• PACHMANN, Vladimir De (1848-1933).  Russian pianist.  First public debut in 1869.  Specialised in the works of Chopin.
• PAER, Ferdinando (1771-1873) Italian composer.  He was Napoleon's maitre de chapelle.  Conducted the Italian Opera at Paris from 1812-23.  He was one of the most popular opera composers of the 19th century.  He wrote 40 operas.
• PAEZ, Jose Antonio (1790-1873).  Venezuelan patriot.  Took a leading part in the movement which overthrew Spanish rule and formed the republic of Great Colombia, 1816-22.  Seven years later he turned against the leader Bolivar, and formed the republic of Venezuela of which he became President for various periods, finally becoming dictator in 1846.  He was exiled in 1850 but became dictator again in 1861-63.
• PAGANINI, Nicolo (1784-1840).  Italian violinist.  Made his first public appearance at the age of 9.  He left home in 1798 and thereafter toured from country to country, gaining fame as a violinist of exceptional talent.  In 1833 he settled in Paris, playing at concerts and running a gambling house for the rest of his life.  Apart from the many stories about his private life, his chief claim to fame was in his discovering the use of stopped harmonics, inventing the combination of air and pizzicato accompaniment, and the imitations of guitar-slides.  He composed many pieces for the violin.
• PAGE, Walter Hines (f1855-1918)  American diplomat.  He was a journalist and later editor.  He became a partner in Doubleday, Page & Co. In 1913 he was appointed ambassador to Great Britain, where he pushed for the U.S.A. to enter the war, thus incurring the wrath of President Wilson.  However he achieved his objective.
• PAGENSTECHER, Hermann (1844-1932)  German oculist.  He was directing physician of the famous eye hospital at Wiesbaden founded by his brother Alexander in 1857.  His reputation was such that he attracted patients from all over Europe, and he wrote several books on eye diseases.
• PAGET, Sir James (1814-99).  British pathologist.  Lecturer on anatomy and physiology at S. Bartholomew's Hospital, London.  He became famous as a pathologist and surgeon.  A collection of his lectures as professor of anatomy at the College of Surgeons became a standard textbook.  He was one of the founders of modern pathology.  Elected F.R.S. in 1851, made a baronet in 1871, and became president of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1875.
• PAIN, Barry Eric Odell (1864-1928).  English humorist.  First published work was In a Canadian Canoe, 1891.  His best success was Eliza, 1900. Following this came Memoirs of Constantine Dix, 1905, Wilhelmina in London, 1906, Eliza Getting On, 1911, Exit Eliza, 1912, and Innocent Amusements, 1918.  These were all humorous.  Stories in Grey, 1912 was a collection of serious short stories. His collected Tales were publish in 1916, and he wrote The Short Story in 1915, a text book.
• PAINE, Thomas (1737-1809)  English author.  On being dismissed as an exciseman in 1774, Paine emigrated to America.  In 1776 he published a pamphlet called Common Sense, putting the case for independence.  In the War of Independence he fought with the American army later receiving a government appointment.  After being dismissed in 1791 for divulging state secrets he returned to England and published The Rights of Man. This caused a sensation and he was indicted in 1792, causing him to flee to France.  Here he became a member of the convention but was imprisoned by Robespierre.  He was released in 1794 when he claimed American citizenship.   The second part of his famous work The Age of Reason, an attack upon revealed religion from the point of view of 18th century Deists was finished in 1795.
• PAINLEVE, Paul (1863-1933)  French statesman.  He was to become professor at Lille and later the Sorbonne.  He was famous both as a mathematician and philosopher, and his interest in practical science led to his appointment as professor of mechanics and engineering at the Ecole Polytechnique in 1904.  He did much to foster military aviation with his speeches in the chamber of deputies and by the publication of L'Aviation in 1910.  Painleve entered the chamber of deputies in 1906.  During world War I he distinguished himself in various administrative posts, and as Minister of public instruction and later Minister for War.  Faced with the consequences of Nivelle's offensive, he dismissed him and appointed Petain with Foch as his chief-of-staff in 1917.  He restored the morale of the Franch army by examining their grievances.  1917 also saw him apponted as Premier and his prompt action in sending troops to Italy mitigated the Italian disaster at Caporetto.  He fell from power in late 1917 but reappeared as president of the chamber of deputies in 1924.   Up until his death he had a chequered political career, for a while as premier, minister of war under Briand and then Poincare, and minister for air in 1932.  He was a member of the Academies of Science of France, Stockholm, Bologna and Uppsalla and he published severals works.
• PAINTER, William (c. 1540-1594). English author.   He was clerk of ordnance at the Tower of London from 1561 until his death.  He was the author of a collection of tales from classical and foreign sources. the Palace of Pleasure written in 1566 was frequently imitated.  It introduced the short Italian novel into England. Shakespeare  borrowed plots from this book for his plays.
• PAISIELLO, Giovanni (1741-1816).  Italian composer.  He was in the service of Catherine the Great of Russia from 1776 to 1784, then became master of music to Ferdinand IV of Naples for 12 years.  His operas include The Barber of Seville, which was supplanted by Rossini's opera on the same subject, I Zingari in fiera, and Nina, 1789.  He also composed church and instrumental music.
• PAKENHAM, Sir William Christopher (1861-1933).  British sailor.  He entered the navy in 1874, was with the Japanese fleet during the Russo-Japanese war, and was fourth sea lord from 1911-13. He commanded the second battle-cruiser squadron at Jutland, succeeding Beatty as commander-in-chief of the battle-cruise force No. 29, 1916.  President of the Royal Naval College Greenwich, 1919-20, and commander-in-chief on the North American and West Indies stations, 1920-22.  Knighted in 1916 and promoted admiral in 1922.
• PAL, Bepin Chandra (1855-1933)  Indian nationalist.  He was a journalist in Calcutta, founding a Nationalist newspaper in 1901 called New India. Though extremist at first  he preached passive resistance in India and England, serving two terms of imprisonment.  With the emergence of Gandhi his views were modified and he suffered much opposition for his mistrust of the Mahatma.
• PALACKY, Franz (179801876) Bohemian historian. From being a schoolmaster he was to devote himself to a literary carrer from 1823 on.  He became a historiographer of Bohemia from 1839 arousing interest in the past of his own people when he wrote History of the Bohemian People in 5 volumes. He was the leader of the party in the Bohemian legislature that proposed the formation of a federal Czech kingdom.  He sat in the senate of Austria from 1861 until his death.
• PALESTRINA, Giovanni Pierluigi Da (c.1525-1594)  Italian composer.  He studied music in Rome, returning to his native town to become choirmaster and organist at the cathedral in Palestrina.  In 1551 he was made choirmaster at the Cappella Giulia, Rome by pope Julius III, where he trained singers for the sistine Chapel.  He became a singer himself in 1555. Being dismissed after a few months because he was a married man he became choirmaster at S. John Lateran, then transferred in 1558 to S. maia Maggiore, and in 1571 was reappointed choirmaster at S. Peter's which he remained in until his death.  He was the greatest master of polyphonic music and set the style for all future good church music and influenced the history of secular music.  He published 15 books of masses, 256 motets, a vast number of madrigals, the 29 settings of the Song of Solomon and many other pieces.  His works show a spirit of simplicity and sincerity and replaced the operatic and sensual music which had filled the churches up to his time.
• PALEY, William (1743-1805).  English philosopher.  He became a lecturer at Christ's College, Cambridge, in 1782, in 1782 was chosen archdeacon of Carlisle, and later was made a canon of St. Paul's.  He is chiefly remembered as the author of The Principles of Moral and Political Philosophy, 1785;  View of the Evidences of Christianity, 1794; and National theology, 1802.
•  PALGRAVE, Francis Turner (1824-97).  English poet and critic.  He joined the education department in 1849, and after his retirement was in 1886 appointed professor of poetry at Oxford.  He wrote a certain amount of original poetry, but he is best remembered on the work he did as editor of poetical anthologies, above all, The Golden Treasury of English Songs and Lyrics, 1861-97.  He wrote Landscape in Poetry, 1897, and His Passionate Piligram, a semi autobiographical romance, was reprinted in 1927.
• PALISSY, Bernard (c.1510-89).  French potter.  He was brought up in his  father's trade of glass-painting.  and after travel throughout France and the Low Countries, settled at Saintonge.  He began experiments , which after 16 years of  effort, resulted in 1557, in his perfecting the process of  coloured enamel ware which bears his name. Imprisoned as a Huguenot in 1562, he was released through royal influence, and in 1564-65 set up his workshop in the Tuilleries.  He was arrested again as a heretic in 1588 and imprisoned in the Bastile where he died. His rustic pottery was far in advance  of any ware previously seen in Europe.
• PALLADIO,  Andrea (1518-80). Italian architect.  He was  the chief exponent of the new Roman as opposed to the renaissance architecture.  Apart from a large number of villas, his work was divided mainly between Vicenza and Venice;  in the latter city he built the Foscari Palace, the Redentore church, and the Carita..  His revolt against the flamboyant style, then popular opened a new epoch in architecture throughout Europe.
• PALLENBERG, Max  [1877-1934].  German actor.  He joined the Josefstadter Theatre in 1904, then to Berlin to join Max Reinhardt's company.  He was famous as a comedian in both classical and modern comedy, farce and comic opera.  He was killed in an aeroplane accident.
• PALMA, Ricardo [1833-1919].  Peruvian author.  He became a journalist in Chile in 1860, fought against Spain, and against Chile in 1881, and in 1887 founded the Academy of Peru.  He was the author of semi-historical tales called Tradiciones.
• PALMA, Tomas Estrada (1835-1908).  Cuban statesman.  He took a leading part in the revolutionary war beginning in 1868, becoming provisional president in 1876.  He suffered a year's imprisonment after the failure of the revolt and then settled in the U.S.A., where he continued working for Cuban independence.  He was chosen first president of the Cuban Republic in 1901, but was forced to resign when a revolt occurred in 1906.
• PALMA VECCHIO [circa 1480-1528] Italian painter.  His full name was Jacopo Palma or Giccomo Negretti. he probably studied under Cima at Venice where he continued to work until he died.  His Holy Conversation pictures, and his portraits of young women notably The 3 Sisters are also well known.  His works are found in Vienna, Venice, Dresden, London and Hampton Court.  He is called Vechio [old] to distinguish him from his grand-nephew Jacopo Palma.
• PALMER, Alice Freeman (1855-1902).  American educationist.  She became professor of history at Wellesley College in 1879 and president in 1882.  In 1892 she was chosen dean of the women's department of Chicago University.  Her name was inscribed in the American Hall of Fame in 1920.  She was married to George Hrbert Palmer who wrote a Life of Mrs. Palmer, 1908.
• PALMER, Edward Henry (1840-82).  English scholar.  He undertook important explorations in Palestine in 1869 and was professor of Arabic at Cambridge, 1871-81.  Attached as interpreter and liaison officer to the Egyptian expedition of 1882, he undertook several dangerous jounteys into the desert, where he was at last murdered by Arabs in August 1882.  He was best known as the author of an Arabic grammar, a Persian dictionary and other works written in Persian and Arabic, and for his heroism in facing hostile tribes without escort.
• PALMER, Samuel (1805-81).  English artist.  He studied chiefly under John Linnell, whose son-in-law he was to become, and developed a certain talent in water-colour landscapes.  A friend of William Blake, he translated Virgil's Eclogues, illustrated by his own etchings, and made drawings for the works of Milton.
• PALMERSTON, Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount (1784-1865). English statesman.  The year in which he left Harrow, 1802, his father died and the young man went up to Cambridge as 3rd Viscount Palmerston.    He became M.P. for the rotten borough of Newtown, Isle of Wight, in 1807.  He became a junior lord of the admiralty in the duke of Portland's ministry of 1807, and was appointed secretary for war in 1809 until 1828.  He received a seat in the cabinet in 1822 while retaining his old office but resigned with Huskisson after the crises of 1828. During his 2 years in opposition he won a reputation in the House by his informed speeches on foreign affairs.  He was appointed foreign secretary in Lord Grey's government of 1830.  He remained in this position until 1841 except for a short period in 1834-35.  He made England's foreign policy a mixture of bluff and belligerence, and her name suspected and feared throughout Europe.  His passion for secret diplomacy often commited the country to policies of which his colleagues in the cabinet were totally ignorant.  He helped thwart French ambition to annex Belgium when that country separated from the Netherlands in 1830, and his quarrel with thiers over the Carlist troubles in Spain and Portugal in 1833-34 laid the foundation of much Anglo-French rivalry. He believed the preservation of the Ottoman Empire was the only way of checking the expansion of Russian interests in the Balkans and French interests in Africa, and in 1840 he sent the British expedition against the advancing Mahdi Mehemet Ali in Syria.  He was out of office from 1841-46.  when Lord John Russell fromed his new ministry in 1846 his colleagues only agreed to serve on condition that Palmerston, who agaiin went to the foreign office should be controlled.   The French were insulted by his appointment.   He justified their feeling by his deceptive manoeuvring in the case of the Spanish marriage in 1847, and his anti-French policy in Italy.  During the Italian revolt of 1848 his policies resulted in Britain being resented and distrusted throughout Europe. Following his coercion of Greece over the Don Pacifico affair in 1850, the House of Lords condemned his foreign policy.  His approval of Louis Napoleon's coup d'etat in 1851 led the Queen to dismiss him from office. He accepted the post of home secretary in Aberdeen's government in 1852.  Popular dissatisfaction with the management of the Crimean war led to the fall of the government and he was called upon to form a ministry.  He became prime minister in 1855. Instead of ending the Crimean War he pushed it on, sacrificing hundreds of lives in order that Sevastopol might be captured.  The victory won him favour.  His patriotic attitude over the Chinese war of 1857 led to his defeat on Cobden's motion but he secured a large majority at the election.   His strong leadership in 1857-58 when Napoleon invaded Austrian Italy made him popular, but he was thrown out of office again in 1858 by the foreign conspiracies bill. He returned the following year as prime minister and retained office until his death.  He favoured a friendly neutrality towards the aspirations of revolting Italy, and preserved a strict neutrality in the American Civil War.
• PALOMINO DE CASTRO Y VELASCO, Acisclo Antonio (1653-1725)  Spanish painter and writer.  He painted a ceiling at the Alcazar, some frescoes at Valencia and Granada, and several oil paintings, but is best known for his book Museo pictorico, 1724.
• PANCRAS, Saint and martyr.  Said traditionally to have been born at Synnada, in Phrygia, of noble parentage, and to have been taken in childhood to Rome, he was martyred at the age of 14 during Diocletian's persecution.  Numerous churches and one London borough are named after him.
• PANDULF (d.1226).  Papal legate.  Of Roman birth he was first sent by Innocent III to England in 1211 to excommunicate the king, and received John's submission.  At Runnymede he took the king's side, repudiating Magna Carta, and was made bishop of Norwich. After 1218 Pandulf was for a time the virtual ruler of England but was recalled to Rome in 1221.
• PANIN, Nikita Ivanovitch, Count (1718-83).  Russian statesman.  He was appointed governor to the young prince Paul Petrovitch, 1760, and after the accession of Catherine II was selected by her as her chief minister, 1763.  He arranged the Northern Accord against Austria, and supported the tottering Polish kingdom.  His administration was in consequence responsible for the failure of Russia to secure the lion's share in the first partition of Poland.  Catherine made him a count in 1767, but his hatred of Austria led to his dismissal in 1781. 
• PANIZZI, Sir anthony (1797-1879). Anglo Italian scholar.  He fled to England in 1822, and in 1828 became professor of Italian in University College, London.  He was made assistant librarian, 1831, and principal librarian, 1836act up British museum, where he organized the reading room and the great catalogue.  He retired in 1866 and was knighted 1969.
• PANKHURST.  Emmeline, (1858-1928).  English feminist.  A daughter of a calico printer, Robert Goulden, of Manchester, she  married Dr. R.M. Pankhurst, a barrister, whom she helped to found the Women's Franchise League in 1889.  Joining the Independent Labour Party 1892, in 1903 she founded the Women's Social and Political Union, and from then until the granting of women's suffrage in 1918 was the leader of the militant suffragettes in England.  Imprisoned about eight times for various sensational activities, including inciting to riot, window breaking, assault, and complicity in the bomb out-rage on Lloyd George's house in 1914, she remained undeterred, and continued to demonstrate and lecture in England and America until the outbreak of the great war.  She then transformed her organization into one of national service.  After the passage of the enfranchisement law in 1918,  she joined the Conservative Party.
• PAOLI, Pasquale (1725-1807).  Corsican patriot.  The son of the Corsican leader Giacinto Paoli (1702-68), he was educated at Naples where his father commanded a regiment of Corsican exiles In 1755 he led the revolt against Genoa,and secured the supreme power in Corsica, where he made vendettas unlawful, and granted a generous constitution.  When in 1768, Corsica was ceded by Genoa to France Paoli offered a fierce resistance to the latter, but he was compelled to leave the island in 1769.   He settled in London, received a pension, and join the circle of Dr. Johnson.   Permitted by the French Revolutionary Government to return to Corsica in 1791 as its governor, he defied the French and, outlawed in 1793, defeated them with the aid of British troops.  He then handed over the sovereignty of Corsica to George III, but when Paoli was passed over in favour of an English Governor, rebellions  in the former's favour broke out, and he was removed to England in 1795. 
• PAPIAS.  Apostolic father.  Of Phrygian birth, he flourished about AD 100, and is said to have become bishop of Hierapolis.  He is important as the author of an Exposition of the Oracles of the Lord, of which only fragments are extant, but which is important for its references to the origins of the Gospels of St Matthew and St. Mark.  
• PAPIN, Denis (1647-1712).  French physicist.  He became assistant to Huygens in Paris in his experiments with the air pump, into which Papin introduced improvements, and helped Boyle in England.  Elected a member of the Royal Society, he constructed in 1690 the first steam engine with a piston, applying his invention to a paddlewheel boat, and later invented the steam digester with a safety valve, and showed that the boiling points of liquids depended upon the pressures to which they were subjected.   Papin, who was professor of mathematics at Marburg, 1687-96, and at Cassel, 1696-1707, died in London.
• PAPINEAU, Louis Joseph (1786-1871).    Canadian politician.  He was made speaker of the House of Assembly of Lower Canada in 1815, and from 1820 to 1823 sat on the Executive Council.  As the leader of the French Canadians, he was prominent in desiring drastic changes in the methods of government, and in successfully opposing the suggested union of the two Canada's.  Embittered by failure to carry his reforms he led a rebellion in 1837.  This having been crushed he was declared a rebel and an outlaw, and fled to the USA.  Returning in 1847 under a general amnesty he was elected to the legislature, and until 1864 continued to demand independence for Canada.
• PAPPENHEIM, Gottfried Heinrich, Count von (1594-1632)  Bavarian soldier.    He joined the Catholic League, 1620, distinguishing himself at the Battle of the White Mountain, Prague, and as leader of a regiment famous as the Pappenheimers.   One of the chief leaders of the Thirty Year's War, he fought for Spain in Italy, and with Tilly against Denmark, and played a leading part in the taking of Magdeburg;   and after Tilly's eath he served with Wallenstein against Sweden.  At the Battle of Lutzen he fell wounded dying at Leipzig.
• PAPPUS  of Alexandria.  Greek mathematician.  He lived probably at the end of the third and the beginning of the fourth century, A.D. and was the author of the Collection, a systematic arrangement in eight books of geometrical knowledge as it then stood.  This work, contains Pappus' problem, which was utilized by Descaartes in his Geometrie.  The extant portions were published in Latin, 1876-78. 
• PARACELSUS (1493-1541)    Swiss physician.  He traveled widely taking his degree at Ferrara in 1515.  Appointed city physician and University lecturer in medicine at Basel, 1526-28, he incurred enmity by his unorthodox methods, his scorn of ancient authority, and his insistence on independent study.  The rest of his life was spent in Germany,.  A determined rebel against medieval methods in medicine who put the patient before the physician, a cabalist, astrologer and a blatant personality, Paracelsus remains an enigma.  He condemned complicated prescriptions and uroscopy, insisted on moderation in bleeding, and keeping wounds clean.  Two of his works were Paramirum, 1531, a teatise on the causes and nature of disease, and the Paragranum, a work on the general principles of medicine.
• PARDO-BAZAN, Emilia, Countess (1852-1921).  Spanish novelist.  She became a leading spirit of the Spanish feminist movement and an eloquent public speaker.  Her novels, which include Los Pazos de Ulloa, 1886, and its sequel La Madre naturaleza, 1887, are among the chief works which introduced realism into Spanish literature.