Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 19.djvu/142

Rh 132 P I T P 1 T taste. Besides the silver altar it contains many fine works of sculpture; the chief are the monument of Cino da Pistoia, lawyer and poet, Dante s contemporary (1337), aud Verrocchio s finest work in marble, the monument to Cardinal Forteguerra (1474), with a large figure of Christ, surrounded by angels, in high relief. Unhappily two of the principal figures were destroyed not many years ago, and replaced by worthless modern ones. 1 Among the very early churches the principal is Sant Andrea, enriched with sculpture, and probably designed, by Gruamons and his brother Adeodatus, in 1136; in the nave is Giovanni Pisano s magnificent pulpit, imitated from his father s pulpit at Pisa. Other churches of almost equal interest are S. Giovanni Evangelista, also with sculpture by Gruamons, about 1160, and S. Bartolomeo in Pantano by the architect Rudolfinus, 1 167. S. Piero Maggiore and San Paolo are also churches begun in the 12th century. San Francesco al Prato is a fine church of the school of Xiccola Pisano, end of the 13th century. San Domenico, a noble church built about 1380, contains the beautiful tomb of Filippo Lazari by Bernardo di Matteo, 1464. In addition to its fine churches, of which the above is a very incomplete list, Pistoia contains many noble palaces and public buildings. The Palazzo del Commune and the Palazzo Pretorio, once the residence of the podesta, are both fine specimens of 14th-century domestic architecture, in very good preservation. The Ospedale del Ceppo, built originally in the 13th century, but remodelled in the 15th, is very remarkable for the reliefs in enamelled and coloured terra-cotta with which its exterior is richly decorated. Besides various medallions, there is a frieze of figures in high relief extending along the whole front, over its open arcade. The reliefs consist of a series of groups representing the Seven Works of Mercy and other figures ; these were executed by the younger members of the Delia Robbia family between 1525 and 1535, and, though not equal to the best work of Luca and Andrea, are yet very fine in conception and modelling, and extremely rich in their general decorative effect. PITCAIRN, or PITCAIEN S ISLAND, an island of the eastern Pacific, in 254 N. lat. and 130 8 W. long., may be considered as a member or appendage of the Paumotu, Tuamotu, Low, or Dangerous Archipelago, but is nearly 100 miles south of Oeno. It is not more than 3 miles long from east to west and about 2 miles broad. Unlike the other islands of this region it has no coral reef, but rises abruptly from the depths with steep and rugged cliffs of dark basaltic lava. There is no anchorage except on a bank at the west end ; and even the best of its three landing places Bounty Bay on the north coast is danger ous from the violence of the surf and the existence of a strong undertow. The longer axis of the island is formed by a range of steep hills, attaining in Outlook Ridge a maximum height of 1008 feet. On a plateau about 400 feet above the sea lies the village of Adamstown, with its fields and gardens. The climate is variable and rainy, and snow sometimes falls on the mountains ; but, as there are no springs or streamlets, drinking water is apt to grow scarce in a dry season. Vegetation is luxuriant. Neither the bread fruit nor the cocoa nut, introduced by the settlers, are fully successful ; but the sweet potato, which forms their staple food, banana, yam, taro, pine apple, &c., produce abundantly. Corn cannot be grown because of rats. The Pitcairn Islanders (not more than ninety in 1878), descended mainly from the mutineers of the &quot; Bounty &quot; and their Tahitian wives, are a healthy, virtu ous, cheerful, and hospitable people, proud of their English 1 One of the chief treasures of the S. Kensington Museum is the original sketch in clay for this monument, about 18 inches high, now the only record of the original design of the two chief figures. blood, and grateful for the services rendered them from time to time by the English Government and private liberality. Stone axes, remains of sculptured stone pillars similar to those of Rapanui (Easter Island), and skeletons with a pearl-mussel beneath their head, have been found in the island, and show that, though it was uninhabited when discovered by Carteret in 1767, it had previously been occupied. Pitcairn was the name of the midshipman who first descried it from the mast-head. On 28th April 1789 a mutiny broke out on board the &quot; Bounty,&quot; then employed by the English Government in conveying young bread fruit trees from Tahiti to the West Indies. The commander, Lieutenant BLIGH (q.v.), was set adrift in the launch with a number of his officers and crew, but managed to make his way to Kupang in Timor (Dutch Indies). The mutineers, twenty-five in number, at first all returned to Tahiti. Of those who chose to be landed on that island, six were condemned to death by court-martial in England, and three of these were ultimately executed (1792). Two years earlier (1790) the other party (consisting of Fletcher Christian, the leader of the mutiny, eight other Englishmen, six Polynesian men, and twelve Polynesian women) had taken pos session of Pitcairn and burned the &quot; Bounty.&quot; The beautiful island, which might have been a paradise, was soon turned into a little hell. Treachery, drunkenness, madness, and murder fill the first years of its annals. By 1800 all the men were dead except Alexander Smith (afterwards known as John Adams), whose endeavours to train up the youthful generation thus left in his sole charge were crowned with success. An American vessel, the &quot; Topaze, under Mayhew Folger, discovered the strange colony in 1808, and again, by accident, it was visited by the &quot; Briton,&quot; Captain Sir F. Staines, and the &quot;Tagus,&quot; Captain Pipon, in 1817. On the death of John Adams, 29th March 1829, George Hunn Nobbs, who, after an adventurous life had settled at Pitcairn in 1828, was appointed pastor and chief magistrate, of the settlement. Through fear of drought the islanders, now numbering 87 persons, removed in 1830 to Tahiti, but neither the climate nor the morals of the place were such as they approved, and in 1831 they returned to their lonely island. Hardly had they settled into their old ways when Joshua Hill, a strange adventurer, rather crazy than criminal, appeared among them ; claiming to be under Government authority, he tyrannized over them till his removal by an English man-of-war in 1838. In 1856 the whole population of Pitcairn 60 married per sons and 134 young men, women, and children were landed on NORFOLK ISLAND (q.v.); aud the little island was again left to the occupancy of goats and cattle. In 1858, however, two men, William and Moses Young, chose to return with their families to their old homes, and their example was afterwards followed by a few others. See Shillibeer, The &quot; Briton s &quot; Voyage to Pitcairn s Island, 1818 ; Bcechey, Voyage to the Pacific, 1831 ; Sir John Barrow, History of the Mutiny of the &quot;Bounty&quot; 1831; W. Brodie, Pitcairn s Island, 1850; f. B. Murray, Pitcairn, 1854 ; Meinicke, Die Insel Pitcairn, 1858, and Die Inseln des StiUen Oceans, vol. ii., 1876 ; and Lady Belcher, The Mutineers of the &quot; Bounty,&quot; 1870. PITCAIRNE, ARCHIBALD (1652-1713), a distinguished Scottish physician, born at Edinburgh in 1652, and de scended of an ancient Fif eshire family which barely escaped extinction at the battle of Flodden, the proprietor of the estate and his seven sons having fallen in the battle, and the succession being only preserved by the birth of a posthumous child. After obtaining some classical education at the school of Dalkeith, Pitcairne entered Edinburgh university in 1668, and took his degree of M.A. in 1671. Like some men of great general ability, he seems to have remained long undetermined as to his future profession, and before taking to medicine he had made some progress first in divinity and then in law. But, having been sent to France for the benefit of his health, he was induced at Paris to begin the study of medicine. On his return to Scotland he applied himself for a time and with great success to the study of mathematics. Having at last taken vigorously to medicine, first at Edinburgh and after wards for the second time at Paris, lie obtained in 1680 his degree of M.D. from the faculty at Rheims. On returning to Scotland he at once began practice at Edin burgh, and in a short time acquired a great and wide reputation so much so that in 1692 he was invited to fill a professor s chair at Leyden, and is said to have lectured there with great applause. Among his pupils were at least two men who afterwards rose to great eminence in their profession, Mead and Boerhaave, and both of them are understood to have attributed much of their skill to what they had learned from Pitcairne. In the following year