history, 100 etchings; Roman history, 150 etchings; illustrations to Virgil, Dante, and Tasso; Pinturicchio's frescoes in Sta. Maria Maggiore, &c. He died in 1835. His etchings are free, facile, and spirited, but slight and superficial.—J. T—e.
PINELLI, Gianvincenzo, the collector of a rich library, born in Naples of noble Genoese parentage, 1535; died in Padua, 1601. His thirst for every kind of knowledge and his liberality towards less opulent men of letters rendered him honoured in his youth; whilst the delicacy of his health may even have promoted his application to study, by leading him to live much in retirement. The library of printed and manuscript works which he left underwent diminution through various causes; it was subsequently augmented; and was finally dispersed by auction in London about two hundred years after the death of Pinelli. He formed various other choice collections, including fossils, metals, and plants.—C. G. R.
PINELLI, Maffeo, bibliopole, born at Venice in 1736; died 7th February, 1785. During more than two centuries members of his family had exercised the superintendence of the ducal printing establishment, and in due course the office devolved on Maffeo, who, in spite of restricted means, acquired a library containing choice copies of Greek and Latin classics and fifteenth century editions, a gallery of pictures, and a cabinet of coins and medals, of which collections the catalogue was compiled by his erudite friend. Abbé Morelli. Pinelli was himself a man of no meagre attainments, being versed in ancient languages, in the English and French tongues, and in literary history. Though well fitted to adorn society, his retiring disposition confined him to his own library, and the company of a few favoured friends. His books were sold in London in 1790, the sale being preceded by an abridged and inexact republication of Morelli's catalogue. From his own pen there remains—"Prospetto di varie Edizioni degli Autori classici Greci e Latini," Venice, 1780.—C. G. R.
PINET, Antoine du. Lord of Noroy, was most probably born at La Croix du Maine, became a protestant, and died about 1584. He was an earnest defender of the Reformation both at Lyons and in Paris. He translated Pliny's Natural History; it was published in 1542 and frequently afterwards. His "Conformity of the Reformed church of France with the Primitive church," 1564, is rare and valuable. His French version of the Book of Taxes imposed by the papal court, from the Romish originals, rendered good service to his party. He wrote and translated several other works.—(See Haag, France Protestante.)—B. H. C.
PINGRÉ, Alexandre Gui, a French astronomer, was born in Paris on the 4th of September, 1711, and died there on the 1st of May, 1796. At an early age he became a monk of the Genovevan order. In 1735 he was appointed professor of theology at Senlis. This chair he found it necessary to resign in 1745, in consequence of an accusation of Jansenism; and he passed four years as a teacher at Rouen. When the Academy of Sciences of that city was founded by Lecat, Pingré was appointed the astronomer of that body. In 1750 he was elected a correspondent, and in 1756 a member, of the Academy of Sciences. In 1751 he became director of the observatory of St. Genevieve at Paris. He made several journeys to distant regions, chiefly in order to observe transits of Mercury and Venus, and in 1771-72 he accompanied Borda in an expedition to the coasts of America and of Iceland. His most important work was one entitled "Cométographie."—W. J. M. R.
PINKERTON, John, a Scottish historian and antiquarian, was born at Edinburgh in 1758, and was educated at the grammar school of Lanark. He was articled to a writer to the signet, in whose office he spent four years, but it does not appear that he ever followed that profession. He manifested at an early period a turn for poetry, and on the death of his father in 1780, he removed to London and devoted himself to literary pursuits. He manifested a special fondness for antiquarian researches, formed a collection of old Scottish ballads, and added imitations by himself His "Essay on Medals," in 2 vols. 8vo, appeared in 1782, and has been twice reprinted since with improvements. In 1785 he published under the assumed name of Robert Heron an octavo volume of "Letters of Literature," a work characterized by various singularities and affectations, but which procured him an introduction to Horace Walpole, who made him acquainted with Gibbon and other distinguished literary characters. In the following year appeared one of the most valuable of his publications, "Ancient Scottish Poems never before in print, with large Notes and Glossary." This was followed by his "Treasury of Wit," and a "Dissertation on the Origin and Progress of the Scythians or Goths," a work which exhibits great ingenuity as well as learning, and gave rise to a very acrimonious and protracted controversy. The other publications of this laborious and voluminous writer are, "Vitæ Sanctorum Scotiæ," 8vo, 1789; an edition of Barbour's Bruce, in 3 vols. 8vo; "An Enquiry into the History of Scotland preceding the reign of Malcolm III.," 2 vols. 8vo—a very valuable work for the many rare and curious documents it contains; "The Medallic History of England to the Revolution," 4to, 1790; Scottish Poems, reprinted from scarce editions, 3 vols. 8vo, 1792; "Iconographia Scotica, or Portraits of Illustrious Persons of Scotland, with biographical notes," 2 vols. 8vo, 1795-97; "The History of Scotland from the Accession of the House of Stewart to that of Mary," 2 vols. 4to, 1797—a work of great research and importance, though disfigured by its vicious style formed on the model of Gibbon's; "Walpoliana," 2 vols. 12mo; "The Scottish Gallery," &c., 8vo, 1799; "Modern Geography," 2 vols. 4to, 1802; "Recollections of Paris in the years 1802-5;" "General Collection of Voyages and Travels," 16 vols. 4to, 1808-13; a New Modern Atlas, 1809-15; "Petralogy, or a Treatise on Rocks," 2 vols. 8vo, 1811. He also wrote some poems or "rimes," as he called them, of no great merit. Mr. Pinkerton took up his residence in Paris in 1802, and died there in 1826 in indigent circumstances. His works bear the stamp of a vigorous and original though perverse mind, but are disfigured by his arrogance, self-conceit, and dogmatism, and by his shallow and petulant attacks upon religion.—J. T.
PINSON. See Pynson.
PINTELLI, Baccio, an eminent Italian architect who flourished in the second half of the fifteenth century. Pintelli was the confidential architect of Pope Sixtus IV. (1471-84), and designed or directed all the important works erected by him. His most famous building was the Sistine Chapel erected about 1473: architecturally it is less important than as being the private chapel of the popes, and that in which various great church ceremonials are performed; and as containing Michelangelo's Last Judgment, his prophets, sibyls, and ceiling paintings of the Creation, &c. For this chapel also it was that Raphael designed the series of tapestries, seven of the cartoons for which are now at Hampton court. Pintelli also built for Pope Sixtus a palace in the Borgo Vecchio; the great library of the Vatican; the Ponte Sisto; the church of Sta. Maria del Popolo; and several small churches in the neighbourhood of Rome, known as the jubilee churches, from having been begun in the jubilee year, 1475. He likewise rebuilt, in 1471, the hospital of Santo Spirito in Sassia, and restored and strengthened the church and convent of San Francesco at Assisi. Pintelli was a man of learning and literary tastes; and besides being architect, he held the office of librarian to the pope. After the death of Sixtus IV. he went, at the invitation of Duke Federico II., to Urbino to finish the ducal palace of that city. For Duke Giovanni he built in 1491 the church of Sta. Maria delle Grazie at Sinigaglia. He probably died shortly afterwards at Urbino. All that is known respecting Pintelli, beyond what is related by Vasari, is given in the notes to the Life of Pintelli in the Florentine edition of Vasari, the German translation by Schorn, and by Gaye in the Kunstblatt for 1836.—J. T—e.
PINTO, Fernam Mendez, a Portuguese traveller, born 1510. After various adventures he embarked for India, and arrived at Diu in 1537, where he enlisted in a vessel fitted out to cruize against the Turks. He was captured and sold as a slave at Mocha, but was ransomed by the Portuguese governor of Ormuz, and sent back to India. Here he was intrusted with the command of a vessel belonging to Pedro de Faria, captain-general of Malacca, which was soon afterwards captured by Chinese pirates. Pinto, who escaped, was intrusted with the command of another vessel, and inflicted condign punishment on the pirates. From this time his life seems to have been marked by the most extraordinary adventures in the East Indies, China, Japan, Siam, &c., though it is not easy to discover what portion of his published narrative can be received as literal truth. It is certain that he was more than once engaged on missions to Japan, that he entered the Jesuit college at Malacca, and was present during the last hours of Francisco Xavier. He afterwards returned to Portugal, and died in 1558. His work, "Peregrinaçam de Fernam Mendez Pinto," &c., was first published at Lisbon, 1614. It has often been reprinted and translated.—F. M. W.
