- New Royal French Grammar,’ 8vo, London, 1738 (3rd edit., the Hague, 1738; 8th edit., London, 1769).
- ‘Nouvelle Introduction à la Géographie Moderne,’ 3 vols. 12mo, London, 1754–5.
- ‘Atlas Méthodique,’ fol. London, 1754 (53 maps).
- ‘Recueil des Règles d'Arithmétique,’ 4to (Paris? 1755?).
- ‘A Concise Description of the English and French Possessions in North America,’ 8vo, London, 1755 (in French, 1756).
His correspondence with Count Bentinck in 1750, 1758, and 1761, in French, is among the Egerton MSS. in the British Museum, Nos. 1727 and 1746. A letter from him to the Duke of Newcastle in 1757 is in Additional MS. 32871, f. 331.
[Aa's Biographisch Woordenboek der Nederlanden; Nouvelle Biographie Universelle (Michaud); Nouvelle Biographie Générale; Nichols's Illustr. of Lit. iv. 634; Will in P.C.C. 26, Alexander; Will of Elizabeth Palairet, widow of his son David, in P.C.C. 183, Major.]
PALAVICINO, Sir HORATIO (d. 1600), merchant and political agent, came of a celebrated Italian family, the elder branch of which possessed a district on the Po called the Stato Palavicino, while the younger branch settled at Genoa; several members of it were appointed regents of Genoa by the Dukes of Milan, and more than one became a cardinal. One was in the service of the English kings, Henry VIII and Edward VI. Horatio's father, Tobias Palavicino, was probably a merchant, and was living in 1579. Horatio was born at Genoa, but early in life was sent into the Netherlands, where he resided for some time; thence he proceeded to England, where he was recommended to Queen Mary, and appointed collector of papal taxes. On Mary's death, Palavicino, according to tradition, abjured his Romanism, and, appropriating the sums he had collected for the pope, laid the foundations of an enormous fortune. Devoting himself to commercial enterprise, he seems to have extended his business operations to most quarters of the globe. The wealth he thus acquired made him an important financial agent. He lent largely to Queen Elizabeth, Henry of Navarre, and the Netherlands, and always at a usurious interest; so greatly was Elizabeth indebted to him that the fate of the kingdom was said to have depended upon him; while on one occasion he furnished Henry of Navarre with no less than one hundred thousand French crowns. Palavicino's position as a collector of political intelligence was equally important, and his numerous commercial correspondents frequently enabled him to forestall all other sources of information. He was himself often employed by the government to furnish intelligence from abroad; he was acting in this capacity in 1581. In June he appears to have experienced some trouble for refusing to go to church (Strype, Annals, i. iii. 57, 273). In 1583 he was at Paris befriending William Parry (d. 1585) [q. v.] In April 1584 Richard Hakluyt [q. v.] wrote to Walsingham that Palavicino was willing to join in the western voyage. In 1585, when Philip Howard, first earl of Arundel [q. v.], was imprisoned, he sought the aid of Palavicino, as being ‘an honest man,’ in preparing his defence. On 7 Feb. 1585–6 Palavicino was recommended by Burghley to Leicester in the Low Countries, and in the same year he was granted a patent of denization. In 1587 he was knighted by Elizabeth, on which occasion Thomas Newton [q. v.] addressed to him an ode, which was printed that year in his ‘Illustrium Aliquot Anglorum Encomia,’ and republished in the second edition of Leland's ‘Collectanea,’ 1770, v. 174. Early in 1588 he was in Germany; he returned before the summer, and asked to serve against the armada. He was consulted by Burghley about raising money to meet the invasion, equipped a vessel at his own cost, and was present as a volunteer during the operations in the Channel and at Calais. It is generally stated that he commanded a vessel against the armada, and his portrait is among the captains commemorated in the House of Lords' tapestry (Morant and Pine, Tapestry of the House of Lords, p. 16); but his name does not appear in the list of captains (Murdin, pp. 615–20; cf. Papers relating to the Armada, ed. Laughton, passim).
In the following October Palavicino attempted on his own account a political intrigue, in which the English government was probably not implicated, though Walsingham may have suggested some such scheme to Palavicino (ib. ii. 199 n.) He wrote to Alexander Farnese, the Spanish commander in the Netherlands, suggesting a scheme by which Alexander was to assume the sovereignty of the Netherlands to the exclusion of Philip, was to guarantee the cautionary towns to Elizabeth until her advances to the Dutch had been repaid, and to receive the support and perpetual alliance of England. Alexander rejected these proposals with indignation, declaring that had Palavicino recommended them in person he would have killed him; he sent a detailed account of the affair to Philip, who suggested that Palavicino should be invited to Flanders, and should be punished after he had disclosed all the information he could (Motley, United Netherlands, ii. 539–41).
