governor of Umbria in 1465, and of Perugia in 1474. As early as about 1452 he had been made poet-laureate and imperial counsellor by the Emperor Frederick III. His most noted work is named "Cornucopia, seu Latinæ Linguæ Commentarius," published in 1499, being a comment upon Martial's book on spectacles, and the first book of his Epigrams, exhibiting less method than erudition. He also translated Polybius and other Greek authors into Latin, and wrote some poems in Italian, and other works. He was keen in literary contests, and worked hard in the council of Ferrara for the reunion of the Greek with the Latin church.—W. M. R.
PEROUSE, J. F. G. de la. See La Pérouse.
PERRAULT, Charles, chiefly remembered for his collection of fairy and nursery tales, was born, the son of an avocat, at Paris in 1628. Originally of his father's profession, he acquired the favour of Colbert, who made him controleur-general des bâtiments, and he is said to have been the author of the designs for the façade of the Louvre, presented by his brother Claude, and of which he procured the acceptance He resigned his office in 1682, and devoted himself to literature, which he had cultivated with some success from youth upwards, being already a member of the Academy. Perrault's poem, the "Siècle de Louis le Grand," aroused that French controversy on the comparative merits of the ancients and moderns which raged long and loud, he being the leading champion of the moderns, and Boileau of the ancients. It is not, however, to this once celebrated, but now forgotten literary war, that Perrault owes his fame. He had published a metrical version of the story of Griselda and of Peau d'Ane, when in 1697 appeared his "Histoires ou contes du temps passé," the first entry into literature, under anything like dignified auspices, of Blue Beard, Cinderella, Puss in Boots, &c. The academician thought it incumbent on him to produce such a volume under the name of his son, Perron d'Armancourt, then a boy of ten, and whose share in its composition must have been slight indeed. The book was the earliest of the kind, and it has been calculated that in France alone more than five hundred editions of it have been published. For a full account of Perrault's life and other writings, and for a satisfactory elucidation of some of the problems connected with fairy-tale literature in general and Perrault's in particular, the reader is referred to the "Contes de Perrault, précédés d'une notice sur l'auteur par Paul L. Jacob, et d'une dissertation sur les contes de fées par M. le Baron Walckenaër, membre de l'Institut," Paris, 1836.—F. E.
PERRAULT, Claude, elder brother of the preceding, one of the most distinguished French architects of the seventeenth century, was born at Paris in 1613. The son of an advocate, he was educated for a physician, and acquired an extensive acquaintance with the mathematical and natural sciences. His attention was first turned to architecture by his being desired by the minister Colbert to make a translation of the treatise of Vitruvius. This translation, however, was not published till 1671, in a folio volume, with plates from Perrault's drawings. An enlarged edition was published in 1684, and an-abridgment in 1674. When architects were invited to send in designs for the east front of the Louvre, Perrault was induced to compete, and his designs were chosen, though the leading architects of the time were among the competitors. In the actual construction he was assisted by D'Orbay and Le Veau. This façade, which was completed in 1670, consists of a grand centre and two pavilions, connected by a colonnade of coupled Corinthian columns. It is in all five hundred and seventy-six feet long; and, despite many obvious faults, has always been considered one of the noblest structures of the age. Perrault wrote (1670) an account of the machines he invented for raising the enormous blocks of stone employed in its construction. His other principal buildings are the observatory of Paris, and the grotto at Versailles. Perrault wrote "Essais de Physique," 2 vols. 4to, 1680; an essay on the "Five Orders of Architecture," folio, 1683; and a work on natural history. He died October 9, 1688.—J. T—e.
PERRENOT, Anthony. See Granvelle.
PERRIER, François, French painter and engraver, was born at Mâcon in Bourgogne about 1590. He studied under Lanfranco at Rome, where he remained several years. On his return to France he lived for some time at Lyons, and painted there a series of pictures in the cloisters of the Carmelites. He then went to Paris, and assisted Simon Vouet in his decorations of the chateau of Chilly, and other works. Returning to Rome in 1635, he employed himself in engraving—executing, among many other things, several plates from Raphael's pictures in the Farnesina; a series of one hundred prints from ancient statues, and fifty from bas-reliefs, besides several etchings of sacred and mythological subjects from his own designs. In 1645 he returned to Paris, was elected into the Academy, and painted the gallery of the Hotel de la Vrilliere. He died in 1650. Dumesnil (vol. v.) gives a full list of his prints.—J. T—e.
PERRONET, Jean Rodolphe, a celebrated French architect and engineer, was born at Surène, near Paris, on the 8th of October, 1708, and died in Paris on the 27th of February, 1794. He was the son of a Swiss officer in the French service. In 1725 he entered the office of De Beausire, city architect of Paris. In 1745 he became a member of the corps des ponts et chaussées, or government civil engineers, in which he soon became distinguished by his great abilities, and was intrusted with the charge of important public works. In 1747 he became director of the school established in connection with his corps, of which he rose to be the head. In 1757 he was appointed inspector-général des salines, which office he held until 1786. In 1765 he became a member of the Academy of Sciences. His engineering works are marked by a high degree of skill and originality. Amongst them are included the canal De Bourgogne, and twenty-one bridges designed by him, of which thirteen were executed under his own superintendence. Of these may be specified, on account of their wide celebrity, the bridge of Neuilly, that of St. Maxence, and that of Louis XVI. Perronet was the first to introduce the system of building bridges over rivers with level roadways. He was much loved and respected by the members of his corps, who in 1778 presented him with his bust, bearing the inscription, "Patri carissimo familia."—W. J. M. R.
PERROT, Sir John, with whose parentage report has credited King Henry VIII., derived his name and property from a family settled at Harroldston in Pembrokeshire. He was brought up in the house of the marquis of Winchester, and was a favourite with King Edward VI. In 1572 he signalized himself in Ireland against the Munster rebels. In 1583 he was appointed lord-deputy, and displayed a sound and humane policy in protecting the natives against the tyranny of the English settlers. He even proposed to apply the revenues of the cathedral of St. Patrick to the purposes of general education, and thereby roused the bitter animosity of the clergy of the establishment. The latter represented to the home government that Perrot was a dangerous man, aiming at the sovereignty of Ireland. His rash and hasty temper sensed to increase the prejudice against him, and in 1592 he was brought to trial on a charge of high treason. He was found guilty; but Queen Elizabeth, who remembered his real services, delayed the execution of the sentence of death, and he died broken-hearted in the Tower, September, 1592, aged sixty-six. His life was written by Richard Rawlinson towards the end of Elizabeth's reign, but was not published till 1728.—R. H.
PERROT D'ABLANCOURT, Nicolas, a French translator, was born of protestant parents at Chalons-sur-Marne in 1606, and was admitted advocate at Paris at the age of eighteen. At twenty he became a Roman catholic; but after nine years returned to his former faith, and applied himself devoutly to the study of the Hebrew scriptures. He visited England, and returning, was elected a member of the French Academy in 1627. The rest of his life was spent in comparative seclusion at Ablancourt, and employed in the translation of the Greek and Roman classics. Amongst others he has rendered Tacitus, Xenophon, Cæsar, Thucydides, and four of Cicero's orations; but his translations often stray so widely from the meaning of the original, that they have acquired the title of "belles infidėles," and have long ceased to command attention. He died in 1664.—W. J. P.
PERRY, James, a journalist of note, long one of the proprietors and principal editor of the Morning Chronicle, was born in Aberdeen in 1756, where his father was a prosperous builder. He received a good local education, which was completed at Marischal college, Aberdeen. It was intended that he should be a lawyer, but his father was ruined by unsuccessful speculations, and Perry left Aberdeen to seek his fortune in the south. After a fruitless trial of Edinburgh, he wended his way to Manchester, where he not only obtained a clerk's situation, but by the ability which he displayed in a debating society of the place, he gained the regard of some of the principal inhabitants; and furnished by them with letters of recommendation, he proceeded in 1777 to London. After a time his authorship of some anonymous and able contributions
