half of each series. His purely classical style, his wide musical sympathies, and his general culture and charm, would have ensured him a high position even without his marvellously finished technical skill. In 1894 the fiftieth anniversary of his first appearance in London was celebrated by a reception given in honour of him and his lifelong friend Joachim. He retired from public life, owing to a severe illness, in 1897, and until his death at Bergamo on the 19th of July 1901 divided his time between his native town and Cadenabbia. As a composer he attained a wide popularity with some graceful and popular songs, he did excellent work as an editor; and he was an enthusiastic collector and musical antiquary.
PIAUHY, or Piauhi, a north-eastern state of Brazil, bounded N. and W. by Maranhão, E. by Ceará, Pernambuco and Bahia, and S. by Bahia. It has a few miles of Atlantic coast-line on the N., and the Rio Parnahyba forms the boundary line with Maranhão throughout its entire length. Area, 116,523 sq. m., pop (1900), 334,328. Part of the state on the Atlantic coast and along the lower Parnahyba is low, swampy and malarial. South of this the country rises gradually to a high plateau with open campos. This plateau region is watered by numerous tributaries of the Parnahyba, chief of which are the Urussuhy, the Canindé and its tributary the Piauhy, the Gurgueia and its tributary the Parahim, which drains the large inland lake of Parnaguá, the Longa, and the Poty, which has its source in the state of Ceará. The Parnahyba is navigable for boats of 3 ft. draught up to Nova York, a few miles above the mouth of the Gurgueia, and could be made navigable up to the mouth of the Balsas. The climate is hot and humid in the lowlands and along the lower Parnahyba, but in the uplands it is dry with high sun temperatures and cool nights. The principal industry is stock-raising, which dates from the first settlement in 1674 by Domingos Affonso Mafrense, who established here a large number of cattle ranges. A secondary industry is the raising of goats, which are able to stand neglect and a scanty food supply. Sheep have likewise been raised in Piauhy, but there is no market for mutton and their wool is not utilized. The agricultural products are cotton, sugar and tobacco. Of food-stuffs the people do not produce enough for their own consumption. Forest products include rubber, carnauba wax and dyewoods. The exports include hides, skins, rubber, wax, tobacco and cotton. The capital is Therezina, on the right bank of the Parnahyba, 250 m. above Parnahyba (town), with which it is connected by a line of light-draught river boats. The town dates from 1852, is attractively situated, and is regularly laid out with broad, straight streets crossing each other at right angles. The population of the municipio in 1890 was 31,523, which includes a large rural district Other towns, with their populations in 1890, are Oeiras (19,858), founded in 1718 under the name of Moxa, Amarante (15,525); Valença (17,693); and Campo Maior (12,425), the figures given of population being those of the large districts (municipios) in which the towns are situated.
PIAZZA, properly an open square or place in an Italian town (Ital. piazza, from Lat. platea, broad space, Gr. πλάτυς, broad). These squares were usually surrounded with a colonnade or arcade, and thus the word has been loosely applied to a covered walk or arcade along the front of a building, and in America, to the veranda of a house.
PIAZZA ARMERINA, a city of Sicily, in the province of Caltanisetta, 39 m by road E.S E. from that town, and the same distance S of the railway station of Assoro-Valguarnera, 43 m. W of Catania, situated 2360 ft. above sea-level. Pop. (1901), 24,119 It has a 15th-century cathedral, with a fine campanile, and some of the houses show Norman or Gothic architecture. The foundation of the town dates from the 11th century, and the dialect is Lombard.
See Mauceri in L'Arte (1906), 14.
PIAZZI, GIUSEPPE (1746–1826), Italian astronomer, was born at Ponte, in the Valtellina, on the 16th of July 1746. He entered the Theatine Order in 1764, accepted the chair of mathematics in the academy of Palermo in 1780, and persuaded the Viceroy, Prince Caramanico, to build an observatory there. During a visit to England in 1788 he procured from Jesse Ramsden a five-foot altazimuth, with which he collected at Palermo, 1792–1813, the materials for two admirable star-catalogues, published in 1803 and 1814 respectively. While engaged on this work he discovered, on the 1st of January 1801, the first asteroid or minor planet, to which he gave the name of Ceres, the tutelary deity of Sicily. He d1ed at Naples on the 22nd of July 1826.
See B. E Marneri, L’Astronomo Giuseppe Piazzi (Milan, 1871); R. Wolf, Biographien, Bd. iv. p. 275; Monatliche Correspondenz (1810; portrait), xxi. 46; Astr. Jahrbuch, liv. 218; Bulletin des sciences (1826), vi. 339, Edin. Journal of Science (1827), vi. 193; Memoirs Roy. Astr. Soc. 111. 119; R. Grant, Hist. Phys. Astronomy, pp. 238, 510, 549.
PIBRAC, GUY DU FAUR, Seigneur de (1529–1584), French jurist and poet, was born at Toulouse, of an old family of the magistracy. He studied law there with Jacques Cujas, and afterwards at Padua. In 1548 he was admitted to the bar at Toulouse, at once took high rank, and rose to be juge-mage an office in Languedocian cities about equal to that of prévôt. He was selected in 1562 as one of the three representatives of the king of France at the council of Trent. In 1565 he became general advocate to the parlement of Paris, and extended the renaissance in jurisprudence which was transforming French justice. In 1573 he was sent by Charles IX. to accompany as chancellor his brother Henry (afterwards Henry III.) to Poland, of which country Henry had been elected king. Pilbrac's fluent Latin won much applause from the Poles, but his second visit to Poland in 1575, when sent back by Henry III. to try to save the Crown he had deserted, was not so successful. Then he was employed in negotiations with the so-called politiques, and he managed to keep them quiet for a while. In 1578 he became the chancellor of Marguerite of France, queen of Navarre. Although he was fifty, her beauty and intellectual gifts led him to aspire to win her affection; but he was rejected with disdain. He died in 1584. His oratorical style was too pedantic, but quotations from the classics had a fresher meaning in his day. He was the friend of Ronsard, de Thou and L'Hôpital, and left, among other literary remains, elegant and sententious quatraines.
PIBROCH, a form of music as played by the bagpipe. The word is derived from the Gaelic piobaireachd, the art of the bagpiper. This special form of bagpipe music, consisting of a series of variations founded on a theme, was called the urlar. These variations are generally of a martial or warlike character and include dirges and marches (see Bagpipe).
PICA, the name of the European representative of a group of diminutive rodent mammals, also known as tailless hares, mouse-hares, or piping hares, constituting the family Ochotonidae with the single genus Ochotona. From the more typical hares and rabbits they differ by the short and rounded ears, the absence of a tail, and the relatively shorter hind-limbs, as well as by complete collar-bones. The soles of the feet are hairy, and the fur is usually soft and thick; while in some cases the last upper molar is absent. Picas are inhabitants of cold and desert regions. They dwell either in the chinks between rocks, or in burrows, although one Himalayan species frequents pine-forests. They are very active, and most of the species utter a piping or whistling cry. They store up a supply of grass for winter use; in Siberia it is stacked in small heaps. The Himalayan Ochotona roylei may be seen in the daytime, but most kinds are nocturnal. The Siberian species, O. alpina, ranges into eastern Europe, but Central Asia is the headquarters, although a few species range into Arctic America and the Rocky Mountains. In size picas may be compared to guinea-pigs. Till of late years the group has been generally known by the name of Lagomys. There are several extinct genera.
See Rodentia; also J. L. Bouhote, “The Mouse-hares of the genus Ochotona,” Proc. Zool. Soc. (London, 1905). (R. L.*)
PICA, the Latin name of a genus of oscine passerine birds, the magpies. The Latin word, by interchange of initial p and k, is possibly the Gr. κίσσα (see Magpie), and probably the same word as picus, the woodpecker (q.v.) Another derivation would connect both pica and picus with the root pic- of pingere, to
