Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 16.djvu/614

* PTJLCHERIA. 536 PULKOVA OBSERVATORY. content to leave the iiianageruent of affairs in her liands. She governed wisely, was active in con- demning the Nestorian and Eutychian heresies, and promoted virtue and piety. About 446 she withdrew from the Court, but after the death of Theodosius (450) she resumed the direction of the government. Early in life she took a vow of virginity, but now, having been absolved from her vow, for State reasons, she married the general ilarcian. She corresponded with Cyril of Alexandria, Pope Leo the Great, and many bishops and priests, who all speak in the high- est terms of her wisdom and devotion to the Church. PXTLCI, pul'che, LucA (1431-70). An Italian poet, elder brother of Luigi Pulci. He wrote the Pistole, love letters in tercets; the Dri- adco d' Amove, a mythological poem in octaves; and the Ciriffo Culraneo, a chivalrous poem in octaves, which was continued by Luigi. There is some question as to whether Luca com- posed any part of the poem called the Giostra. (See Pulci, Luigi.) Consult the Pistole in the edition of Florence, 1481 ; the Driadeo in Tor- raca's Poemetti mitologici (Leghorn, 1888) ; the Ciriffo in the edition of Florence, 1834. PTJLCI, Luigi (1432-84). An Italian poet, born at Florence of a family once wealthy and noted in the fifteenth century for its literary attainments. Both Cosimo and Piero de' Medici were his patrons and friends, and he was on terms of intimacy with Lorenzo the Magnificent. Pulci's chief work is the romantic, chivalrous poem called by him the Morgante when he pub- lished 23 cantos of it at Venice in 1482, and known as the Morgante maygiore since the ap- pearance of the second and complete edition of it at Florence in 1483. The great value of the Morgante consists in the fact that it was the first artistic treatment in Italian of the chival- rous stories of Charlemagne and his peers so long before imported from France. It marks the first important step in the direction of the chivalric poem of Ariosto. There is little unity of ac- tion in Pulci's work. It takes its name from the giant Morgante, who is converted to Chris- tianity and accompanies Orlando (Roland) on some of his expeditions, but Morgante is by no means the chief personage of the poem. Al- though the Morgante is in no sense a mock- heroic poem, it nmst be admitted that in its tone it often mingles the serious with the humor- ous, the heroic with the ^•^llgar, the grave with the grotesque, and piety with irreverence, and all these were characteristic qualities of the Floren- tine democracy of Pulci's time. The first canto of his poem was translated into English octaves by Byron. Pulci's other poetical works com- prise the Confessions, which has somewhat the air of a parody on the Scriptures; the Beca di Dicomano, a burlesque imitation of the Neneia da Barberino of Lorenzo the Magnificent ; his revision of the Ciriffo Calvaneo of his brother Luca, and his continuation of the octaves on the Giostra of Lorenzo de' Medici ascribed to Luca; some Stramhotti. some satirical and jocose son- nets, and other shorter lyrics. In prose he wrote the Lettere a Lorenzo il Magnifico (Lucca. 1886) and a novel. There are several editions of the Morgante ; the Confessione, the Beca, and the son- nets may be found in the editions of Lucca, 1759. Consult Volpi, ■Luigi Pulci, studio biografleo," in the Giomale storico delta lettcrotura italiana, xxii., and the Life prefacing Bongi's edition of the Lettere. PTJLILAN, pu-le'lan. A town of Luzon. Phil- ippines, in the Province of Bulaciin, situated 5 miles north of ilalolos (Map: Luzon, E 7). Pop- ulation, in 1896, 10,058. PU'LITZER, .losEPH (1847—). An Ameri- can journalist, born at Budapest, Hungary. He was privately educated, and emigrated to the I'nited States in 1864. He served in 1864-65 in a Federal cavalry regiment, after hardships arrived in Saint Louis, was a reporter there for Carl Schurz's Westliche Post, a Republican journal, and later became managing editor of the paper, in which he also obtained a proprietary interest. In addition to his activity in journalism, he studied law, and, having been admitted to prac- tice in ]Iissouri, became somewhat prominent in local politics, and in 1869 was elected to the State Legislature. He was also a member of the Missouri constitutional convention of 1874. In 1876-77 he was Washington correspondent of the New York .S'hh, and in 1878 purcha-ed the Saint Louis Dispatch, which, combined by him with the Evening Post (Saint Louis) as the Post-Dispatch, became an important journal of the West. The Xew York World, which he ac- qiired in 1883 and with which liis name became chiefly identified, attained under his direction a very large circulation. In 1884 he was elected to the Federal House of Representatives as a Democrat from the Ninth New York District, but not very long afterwards resigned to give his undivided attention to business affairs. He made several donations to educational and charitable causes, and in 1903 provided an endowment fund for a school of journalism at Columbia Univer- sity. PtTLKOVA, pnl'ko-va. A village in the Gov- ernment of Saint Petersburg, Russia, situated on a high ridge, about 10 miles southwest of the capital (Map: Russia, D 3). It is noted as the site of the principal observatory of Russia. PULKOVA OBSERVATORY. A Russian astronomical observatory, in latitude 59° 46' north and longitude 30° 20' east, founded by Em- peror Nicholas I. for the special cultivation of sidereal astronomy. Its construction was begun in 1835 and completed in 1830 under the supervi- sion of W. Struve (q.v.), who then became its director. Its chief instrument was a refractor of fifteen inches aperture, which was without a rival till 1870, when a twenty-four-incli re- fractor was mounted at the Newall Observatory in Newcastle, England. This was followed by a twenty-six-inch refractor for the Naval Ob- servatory (q.v.) in Washington. In Septem- ber, 1879, a contract was made with the firm Al- van Clark & Sons of Cambridgeport, ^lass., for the construction of a refractor of thirty inclies aperture for the Pulkova Observatory. The in- strument was delivered in 1884, but first used for observations in 1885. This instrument is now excelled by the refractors of Lick and Yerkes Observatories. The Pulkova Observa- tory has also a well-equipped astro-physical laboratory. Consult: Zum oO-j<ihrigen Bestehen dcr Nicolai-Hatiptsterniearte (Saint Petersburg, 1889) ; Description de Vobservatoire astrono-