kind. Though not altogether free from exaggeration and flattery, it is marked by considerable dignity and self-restraint, and is thus more important as an historical document than similar productions. The style is vivid, the language elegant but comparatively simple, exhibiting familiarity with the best classical literature. The writer of the panegyric must be distinguished from Drepanius Florus, deacon of Lyons (c. 850), author of some Christian poems and prose theological works.
See M. Schanz, Geschichte der römischen Litteratur (1904), iv. i.
PACCHIA, GIROLAMO DEL, and PACCHIAROTTO (or
Pacchiarotti), JACOPO, two painters of the Sienese school. One or other of them produced some good pictures, which used to pass as the performance of Perugino; reclaimed from Perugino, they were assigned to Pacchiarotto; now it is sufficiently settled
that the good works are by G. del Pacchia, while nothing of Pacchiarotto’s own doing transcends mediocrity. The mythical Pacchiarotto who worked actively at Fontainebleau has no authenticity.
Girolamo del Pacchia, son of a Hungarian cannon-founder, was born, probably in Siena, in 1477. Having joined a turbulent club named the Bardotti he disappeared from Siena in 1535, when the club was dispersed, and nothing of a later date is known about him. His most celebrated work is a fresco of the “Nativity of the Virgin,” in the chapel of S Bernardino, Siena, graceful and tender, with a certain artificiality. Another renowned fresco, in the church of S Caterina, represents that saint on her visit to St Agnes of Montepulciano, who, having just expired, raises her foot by miracle. In the National Gallery of London there is a “Virgin and Child.” The forms of G. del Pacchia are fuller than those of Perugino (his principal model of style appears to have been in reality Franciabigio); the drawing is not always unexceptionable; the female heads have sweetness and beauty of feature, and some of the colouring has noticeable force.
Pacchiarotto was born in Siena in 1474. In 1530 he took part in the conspiracy of the Libertini and Popolani, and in 1534 he joined the Bardotti. He had to hide for his fife in 1535, and was concealed by the Observantine fathers in a tomb in the church of S Giovanni. He was stuffed in close to a new-buried corpse, and got covered with vermin and dreadfully exhausted by the close of the second day. After a while he resumed work; he was exiled in 1539, but recalled in the following year, and in that year or soon afterwards he died. Among the few extant works with which he is still credited is an “Assumption of the Virgin,” in the Carmine of Siena. Other works rather dubiously attributed to him are in Siena, Buonconvento, Florence, Rome and London.
PACE, RICHARD (c. 1482–1536), English diplomatist, was educated at Winchester under Thomas Langton, at Padua, at Bologna, and probably at Oxford. In 1500 he went with Cardinal Christopher Bainbridge, archbishop of York, to Rome, where he won the esteem of Pope Leo X., who advised Henry VIII. to take him into his service. The English king did so, and in 1515 Pace became his secretary and in 1516 a secretary of state. In 1515 Wolsey sent him to urge the Swiss to attack France, and in 1519 he went to Germany to discuss with the electors the impending election to the imperial throne. He was made dean of St Paul’s in 1519, and was also dean of Exeter and dean of Salisbury. He was present at the Field of the Cloth
of Gold in 1520, and in 1521 he went to Venice with the object
of winning the support of the republic for Wolsey, who was
anxious at this time to become pope. At the end of 1526 he was
recalled to England, and he died in 1536. His chief literary
work was De fructu (Basel, 1517).
PACE (through O. Fr. pas, from Lat. passus, step, properly the stretch of the leg in walking, from pandere, to stretch), one movement of the leg in walking; hence used of the amount of ground covered by each single movement, or generally of the speed at which anything moves. The word is also used of a measure of distance, taken from the position of one foot to that of the other in making a single “pace,” i.e. from 212 ft. (the military pace) to 1 yard. The Roman passus was reckoned
from the position of the back foot at the beginning of the pace to the position of the same foot at the end of the movement, i.e. 5 Roman feet, 58·1 English inches, hence the Roman mile, mille passus＝1646 yards.
For pacing in horse-racing see Horse-racing.
PACHE, JEAN NICOLAS (1746–1823), French politician, was born in Paris, of Swiss parentage, the son of the concierge of the hotel of Marshal de Castries. He became tutor to the marshal’s children, and subsequently first secretary at the ministry of marine, head of supplies (munitionnaire général des vivres), and comptroller of the king’s household. After spending several years in Switzerland with his family, he returned to France at
the beginning of the Revolution. He was employed successively at the ministries of the interior and of war, and was appointed
on the 20th of September 1793 third deputy suppléant of Paris
by the Luxembourg section. Thus brought into notice, he was
made minister of war in the following October. Pache was a
Girondist himself, but aroused their hostility by his incompetence.
He was supported, however, by Marat, and when he was superseded
in the ministry of war by Beurnonville (Feb. 4, 1794) he
was chosen mayor by the Parisians. In that capacity he contributed
to the fall of the Girondists, but his relations with Hébert
and Chaumette, and with the enemies of Robespierre led to his
arrest on the 10th of May 1794. He owed his safety only to
the amnesty of the 25th of October 1795. After acting as
commissary to the civil hospitals of Paris in 1799, he retired
from public life, and died at Thin-le-Moutier on the 18th of
November 1823.
See L. Pierquin, Mémoires sur Pache (Charleville, 1900).
PACHECO, FRANCISCO (1571–1654), Spanish painter and
art historian, was born at Seville in 1571. Favourable specimens of his style are to be seen in the Madrid picture gallery, and also
in two churches at Alcala de Guadaira near Seville. He attained
great popularity, and about the beginning of the 17th century
opened an academy of painting which was largely attended.
Of his pupils by far the most distinguished was Velazquez,
who afterwards became his son-in-law. From about 1625
he gave up painting and betook himself to literary society and
pursuits; the most important of his works in this department
is a treatise on the art of painting (Arte de la pintura: su antigüedad
y grandeza, 1649), which is of considerable value for the
information it contains on matters relating to Spanish art. He
died in 1654.
PACHISI (Hindu pachis, twenty-five), the national table-game of India. In the palace of Akbar at Fatehpur Sikri the court of the zenana is divided into red and white squares, representing a pachisi-board, and here Akbar played the game with his courtiers, employing sixteen young slaves from his harem as living pieces. This was also done by the emperors of Delhi in their palace of Agra. A pachisi-board, which is usually embroidered on cloth, is marked with a cross of squares, each limb consisting of three rows of 8 squares, placed around a centre square. The outer rows each have ornaments on the fourth square from the end and the middle rows one on the end square, these ornamented squares forming “castles,” in which pieces are safe from capture. The castles are so placed that from the centre square, or “home,” whence all pieces start going down the middle row and back on the outside and then to the end of the next limb, will be exactly 25 squares, whence the name. Four players, generally two on a side, take part. The pieces, of which each player has four, are coloured yellow, green, red and black, and are entered, one at a time, from the centre and move down the middle row, then round the entire board and up the middle row again to the home square. The moves are regulated by six cowrie shells, which are thrown by hand down a slight incline. The throws indicate the number of squares a piece may move, as well as whether the player shall have a “grace,” without which no piece, if taken, may be re-entered. A piece may be taken if another piece lands on the same square, unless the square be a castle. The object of each side is to
