not brilliant, was really extensive ; his sound sense and his singularly pure and devoted character gave him a great influence, as is apparent even in the too modest auto biography which he wrote for his son. He was curiously free from the pedantry of the time for a man who had lived so much among books ; his views about the use of the German vernacular as a vehicle of culture (Chron., 135, 36) are a striking proof of this. -PEL As a theologian his natural affinities were with Zwingli, with whom in his smaller sphere he shared the advantage of having grown up to the views of the Reformation, without any sudden and violent mental struggle, by the natural progress of his studies and religious life. Thus he never lost his sympathy with humanism and with its great German representative, Erasmus. The Reformed Church might have had a happier course if it had longer kept to the lines of the first Zurich doctors. Fellican s Latin autobiography (Chronicon C, P. R.} is one of the most interesting documents of the period. It was first published by Kiggenbach in 1877, and in this volume the other sources for his life are registered. PELLICO, SILVIO (1788-1854), Italian dramatist, was born at Saluzzo in Piedmont on 24th June 1788, the earlier portion of his life being passed at Pinerolo and Turin under the tuition of a priest named Manavella. A taste for the drama, fostered by private theatrical recitals, showed itself at the age of ten in the composition of a tragedy under the inspiration of Caesarotti s translation of the Ossianic poems. On the marriage of his twin sister Rosina with a maternal cousin at Lyons he went to reside in that city, devoting himself during four years to the study of French literature. His patriotism having been re-awakened by the reading of Foscolo s Dei Sepolcri, he returned in 1810 to Milan, where he became professor of French in the Collegio degli Orfani Militari. The appearance of Carlotta Marchionni on the Milan stage induced him to compose for her the tragedy Francesco, da Rimini, which, despite the adverse criticism of Foscolo, was brought out with success on the return of the actress to the city a few years later. Its publication was followed by that of the tragedy Eufemio da Messina, but the representation of the latter was forbidden. Pellico had in the meantime continued his work as tutor, first to the unfortunate son of Count Briche, and then to the two sons of Count Porro Lambertenghi. In this capacity he was brought into contact with many of the foremost men of the day and threw himself heartily into an attempt to weaken the hold of the Austrian despotism by indirect educational means. Of the powerful literary executive which gathered about Counts Porro and Confalonieri, Pellico was the able secretary, the management of the Conciliatore, which appeared in 1818 as the organ of the association, resting largely upon him. But the paper, under the relentless censorship of the Austrian officials, ran for a single year only, and the society itself was broken up by the more vigorous action of the Government consequent upon the formation of the constitution of Naples. In October 1820 Pellico was arrested on the charge of carbonarism and conveyed to the Santa Mar- gherita prison. Occupied at first in preparing his defence and in religious meditation, he found means, after his removal to the Piombi at Venice in February 1821, to resume literary work, composing there several Cantiche and the tragedies Ester d Engaddi and Iginia d Asti. The sentence of death pronounced on him in February 1822 was finally commuted to fifteen years carcere duro, and in the following April he was placed in the Spielberg at Briinn. His chief work during this part of his imprisonment was the tragedy Leoniero da Dertona, for the preservation of which he was compelled to rely on his memory. After his release in 1830 he commenced the publication of his prison compositions, of which the Ester was played at Turin in 1831, but immediately suppressed. In 1832 appeared his Gismonda da Mendrizio, Erodiade, and the Leoniero, under the title of Tre nuovi Tragedie, and in the same year the work which gave him his European fame, Le Mie Prigioni. The last gained him the friendship of the Marchesa di Barolo, the reformer of the Turin prisons, and in 1834 he accepted from her a yearly pension of 1200 francs. His tragedy Tommaso Moro had been published in 1833, his most important subsequent publication being the Opere Inedite in 1837. On the decease of his parents in 1838 he was received into the Casa Barolo, where he