Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 19.djvu/89

Rh P I A P I C 79 by road from Roman, a station on the railway from Galatz and Czernowitz. The population of the prefecture in 1878 was 25,383 (9887 Jews). It contained seven Orthodox churches, the most remarkable being St John s, or the Prince s Monastery, founded by Stephen the Great in 1497. There are five annual fairs, and a large trade is done in grain and timber the latter being rafted down the Bistritza from the mountains to Galatz. PIAZZA ARMERINA (Sicilian, Chiazza), a city of Italy, in the province of Caltanisetta, Sicily, on a hill 39 miles by road east-south-east of the city of that name, and 30 miles north of Terranova on the coast. It is a flourishing and populous place (17,038 inhabitants in the city and 19,591 in the commune in 1881), has an 18th-century cathedral, an episcopal palace, and a communal library (1859). The church of Sant Andrea, less than a mile distant, has a fresco of date 1486, and other objects of interest. Of the ancient city, which old local antiquaries held to have been built by a colony of refugees from Platsea, little is known. The name sometimes occurs as Plutia. In 1095 Piazza was taken by Count Roger of Sicily, who bestowed on it a banner reputed to bear a likeness of the Virgin painted bySt Luke. William I. destroyed the city in 1160, but it was rebuilt on a new site in 1163. See Piazza antica, &amp;lt;kc., by J. P. Chiarnnda (a native), of which a Latin transla tion by Mosheiin is given in Graevius s Thesaurus ant. et hist. Sic., vol. xii. PIAZZI, GIUSEPPE (1746-4826). See ASTRONOMY. PICARDY (La Picardie), one of the old feudal pro vinces of France, was bounded N. by Hainault, Artois, and the English Channel, E. by Champagne, S. by lle-de France, and W. by Normandy and the Channel. Northern Picardy (subdivided into Upper and Lower Picardy) was formed into one of the great military governorships of the kingdom, while Southern Picardy was included in the governorship of Ile-de-France. Upper Picardy comprised the districts (pays) of Amienois, Santerre, Vermandois, and Thierache ; Lower Picardy Boulonnais, Ponthieu, Vimeu, and the Pays Reconquis (or Calais, Guines, Ardre, and Oye) ; and Southern Picardy Beauvaisis, Soissonais, and Laonnais. The territory is now divided among the depart ments of Pas-de-Calais, Somme, Aisne, Oise, and Nord. The name Picardy does not appear before the 13th century. Under the Romans the country formed part of Belgica Secunda, and was inhabited by various Belgian tribes the Morini, Ambiani, Veromandui, Bellovaci, and Suessiones, whose names still appear in Amiens, Vermandois, Beauvais, and Soissons. After forming part of the kingdom of Soissons and of Neustria, Picardy (that is, the countship of Vermandois, &c.) passed to the counts of Flanders. It was finally united with the French crown by Louis XL See De Veritu (1770-74), Dubelloy (1770). La Bourt (1840), Roger (1842-43), and Cocheris (18~&amp;gt;4). V. de Beauville lias published a magnificent liecueil de documents inedits concemant la Picardie, 1861, 18(i7, &amp;lt;fcc. PICCINI, or PICCINNI, NICCOLA (1728-1800), musical composer, was born at Bari in 1728, and educated, under Leo and Durante, at the Conservator io di San Onofrio in Naples. His first opera, Le Donne dispettose, produced in 1754, won him a high reputation, which he maintained creditably until 1760, when he composed, at Rome, the chef d ceuvre of his early life, La Cecchina, ossia la Euona Fiffliuola, an opera buffa which attained a European success, little less remarkable than that of Pergolesi s Serva Padrona. In a very short time this charming piece found its way not only to every theatre in Italy, but to Paris, to London, and to every great city on the Continent. It was even re presented by marionettes ; and every new fashion was named alia Cecchina. Six years after this Piccini was invited to Paris. He knew nothing of French, but his librettist, Marmontel, assisted him to such good purpose that, after the production of his first French opera, Roland, he was carried home from the theatre in triumph. All his next works were successful; but, unhappily, the directors of the Grand Ope&amp;gt;a conceived the mad idea of deliberately oppos ing him to Gluck, by persuading the two composers to treat the same subject Iphiylnie en Tauride simultaneously. The Parisian public now divided itself into two rival parties, which, under the names of Gluckists and Piccinists, carried on an unworthy and disgraceful war, equally ruinous to both artists, who would gladly have withdrawn from its violent excesses. That the final victory should be obtained by the Gluckists was inevitable ; for Piccini, though a brilliant ornament of the Italian school, was no match for his illustrious antagonist. Gluck s masterly Iphiyenie was first produced on May 18, 1779. Piccini s Iphiyenie followed on January 23, 1781, and, though performed seventeen times, was afterwards consigned to oblivion. The fury of the rival parties continued unabated, even after Gluck s departure from Paris in 1780 ; and an attempt was after wards made to inaugurate a new rivalry with Sacchini. Still, Piccini held a good position, and on the death of Gluck, in 1787, proposed that a public monument should be erected to his memory, a suggestion which the Gluck ists themselves declined to support. On the breaking out of the Revolution in 1789, Piccini returned to Naples, where he was at first well received by King Ferdinand IV. ; but the marriage of his daughter to a French demo crat brought him into irretrievable disgrace. For nine years after this he maintained a precarious existence in Venice, Naples, and Rome ; but, deriving new hope from the declaration of peace, he returned in 1798 to Paris, where the fickle public received him with enthusiasm, but left him to starve. He died at Passy, May 7, 1800. Fetis gives a complete list of Piccini s works, including eighty operas, and much choral music. It is certain that the list of operas is very far from complete. PICENUM. See ITALY, vol. xiii. pp. 444, 447. PICHEGRU, CHARLES (1761-1804), the conqueror of Holland, was born at Arbois in the Jura on February 16, 1761. His father was only a labourer, but the friars who managed the college of Arbois gave the boy a good educa tion, and one of his masters, the Pere Patrault, took him to the military school of Brienne. In 1783 he entered the first regiment of artillery, where he rapidly rose to the rank of adjutant-sub-lieutenant. When the Revolution began he at once became leader of the extreme revolutionary party in Besancon, where he was stationed ; and, when a regiment of volunteers of the department of the Gard marched through the city, the popular society recommended him for the rank of lieutenant- colonel, to which he was at once elected. The fine condition of his regiment was soon remarked in the army of the Rhine, to which it was attached, and his organizing ability was made use of by an appointment on the statf, and finally by his prjmotion to the rank of general of brigade. In 1793, when Dumouriez had deserted, and all generals of noble birth had been super seded, Carnot and Saint Just were sent to find roturier generals who could be successful ; Carnot discovered Jour- dan, and Saint Just discovered Hoche and Pichegru. In co-operation with Hoche and the army of the Moselle, Pichegru, now general of division and in command of the army of the Rhine, had to reconquer Alsace and reorganize the disheartened troops of the republic. They succeeded ; Pichegru, instead of fighting great battles, made use of the elan of his soldiers to win innumerable small engagements, and with Hoche forced the lines of Haguenau, and relieved Landau. In December 1793 he superseded Hoche, became cornmander-in-chief of the united armies of the Rhine and Moselle, whence he was summoned to succeed Jourdan in the army of the North in February 1794. It was now that he fought his three great campaigns of one year. The English and Austrians held a strong position along the Sambre to the sea, After vainly attempting to break the Austrian centre, Pichegru suddenly turned their left, and defeated Clerfayt at Cassel, Menin, and Courtrai, while Moreau, his second in command, defeated Coburg at Turcoing in May 1794 ; then after a pause, during which