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PIR grammar, and a Rubric, or directions for the correction of Armenian works.—B. H. C.  PIRON,, a poet and famous epigrammatist, born at Dijon in 1689. Of a careless temperament, thirty years of his life passed away without any more substantial result than a reputation for graceful verses. He went at length to Paris, and there, while earning a scanty pittance as a copying-clerk, commenced writing for the minor stage, his first production being "Arlequin Deucalion." It was not, however, till the publication of his "Metromanie" in 1738, that he achieved anything like brilliant success. Thenceforth rich and noble patrons vied in attention to the poet; and their generosity and a wealthy marriage elevated him to a sphere in which his brilliant wit and conversational powers had full scope for display. Of his bon-mots, which are of the highest order, an 18mo volume has been published; and a collection of his entire works, including much that might have been judiciously omitted, was given to the world by Rigoley de Juvigny in 1776. Piron died in 1773.—W. J. P.  PISA,. See.  PISAN,. See.  PISANI, a distinguished group of artists of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, painters, sculptors, and architects, of Pisa, so called simply from the place of their birth, being in no other way connected—Giunta, Niccola, Giovanni, and Andrea Pisano. or of Pisa is the earliest known Tuscan painter, and he is said to have been instructed by some Greeks engaged at Pisa at the close of the twelfth century. The capture of Constantinople by the Venetians in 1204, caused a considerable immigration of Greek or Byzantine artists into Italy during the thirteenth century. Giunta had established a sufficient reputation in the early part of the thirteenth century to be invited by Frat' Elia of Cortona, general of the Minorites, to execute some works in the upper church of San Francesco at Assisi. A crucifixion painted by him for the church of Santa Maria degli Angeli there, about 1236, is still preserved, is of good impasto, and has some excellent qualities of art for its period. It is inscribed "Junta Pisanus Juntini me fecit." The Düsseldorf painter Ramboux has published a facsimile of it in his Outlines from Tracings, illustrating the old christian art in Italy. And this work shows Giunta to have been a superior master to Cimabue in taste or form at least, though he preceded him by a generation; still his figures, like those of his contemporaries Guido of Siena, and Bonaventura of Lucca, are brown and emaciated.—, born about 1205, was equally distinguished as a sculptor and architect. He was the contemporary of Giunta, and was established as early as 1225. Niccola made great progress in the expression of form, having made some judicious studies of ancient sarcophagi preserved at Pisa. He earned a great reputation by his tomb or area of San Domenico executed at Bologna, conspicuous for its excellent bas-reliefs, by which Niccola proved himself the first real pioneer of the renaissance of Italian sculpture. As an architect he built the church and convent of San Domenico at Bologna; the church of Sant' Antonio at Padua; and the celebrated church of the Frari at Venice, distinguished for the then novel classical character of its ornamentation. He built also the church of the Santa Trinità, at Florence, besides many other excellent churches in various cities of Italy, including the Campanile of San Niccola at Pisa. In 1260 he executed a pulpit for the Baptistery of Pisa, and after the completion of this in 1266, a similar but richer work for the cathedral of Siena, engraved in Cicognara's Storia della Scultura. Niccola died at Pisa in 1278. In some of his later works he was assisted by his equally distinguished son, , who died honoured and wealthy in 1320, and was placed in the same tomb with his father in the Campo Santo at Pisa, one of his own architectural monuments, finished in 1283. Some of the works of Giovanni were attributed to the father, as, for instance, the sculptures of the Last Judgment on the front of the cathedral of Orvieto. Among his principal works are, in architecture, the Castell' Nuovo at Naples; in sculpture, a fountain at Perugia, an altar for the cathedral of Arezzo, and a pulpit for the church of Sant' Andrea at Pistoja—the most remarkable works of their time.—, born in 1280, was also an architect, but was most distinguished as a sculptor, and was the most celebrated metal founder of his age. He executed the first pair of bronze, and still perfect, gates for the celebrated Baptistery of Florence, containing a series of reliefs from the life of John the Baptist; the general design of the gates being attributed to Giotto, but without any direct evidence. From the inscription they bear, they were apparently completed or cast in 1330; the casting being performed by Venetian artists. They were originally gilt, and placed in the centre doorway, but were afterwards removed to the side to give place to the still more beautiful gates of Lorenzo Ghiberti in 1424. Andrea was made a citizen of Florence, and died there in 1345. He was buried in Santa Maria dal Fiore, the cathedral of Florence.—(Vasari, Ed. Lemonnier; Cicognara, Storia della Scultura, &c.; Lasinio, La tre Porte del  Battisterio di Firenze, &c.)—R. N. W.  PISCATOR, (John Fisher), was born at Strasburg, 27th March, 1546. His theological career was begun under the famous Zanchius, and afterwards he studied at Wittemberg and Tübingen. On his return to his native town he taught theology for a brief period only, his doctrine being suspected. From 1574 to 1577 he taught philosophy at Heidelberg. He then travelled a good deal, and led apparently an unsettled life. On the founding of a college at Herborn in 1584 Piscator became professor of theology, and in that situation he remained till his death in 1625. Under Piscator the fame of this university drew crowds of students from various countries. His commentaries are still held in repute, especially those on the New Testament. One of his doctrines led to a great deal of disputation, viz., that men are redeemed through the sufferings and death of Christ apart altogether from his active obedience, which was commensurate only with his personal obligation; or in the phrase of the time, that his passive, to the exclusion of his active obedience, was imputed to believers for salvation.—J. E.  PISISTRATUS, the Athenian despot, was born about 612 ., of a noble family, and related to Solon the legislator. While still very young, he took a leading part in the capture of Nisæa in Salamis, and soon became distinguished for energy and talent. Placing himself at the head of one of the three factions which then divided the Athenian commonwealth, he seems to have early aimed at the supreme power. His liberality made him popular with the poorer citizens, and by an ingenious artifice he persuaded the people to allow him a body-guard of fifty men. Solon, who had been on his travels in the East, vainly strove to awaken the Athenians to a sense of the designs of Pisistratus. In 560. Pisistratus seized the citadel with an armed force, and drove Megacles and the Alcmæonidæ, his political opponents, into banishment. His first usurpation, however, seems to have lasted only a few months; his opponents combined against him, and he was driven into exile for a period of six years. At the end of this time, about 553 ., he became reconciled to Megacles, who gave him his daughter Cæsyra in marriage, and Pisistratus was restored to power at Athens. In the following year, however, be quarreled with Megacles, and was again driven out by a coalition of his adversaries. He retired to Eretria in Eubœa, where he resided with his family for ten years. Having obtained assistance from Thebes and Argos, he invaded Attica, where a large body was still favourable to him, and after winning a battle was again reinstated as ruler of Athens, 542. He banished some of his most powerful enemies, and took the children of others as hostages. He formed a strong body-guard of foreign mercenaries, but his government, though despotic, does not appear to have been cruel or oppressive. He preserved as far as possible the forms of Solon's constitution; taking care of course that the highest offices should be filled by himself or his partisans. He employed the people in building the Olympian and Pythian temples, and he laid out the gardens of the Lyceum. No foreign conquests are ascribed to him except those of Naxos and Sigeum. It was apparently under his auspices that Thespis introduced his rude form of tragedy, and that dramatic contests were made a regular part of the Attic Dionysia. He encouraged the due performance of religious rites, and the celebration of festivals and processions. To him is assigned the origin of the Panathenaic feast, and he favoured the public recitations of poets and rhapsodists. He is said to have been the first person in Greece who collected a public library, and he is even held by some to have first reduced the Homeric poems to a written form. It has even been said that the Homeric poems never existed as a whole before the time of Pisistratus. This view is now, however, generally rejected; and there is good reason to believe that the Iliad and Odyssey existed substantially in their present form at least two centuries earlier. Doubtless Pisistratus collected and multiplied copies of the poems, 