themselves prove their date. All these buildings are the genuine work of Sicilian art, the art which had grown up in the island through the presence of the two most civilized races of the age, the Greek and the Saracen. Later in the 12th century the Cistercians brought in a type of church which, without any great change of mere style, has a very different effect, a high choir taking in some sort the place of the cupola. The greatest example of this is the neighbouring metropolitan church of Monreale (q.v.); more closely connected with Palermo is the church of San Spirito, outside the city on the south side, the scene of the Vespers.
Domestic and civil buildings from the 12th century to the 15th abound in Palermo, and they present several types of genuine national art, quite unlike anything in Italy. Of palaces the finest is perhaps the massive Palazzo Chiaramonte, now used as the courts of justice, erected subsequently to 1307. One of the halls has interesting paintings of 1377–1380 on its wooden ceiling; and in the upper storey of the court is a splendid three-light Gothic window. The later houses employ a very flat arch, the use of which goes on in some of the houses and smaller churches of the Renaissance. S. Maria della Catena may be taken as an especially good example. But the general aspect of the streets is later still, dating from mere Spanish times. Still many of the houses are stately in their way, with remarkable heavy balconies. The most striking point in the city is the central space at the crossing of the main streets, called the Quattro Cantoni. Two of the four are formed by the ancient Via Marmorea, but the Via Macqueda, which supplies the other two, was cut through a mass of small streets in Spanish times.
The city walls are now to a great extent removed. Of the gates only two remain, the Porta Nuova and the Porta Felice; both are fine examples of the baroque style, the former was erected in 1584 to commemorate the return of Charles V. fifty years earlier, the latter in 1582. Outside the walls new quarters have sprung up of recent years, and the Teatro Massimo and the Politeama Garibaldi; the former (begun by G. B. Basile and completed by his son in 1897) has room for 3200 spectators and is the largest in Italy.
The museum of Palermo, the richest in the island, has been transferred from the university to the former monastery of the Filippini. Among the most important are the objects from prehistoric tombs and the architectural fragments from Selinus, including several metopes with reliefs, which are of great importance as illustrating the development of Greek sculpture. None of the numerous Greek vases and terra-cottas is quite of the first class, though the collection is important. The bronzes are few, but include the famous ram from Syracuse. There is also the Casuccini collections of Etruscan sarcophagi, sepulchral urns and pottery. Almost the only classical antiquities from Palermo itself are Latin inscriptions of the imperial period, and two large coloured mosaics with figures found in the Piazza Vittoria in front of the royal palace in 1869: in 1906 excavations in the same square led to the discovery of a large private house, apparently of the 2nd or 3rd century A.D., to which these mosaics no doubt belonged. Of greater local interest are the medieval and Renaissance sculptures from Palermo itself, a large picture gallery, and an extensive collection of Sicilian majolica, &c.
The university, founded in 1779, rose to importance in recent years (from 300 students in 1872 to 1495 in 1897), but has slightly lost in numbers since. The city wears a prosperous and busy appearance. The Marina, or esplanade at the south of the town, affords a fine sea front with a view of the bay; near it are beautiful public gardens. In the immediate neighbourhood of the city are the oldest church in or near Palermo, the Lepers’ church, founded by the first conqueror or deliverer, Count Roger, and the bridge over the forsaken stream of the Oreto, built in King Roger’s day by the admiral George. There are also some later medieval houses and towers of some importance. These all lie on to the south of the city, towards the hill called Monte Griffone (Griffon-Greek), and the Giant’s Cave, which has furnished rich stores for the palaeontologist. On the other side, towards Pellegrino, is the new harbour of Palermo, round which a new quarter has sprung up, including a yard capable of building ships up to 475 ft. in length, and a dry dock for vessels up to 563 ft.
The steamship traffic at Palermo in 1906 amounted to 2035 vessels, with a total tonnage of 2,403,851 tons. Palermo is one of the two headquarters (the other being Genoa) of the Navigazione Generale Italiana, the chief Italian steamship company. The principal imports were 36,567 tons of timber (a large increase on the normal figures), 21,401[1] tons of wheat and 151,360 tons of coal; while the chief exports were 116,400 gallons of wine, 37,835 tons of sumach and 122,023 tons of oranges and lemons. Finding most of its valuable rates hypothecated to the meeting of old debts, the municipality of Palermo has embarked upon municipal ownership and trading in various directions.
The plain of Palermo is very fertile, and well watered by springs and streams, of the latter of which the Oreto is the chief. It is planted with orange and lemon groves, the products of which are largely exported, and with many palm-trees, the fruit of which, however, does not attain maturity. It also contains many villas of the wealthy inhabitants of Palermo, among the most beautiful of which is La Favorita, at the foot of Monte Pellegrino on the west, belonging to the Crown.
Authorities—Besides works dealing with Sicily generally, the established local work on Palermo is Descrizione di Palermo antico, by Salvatore Morso (2nd ed., Palermo, 1827). Modern research and criticism have been applied in Die mittelälterliche Kunst in Palermo, by Anton Springer (Bonn, 1869); Historische Topographie von Panormus, by Julius Schubring (Lübeck, 1870); Studii di storia palermitana, by Adolf Holm (Palermo, 1880). See also “The Normans in Palermo,” in the third series of Historical Essays, by E. A. Freeman (London, 1879). The description of Palermo in the second volume of Gselfel’s guide-book, Unter-Italien und Sicilien (Leipzig), leaves nothing to wish for. Various articles in the Archivio storico siciliano and the series of Documenti per servire alla storia della Sicilia, both published by the Società siciliana per la storia patria, may also be consulted. (E. A. F.; T. As.)
PALES, an old Italian goddess of flocks and shepherds. The
festival called Parilia (less correctly Palilia) was celebrated
in her honour at Rome and in the country on the 21st of April.
In this festival Pales was invoked to grant protection and
increase to flocks and herds; the shepherds entreated forgiveness
for any unintentional profanation of holy places of which their
flocks might have been guilty, and leaped three times across
bonfires of hay and straw (Ovid, Fasti iv. 731–805). The
Parilia was not only a herdsmen’s festival, but was regarded
as the birthday celebration of Rome, which was supposed to
have been founded on the same day. Pales plays a very subordinate
part in the religion of Rome, even the sex of the divinity
being uncertain. A male Pales was sometimes spoken of,
corresponding in some respects to Pan; the female Pales was
associated with Vesta and Anna Perenna.
PALESTINE, a geographical name of rather loose application. Etymological strictness would require it to denote exclusively the narrow strip of coast-land once occupied by the Philistines, from whose name it is derived. It is, however, conventionally used as a name for the territory which, in the Old Testament, is claimed as the inheritance of the pre-exilic Hebrews; thus it may be said generally to denote the southern third of the province of Syria. Except in the west, where the country is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea, the limit of this territory cannot be laid down on the map as a definite line. The modern subdivisions under the jurisdiction of the Ottoman Empire are in no sense conterminous with those of antiquity, and hence do not afford a boundary by which Palestine can be separated exactly from the rest of Syria in the north, or from the Sinaitic and Arabian deserts in the south and east; nor are the records of ancient boundaries sufficiently full and definite to make possible the complete demarcation of the country. Even the convention above referred to is inexact: it includes the Philistine territory, claimed but never settled by the Hebrews, and excludes the outlying parts of the large area claimed in Num. xxxiv. as the Hebrew possession (from the “River of Egypt” to Hamath). However, the Hebrews themselves have preserved, in the
- ↑ The figures for 1905 (40,005 tons, almost entirely from Russia) were abnormally high, while those for 1906 are correspondingly below the average.
